Biography
Renée Favand-See was born in York, Pennsylvania in 1973, grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, lived in New York City for over a decade (with a stint in Munich), and recently moved to Portland, Oregon. She earned her BM with high distinction at the Eastman School of Music, studying composition with Joseph Schwantner, Samuel Adler, Warren Benson and David Liptak, and then with Mathias Spahlinger at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, and with Martin Bresnick, David Lang and Jacob Druckman at the Yale School of Music. Her earliest compositional studies began at age twelve at The Walden School, a summer program for young musicians in Dublin, New Hampshire, where she is now a member of the composition faculty.
Among her recent works are Gathered Whole (2009), commissioned by Wet Ink Ensemble; Lonesome Songs (2008), commissioned by coloratura soprano Alissa Rose; and Compass (2007), commissioned by cellist Ha-Yang Kim. She has collaborated with numerous artists and ensembles including: Sequitur; Lucy Shelton and Eighth Blackbird; PRISM Saxophone Quartet; Del Sol String Quartet; Peabody Trio; and many singers including Hai-Ting Chinn, Jennifer Aylmer, Kristin Norderval, William Ferguson and Michael Zegarski.
Her music has been heard at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, Joe’s Pub Public, American Opera Projects at South Oxford Space, Opera Index, Outer Voices, and HERE Arts Center in New York City, as well as WGBH Radio Boston, Pickman Concert Hall in Cambridge, The Longy School of Music in Paris, New Music New Haven, Kilbourn Concert Series in Rochester, First and Franklin Street Concert Series in Baltimore, and Settlement Music School in Philadelphia.
Renée has written chamber, orchestral and choral pieces, as well as music for video and dance, including collaborations with TRIP Dance Theatre in Los Angeles, Group Motion in Philadelphia and video artist Christine Sciulli. Her music is featured on Sequitur’s CD release “To Have and to Hold” available on the Koch label.
Her honors include a grant from the American Music Center for her oratorio Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes., a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Bearns Prize from Columbia University.
She currently resides in lovely Portland, Oregon.