Charles Halka’s comp

ositions have been performed in the United States, Mexico, and Europe, and upcoming and past performances include those by counter)induction (New York), Volti (San Francisco), ONIX Ensamble (Mexico), Aquarius (Belgium), the Boston New Music Initiative, the chamber choir Jauna Muzika (Lithuania), the Armonas Trio (Lithuania), In Spe (Lithuania), Pictures on Silence (Baltimore), New Dischord (Chattanooga), and the California State University Northridge Symphony.  As a 2008-09 U.S. Fulbright grantee, he spent a year in Vilnius, Lithuania researching Lithuanian music and writing an opera in collaboration with director and librettist Marija Simona Šimulynaitė.  The opera, Julius, received its premiere in 2010 in Vilnius, and a choral excerpt from the opera, Dipukų Rauda, was performed recently at the ISCM World Music Days 2012 in Belgium.  In 2011, Round and Round, based on a work by the American music patron Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, was premiered at the Coolidge Auditorium of the Library of Congress, and in 2013 a revised version was premiered in Hong Kong at the Intimacy of Creativity partnership led by composer Bright Sheng.  He is Artist-in-Residence at the Foundation for Modern Music (Houston).

Charles has studied at schools and conservatories in the United States, Russia (Saint Petersburg Conservatory), and Lithuania (Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater) and holds degrees in both piano and composition from the Peabody Conservatory, where he studied piano with Brian Ganz and composition with Michael Hersch and Judah Adashi.  He recently earned a Doctor of Musical Arts from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he studied composition with Richard Lavenda, Kurt Stallmann, Pierre Jalbert, and Arthur Gottschalk, and piano with Brian Connelly.  Previous teachers also include Osvaldas Balakauskas for composition and Stephen Drury, Nina Seryogina, and Roger Price for piano.

Charles is a member of ASCAP, the American Composers Forum, SCI, SEAMUS, and NACUSA.

Awards and honors include:

ASCAP Foundation Rudolf Nissim Prize (2013, Special Distinction)

Foro Internacional de Música Nueva (performance in Mexico City, May 2013)

SCI National Conference (performance in February 2013)

New Fangled Opera Call for Scores (performance in June 2013)

Lake George Music Festival Composition Competition (2012, 2nd Place)

Simon Carrington Chamber Singers Choral Composition Competition (2012, Finalist)

ISCM World Music Days 2012 (performance in Belgium, November 2012)

Frame Dance Productions Composition Competition (2012, Winner)

Boston Metro Opera Composers’ Competition (2012, Winner)

RED NOTE Competition (2012, Finalist)

Wild Rumpus Call for Scores (2011, Finalist)

American Modern Ensemble Composition Competition (2011, Honorable Mention)

Dallas Festival of Modern Music Call for Scores (2011, Finalist)

Boston New Music Initiative Call for Scores (2011, Winner)

Northridge Composition Prize (2011, Winner)

Volti Choral Arts Laboratory (2011, Finalist)

New Dischord Call for Scores (2011, Winner)

Saint Petersburg Contemporary Music Center Composition Competition (2011, 4th Place)

Robert Avalon International Competition for Composers (2011, 2nd Place)

ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards (2010, Finalist)

Vox Juventutis competition for choral works (2009, 2nd Place and Choir’s Favorite Award)

counter)induction Composition Competition (2009, Honorable Mention)

ONIX Intercultural Composition Competition (2009, Honorable Mention)