AARON ISRAEL LEVIN is an American composer whose music is guided by the emotional dynamism of storytelling and drama. Drawing from an eclectic range of musical and extra-musical influences––inspired equally by American minimalism and European modernism; Jewish folklore and Italian cinema; urban metropolises and natural landscapes––he creates music that is at once somber and playful, tender and confrontational, lyrical and gestural. Aaron’s music has been performed and commissioned by the Aizuri Quartet, Bent Frequency Duo, the Chelsea Symphony, Fifth House Ensemble, the Historical Keyboard Society of North America, the Iowa Composers Forum, loop38, the Music Teachers National Association, New European Ensemble, Onix Ensamble, and mezzo-sopranos Kayleigh Butcher and Lisa Neher. Passionate about collaboration, Aaron often works with artists in theater, dance, and film. Past collaborators include playwright Christopher Gabriel Nuñez, choreographer Celeste Miller, and filmmaker Harris Gurney. Along with violist Harris Bernstein and composer Soomin Kim, he is the cofounder of the chamber music project Rattlebox Music in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Aaron’s music has been heard at and presented by the Centro Nacional de las Artes (Mexico City), Constellation (Chicago), the DiMenna Center (NYC), the Schubert Club (Saint Paul, MN), Spectrum (NYC), New Music Gathering, ScoreFollower, and the Aspen, Bowdoin, Fresh Inc., Oregon Bach, Red Note, and Source Song festivals. He has also been a fellow with the Next Festival for Emerging Artists, the New Amsterdam Composers Lab, and at the Young Composers Meeting with the orkest de ereprijs in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands. Aaron was recently a composer-in-residence with the Los Angeles based chamber ensemble Salastina. Select honors include the Cortona Prize; the Audience Choice Commission from the Earshot Underwood New Music Readings with the American Composers Orchestra; the Druckman Prize from the Aspen Music Festival & School; and, the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts & Letters.

Originally from Saint Paul, Minnesota, Aaron is a graduate of Grinnell College (BA) and the Yale School of Music (MM), where he is currently pursuing his DMA. His mentors include Katherine Balch, Martin Bresnick, Aaron Jay Kernis, David Lang, Eric McIntyre, and Chris Theofanidis. In 2023-2024, he is in residence at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague in the Netherlands with support from the Frank Huntington Beebe Fund. For more information, visit aaronisraellevin.com.