Aaron Israel Levin
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 influences, 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, confluss, Fifth House Ensemble, the Historical Keyboard Society of North America, the Iowa Composers Forum, loadbang, loop38, the Music Teachers National Association, New European Ensemble, Onix Ensamble, Sputter Box, and mezzo-sopranos Kayleigh Butcher and Lisa Neher.
His work 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, the Blackbird Creative Lab with eighth blackbird, and at the Young Composers Meeting with the orkest de ereprijs in the Netherlands. Select honors include the Cortona Prize; the Audience Choice Award 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. His work has also been supported by residencies at MacDowell and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
Aaron’s first opera, Trusted, will receive its concert premiere in May 2026 from Chicago Opera Theater, where he serves as the 2024-26 Vanguard Composer-in-Residence. Written with librettist Marella Martin Koch, Trusted tells the story of a financial scandal that fractures a family.
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. With support from the Frank Huntington Beebe Fund, he undertook additional studies at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague in the Netherlands. For more information, visit aaronisraellevin.com.