Music in Medicine

Harriet Steinke is an American composer from Detroit, Michigan. She has received commissions and performances across the U.S. and fellowships from the Soundstreams Composer Workshop, Norfolk New Music Workshop, and the Tanglewood Music Center.

Favorite projects include works for Tanglewood, Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings, Pro Musica of Detroit, the piano sextet Grand Band, and the Ann Arbor-based mixed ensemble Virago, who recently released their debut EP of Steinke’s work Listening for Bells.

While living in Detroit, Harriet founded the Detroit Composers’ Project, an organization that partners with performers, ensembles, and institutions to facilitate performances of new work. She previously worked in artistic operations for the Detroit-based nonprofit ArtOps and served on the Board of Directors for the young women’s choir One Voice. She also freelances as a grant writer and project manager for several arts and non-arts organizations.

Harriet studied harmony and counterpoint at the EAMA-Nadia Boulanger Institute in Paris, France as well as German language and literature at the Freie Universität in Berlin, Germany. She studied composition at Butler University where her primary mentor was composer Michael Schelle and she is currently pursuing graduate studies at the Yale School of Music where she studies with composers Martin Bresnick, David Lang, Aaron Jay Kernis, and Chris Theofanidis. She is very grateful for other mentors she’s had throughout her studies including composers Frank Felice, Ronald Caltabiano, Michael Gandolfi, Joan Tower, Philip Lasser, Andrew Wagonner, and Huw Watkins.