Annika Socolofsky is a composer and avant folk vocalist who explores corners and colors of the voice frequently deemed to be "untrained" and not "classical." Described as “unbearably moving” (Gramophone) and “just the right balance between edgy precision and freewheeling exuberance” (The Guardian), her music erupts from the embodied power of the human voice and is communicated through mediums ranging from orchestral and operatic works to unaccompanied folk ballads and unapologetically joyous Dolly Parton covers. Annika writes extensively for her own voice, including composing a growing repertoire of “feminist rager-lullabies” titled Don’t say a word, which serves to confront centuries of damaging lessons taught to young children by retelling old lullaby texts for a new, queer era.  Annika has taken Don’t say a word on the road, performing with ensembles including Eighth Blackbird, New European Ensemble, Albany Symphony, Knoxville Symphony, Latitude 49, and Contemporaneous. Her follow-up feminist rager-lullaby song cycle in collaboration with ~Nois, titled I Tell You Me, was recognized by the Chicago Tribune as “grotesquely gorgeous… among the most captivating compositions heard the whole festival [Ear Taxi 2021]” and was included in their “Chicago's Top 10 for classical music, opera and jazz that defined 2021.”

As a composer, Annika has collaborated with artists such as the Rochester Philharmonic, Albany Symphony, Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, Eighth Blackbird, Third Coast Percussion, So Percussion, HIIIT (Slagwerk Den Haag), Asko|Schönberg, Quince Ensemble, Contemporaneous, Latitude 49, Music from Copland House, Akropolis Reed Quintet, marimbist Ji Hye Jung, Bang on a Can All-Stars cellist Arlen Hlusko, and sean-nós singer Iarla Ó Lionáird, among others. Recent and upcoming projects include an audio documentary on equal pay for Wind Ensemble, a country EP for her own voice and Friction Quartet, an immersive fiddle work for Owls, and a full-length opera in collaboration with librettist Claressinka Anderson and vocalist Danielle Birrittella. Annika is a recipient of the 2021 Gaudeamus Award, the 2019 Cortona Prize, an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Award, a BMI Student Composer award, and grants from Harvard University’s Fromm Foundation and the Barlow Endowment.

Recordings of her music are available on New Amsterdam, Bright Shiny Things, Naxos, and Innova record labels. She is Associate Professor of Composition at the University of Colorado Boulder. She holds her PhD in Composition from Princeton University. Her primary musical mentors have been Reza Vali, Kristin Kuster, Dan Trueman, Juri Seo, and Evan Chambers. She plays a hardanger d’amore 5x5 fiddle made by Salve Håkedal. www.aksocolofsky.com