DION NATARAJA
University of California, Berkeley, Ph.D. in Music Composition (expected 2028)
University of California, Berkeley, M.A. in Music Composition, 2022–2024. Studied with Ken Ueno, Edmund Campion, and Carmine-Emanuele Cella.
Bennington College, Bachelor of Arts, 2018–2022. Studied composition with Nicholas Brooke and Allen Shawn.
United World College Maastricht, the Netherlands, 2016–2018
Masterclass with Chinary Ung, 2023
Masterclass with Toshio Hosokawa, 2023
Studied Javanese rebab and kendang with Midiyanto, 2022–2023
Studied composition with Steve Lehman, 2020–2021
Studied Javanese gendèr with Darsono Hadiraharjo, 2020
Ladd Prize Award, fellowship for a year of living and working in Paris, 2026
LIFT Grant Award, 2024
De Lorenzo Prize in Music Composition, 2023
OneBeat Fellow, 2022
Semifinalist, Petrichor International Music Competition, 2021
Finalist, Talea Ensemble’s Emerging Composer Competition, 2020
Performance of Palastra for Sandikala gamelan and electronics by Sandikala Ensemble in Yogyakarta, 2027 (upcoming)
Composing a work for the Attacca Quartet in the United States, 2027 (upcoming)
Composing music for Dewa Ayu Eka Putri’s dance class at Grinnell College, Iowa, United States, 2026 (upcoming)
Performance of Improvisation by Dionysius Arya Nataraja and Putu Tangkas Adi Hiranmayena at Grinnell College, Iowa, United States, 2026 (upcoming)
Composing music for an installation by YoungEun Kim at Munhwajeondang-ro, Dong-gu, Gwangju, South Korea, 2026
Performance of 절명시 (Jeol Myeong Si) for piri and electronics by Kyu-Soo Lim at the National Gugak Center, Seoul, 2026
Performance of Interregnum for two percussionists, electronics, and video by line upon line percussion at CNMAT, Berkeley, United States, 2026
Performance of 절명시 (Jeol Myeong Si) for piri and electronics at the Korean Electronic Music Festival at the University of California, Berkeley; the University of California, Santa Cruz; and Stanford University, performed by Kyu-Soo Lim, 2025
Performance of Cenotaph for gamelan ensemble in Sculptures in Time: New Compositions for Javanese Gamelan, commissioned by Julija Novosel and supported by the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung, 2025
Performance of Memorial-Machine for solo piano at Fête de la Musique Berlin, 2025
Performance of an arrangement of Marsinah’s Pendulum for piano and percussion at Ruang Tamu Tony, performed by Sri Hanuraga and Max Riefer, 2025
Sandikala Ensemble performance in Gema Tabuhan, in collaboration with Elisabeth Schimana, 2024
Sandikala Ensemble performance at Pestapora, 2024
Sandikala Ensemble performance at ArtJog, 2024
Participant in the online exhibition Underground Art and Design, 2024
World premiere of String Quartet: “There Is an Infinite Amount of Hope, but Not for Us”, performed by Del Sol String Quartet, 2024
World premiere of Marsinah’s Pendulum, performed by Yarn/Wire, 2023
World premiere of Hommage à Pontjopangrawit at Soundbridge Festival, Malaysia, 2023
World premiere of “… The Messiah Will Come Only on the Day After His Arrival …” for solo voice, performed by Sarah Grace Graves at Fondazione Isabella Scelsi, 2023
World premiere of Impossible Translations I for double bass and electronics, performed by Richard Worn, 2023
Performance of Kafka, Postmortem at MATA Festival by Sandikala Ensemble and Dion Nataraja, in collaboration with Peni Candrarini, Jess Tsang, and Amy Garapic, 2023
World premiere of Nartosabdho Variations at CNMAT, Berkeley, featuring Mat Muntz, Sraya Murtikanti, and Gamin Kang, 2023
Performance at the North California Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology conference with Mat Muntz, 2023
World premiere of Hyperkembangan III by Sandikala Ensemble with Sri Hanuraga and Gerald Situmorang at Komunitas Salihara’s Jazz Buzz, 2023
Sandikala Ensemble performance at Musik Neng Omah, 2021
Sandikala Ensemble performance in Beyond Threshold: New Voices from Indonesia, 2021
Sandikala Ensemble performance in Traditions in Transition, 2021
Presentation on compositional works and the dissertation project Palastra at Grinnell College (upcoming), 2026
Lecture titled “Music in the Expanded Field” at Pekan Komponis Indonesia, 2026
Presentation on compositional works and the dissertation project Palastra at Stanford University, 2026
Presentation on compositional works at the University of California, Berkeley, colloquium, 2025
Presentation on compositional works at Louisiana State University, 2025
Presentation on compositional works at Universitas Pelita Harapan, 2024
Speaker at Pekan Komponis Indonesia, 2022
“Music of the 20th Century: Orientalism and Beyond,” lecture at Komunitas Salihara, 2021
“Sandikala Ensemble and Non-Western Modernism,” artist presentation for the Composing for Improvisers course at California Institute of the Arts, 2021
“Gamelan and Posthumanism,” presentation at the Indonesian Professional Musicians Association (PERPROMI), 2021
Speaker at October Meeting: Harmonic Turbulence, the annual meeting of Indonesian composers, 2020