Josiah Tayag Catalan

Josiah Tayag Catalan (he/him) is a Filipino-American composer born in New York City and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Recently, his compositional interests have become inspired and centered around retracing his heritage through his travels in Philippines and spending time with various indigenous communities and learning about various music, dance, and folkloric/spiritual traditions specific to each tribe. He has been a finalist in the Thailand International Competition Festival and has been awarded prizes from New Music USA, NACUSA, the Sacramento State Festival of New American Music, the Megalopolis Saxophone Orchestra, the American Prize Composer’s Awards, and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. Josiah has previously served as a Fromm Foundation Composer Fellow in the Composer’s Conference, a Bilinski Fellowship at the University of California at Davis, and served as the Composer-in-residence with the Diablo Symphony. His music has been commissioned and performed internationally by individuals and groups such as the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Earplay, Empyrean Ensemble, Lydian and Arditti String Quartets, the MANA saxophone quartet, The Megalopolis Saxophone Orchestra, Citywater, violinist Miranda Cuckson, percussionist Chris Froh, and soprano Helena Sorokina. He is currently working on a few projects while in residence as a Lucas Artist Fellow, including a new piece for the Del Sol String Quartet, saxophonist Michael Hernandez, and gayageum player Hwayoung Shon.