Professor of Music Gina Gillie receives K.T. Tang Faculty Excellence Award in Research

The K.T. Tang Faculty Excellence Award in Research recognizes up to two faculty scholars who have made significant contributions to their disciplines through the dissemination of research findings related to the discovery, integration, or application of knowledge. Professor of Music Gina Gillie was one of the recipients of the K.T. Tang Faculty Excellence Award in Research for 2023.

The university sponsors the Faculty Excellence Awards to recognize outstanding accomplishments of the faculty in five areas of faculty work: teaching, advising, mentoring, research, and service. Their peers have nominated and selected the recipients, signifying their high regard among those who know them well.

Professor Gina Gillie has demonstrated unparalleled contributions to the world of music composition.

She has been commissioned an impressive 22 times since 2012 to write music for chamber ensembles and brass orchestras, including her groundbreaking composition “Octave 9: Pale Blue Dot,” commissioned by the Seattle Symphony for their $6.7 million-dollar performance space. Inspired by the prose of Carl Sagan, audio from the Voyager Golden Records, and the imagery of the James Webb Space Telescope, the piece combines stunning visuals of the universe and natural world with pre-recorded and digitally produced sounds along with a live solo horn performance. She also received acclaim for her composition “Mountain Ascent,” awarded first place at the International Women’s Brass Conference Competition in 2022.

With an international reputation and a string of commissions from prestigious ensembles and musicians, Gillie’s substantial, relevant, and influential work has elevated her status as a composer and contributed significantly to establishing PLU as a hub for creative and original music. A colleague wrote, “Gina Gillie has quickly become one of the best-known and most-played composers of chamber ensemble works in our day. She is sought out for commissioned works, and the demand for her new and established works grows continually.”

Another colleague described her as a “double threat” as both performer and composer and described her compositional style as accessible yet challenging. She has become an important voice, particularly for, but certainly not limited to, brass instruments.

The K.T. Tang Faculty Excellence Award in Research is made possible by an endowment established by Wilfred Chan, a 1974 alumnus of PLU, in honor of his former professor, K.T. Tang, Professor Emeritus of Physics.