I am a composer, writer, and multimedia artist from Northern California. My work blends music with my original texts, photography, video, and theater to explore subjects that inspire, motivate, and fascinate me. While my main focus is on landscape and the natural world, I also create human-centered pieces exploring relationships, gender, memory, gun violence, and protest and revolution. I studied English literature in college and words—in all their myriad and beautiful forms—are at the center of my creative process.

My recent projects include The End of Rain, a multimedia symphony about California wildfires; The Outer Edge of Youth, a choral opera about friendship and the natural world; and The Clearing and the Forest, a staged theatrical work exploring the intimate relationship between landscape, migration, and home.

My work has been been praised as “exquisite” (New York Times), “arresting” (BBC), and “an American response to Sibelius” (Boston Globe). It has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, NewMusicUSA, the American Composers Forum, Columbia University, the Hong Kong, Buffalo, and Colorado Springs Philharmonics, the Tucson Symphony, vocal ensembles Roomful of Teeth, Lorelei Ensemble, and The Thirteen, and the Aspen, Cabrillo, Bang on a Can, and June in Buffalo Festivals.

At Rutgers, my teaching is focused in three areas. I teach Interplay, a massive course for first-year MGSA students about collaboration within and between disciplines. I offer seminars on the relationship between music, sound, and landscape. Most importantly, I teach courses and private lessons in composition where my students pursue projects ranging from symphonies and choral music to game scores and musical theater. This diversity of student interest is what makes Mason Gross such a vibrant, welcoming, and exciting place to teach.

You can find me on Spotify or follow along on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook @scott.ordway.composer