Ihlara Jayne McIndoe

Ihlara McIndoe is a composer from Ōtepoti Dunedin, currently based in New York City. Her compositional work draws on themes of exploration and preservation to investigate artistic ecologies and creative modes of (re)thinking, (re)making and remembering. Her work has been performed in Aotearoa and internationally by artists including Mark Menzies, Johanna Vargas, Mayumi Miyata, Nanae Yoshimura, Gabriela Glapska, The Rhythm Method Quartet, Ensemble Court-Circuit, Les Métaboles, Multilaterale, Duo Nessi, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, NZ National Youth Orchestra, and Stroma; and presented at festivals and venues including the Artistic Research Creation Opus (France), Festival de Royaumont (France), Bendigo International Festival for Exploratory Music (Australia), CubaDupa (Aotearoa), the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (Canada), the Composers Conference (USA), and the US National Flute Association Convention. Her collaborations with the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust have shared the sounds of Antarctica with communities through music in various settings, including concert music, installations, educational workshops, and documentary. Her 2025 work for string quartet and voices, of coral and foam, composed for The Rhythm Method Quartet, received the SOUNZ Contemporary Award, New Zealand’s premier award for contemporary music composition. Ihlara completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Otago, where she studied composition with Anthony Ritchie, Peter Adams, Chris Gendall and Dylan Lardelli. She holds an MA Musicology from McGill University, and is currently undertaking her DMA in Composition at Columbia University where she is studying with Zosha Di Castri, Marcos Balter, and George Lewis.