Joanne S. Na is a Korean-American composer, based in Vancouver, Canada. She endeavors to create music that evokes human emotions, experiences, and places, and to share positive energy and hope through her music. Her output encompasses a diverse range of works including music for instrumental solo, voice, chamber ensemble, and orchestra.
Her music was featured in the LunART Festival (2024), Vancouver Pro Musica Sonic Boom Festival (2024), West Coast Student Composers Symposium (2024), Vancouver Symphony's Jean Coulthard Readings (2024), University of Michigan's Annual Organ Conference (2023), Pacific Chamber Orchestra's Dream American Workshop (2022), and the Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium (2021), among others. She has received several awards including the Ann Southam Prize in Composition from the Canadian Music Centre (2024), 2nd place winner from the Pioneering Voices Choral Series Composition Competition (2024), NAfME Student Composers Competition (2021), Seoul Grand Philharmonic Orchestra Composers Award (2020), and Hwaum Project Academy Call for Scores (2019). She has worked with prominent artists and ensembles including Grammy-winning soprano Estelí Gomez, soprano Arwen Myers, cellist Arlen Hlusko, clarinetist Wonkak Kim and pianist Eunhye Grace Choi, 4X5 Piano Duo (Benjamin Krause & Christina Giuca), Delgani String Quartet, Kenari Quartet, Saxophilia Saxophone Quartet, Vancouver Chamber Choir, Hwaum Chamber Orchestra, Pacific Chamber Orchestra, Seoul Grand Philharmonic Orchestra, Rutgers Symphony Orchestra, University of Oregon Symphony Orchestra, Victoria Symphony, and Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
During her time as a Graduate Teaching Fellow at the University of Oregon, she taught various undergraduate courses, such as Composition I and Notation & Engraving. She also taught private lessons outside the university, covering piano, composition, and music theory in the United States and South Korea. In the 2022-2023 academic year, she served as a lecturer for music history courses at Sangmyung University in Seoul.
Currently, she is pursuing her doctorate at the University of British Columbia with the support of a Four-Year Doctoral Fellowship, studying with Dorothy Chang and Keith Hamel, and also serving as a coach for Contemporary Players Ensemble. She earned her Bachelor of Music with summa cum laude honors from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, where she studied with Scott Ordway, Charles Fussell, and Vadim Neselovskyi. She holds a Masters of Music from the University of Oregon where she studied with Robert Kyr and David Crumb, and received an Outstanding Graduate Scholar Award in Composition.