Music and theremin performance by Dalit Warshaw.

"While in Babylon" was initially conceived as an a cappella setting of the Hebrew psalm "Al Naharot Bavel" ("By the Waters of Babylon") during the week of Sept. 11, 2001. For this project, I recorded all four voices (SATB) on theremin, playing an "ether-choral ensemble" against myself through overdubbing. I also employed the Electro-Harmonix Talking Machine, a device chiefly used in conjunction with electric guitars in order to expand their timbral palette, adding a vast spectrum of quasi-vocal effects. 

 As a New York native, I had always taken my American citizenship for granted. When the Twin Towers fell on Sept. 11, 2001, I felt for the first time the pangs of true American patriotism, along with a desperate, urgent need to return to my own beloved Manhattan, and an intense frustration at being unable to do so for those first two days after the explosions. Finally back in my studio on West 86th St., I spent the remainder of the week transcribing and editing this piece as WNPR aired the seemingly endless stories of sorrow told by survivors and family members of those left behind. 

"While in Babylon" received its "ether premiere" at Joe's Pub on Sept. 15, 2013, with myself performing the soprano line on theremin over the pre-recorded lower voices.

While In Babylon (for a cappella theremin choir)

Welcome to my site, and thank you for visiting! Stay tuned for uploads of my latest works, as well as my performances on both piano and theremin. For more clips, please peruse my YouTube channel. I hope you enjoy!

        An internationally acclaimed composer, pianist and thereminist, Dalit Hadass Warshaw’s works have been performed by numerous orchestral ensembles, including the New York and Israel Philharmonic Orchestras (Zubin Mehta conducting), the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, the Albany Symphony and the Grand Rapids Symphony. 

Warshaw’s music has been widely praised for its lyricism, unique orchestral palette, distinctive harmonic vocabulary, emotional intensity and vivid portrayal of character. Notable orchestral premieres within the last decade include “Conjuring Tristan,” a “narrative concerto” for piano and orchestra based on Thomas Mann’s “Tristan,” and "Sirens: A Concerto for Theremin and Orchestra," performed by both the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and the Albany Symphony. “Sirens” was described by the Boston Globe as a “sublimely expressive concerto,” and listed among “Boston’s Best Classical Music Concerts in 2019.” 

Accolades in recent years include a Guggenheim Fellowship (2016), the Copland House Residency Award (2023), two MacDowell Fellowships (2019, 2024), a commission from New York State Council on the Arts (2022), and the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2017), given to mid-career composers of exceptional gifts. Warshaw has also been the recipient of five ASCAP Foundation Grants to Young Composers, a Fulbright Scholarship to Israel, a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and two BMI Awards, among other honors.

In addition to performing the premiere of her piano concerto with the Grand Rapids Symphony in 2015, Warshaw has soloed as pianist with the Rockland Symphony, Cheyenne Symphony, and the Misgav Chamber Players under the direction of Lukas Foss, and has been featured widely as both soloist and chamber player in venues such as Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall and Bargemusic, where she debuted her seven-movement piano work, “Different Loves, A Cycle of Classical Portraits,” in 2021.

Having studied theremin with the renowned Clara Rockmore from an early age, she has appeared as theremin soloist with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the New York Festival of Song, and the San Francisco Symphony, also performing with ensembles including the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the American Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, and the Elbphilharmonie. 

Warshaw holds Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in music composition from the Juilliard School, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University.  A full-time member of the composition faculty at the Boston Conservatory from 2004 to 2014 and former composition faculty at the Juilliard School Extension and Pre-College, she currently serves as Adjunct Professor of Composition at Brooklyn College (CUNY). 

Warshaw’s portrait CD, "Invocations," was released in January 2011 and is available on Albany Records. Her debut orchestral CD will be released on the BMOP/sound label in September 2024.