Ihlara McIndoe.

Ihlara McIndoe is a composer and musicologist from Ōtepoti Dunedin, Aotearoa New Zealand, based in New York City, USA. 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 projects span across acoustic and electroacoustic concert settings from solo instrument to orchestral scores, as well as interdisciplinary projects incorporating movement, poetry, and storytelling.

Ihlara’s work has been performed and recorded in Aotearoa and internationally by artists and ensembles 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), and the US National Flute Association Convention.

Her currently ongoing projects include a new chamber work for France-based Ensemble Semblance as part of Radio France’s Création Mondiale series (2025/26 season); a new work for chamber orchestra and voice, composed with the support of a Fromm Foundation Composition Fellowship for the 2025 Composers Conference (USA); and collaborations with NYC-based choreographer Shira Kagen-Shafman and NZ/NYC-based composer-performer Nathaniel Otley.

Ihlara’s collaborations with the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust (2020-2022) led to a series of works which share the sounds of Antarctica and the spirit of exploration with New Zealand communities, which have been presented separately around Aotearoa, Australia, Canada, and the USA, as well as in a portrait concert, A Musical Journey to Antarctica, in Ōtautahi Christchurch in 2022. She is a three-time winner of the University of Otago Lilburn Trust Composition Competition (2016, 2017, 2018), and was an awardee of the 2019 NZ Trio Impetus composition competition. As an orchestral composer, Ihlara served as Composer in Residence for the NZSO National Youth Orchestra (2021), and has had works presented by the NZSO, Orchestra Wellington, and the Dunedin Youth Orchestra. Her 2023 chamber work, Mirror Traps, composed in participation at the Voix Nouvelles Academy at Festival de Royaumont, was one of three finalist works in the 2024 SOUNZ Contemporary Award | Te Tohu Auaha, New Zealand’s premier music composition award, which celebrates excellence in contemporary composition.

Ihlara’s musicological interests stem from her background as a former lawyer, with her research focusing on the interaction between public law and the arts sector, and potential for creative policy reform to foster greater sustainability and inclusion within the arts. She has also given various presentations with the support of the Antarctic Heritage Trust and via the Global Leaders Institute for Arts Innovation on the role of music in environment education and activism. Her musicological work on (re)imaginative archiving has been published in Glissando Magazine and she was awarded the Student Paper Prize at the American Musicological Society New York State / St Lawrence chapter meeting in 2023.

As an administrator, Ihlara has served as Co-Convenor of the Composers Association of New Zealand National Composers Workshop, and has worked in student promotions for the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Music New Zealand.

Ihlara is a graduate of McGill University’s Schulich School of Music, with an MA in Musicology supervised by Professor Roe-Min Kok. She holds a MusB in Composition and Piano Performance from the University of Otago, where she studied with Professor Anthony Ritchie, Professor Peter Adams, and Professor Terence Dennis, as well as an LLB and BA (1st class honours) in Gender Studies. She also holds an Executive MBA from the Global Leaders Institute for Arts Innovation. Ihlara is currently undertaking her DMA in Composition at Columbia University, NYC, where she is studying with Zosha Di Castri and Marcos Balter.