Dika Chartoff | composer

ABOUT

I love to express stories through music and explore the visceral space that surrounds them. Sometimes I’m interested in creating sound collages, other times I surrender to something lyrical. I feel ridiculously compelled to make sense of the world and it comforts me when I am able to organize sounds into a construct that invites discovery and reflection, bridging the gap from the unfamiliar to something ancestral and relatable. 

A classical pianist, Dika’s journey into composition began as a hobby in manipulating electronic sounds through Apple’s Logic software. This exploration, combined with her love for collaboration, eventually led her to score several award-winning independent films and sparked a curiosity and interest in expanding her horizons in contemporary concert music.

Her latest work Retrospects in Reverb, for piano is commissioned by Clare Longendyke, and will premier at Carnegie Hall in January 2025. Suspiro, a work for bass clarinetist Tasha Warren and cellist Dave Eggar, is slated for release and tour in 2025. These works mark the latest phase of Dika’s evolving career, which bridges contemporary concert music with cinematic soundscapes. In addition, Dika’s debut album of piano and Rhodes duets, along with other chamber works in combination with electronics, has been recorded at the Village Studios in LA and will be released in 2025.

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Dika’s music has also been featured in choreographies for Attack Theatre and KAIROS, expanding her creative collaborations beyond the concert hall. She was selected by the Boulanger Initiative for a live workshop with the Thalia String Quartet in April 2024 during the WaCO Fest, which celebrates the music of women composers.

Dika premiered four works at the Mostly Modern Festival in Saratoga Springs in 2022 under the mentorship of composer Rob Paterson, where she also forged valuable collaborations with world class musicians. Her work Un-controlling, a commission by multi-Grammy-nominated cellist Dave Eggar, premiered at Bargemusic, NY in 2022 and was recorded in Los Angeles in 2023.

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Dika's most recent film scores include a feature film Corazon Azul, and the DGA student award Grand Prize winner and BAFTA-nominated live-action short, Variables. Among her credits are two Sundance-selected films; Knife Point and Memories of Overdevelopment, as well as the student Academy Award winner, Down in Number 5. 

Dika was born and raised in Sarajevo, spent her teenage years in Germany, studied and lived in the US and New Zealand; and presently lives with her husband Bill, daughter Jazzy, and their exuberant dog Heidi in Santa Monica, California. She holds a Master's Degree in Music Performance (piano) from the University of Colorado in Boulder where she studied with David Korevaar. Her concert music mentor is Robert Paterson. She was also awarded a six months mentorship with film composer Rob Simonsen by the Alliance of Women Film Composers in 2022.

Dika is a member of the Alliance of Women Film Composers (AWFC), American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), Chamber Music America, and Music Teachers Association of California (MTAC - West LA).

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