Tyshawn Sorey is the Presidential Assistant Professor of Music. A renowned figure in the contemporary music scene, Sorey is a multi-instrumentalist and composer who occupies a unique space between the worlds of spontaneous and formal composition. He has released 13 critically-acclaimed recordings as a composer and bandleader and received support for his creative projects from The Jerome Foundation and The Shifting Foundation. Sorey was named a MacArthur fellow in 2017 and was the 2018 recipient of the United States Artists grant. He has received commissions of his work from JACK Quartet, Ojai Music Festival, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), and others. Sorey has performed around the world with his own ensembles, as well as with artists such as John Zorn, Vijay Iyer, and Roscoe Mitchell. He was recently named Opera Philadelphia’s new Composer in Residence. Prior to coming to Penn, Sorey served as Assistant Professor of Music at Wesleyan University.