Styskal
Madeline Styskal - composer, musicologist, performer, writer
Music as a bridge across times and cultures runs through my concerts, soundscapes, and research. It reaches into the recesses of personal and collective memory and casts it into the present. It went with me to Russia and brought me back. Where will it take you?
Madeline Styskal (b. 1995) is a doctoral candidate in musicology at the Butler School of Music, where she earned an M.M. in composition under Dr. Yevgeniy Sharlat. She holds an artist's certificate in composition studies with Vladimir Tarnopolsky from the Moscow Conservatory (2019-20) and a bachelor's in composition from the Moores School of Music, where she studied composition with Robert Smith, D.M.A. and David Ashley White, D.M.A., and piano performance with Tali Morgulis, D.M.A.
Some of her collaborations include a commission by the Kingwood Park High School Chamber Orchestra in 2016; the Veteran’s Songbook Project with HGOco., Grace After Fire, and local female veterans in 2017; ongoing writing for the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception choir in Moscow since 2016; and the 2021-23 theatrical-musical production The Women Have Something to Say. Her recent work, such as the soundscapes concept album Kommunalka, focuses on creating narratives in temporal frameworks through extra-, inter- and intra-textual quotation. Like Bill, she lives in Austin.
Education
2022-27
University of Texas at Austin, Ph.D, musicology
2020-22
University of Texas at Austin, M.M., composition
2019-20
Moscow State Conservatory named after P.I. Tchaikovsky, artist's certificate, composition
2014-18
University of Houston, B.M., composition, certificate in Global Studies, summa cum laude
Awards
2025-26
U. S. Student Fulbright Open Research grantee to Munich, Germany
2023
American Prize in chamber-vocal composition, finalist
2018-19
U.S. Student Fulbright ETA alumna, Voronezh, Russia
Performances, Premieres
Solo
2023
Ives, Charles. Concord Sonata, mvmt. III, Austin Music Salon
2023
Gubaidulina, Sofia. 4 Selections from Musical Toys, Music at the Meeting House, First Congregational Church of Houston
Way of Beauty: The Russian Romantics, for piano solo and duo with Ben Batalla, University Catholic Center and St. Albert the Great Catholic Church
2023
2019
Janacek, Leos. Piano Sonata I.X.1908 "From the Street." Myaskovsky Hall, Moscow State Conservatory
Group
Sonic Gallery, chamber concert for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano, presented at Music at the Meeting House, First Congregational Church of Houston
2023
SoundProof, Bates Recital Hall, Butler School of Music, UT Austin
2022
Kommunalka, Mirror Room, Butler School of Music, UT Austin
2022
2021
SoundProof, Myaskovsky Hall, Moscow State Conservatory, Moscow
The Women Have Something to Say, MATCH, Houston
2024