Kitty Brazelton (born 1951 in Cambridge, Massachusetts) is a New York-based American composer, bandleader, improviser, singer/songwriter, and instrumentalist. She has released albums and fronted bands across varied genres, including contemporary classical, electronic music, pop, art rock, punk, and avant-garde jazz. She was awarded the 2012 Carl von Ossietsky Composition Prize for Storm, a choral setting of Psalm 104 featuring Brazelton's own retranslation. Her opera Art of Memory was awarded the 2015 Grant for Female Composers from Opera America. Biography Personal life Brazelton was born on October 5, 1951 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Her father was pediatrician and author T. Berry Brazelton. Brazelton attended Swarthmore College and received a doctorate in music from Columbia University in 1994. She was formerly married to jazz critic and president of the Jazz Journalists Association Howard Mandel and currently teaches composition at Bennington College in Vermont. 1970s — Musica Orbis Brazelton fronted underground psychedelic rock band Musica Orbis in the 1970s. The band played multiple national tours across the United States and released one album, To the Listeners, in 1977, before disbanding in 1979. 1980s — Hide the Babies and CBGBs In the 1980s she moved to New York City and played in clubs as lead singer and songwriter of the power pop band Hide the Babies. This led to a residency at NYC concert venue CBGBs, during which Brazelton curated numerous concerts of bands and ensembles of diverse genres from the downtown NYC avant-garde scene as part of her "Real Music Series," featuring regular performances on multiple stages on Sundays at CB's Gallery. 1990s — Dadadah, What is it Like to Be a Bat?, and Hildegurls Brazelton founded nine-piece avant-garde ensemble Dadadah in 1990. Dadadah has released two albums, Rise Up! in 1996 and Love Not Love, Lust Not Lust in 1998. David Fricke wrote in a review of Dadadah in Rolling Stone that the band possessed "impressive nerve ... a pop-operatic pow ... orchestrated like Kate Bush kickin’ it with the Mingus Big Band." In 1991, she founded and toured with the American chamber music ensemble Bog Life, with musicians John Uehlein, Libby Van Cleve, Elizabeth Panzer, Chris Nappi, Jay Elfenbein, and Ed Broms. Brazelton co-founded electronic/punk trio What is it Like to Be a Bat? in 1995 with sound artist/composer Dafna Naphtali. In 2001, Harvestworks, with funding from NYSCA, commissioned Bat to write a 30 minute piece, which became 5 Dreams;