Career
Educated at University of California, Los Angeles, and California Institute of the Arts, Skye studied classical music as a student of Ian Krouse, Paul Chihara, David Rosenboom and Alex Shapiro, while also studying percussion with Randy Gloss, Persian music theory with Pirayeh Pourafar, Balkan music theory with Tzvetanka Varimezova, tala in Hindustani classical music with Swapan Chaudhuri and West African music and dance with Kobla Ladzekpo, Beatrice Lawluvi, and Yeko Ladzekpo-Cole. Skye's compositional works often incorporate musical elements from different cultural traditions into contemporary classical music contexts.
His works have been performed and/or commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Chineke! Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra (Canada), Chicago Sinfonietta, Albany Symphony Orchestra, Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, Berkeley Symphony, New West Symphony, Orchestra Santa Monica, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Lian Ensemble, Los Angeles Electric 8, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, Vijay Gupta, Blake Pouliot, Superdevoiche (Bulgarian Women's Choir), EXIGENCE, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Conspirare, The Cecilia Chorus of New York, Lyris Quartet, Miró Quartet, Formosa Quartet, Salastina Music Society, Juventas New Music Ensemble, Ensemble Connect, and other groups.
Rhythm and the embodiment of rhythm through movement is an important theme in Skye's works; he has collaborated with choreographers such as Yeko Ladzekpo-Cole, Mariel McEwan, Sheetal Gandhi, Cynthia Ling Lee, Rukhmani Mehta and Seibi Lee of the Leela Dance Collective and synchronized swimming champion and international coach Sue Baross Nesbitt. He was awarded a residency with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) through New Music USA's "Music Alive" program for LACO's 2015–2016 season and has released three albums, Prisms, Cycles, Leaps (2015) and American Mirror (2018), with Orenda Records and This Place (2023) with Artistician. In 2021, Skye was selected by the Washington Post for the "21 for '21: Composers and performers who sound like tomorrow" article by Michael Andor Brodeur. Skye was also awarded the Prince Grace Honoraria in the Theatre category for his work "Mother of Bravery" with Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and "Best New Composition" in the San Francisco Classical Voice Audience Choice Awards for his work "Mind the Rhythm" for violin and electronics.
Skye has given talks, workshops, and pre-concert lectures about his musical practices at the Harvard University Barwick Colloquium, Homeland Cultural Center, Skirball Cultural Center, Royce Hall (UCLA), Alex Theatre, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and various other schools and institutions. He was asked to speak at the 2016 annual League of American Orchestras conference in Baltimore on the topic of how classical music orchestras can build stronger relationships with their diverse communities. In 2019, Skye was a panelist for "New Voices: Composers of Today" at the League of American Orchestras conference together with Daniel Bernard Roumain, Alex Temple, Evan Williams, Jennifer Jolley. In 2023, Skye was invited to be a panelist at the American Society for Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Artificial Intelligence Symposium. His electroacoustic collaborative AI opera "Song of the Ambassadors" was featured in the opening ceremonies of TED (conference) 2023, in Vancouver, BC.
Skye is the artistic director of the chamber ensemble and arts organization Bridge to Everywhere. He is Artistic Advisor and Composer for Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. He is also a part of the UpBeat Live series with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, composer mentor for Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra, and Director of Instrumental Ensembles at Mount Saint Mary’s University, Los Angeles. He is a member of the New Music USA Program Council and a board member of the American Composers Forum.
During the week of Juneteenth 2021, Skye formally changed his name from Derrick Spiva Jr to Derrick Senam Eugene Skye, which was featured in a Los Angeles Times article. Skye is the son of Artra Howard-Brant, and nephew of Mattina Howard, Sherri Howard and Denean Howard of the Howard Sisters who won gold and silver medals in track and field at the 1984 (Los Angeles) and 1988 (Seoul) Olympic games. His father, Derrick Spiva Sr, is a lecturer at San Francisco State University in Africana Studies. He is married to ethnomusicologist Kim Nguyen Tran.
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