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Licity COLLINS COMPOSER SAMPLES
SAMPLES BELOW: Classical Chamber • Opera • Jazzy Instrumental • Songs Arranged for Chamber • Solo Guitar • Funky Folk
SCORES AVAILABLE
Licity Collins is a fearless, multidimensional artist whose work defies genre.
Described on NPR as “Courageous. Writing and singing full-frontal,” her music invites audiences to confront fear and embrace vulnerability. Embracing a wide range of genres, from classical chamber music, jazzy instrumentals, songs with folk intimacy and rock energy, and personal spoken prose, Licity’s music has been praised for its emotional depth and transformative power. Licity’s visionary approach to music is deeply collaborative, boundary-pushing, and inventive.
Licity recently received a $74,000 “Creative Heights” grant from Oregon Community Foundation for her debut opera,One Death in Seven Doorways, a genre-pushing spoken-sung, collaboratively-composed exploration of death and grief.
Recent awards also include: 2026 Sozo Fellowship, 2024 Artist Facilitator Residency from the IFCC/Portland Parks, 2025 Friends of IFCC grant, 2025 RACC grant, 2024 commission for the music for the North Pole Studio Gala. Licity served on the BRAVO Committee of the Ojai New Classical Music Festival from 2020-22. From 2024-26 she served as the inaugural Music Fellow at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology.
“My work always tells an emotional story.
I illustrate our journeys of inner evolution, mapping transformations from one way of being to another. Each work carries us through who we become temporarily as we hunger and strive to create a necessary new reality.” —Licity
Licity's ensemble, SynchroLicity Collective is a fluid multi-genre collection of musicians based around the world who collaborate with Licity on all forms of her music. Combining sounds from classical, early music, folk, and rock with a pursuit of innovation, the collective practices a deep care for each other and a reverence for nature. Recent projects include The Flower in the Mirror was Dead and Evolution + Trust: The Sitka Sessions, recorded live during a two week lived-in residency in the woods of Oregon. Most of the collaborators for Licitys' opera One Death In Seven Doorways are members of SynchroLicity Collective.
Previous to making music, Licity’s trailblazing conceptual art earned global recognition, inclusion in art history books, features on NPR, and an award for advancing conversations on bigotry and human rights. Licity co-founded Portland’s rebel defunkt theatre company, developed scripts with Cornerstone Theatre, launched the Women’s Prison Theatre Project, and was a founding board member of Disjecta Arts (Oregon Contemporary). In addition to classical and folk/rock music, Licity also composes Flow State music to balance our nervous systems in an increasingly challenging world.
Licity grew up in the cello section of the Washington DC Youth Orchestra and hears the world like a symphony. She has sung in 8 different languages, played piano, recorders, and saxophone, and now finds her home on the guitar. Truly a multi-disciplinary artist, she holds a dual-concentration BA in History+Literature and Public Policy, from Brown University and an MFA in Visual Art from Portland State University. Licity is currently based in Portland, Oregon.
“There are artists who make music. And there are artists who create worlds.
Licity Collins belongs to this second breed.
What Collins does isn't just art. It's emotional alchemy.” —CR Indie
CLASSICAL CHAMBER SAMPLES
EVOLUTION SUITE
Recorded on location as the inaugural Music Fellow at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, performed by SynchroLicity Collective
Combinations of Bassoon, Recorders, Contrabass, Violin, Percussion, Glockenspiel, Electric Guitar
TREES — a capture of the conversations between the trees as we step into the forest.
WATER — a journey through twists and turns into flow.
UNISON — an awakening to the voices of those around us. (score below)
QUIET — The sound of tinnitus. Conducted in sensed time.
WALKING —The sweetness and thrill of a stroll with someone you love. (Guitar Solo improvised by Traverse Such)
SUMMER OF LONGING (selected) (MIDI Mock-up)
Six-movement Saxophone Quartet —composed for Aruna Quartet (premiere in 2026)
Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Baritone Saxophones
Movement 1 ENAMOR (MIDI)—In the heat of Summer we find ourselves falling in love, and longing.
Movement 2 CHATTER (MIDI)—The sounds of telling your community all about your new love and the sounds of their opinions.
Movement 6 SOUNDING (MIDI) — A jazz-inspired celebration of self-acceptance and hearing one's own voice again.
IF IT'S HER
From my spoken-sung opera in progress, ONE DEATH IN SEVEN DOORWAYS Recipient of a 2025 Creative Heights grant. Premiere in 2027.
Solo Double Bass (MIDI) and Spoken Libretto
(Music begins at 0:40) — Sam 1 shows up at the doorway of his deceased friend with a bowl of ice cream for her. (voiced by Ken Yoshikawa)
AND MOST OF ALL MAGIC
Commission for North Pole Studio
Violin, Cello, Soprano Saxophone, Triangle
(Trio begins at 3:49) 3 interlocking motifs for a giant puppet parade.
CHAMBER + SPOKEN WORD
CHAMBER OPERA
Score Samples - Click to View
JAZZY INTRUMENTALS
SONGS WITH VOICE - ARRANGED FOR CHAMBER
