Anna Clyne

ANNA CLYNE’S NEW LEAGUE COMMISSION THIS MOMENT WAS PREMIERED BY THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA AND MUSIC DIRECTOR YANNICK NÉZET-SÉGUIN AT COLORADO’S BRAVO! VAIL ON JULY 14, 2023 AND WAS PERFORMED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA IN CHAPEL HILL ON SEPTEMBER 20 AND 21, AND IN PHILADELPHIA ON OCTOBER 6-8, 2023.

An additional four orchestras performed the work in the 2023-2024 season, part of a 30-orchestra consortium performing works by women composers commissioned by the League of American Orchestras with the generous support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation:

Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra and music director Eric Jacobsen on November 4 and 5, 2023

Portland Columbia Symphony and music director Steven Byess on November 11 and 12, 2023

Columbus Symphony and music director Rossen Milanov on May 3 and 4, 2024

National Symphony Orchestra and conductor Thomas Wilkins on May 16-19, 2024

In her orchestral writing, Clyne arranges fundamental material in layers, a process that she attributes to her background in electroacoustic composition. ‘You might have an oboe playing a melody, but I’ll double that with both vibraphone and low clarinet,’ she said. ‘That way you combine the colors of the instruments to create new sounds.’

Esteban Meneses, I Care If You Listen – review of the world premiere of Anna Clyne’s This Moment

London-born Anna Clyne is a GRAMMY-nominated composer of acoustic and electro-acoustic music. Described as a “composer of uncommon gifts and unusual methods” in a New York Times profile and as “fearless” by NPR, Clyne is one of the most acclaimed and in-demand composers of her generation, often embarking on collaborations with innovative choreographers, visual artists, filmmakers, and musicians.

Several upcoming projects explore Clyne’s fascination with visual arts, including Color Field for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, inspired by the artwork of Rothko, and Between the Rooms, a film with choreographer Kim Brandstrup and LA Opera. Within Her Arms opened the New York Philharmonic’s 2021-2022 season. Other recent premieres include PIVOT, which opened the 2021 Edinburgh International Festival; A Thousand Mornings for the Fidelio Trio; Strange Loops for the Orchestra of St. Luke’s; Woman Holding a Balance, a film collaboration with Orchestra of St. Luke’s and artist Jyll Bradley; and In the Gale for cello and bird song, created with and performed by Yo-Yo Ma.

Clyne composed a trilogy of Beethoven-inspired works that premiered in 2020 for Beethoven’s 250th anniversary: Stride for the Australian Composers Orchestra; Breathing Statues for the Calidore String Quartet; and Shorthand, premiered by The Knights at Caramoor. Other recent premieres include Sound and Fury, first performed by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Pekka Kuusisto in Edinburgh; and her Rumi-inspired cello concerto, DANCE, premiered with Inbal Segev at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. DANCE was also recently recorded for AVIE Records by Segev and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, led by Marin Alsop, and has garnered more than six million plays on Spotify.

Clyne served as Composer-in-Residence for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, L’Orchestre national d’Île-de-France, and Berkeley Symphony. She is currently the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s Associate Composer through the 2021-2022 season and a mentor composer for Orchestra of St Luke’s.

Clyne’s music is represented on the AVIE Records, Cantaloupe Music, Cedille, MajorWho Media, New Amsterdam, Resound, Tzadik, and VIA labels. Both Prince of Clouds and Night Ferry were nominated for 2015 GRAMMY Awards.

Her music is published exclusively by Boosey & Hawkes.

Reprinted by kind permission of Boosey & Hawkes.

(July 2023)

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Photo Credit: Christina Kernohan