Anna Meredith

Anna Meredith is a composer, producer and performer of both acoustic and electronic music. Her sound is frequently described as ‘uncategorisable’ and ‘genre-defying’ and straddles the worlds of contemporary classical, art pop, soundtracks, techno, installations and experimental rock.

Her music has been performed everywhere from the Hollywood Bowl to BBC Last Night of the Proms to flashmob body-percussion performances at the M6 Services. It has been used in PRADA, Chloe & Fendi fashion campaigns, adverts, films, TV shows, installations and pop festivals, clubs and classical concert halls worldwide and is regularly broadcast on BBC Radio 1, 2, 3, 4 & 6.

Anna has been Composer in Residence with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the RPS/PRS Composer in the House with Sinfonia ViVA. She is also a regular presenter for BBC Radio 3 and 6Music and a radio and TV guest, judge and panel member on numerous shows.

Her debut album, Varmints was released in March 2016 to huge critical acclaim with 4 and 5 star reviews from press and media around the world including Pitchfork’s coveted Best New Music. Her second album, FIBS, was released in October 2019 and was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize as well as being named Electronic Sound’s Album of the Year 2019.

For the past 7 years Anna has collaborated with her band and they have toured extensively including sold-out headline shows around the UK. Their live show has been described as ‘sheer exhilaration’ (New York Times), while NPR’s Bob Boilen described their show and subsequent Tiny Desk performance as ‘a stormy, ecstatic, endlessly danceable thrill to behold… the best artist I’ve seen at SXSW and one of the most creative bands I’ve seen in years. Music for the head, the heart, the ass and the feet’. They recently premiered their FIBS with Orchestra production of new arrangements for band and orchestra at the Barbican, combining forces with the London Contemporary Orchestra, conducted by Rob Ames.

Other recent projects include Five Telegrams, a 22-minute, large scale orchestral piece written in collaboration with Tony Award-winning visuals company 59 Productions and co-commissioned by the BBC Proms, Edinburgh International Festival and 14-18 NOW. Five Telegrams was performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Proms Youth Ensemble and the National Youth Choir of Great Britain both inside and outside the Royal Albert Hall at the 2018 First Night of the Proms and outside the Usher Hall as the opening night of the Edinburgh International Festival.

Her body percussion pieces, HandsFree and Connect It (written with choreographer David Ogle) were featured in the BBC’s award winning Ten Pieces scheme which reached half of all primary school-aged children in the UK.

After expanding into writing for film and TV, Anna scored her first soundtrack for Bo Burnham’s hugely successful debut feature Eighth Grade for A24 and followed with her first TV score for Netflix’s Living With Yourself.

Her installation work has included a driver-led installation piece for the Zamboni machine at Somerset House ice rink, a four part Bach-inspired electronic installation for lifts for Manchester International Festival and AR & VR soundtracks including the award-winning SURGE.

Recent installations include Bumps Per Minute - a surround sound music and visuals installation project for dodgems with an interactive soundtrack which is triggered by cars colliding. She soundtracked Alan Cumming and Steven Hoggett’s 2022 one man dance-theatre production BURN, and also wrote the score for forthcoming A24 feature TUESDAY. The acclaimed Ligeti Quartet released NUC - an album of her string quartet works on Mercury KX in 2023.

Biography taken from composer’s website.
Photo: Gem Harris