Anna Meredith
 | Anna Meredith is a composer of acoustic and electronic music as well as a performer, curator and animateur. She has recently been appointed as the third PRSF/RPS Composer in the House and will be working with André de Ridder and Sinfonia Viva from 2010-2012. Plans for the Residency include small and large scale commissions, education projects as well as curation, improvisation and electronics. |
Projects during 2009 included a new Double Piano Concerto Left Light for Philip Moore and Simon Crawford-Phillips, with Britten Sinfonia, for the 2009 Proms and orchestral arrangements for electronica artists Matmos and the London Contemporary Orchestra. She is currently working on a Concerto for Beatboxer and Orchestra with the beatboxer Shlomo, funded by PRSF and due for performance in the Southbank Centre in February 2010. Upcoming plans include a new work for LSO Discovery and collaborations with Siobhan Davies Dance as well as her regular projects with the Camberwell Composers Collective - currently New Music Associates at Kettle's Yard.
Anna frequently works with visual artists, especially her sister Eleanor Meredith, and has performed her electronic pieces at Faster than Sound, Barbican Cinema, KOKO, Bongo Club and The Luminaire. She plans to put together an album of her electronic pieces during the coming year.
Here's what Anna has been listening to:
I'm writing a rhythmic-y loud piece at the moment so I'm listening to a lot of shortish, chunky music and dancing round my bedroom a lot. I might normally be a bit more balanced, wafty and lilting in my choices but this is what's doing it for me right now.
Maximo Park - Let's Get Clinical (Clark Remix)
My buddy, the cellist Olly Coates introduced me to Clark and I absolutely love him. We saw him live recently and its great stuff. Totems Flare is a great album but I'm especially loving this remix of Let's get Clinical by Maximo Park he's just released. You can't beat a bit of 90s dance riff and a wonky side drum...
Sibelius 
I always listen to Sibelius (all of it but most often 5 or 7) when I'm writing. Pacing is important to me and I don't think anyone gets it better than Sibelius. He chooses and creates the perfect way to introduce each of his big ideas that still blows me away even though I listen to it all the time
Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
A fantastic album which works even better live. There's a detachment in a lot of these songs that really appeals to me - almost a kind of Pet Sounds vibe - which can never be a bad thing. Good to listen to in the middle of the night if you're that way inclined.
Gerald Barry - Snow is White
I listen to this this short piece a lot when I'm writing to remind me to not overwrite. I always think Gerald Barry gets the blend of material right every time.
Holst - Suite in Eb and F 
I rediscovered these recently - they're pretty much the first pieces I ever played (dizzy heights of school windband). I can't tell if its just nostalgia but I find them really joyful to listen to and make me itch to dust off the clarinet.
Moderat - Moderat 
I saw these guys earlier this year and they've made me fall in love with triplets (again...) The production quality is amazing but more than that I just find it dancibly infectious. Ideal for stretching the ole legs when not huddled in a ball over my laptop.
Bookwise, I've been enjoying Caroline Bird's collection of poems - The Watering Can and am also steaming through David Mitchell's Ghostwritten