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Anna Weesner (1965-     )

Anna Weesner, composer Anna Weesner is the recipient of a 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2008 award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She has received many other awards, including a 2006 Award for Excellence in the Arts from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, where she was in residence during the summers of 2007 and 2008, and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts (2003). She has been in residence at the MacDowell Colony, the Wellesley Composers Conference, Blue Mountain Center, the Summit Institute for the Arts and Humanities, the Seal Bay Festival, and at Fondation Royaumont. Weesner’s music has been described as “animated and full of surprising turns” (The New York Times), as “a haunting conspiracy” (The Philadelphia Inquirer) and cited as demonstrating “an ability to make complex textures out of simple devices” (San Francisco Classical Voice). John Harbison has written that “none of it proceeds in obvious ways. Her vocabulary is subtle and rather elusive; the effect is paradoxically confident and decisive.” Weesner’s music has been performed and read by leading ensembles, including the American Composers Orchestra, Metamorphosen, the Indianapolis Symphony, and the orchestra of the Curtis Institute. Other important performances includes those by Dawn Upshaw with Richard Goode and with Gilbert Kalish, Judith Kellock, Mary Nessinger, Jeanne Golan, Scott Kluksdahl, the Cassatt Quartet, the Cypress Quartet, the MATA festival, Network for New Music, Veronica Kadlubkiewicz, Matt Bengtson, Ensemble X, Counte induction, the Syracuse Society for New Music and Orchestra 2001. She has been commissioned by numerous performers and presenters, including Open End, the Newburyport Chamber Music Festival, violist Melia Watras, the MATA festival, Mary Nessinger and Jeanne Golan, the Cypress Quartet, Network for New Music, Dawn Upshaw, Sequitur and Orchestra 2001. She is Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

COMPOSITIONS                                                  Weesner Links     ~ ~ ~     Works by Genre    ~ ~ ~    Weesner on Weesner
Five Songs on Poems by Emily Dickinson, voice and piano (1992-94)
Possible Stories, cello (1995; rev. 2009)
Ordinary Mysteries, soprano and chamber orchestra (1995) [text: adaptation of Kate Chopin’s "The Story of an Hour"]
Song About Law and Light, soprano and piano (1996) [text: verses from Psalms 19 and 119]
Sudden, Unbidden, string quartet (1998)
Falling In, flute, trumpet, trombone, violin, viola, cello, double bass, piano and percussion (1998)
An August Rhythm, guitar (1999)
Light and Stone, clarinet, violin and piano (1999-2000)
Sometimes a Wild and Quiet Place, chamber (or full) orchestra (2001)
Second Quartet, "Flux", string quartet (2001; rev. 2007)
Etude, piano (2001)
Still Things Move, string orchestra (2002-03)
What Gathers, What Lingers, violin and piano (2003)
The Nearness of Things, violin (2004; rev. 2007)
The Artist, baritone and piano (2004) [text: William Carlos Williams]
Early, After, Ever, Now, soprano, fl, cl/bass cl, hp, vln, vc & perc (or soprano, fl(vln), cello & pf)  (2005) [text: Anna Weesner]
Mother Tongues, female voice, clarinet, violin, viola, cello and piano (2006) [text: 4 haiku by Sonia Sanchez]
Distant Heart, voice and piano (2006) [text: Jennifer Clarvoe]
Third Quartet, string quartet (2007)
Lift High, Reckon—Fly Low, Come Close, violin, cello and piano (2008)
Flexible Parts, viola and piano (2008) [7 short interconnected pieces]
    - Flexible Parts, orchestra (2010) [7 short interconnected pieces]
The First Letter, 3 sopranos, flute, clarinet, cello and percussion (2009) [text: Emily Dickinson; additional text by the composer]
Snapshot of a Teenaged Moment When Everything Began, double chorus [w/female & male soloists] and piano (2010)
    - [text: 3 poems by Emily Dickinson, w/additional text by the composer]


WORKS BY GENRE                                                Weesner Links    ~ ~ ~    Weesner on Weesner     ~ top of page ~
Orchestra
Sometimes a Wild and Quiet Place, chamber (or full) orchestra (2001)
Still Things Move, string orchestra (2002-03)
Flexible Parts, orchestra (2010) [7 short interconnected pieces] [from work for viola and piano]

Choral
Snapshot of a Teenaged Moment When Everything Began, double chorus [w/female & male soloists] and piano (2010)
    - [text: 3 poems by Emily Dickinson, w/additional text by the composer]

Chamber
Sudden, Unbidden, string quartet (1998)
Falling In, flute, trumpet, trombone, violin, viola, cello, double bass, piano and percussion (1998)
Light and Stone, clarinet, violin and piano (1999-2000)
Second Quartet, "Flux", string quartet (2001; rev. 2007)
    - Part One: tender restraint, bright fury
    - Part Two: impulse and ardor
Third Quartet, string quartet (2007)
    - Flank
    - Three Shouts
    - Elegy for a Fictional Character
    - Sinew
Lift High, Reckon—Fly Low, Come Close, violin, cello and piano (2008)

Instrument and Piano
What Gathers, What Lingers, violin and piano (2003)
Flexible Parts, viola and piano (2008) [also arr. 2010 for orchestra]
    - Small Piece of the Story
    - Proximity
    - Local Dance
    - Elements
    - Air
    - Viola Song
    - Further Small Piece of the Story

Solo Instrument
Possible Stories, cello (1995; rev. 2009)
An August Rhythm, guitar (1999)
The Nearness of Things, violin (2004; rev. 2007)

Piano
Etude, piano (2001)

Vocal
Five Songs on Poems by Emily Dickinson, voice and piano (1992-94)
    - Alter? when the hills do
    - Apparently with no surprise
    - I started early
    - We talked as girls do
    - How happy I was
Ordinary Mysteries, soprano and chamber orchestra (1995) [text: adaptation of Kate Chopin’s "The Story of an Hour"]
Song About Law and Light, soprano and piano (1996) [text: verses from Psalms 19 and 119]
The Artist, baritone and piano (2004) [text: William Carlos Williams]
Early, After, Ever, Now, soprano, fl, cl/bass cl, hp, vln, vc & perc (or soprano, fl(vln), cello & pf)  (2005) [text: Anna Weesner]
Mother Tongues, female voice, clarinet, violin, viola, cello and piano (2006) [text: 4 haiku by Sonia Sanchez]
Distant Heart, voice and piano (2006) [text: Jennifer Clarvoe]
The First Letter, 3 sopranos, flute, clarinet, cello and percussion (2009) [text: Emily Dickinson; additional text by the composer]


WEESNER  LINKS                                                Works by Genre    ~ ~ ~    Weesner on Weesner      ~ top of page ~
Anna Weesner: An interview by Tom Moore (Opera Today)

Composer's website   . . .   contact Anna Weesner:  here    also    here

Weesner @ American Composers Orchestra
Weesner @ Facebook
Weesner @ John Simon Guggenheim Foundation
Weesner @ InstantEncore
Weesner @ MySpaceMusic
Weesner @ The New York Times
Weesner @ Pew Center for Arts and Heritage
Weesner @ Song of America
Weesner @ University of Pennsylvania
Weesner @ Virginia Center for the Creative Arts
Weesner @ Melia Watras

Publisher
Weesner @ Composer's website

Streaming Audio
Weesner @ Composer's website
Weesner @ MySpaceMusic
Weesner @ Caroline Stinson

Recordings
Weesner @ Composer's website
Weesner @ Amazon.com
Weesner @ ArkivMusic
Weesner @ CD Universe
Weesner @ ClassicsOnline
Weesner @ DRAM Online
Weesner @ itunes    and     here    and     here

Video
Weesner @ YouTube
Weesner @ Google Video

Weesner on Weesner: Network for New Music 25th (VIDEO)









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