Annesley Black

Annesley Black (born 8 September 1979 in Ottawa, Ontario) is a Canadian composer based in Germany and Austria. Her works span from instrumental music to electronics and video performances, from orchestra and chamber music to theatre, solo performances and installations. She has appeared as a performer, improviser and sound-director.

Career After studying jazz and electronic music at Concordia University in Montreal Annesley Black received her bachelor's degree in musical composition in 2004 from McGill University in Montreal under Brian Cherney. She studied composition 2004–2006 with York Höller and Hans-Ulrich Humpert at the Hochschule für Musik Köln. She completed her studies in composition with Mathias Spahlinger, electronic music with Orm Finnendahl and applied music with Cornelius Schwehr at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg (Diplom Dec. 2008).

Among her many awards and distinctions are a scholarship and award from the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music (2004/2006), the Busoni Composition Prize (Förderpreis) of the Academy of Arts, Berlin (2008), the Stuttgart Composition Prize (2009) and the Ernst von Siemens Composer Prize (2019). She was also a fellow at the Academy of Arts, Berlin in 2009 and since 2018 has been a member of this institution.

Her pieces have been performed in Germany, Canada and other countries by various ensembles including Ensemble Modern, Ensemble ascolta, ensemble mosaik, Ensemble SurPlus, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Tsilumos Ensemble, ensemble contemporain de Montréal, Quintett Boréale, Composers Slide Quartet and hr-Sinfonieorchester in such festivals as Warsaw Autumn, Ultraschall Festival Berlin, Darmstadt Summer Courses, ECLAT Festival Stuttgart, Donaueschingen Festival, Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, SALT New Music Festival in Victoria, British Columbia, Ottawa Chamber Music Festival. Her music theatre Solopoly for five percussionists was premiered at the National Theatre Mannheim in May 2015. A sound, a narrow, a channel, an inlet, the straits, the barrens, the stretch of a neck for large spatialised orchestra was premiered in February 2024 at the Liederhalle Stuttgart.

From 2008 to 2011, Annesley Black performed as a Sound Engineer Assistant for the SWR Experimental Studio for recordings and concerts and from 2012 to 2020, she was board member of the German Society for Electroacoustic Music (DEGEM).

Works (selection) Solo music maiko for solo viola (2006) aorko for solo viola and three loudspeakers (2006/09) 4238 De Bullion for Piano with live processing of video and sound (2007/08) scissors for trombone (2008) a piece that is a size that is recognised as not a size but a piece for piano (2013) stiff upper lip for bass clarinet (2014) Innermost tidings of the tube for flute, endoscopic camera and live projection (2018) Portrait CD „Annesley Black – Things that didn’t work the first time“. Kairos – 0018006KAI, Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung. CD. Austria, Jan. 2022