Compositor: Meredith, Anna

Anna Meredith is a composer and performer of electronic and acoustic music.
You can read our October 2013 interview with Anna here and our January 2019 interview here.

Her acoustic material has been performed around the world by many leading orchestras and ensembles. She has been composer in residence with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and was the 2010–11 PRS/RPS Composer in the House with Sinfonia ViVA and she is one of the first Somerset House Studios Residents. Her debut album, Varmints was released in March 2016 on Moshi Moshi/PIAS to critical acclaim.

She came to public attention through her 2008 work for the BBC Last Night of the Proms and has since written another BBC Prom commission, her first opera (Tarantula in Petrol Blue with libretto by Philip Ridley), and collaborated with the beatboxer Shlomo – writing the acclaimed Concerto for Beatboxer and Orchestra.

She has recently been working on Five Telegrams, a new visuals & orchestra piece with 59Productions, 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 First Night of the Proms and outside the Usher Hall as the opening night of the Edinburgh Festival. A VR version of the second movement titled Nothing To Be Written is currently on tour after winning ‘Best UK VR Experience at Raindance Festival’.

Anna has also been a judge for the BBC Young Musician of the Year, a mentor for Goldie for the TV show Classic Goldie, and a frequent guest and commentator for the BBC Proms and other BBC Radio shows. She was the classical music representative for the 2009 South Bank Show Breakthrough Award and won the 2010 Paul Hamlyn Award for Composers.

Anna’s pieces include Four Tributes to 4am for orchestra, electronics and visuals by Eleanor Meredith, arrangements of The Stranglers and Laura Marling for the 6 Music Prom 2013, and HandsFree, a PRS NewMusic20x12 Commission for the National Youth Orchestra, which has been called “mesmerising” and “exhilarating” by The Times, “a tour-de-force” by the Guardian and “wicked” by the Independent and was performed at numerous flashmob performances around the UK as well as performances at the Barbican Centre, Southbank Centre and BBC Proms.

Anna recently completed her first film soundtrack for Bo Burnham's film Eighth Grade which premiered at Sundance and is currently on release in the US with worldwide screenings planned for 2019.

Anno, her project with the Scottish Ensemble and her sister, illustrator Eleanor Meredith, which features both Anna's new music and Vivaldi's Four Seasons was released in summer 2018 on Moshi Moshi Records.