Composer Anna Clyne to Hold Residency with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra This Season

Baltimore, MD (September 18, 2015) -- The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) today announced a residency during the 2015-16 season with composer Anna Clyne. The residency will be comprised of three visits with the Orchestra, collaborative education activities with Baltimore City students, participation in a V-log on BSOMusic.org, a visit to an OrchKids school site, a collaboration with the Baltimore Museum of Art, and two performances of her orchestral music, culminating in the world premiere of a new work, commissioned by Bonnie McElveen-Hunter for the BSO and Music Director Marin Alsop in honor of Baltimore philanthropists Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker. Clyne, 35, known for her collaborations with cutting edge visual artists, dancers, and artists of multiple genres, will compose a piece for full orchestra that will be inspired by the contemporary art collection at the Baltimore Museum of Art. The work will have its world premiere at The Music Center at Strathmore on May 7, 2016 and will be performed at Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall on May 8, 2016.

Clyne's first visit, during the opening week of the season, features the East Coast Premiere of her work Masquerade conducted by Music Director Marin Alsop, which had its world premiere on the famed Last Night of the Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alsop.

Her second visit, later in the fall, will include education activities involving contemporary music and visual art with students in Baltimore City, a visit to the BMA for immersive study of the contemporary wing, and she will begin participation in a V-log about the creative process with BSO writer-in-residence Ricky O'Bannon. Clyne will also participate in a graduate composition seminar at the Peabody Institute with Kevin Puts, a member of the conservatory's faculty since 2006.

The third visit will include more education activities with Baltimore City students and will culminate with the world premiere of the new work at The Music Center at Strathmore on May 7, 2016 followed by a performance at Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall on May 8, 2016.

Further details of the residency will be announced at a later date.

About Anna Clyne

London-born Anna Clyne is a Grammy-nominated composer of acoustic and electro-acoustic music, combining resonant soundscapes with propelling textures that weave, morph, and collide in dramatic explosions. Her work, described as "dazzlingly inventive" by Time Out New York, often includes collaborations with cutting edge choreographers, visual artists, film-makers, and musicians worldwide. In August 2013, Clyne's Masquerade, a BBC Radio 3 commission, had its world premiere on the famed Last Night of the Proms by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Marin Alsop. Other recent premieres include The Violin, a multimedia collaboration with artist Josh Dorman and violinists Cornelius Dufallo and Amy Kauffman; The Lost Thought, performed by Trio Mediæval with conductor Julian Wachner; and A Wonderful Day for the Bang on a Can All-Stars. Clyne recently served as Composer-in-Residence for Brazil's Festival Inverno do Campos do Jordão, the Mizzou New Music Festival with Alarm Will Sound, 21c Liederabend, and the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. She has been appointed as Composer-in-Residence for the Orchestre National d'Ile de France from 2014-2016. Other commissions include works for the American Composers Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, Houston Ballet, London Sinfonietta, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Metropolis Ensemble, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Southbank Centre and VIA among others.

Appointed by Music Director Riccardo Muti, Clyne served as a Mead Composer-in-Residence for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 2010-2015. World premieres for the 14-15 season included Rest These Hands for solo violin and string orchestra premiered by Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and soloist Jennifer Koh at Carnegie Hall; The Seamstress, a violin concerto premiered by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and soloist Jennifer Koh at Orchestra Hall; Postponeless Creature for vocal trio and chamber ensemble premiered by members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Chorus at Harris Theater; and Secret Garden for drumkit and tape premiered by Colin Currie at the Southbank Center in London, UK.

Highlights in the 2015-16 season include the world premieres of This Midnight Hour performed by L'Orchestre national d'Île de France; This Lunar Beauty with the Britten Sinfonia with soprano, Julia Doyle; Just As They Are with the Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble; Pocket Book VIII for Roomful of Teeth, a new ballet score to be premiered by Marin Alsop and the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra in collaboration with choreographer Kitty McNamee; Lines for one hundred cellos, commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and to be premiered at the Hollywood Bowl, and the US East Coast premiere and the UK premiere of Clyne's violin concerto, The Seamstress, performed by Jennifer Koh with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, respectively. The Seattle Symphony will give the US premiere of This Midnight Hour under the direction of Ludovic Morlot.

Clyne holds a first-class Bachelor of Music degree with honors from Edinburgh University and a Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music where she studied with Marjan Mozetich, Marina Adamia, Julia Wolfe, and Nils Vigeland. Her music is published exclusively by Boosey & Hawkes.

About the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Celebrating its Centennial in 2016, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is recognized as one of America's most important and innovative orchestras and one of Maryland's most significant cultural organizations. Led by the dynamic and visionary Maestra Marin Alsop, the Orchestra is internationally acclaimed and locally admired for its outstanding concerts, recordings, broadcasts, touring, and for its groundbreaking education and community outreach initiatives. The BSO annually performs for more than 350,000 people throughout the State of Maryland. Since 1982, its Baltimore home has been the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, and in 2005, the BSO became the nation's first orchestra with year-round venues in two metropolitan areas with the opening of The Music Center at Strathmore in Bethesda, Maryland. The BSO boasts trailblazing education and community programs designed for audiences of all ages, from a Music Box Series for toddlers and concerts for schoolchildren and families, to comprehensive programs for aspiring young musicians and amateur adult musicians. The award-winning OrchKids™ program, launched by Marin Alsop and the BSO in 2008, provides education resources and fosters social change through the power of music for children in the city's neediest communities.