Anna Appleby

Anna Appleby (1993-) is a Manchester-based composer. She is originally from Newcastle Upon Tyne, and in the past played oboe in the Sage Gateshead’s Young Sinfonia. Piano is her first instrument, and she has had numerous engagements as an amateur accompanist. Anna studied composition with David Horne, Adam Gorb, and Paul Patterson at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, between 2014 and 2016. Before that she studied with Martyn Harry at St Hilda’s College, Oxford, where she did her Bachelor of Arts degree in Music. Anna was a finalist in the Royal Northern Sinfonia’s ‘Mozarts of Tomorrow’ competition, receiving second prize. The RNS premiered her piece ‘Federalizing Zoo’ at the Sage Gateshead on the 22nd January 2016. Recent commissions have included writing a string quartet for the 2016 RNCM Chamber Music Festival, a solo cello piece for the Manchester Art Gallery (October 2015), a show piece for A4 Brass Quartet for the final of the RNCM Gold Medal competition (June 2015) and a short cabaret- inspired piece for the RNCM Day of Song (April 2015). Anna’s piano miniature ‘In the Beginning was the Word’ was commissioned and premiered by Grace Francis on BBC Radio 3 for the International Women’s Day celebrations on March 8th, 2015, and was released on the album ‘SACRED’ by Launch Music International in the same month. Anna has written for workshops with The Manchester Camerata, The Royal Northern Sinfonia, and The BBC Singers. Anna’s string quartet ‘Eschaton: Requiem for Gaia’ was performed in The Holywell Music Room, Oxford, by The Cavaleri Quartet in March 2014. In 2015, Anna won The Rosamond Prize at RNCM for her collaboration with MMU poet Merrie Williams and mezzo- soprano Joanna Harries. Having focused on chamber and orchestral music for the past few years, Anna is now turning her attention to writing opera and large-scale vocal music. She has completed a song cycle for bass-baritone Edwin Kaye and guitarist Jamie MacRae, an orchestral piece written in collaboration with mezzo- soprano Michaela Parry, and an opera scene for tenor Matthew Palfreyman. Her next project will likely be a chamber opera. Anna has experience working with the performing arts in a community setting. She is a member of Peshkar’s pool of participatory artists, she has worked with Artis Education during her Postgraduate studies, she was Music Assistant with the Iona Community in Summer 2013, and currently she is looking for further ways to inspire others through music and theatre. annaappleby.com