Anna is a Composer, Performer and Educator hailing from Bath, currently based in Oxfordshire. She studied Composition at the Royal Northern College of Music with Dr Laura Bowler and now freelances alongside her role as the Graduate Musician in Residence at Radley College where she teaches Music Technology and works closely with the pop and rock bands.

Anna is coming to the end of her tenure as the Composer in Residence for the London Oriana Choir, having won their five15 Young Composers Competition in 2019 and looks forward to working with additional prestigious choral institutions in 2021 (TBA soon). She is also currently taking part in Psappha’s Composing For… Scheme working closely with Tom Mckinney to write a new work for solo guitar. Recent performances include a new Graphic Score chosen to be performed by the Hermes Experiment and the Gesualdo Six, as well as a remotely recorded audio-visual choral work for virtual performance by the Londond Oriana Choir back in July.

Anna’s work has been commissioned and performed by ensembles such as the European Union Chamber Orchestra, the BBC Singers, the No Dice Collective, Kantos Chamber Choir, the Camerata Players, the ORA Singers and members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. She was a composer with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain in 2015, having won the BBC Young Composer Competition the previous year with her piece for voices and beat boxer.

As a performer, she currently sings with the highly sought-after London Contemporary Voices and has sung in various Manchester based ensembles with a particular interest in New Music performance. In 2018 she toured Europe as a singer and synth player with the band New Order, which was subsequently included as part of the documentary Decades on Sky Arts.

With a passion for music in a multimedia setting, Anna regularly collaborates with writers, artists and filmmakers. Her upcoming projects include an interactive multimedia installation piece created in collaboration with singer-songwriter and seamstress Anna Baines. ​

Keen to pass on her brimming enthusiasm for music that challenges, intrigues, and excites an audience, she has been a BBC Proms Inspire ambassador for three years acting as a mentor for young composers, and has worked with teenagers at the Sound and Music Summer School and the National Youth Orchestra. She also writes blog posts for the ORA Singers’ Composer Create website, a resource aimed at young composers.

www.annadisleysimpson.com