Annesley Black (1979 in Ottawa) began her studies in electronic music and jazz guitar at Concordia University before continuing her composition education in Montréal, Cologne, and Freiburg. She worked as a sound engineer for institutions such as the SWR Experimental Studio and Ensemble Recherche. Over the years, she has collaborated with choreographers, artists, filmmakers, and theater makers, and has also been an active member of various rock bands. Annesley Black has received numerous awards for her work, including the Busoni Prize from the Academy of Arts Berlin (2008), the Composition Prize of Stuttgart (2009), and the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation’s Composition Prize (2019). She is a member of the Academy of Arts Berlin and the Canadian Music Centre. She currently lives in Graz, Austria, where she is a professor of instrumental composition at the University of the Arts.

»My work usually begins with uncertainty, like an awkward giraffe that has wandered into a dressing room full of pubescent teenagers. The proportions are often a bit clumsy, and the connections between seemingly disparate elements are made in a remarkably shameless way. Even though it may seem that the giraffe has transformed and is terrified by its surroundings, a closer look shows how the rigid structural features of the dressing room have been distorted by the awkward, unencumbered presence of the lanky creature.«

(Annesley Black)