Photo © Nola Lopez

Annie Gosfield (born 1960, in Philadelphia) is a composer based in New York City. She has led ensembles performing her work at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall as part of the yearly Bang on a Can Festival, the Taktlos Festival in Zurich and Basel, New Music Marathon in Prague, Festival Solo in Switzerland, and three of the Knitting Factory’s “Radical New Jewish Culture” festivals curated by John Zorn. Ms. Gosfield studied piano with French jazz pianist Bernard Peiffer and Horowitz student Alexander Fiorillo, and studied composition at North Texas State University and the University of Southern California. She has received grants and commissions from the NEA, the Rockefeller Foundation, Meet the Composer, The Crosstown Ensemble, the American Music Center, Arts International, The American Composers Forum, The Siemens Corporation. The Djerassi Foundation, The Jerome Foundation, and Harvestworks/Studio Pass.

Ms. Gosfield’s work The Manufacture of Tangled Ivory was recorded by the Bang on a Can All-Stars for Sony Classical, on their CD “Cheating, Lying, Stealing”, premiered at Lincoln Center in New York, and performed at The Israel Festival, The Adelaide Festival, Warsaw Autumn, and throughout Europe (1995-99). Her own performance of The Manufacture... received honorary mention at Prix Ars Electronica 97. Other performances include the premiere of In Rides the Dust by Agon Orchestra at the New Music Marathon in Prague (1996), premiered in the U.S. by Bang on a Can’s “Spit Orchestra” at the Kitchen, New York (1997). She was commissioned by New York’s Crosstown Ensemble and The American Composers Forum to compose Lost Night, a work for chamber orchestra and sampler premiered at New York’s Tribeca Hall (1995). Brooklyn, October 5, 1941, for solo piano and baseballs, was composed in honor of the 100th anniversary of the unification of the five boroughs of New York, and premiered at Lincoln Center in 1997, with subsequent performances throughout the U.S., Europe, and South Africa by pianist Guy Livingston.

Gosfield’s recent Tzadik CD Burnt Ivory and Loose Wires, features compositions for altered and detuned piano, recorded by Gosfield and her ensemble during a residency at Harvestworks Studio, NYC. The CD also features Brawl, a new work written for the Rova Saxophone Quartet. Upcoming and recent projects include releases on New World and CRI; a Siemens Kultur Programm “Artists on Site” award to create a work that combines music and industry during a six-week residency in Nürnberg; a new work for the Swedish chamber ensemble “Pearls Before Swine” to be premiered at the ISCM World Music Days (2000); a commission for the Harry Partch instruments from Newband; a video work commissioned by The American Composers Forum; and a new work for string quartet and percussion quartet, Flying Sparks and Heavy Machinery, that was premiered at San Francisco’s Other Minds Festival in March, 2000. This work has been released on a studio recording by the TDAZIK label. She continues to collaborate with guitarist Roger Kleier, and leads her own ensemble performing her own work throughout the U.S. and Europe, performing at international festivals in 1999 including Musique Action Internationale (Nancy, France); Festival Musique Actuelle (Victoriaville, Canada); and City of Women (Ljubljana, Slovenia).

Gosfield has performed and/or collaborated with John Zorn, Elliott Sharp, Nurit Tilles, The Rova Sax Quartet, Ikue Mori, David Moss, Marc Ribot, Davey Williams, LaDonna Smith, and her long-time partner Roger Kleier. She played in the tenth anniversary of John Zorn’s “COBRA,” and has also performed his piece Xu Feng. Ms. Gosfield has been involved in a wide variety of projects such as collaborating in the music for Christopher Walken’s HIM at the Public Theater in New York; creating music for installations with artist Manuel Ocampo; and performing in free improvisation ensembles. Annie’s work has been featured on German radio (Sudwest Funk, Radio Free Kassel, and SFB Berlin), and on U.S. radio in live performances for NPR and Pacifica stations.