'Anno': Anna Meredith's new take on Vivaldi's Four Seasons to debut at Spitalfields Festival Anna Meredith's 'Anno' is to launch at the Spitalfields Festival, combining newly-commissioned music, extracts from Vivaldi's Four Seasons and video installations by her sister, Eleanor Meredith. Anno is a collaboration between composer Anna Meredith and string orchestra Scottish Ensemble, featuring Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Anno is a collaboration between composer Anna Meredith and string orchestra Scottish Ensemble, featuring Vivaldi's Four Seasons.
- Anna Meredith Eighth Grade
- Anna Meredith Music
- Anna Meredith Nautilus
- Anna Meredith Anno Art
- Anna Meredith Anno 4
- Anna Meredith Anno Actress
Anna Meredith (MBE) is a composer, producer and performer of both acoustic and electronic music. Her sound is frequently described as ‘uncategorisable’ and ‘genre-defying’ (the Guardian went with “majestic bangers”…) and straddles the different worlds of contemporary classical, art pop, techno, large-scale installations and experimental rock.
- Music: Vivaldi and Anna Meredith Live performance: Scottish Ensemble and Anna Meredith Visuals: Eleanor Meredith Lighting and environment design: DO Architecture Co-commissioned by: Scottish Ensemble and Spitalfields Music “Vibrant and kaleidoscopic in a way few musicians could ever muster, Varmints provides a jolt of energy and inspiration to both the pop and classical inflections of Anna.
- Commissioned by Spitalfields Music and Scottish Ensemble Anno is an unforgettable experience and certainly puts Vivaldi’s Four Seasons into a different dimension. Performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Anna Meredith’s show, along with the Scottish Ensemble, interconnected the modern with the classical and the two worlds interacted with.
- Described by Pitchfork as ‘one of the most innovative voices in British music’, Anna Meredith is a genre-crossing composer and producer whose work straddles the worlds of contemporary classical, art pop, electronica and experimental rock.
Her music has been performed everywhere from the BBC Last Night of the Proms to flashmob body-percussion performances at the M6 Services, PRADA, Chloe & Fendi fashion campaigns, Apple adverts, films, TV shows, installations and documentaries, pop festivals, clubs and classical concert halls worldwide and is regularly broadcast on BBC Radio 1, 2, 3, 4 & 6.
Anna has been Composer in Residence with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the RPS/PRS Composer in the House with Sinfonia ViVA. She has presented for BBC Radio3 and 6Music and is a regular radio and TV guest, judge and panel member.
She is published by a new partnership between Warp Publishing & Faber Music Publishing, and is one of the first Somerset House Studios Residents. She was voted Number One in The List's Hot100 (of Cultural Contributors to 2016), made the 2018 BBC Women’s Hour Power List and won the 2019 Ivor Novello Composer Award for Innovation.
She was awarded an MBE for Services to Music in the 2019 Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
Her debut album, Varmints was released in March 2016 on Moshi Moshi/PIAS to huge critical acclaim with 4 and 5 star reviews from press and media around the world including Pitchfork’s coveted Best New Music. Varmints was Loud & Quiet's Album of the Year 2016 & won the 2016 Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award.
Her second album, FIBS, was shortlisted for the 2020 Hyundai Mercury Prize and was released on Moshi Moshi/Black Prince Fury in October 2019. It also scooped up the accolade of Electronic Sound’s Album of the Year 2019 as well as being featured in numerous End of Year lists amidst a wealth of 4 and 5 star reviews.
Anna collaborates and tours extensively with her band which features Anna on clarinet and electronics, Maddie Cutter on cello, Tom Kelly on tuba, Jack Ross on electric guitar, and Sam Wilson on drums. The band have toured Varmints to festivals and venues around the world including the legendary NPR Tiny Desk – described by Bob Boilen as “the most exhilarating Tiny Desk I’ve ever experienced”. The band subsequently toured a new show of Varmints with Orchestra featuring orchestral arrangements for band and orchestra, partnering with youth orchestras around the UK, Netherlands and Georgia.
Early 2020 saw the band tour new album FIBS around the UK with sold out shows in London, Leeds, Bristol, Glasgow and Brighton.
The band are planning re-scheduled performances for late 2021 after their pandemic-cancelled festival appearances and tours around UK, Europe, US, Canada and Australia.
Anna recently composed Five Telegrams, a large scale orchestral piece written in collaboration with Tony Award-winning visuals company 59 Productions and co-commissioned by the BBC Proms, Edinburgh International Festival and 14-18 Now. Five Telegrams was performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Proms Youth Ensemble and the National Youth Choir of Great Britain both inside and outside the Royal Albert Hall at the First Night of the Proms and outside the Usher Hall as the opening night of the Edinburgh International Festival.
Anno, which features both Anna's music and Vivaldi's Four Seasons and visuals by her sister, illustrator Eleanor Meredith, has been performed extensively by the Scottish Ensemble including performances in The Netherlands, Japan and around the UK. A 10-date tour of Anno with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Anna performing electronics is scheduled for June 2020. A recording of Anno was released in summer 2018 on Moshi Moshi Records.
Her body percussion pieces, HandsFree and Connect It (written with choreographer David Ogle) were featured in the BBC’s award winning Ten Pieces scheme which saw half of all UK Primary school children perform Connect It alongside Anna leading broadcasts, workshops and performances. Anna and David have taught HandsFree to youth orchestras around the World from Germany to Iceland and the USA.
After expanding into writing for film and TV, Anna scored her first soundtrack for Bo Burnham’s hugely successful debut feature Eighth Grade and followed with her first TV score for Netflix’s Living With Yourself. Her music features in numerous other films and shows including Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite.
Other recent projects have included an installation piece for the Zamboni machine at Somerset House Ice Rink, numerous works for the Ligeti Quartet, the world's first Concerto for Beatboxer and Orchestra, orchestral arrangements for Laura Marling, The Stranglers, and Sigur Ros,remixes, and a four part Bach-inspired electronic installation for the shopping centre lifts in between M&S and Selfridges for Manchester International Festival.
She is currently working on an installation piece for dodgems (Bumps Per Minute) which will be in the courtyard of Somerset House during Summer 2021.
“A collection that casts an old master in a new light while cementing Meredith’s place as a constantly startling and boundary-breaking contemporary composer”
The Skinny 4 / 5
anno: the album
In May 2018, Anna Meredith and Scottish Ensemble went into the studio to make an audio recording of Anno, to be released on Friday 17 August on the Moshi Moshi imprint.
Written by Anna Meredith, Anno combines movements from Vivaldi's Four Seasons interspersed with new electronic compositions; the result is one continuous experience of our journey through the year, from the awakening of spring, to the mournful intensity of summer, to the hushed darkness of winter.
The full album will be released on double vinyl, CD, digital download, and as spatial binaural audio on Friday 17 August on the Moshi Moshi imprint.
album reception
Since its release on Friday 17 August 2018, Anno has been reviewed by The Guardian, The Scotsman, The Skinny, i Paper, the Irish Times and Uncut - read the online reviews here.
On Wednesday 22 August, the album was named BBC 6 Music'sAlbum of The Day, with tracks played in shows across the station all day.
Anna and Scottish Ensemble are also hugely grateful for the myriad mentions, nods and kind words appearing across blogs and music websites including Pitchfork, Clash, FACT, This Is D.I.Y, The A.V. Club, Under The Radar, Stereoboard, Line of Best Fit and Steve Lamacq's Round Table on BBC 6 Music.
the single
The first single from the album, Stoop, was released on Moshi Moshi on Tuesday 3 July.Vibrant and unpredictable, in the full recording, Stoop nestles amongst movements from Vivaldi's Spring.
This follows a teaser track, Low Light - Ice, released in June 2018 - a composite of two tracks from the album in which one of Anna's delicate, beautiful electronic compositions slides into the first movement from Vivaldi's Winter.
Anna Meredith Eighth Grade
tracklisting
SPRING
1. Solstice - Light In
Anna Meredith
2. Dawn
Antonio Vivaldi
3. Birds
Anna Meredith
4. Meadow
Antonio Vivaldi
Anna Meredith Music
5. Stoop
Anna Meredith
SUMMER
6. Heat
Antonio Vivaldi
Anna Meredith Nautilus
7. Haze
Anna Meredith
8. Thunder
Antonio Vivaldi
AUTUMN
9. Bloom
Anna Meredith
10. Slumber
Antonio Vivaldi
11. Stillness
Anna Meredith
Anna Meredith Anno Art
12. Chase
Antonio Vivaldi
WINTER
13. Low Light
Anna Meredith
14. Ice
Antonio Vivaldi
Anna Meredith Anno 4
15. Embers
Antonio Vivaldi
Anna Meredith Anno Actress
16. Solstice - Light Out
Anna Meredith