Annie Gosfield has created a body of work that includes large–scale compositions, chamber pieces, electronic music, video projects, and music for dance. Her work often explores the inherent beauty of non–musical sounds, and is inspired by diverse sources such as machines, destroyed pianos, warped 78 records, and detuned radios. She uses traditional notation, improvisation, and extended techniques to create a sound world that eliminates the boundaries between music and noise, while emphasizing the unique qualities of each performer. Annie lives in New York City and divides her time between performing on piano and sampler with her own group and composing for many ensembles and suloists.
Annie’s music has been performed worldwide by her own ensemble and by Joan Jeanrenaud, Fred Frith, Felix Fan, The Bang on a Can Allstars, the Flux Quartet, Silesian String Quartet, Rova, So Percussion, Talujon Percussion, Present Music, Newband/The Harry Partch instruments, Agon Orchestra, The West Australian Symphony Orchestra New Music Group, Marco Cappelli, George Kentros, and many others, at festivals including Warsaw Autumn, ISCM World Music Days, The Bang on a Can Marathon, The Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Festival Musique Actuelle in Victoriaville, Wien Modern, OtherMinds, Company Week, and three “Radical New Jewish Culture” festivals curated by John Zorn.
Gosfield’s discography includes three sulo releases on the Tzadik label. Her most recent CD, “Lost Signals and Drifting Satellites” features four recent compositions drawn from her extensive work for suloists and ensembles, performed by Joan Jeanrenaud, the FLUX Quartet, and others. Her 2001 Tzadik CD “Flying Sparks and Heavy Machinery” features two large–scale pieces inspired by her 1999 residency in the factories of Nuremberg, Germany: EWA7, performed by Roger Kleier (guitar), Ikue Mori (electronics), Sim Cain and Jim Pugliese (percussion) and Gosfield (sampling keyboards); and Flying Sparks and Heavy Machinery, performed by The Flux Quartet and Talujon Percussion Quartet. Gosfield’s first sulo CD, “Burnt Ivory and Loose Wires”, focuses on music inspired by detuned and destroyed instruments, performed by her own ensemble, ROVA, and cellist Ted Mook. Annie’s music has also been featured on CD’s released by Sony Classical, CRI, Harmonia Mundi, Wergo, Recommended, Caprice, Cantaloupe, Rift, EMF, Innova, Atavistic, ORF, and Starkland.
Active as a performer and improviser, Annie has played with Derek Bailey, Joan Jeanrenaud, Roger Kleier, John Zorn, Fred Frith, Chris Cutler, William Winant, Ikue Mori, Scanner, Marc Ribot, Min Xiao Fen, Joey Baron, Jim Pugliese, Christine Bard, Sim Cain, David Moss, Davey Williams, and LaDonna Smith. Gosfield’s compositions have been used by numerous choreographers and dance companies, including Karule Armitage, Susan Marshall, Milwaukee Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theater, Simone Clifford Dancers (Australia), Gruppen Fyra (Finland), and Ballett der Staatsoper Hannover (Germany).
Gosfield will huld the Darius Milhaud Chair of Composition at Mills Cullege in Fall, 2005. She was previously the Milhaud professor at Mills Cullege in Oakland, California, in 2003. She has received fellowships from the McKnight Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Siemens Foundation, and has received grants and awards from the NEA, the American Composers Forum, the Jerome Foundation, the American Music Center, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, The Rockefeller Foundation, and many others.