In January 2010, Anna Meredith became the third RPS/PRSF Composer in the House, when she took up residence with East Midlands based sinfonia ViVA.

Anna Meredith is a composer of acoustic and electronic music as well as a performer, curator and animateur. She came to public attention in 2008 when her piece froms was televised as part of the Last Night of the Proms, and again in 2009 in BBC2’s Classical Goldie, when she coached Musician/DJ Goldie in composition, harmony and orchestration for a piece he wrote for the Proms. As a concert composer she has also written for Ensemble Modern, the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta, the BBC Philharmonic, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Smith Quartet, orkest de ereprijs and Horses Brawl and from 2004-2007 was Resident Composer of the BBCSSO.

Anna worked closely with sinfonia ViVA’s artistic team, including Principal Conductor André de Ridder, to gain an insight into the processes and decision-making behind music programming and to develop imaginative ways to engage audiences of all ages in the enjoyment of new music and the creative process. sinfonia ViVA was selected for Composer in the House by the PRS Foundation and Royal Philharmonic Society, as a chamber orchestra ideally placed to take advantage of the opportunity. The partners were impressed by the orchestra’s dynamism, adaptability and adventurous attitude to sharing the best new music with their players and audiences alike.

Anna’s work was featured throughout the 2010/2011 seasons, starting with a performance in Nottingham of Fringeflower (for strings) and Charged for solo violin (with soloist Tom Gould). Further highlights for Spring 2010 included a reworking for strings of Songs for the M8 (Wednesday 28 April, Leicester Curve) and a day of workshops with sinfonia ViVA players, in preparation for a major RPS/PRSF Composer in the House commission Four Tributes to 4am - which was premiered in February 2011. Anna also curated a series of five events (Autumn 2010 to Spring 2011), in which she performed and premiered five short works for chamber orchestra. Februrary 2011 saw the launch of a major educational residency, led by Anna and James Redwood, for primary through to tertiary students. Night Shift, the culmination of this residency was shortlisted for the 2011 British Composer Awards.

Anna Meredith comments:

“Composer in the House offers a very different, more holistic approach to most composer in residence schemes and it is this that particularly excites me. In many ways, I see myself more as a musician than a composer and by allowing me to be an integral part of the ViVA creative team, to have input into programming and to really get to know the players, I hope to take risks and explore ideas in a different way than if I was ‘just writing a piece’. The creative approach will be broad (with me performing, as well as composing or curating or improvising with ViVA players) and much of the excitement comes from not knowing the end result, but rather seeing how the relationship, and the music, will develop over the next two years.”