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Composer Performer

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United States of America

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Annie Gosfield is a contemporary classical music composer who was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1960. She grew up in a musical family and began playing the piano at a young age. Her father was a jazz musician and her mother was a classical pianist, which exposed her to a wide range of musical styles and genres. Gosfield attended the University of California, San Diego where she studied with composers Roger Reynolds and Pauline Oliveros. She also studied at the Manhattan School of Music with composer Charles Wuorinen. During this time, she began to develop her own unique style of composition, which blended elements of classical music with experimental and electronic music. One of Gosfield's early works, "The Manufacture of Tangled Ivory," was inspired by the sounds of a piano being disassembled. The piece features a combination of live and recorded sounds, including the sounds of the piano strings being plucked and the hammers being struck. This work was well-received and helped to establish Gosfield as a composer with a unique and innovative approach to music. In the 1990s, Gosfield began to incorporate more electronic elements into her compositions. She became interested in the sounds of industrial machinery and began to incorporate these sounds into her music. One of her most well-known works from this period is "Lost Signals and Drifting Satellites," which features recordings of shortwave radio transmissions and other electronic sounds. Gosfield's music has been performed by a wide range of ensembles and musicians, including the Bang on a Can All-Stars, the Kronos Quartet, and the London Sinfonietta. She has also collaborated with a number of other artists, including the visual artist Ben Neill and the filmmaker Bill Morrison. One of Gosfield's most recent works is "War of the Worlds," which is based on the classic science fiction novel by H.G. Wells. The piece features a combination of live and recorded sounds, including recordings of radio broadcasts and other electronic sounds. The work was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and premiered in 2017. Overall, Annie Gosfield is a composer who has made significant contributions to the world of contemporary classical music. Her unique blend of classical and experimental music has earned her critical acclaim and a dedicated following of fans and musicians.

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