Biography

Composer Arlene Sierra writes music that is informed by processes of nature and interaction, drawing from rich sources including birdsong, insect calls, classical architecture, military strategy, and game theory. Praised for its “highly flexible and distinctive style” (The Guardian), ranging from “exquisiteness and restrained power” to “combative and utterly compelling” (Gramophone), her music explores rhythmic accumulation and dramatic contrasts, instrumental timbre and orchestral coloration.

Arlene Sierra’s work has been commissioned and performed by the Boston, Dallas, Detroit, Seattle, and Utah Symphonies, the New York Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, ensembles including Lontano, Riot Ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble, London Sinfonietta, Österreichisches Ensemble für neue Musik, the Carducci, Daedalus, and Mivos Quartets, the Fidelio, Peabody, and Horszowski Trios, and New York City Opera VOX. Her music has been performed at international festivals including Aldeburgh, Bowdoin, Chamber Music New Zealand, Cheltenham, Dark Music Days (Iceland), Edinburgh Fringe, Engadin (Switzerland), Huddersfield, Limina (Austria), New Music Gathering, Serenates (Spain), Spitalfields, Tanglewood, and the BBC Proms.

Awards include the Takemitsu Composition Prize, a Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, PRS Composers Fund and Women Make Music awards, and a Leverhulme Research Fellowship. Sierra’s orchestral showpiece Moler was nominated for a Latin GRAMMY for Best Contemporary Classical Composition, and her music is the subject of a critically acclaimed series of portrait recordings by the Bridge Records label.

Born in Miami to a family of New Yorkers, Arlene Sierra holds degrees from Oberlin College-Conservatory, Yale School of Music, and the University of Michigan. She lives in London and currently serves as Professor of Music Composition at Cardiff University School of Music.

Composer Arlene Sierra writes music that is informed by processes of nature and interaction, drawing from rich sources including birdsong, insect calls, classical architecture, military strategy, and game theory. Praised for its “highly flexible and distinctive style” (The Guardian), ranging from “exquisiteness and restrained power” to “combative and utterly compelling” (Gramophone), her music explores rhythmic accumulation and dramatic contrasts, instrumental timbre and orchestral coloration. Her music has been commissioned and performed by the Boston, Dallas, Detroit, Seattle, and Utah Symphonies, the New York Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, ensembles including Lontano, Riot Ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble, London Sinfonietta, Österreichisches Ensemble für neue Musik, the Carducci, Daedalus, and Mivos Quartets, and the Fidelio, Peabody, and Horszowski Trios. She has worked with conductors including Thierry Fischer, Andris Nelsons, Kevin John Edusei, Susanna Mälkki, Oliver Knussen, Jac Van Steen, Shiyeon Sung, Odaline de la Martinez, Jayce Ogren, Stefan Asbury, Grant Llewellyn, and Ludovic Morlot. Soloists include Susan Narucki (soprano), Claire Booth (soprano), Jeremy Huw Williams (baritone), Anthony Marwood (violin), Alexandra Wood (violin), Wendy Richman (viola), Zoe Martlew (cello), Robin Michael (cello), Lisa Nelsen (flute), Rowland Sutherland (flute), and pianists Sarah Cahill, Clare Hammond, Marilyn Nonken, Xenia Pestova, Kathleen Supové, and Huw Watkins. Her music has been performed at international festivals including Aldeburgh, Chamber Music New Zealand, Cheltenham, Dark Music Days (Iceland), Edinburgh Fringe, Engadin (Switzerland), Huddersfield, Limina (Austria), New Music Gathering, Serenates (Spain), Spitalfields, Tanglewood, and the BBC Proms.

Notable premieres include Nature Symphony “memorable for its creation of wonderful sounds from a large orchestra” (Bachtrack.com) commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and the BBC Philharmonic, Butterflies Remember a Mountain for the Benedetti-Elschenbroich-Grynyuk Trio, described as “precisely and joyously imagined” (The Times) and performed in venues including the Louvre and the Concertgebouw, and a New York Philharmonic commission for chamber orchestra Game of Attrition, described by Time Out New York as “at turns spry, savage, sly and seductive… so enrapturing.” Awards include the Takemitsu Composition Prize (for the orchestral work Aquilo), a Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, PRS Composers Fund and Women Make Music awards, a Leverhulme Research Fellowship, and residencies including Yellow Barn and MacDowell. Her orchestral showpiece Moler was nominated for a Latin GRAMMY for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.

Declared “a name to watch” by BBC Music Magazine, Sierra has been featured in portrait concerts at the Crush Room, Royal Opera House, London, the Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival, Composers Now New York, and the Composer Portraits Series at Miller Theatre. As Utah Symphony Composer-in-Association in 2021-2022, Sierra worked closely with musicians and the community, creating a new work for youth orchestra, Butterfly House, and her most recent large-scale statement for orchestra, Bird Symphony, to audience and critical acclaim. Other collaborations include music for dance performed by Susan Vencl Dance and Anita Cheng Dance at venues including Jacob’s Pillow, Joyce Theater SOHO, and Merce Cunningham Studio, the collaborative chamber opera Cuatro Corridos which had numerous touring performances across the US and Mexico, a series of scores for chamber ensembles accompanying the mid-20th-century avant garde films of Maya Deren, and the opera in progress, Faustine, an adaption of Emma Tennant’s novella presented by New York City Opera VOX. Urban Birds, for three pianos with percussion, electronics and sampled birdsong, was featured by BBC News and toured venues including London’s South Bank Centre and the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Arlene Sierra’s music is the subject of a series of portrait recordings by the esteemed Bridge Records label. The debut disc Music of Arlene Sierra, Vol. 1 received rave reviews internationally and a feature by NPR Classical, which described its “remarkable brilliance of color, rhythmic dexterity and playfulness.” The orchestral disc Game of Attrition: Arlene Sierra, Vol. 2 was praised for “vividly scored, colorful works” by the New York Times and described by the Guardian as “remarkably sure-footed… quirky and individual” and “startlingly fresh and assured.” Gramophone Magazine described the chamber disc Butterflies Remember a Mountain - Arlene Sierra, Vol. 3 as “a wonderful chamber music issue that enthralls from first bar to last.” Her latest release, the piano disc Birds and Insects - Arlene Sierra, Vol. 4 has been described by International Piano as "fascinating, sometimes strange and often striking... bewitching."

Born in Miami to a family of New Yorkers, Arlene Sierra holds degrees from Oberlin College-Conservatory (B.A./B.Mus), Yale School of Music (M.Mus), and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (D.Mus.) where she held a Merit Fellowship. Her principal teachers were Martin Bresnick, Michael Daugherty, and Jacob Druckman; she worked with Betsy Jolas and Dominique Troncin at Fontainebleau, and Paul-Heinz Dittrich in Berlin. At Tanglewood, Aldeburgh, and Dartington she studied with Louis Andriessen, Magnus Lindberg, Colin Matthews, and Judith Weir. Sierra has given lectures and masterclasses at numerous universities and festivals including Oxford University, Cambridge University, New England Conservatory, Eastman School of Music, Valencia Institute of Performing Arts, MusicFest Aberystwyth, Cheltenham Composer Academy, Bowdoin Summer Music Festival, Universität Mozarteum Salzburg, and Yonsei and Ewha Universities (South Korea). She currently serves as Professor of Music Composition at Cardiff University School of Music and lives in London with her husband, British composer Kenneth Hesketh, and their son Elliott.