Biography

Arlene Sierra is a London-based American composer whose music is lauded for its “highly flexible and distinctive style” (The Guardian), ranging from “exquisiteness and restrained power” to “combative and utterly compelling” (Gramophone). Her work has been commissioned and performed by the Albany, Alabama, Boston, Detroit, Seattle, and Utah Symphonies, New York Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, ensembles including Lontano, Psappha, Riot Ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble, London Sinfonietta, Österreichisches Ensemble für neue Musik, Chroma, New Juilliard Ensemble, the Carducci, Daedalus, and Mivos Quartets, the Fidelio, Peabody, Bakken, and Horszowski Trios, and New York City Opera VOX. 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, Grant Llewellyn, and Ludovic Morlot. Her music has been performed at festivals including Aldeburgh, Aspen, Bowdoin, Cheltenham, Fontainebleau, Huddersfield, Dartington, and Tanglewood.

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 series of portrait recordings by the esteemed 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 currently serves as Professor of Music Composition at Cardiff University School of Music.

Arlene Sierra is a London-based American composer whose music is lauded for its “highly flexible and distinctive style” (The Guardian), ranging from “exquisiteness and restrained power” to “combative and utterly compelling” (Gramophone). Her work has been commissioned and performed by the Albany, Alabama, Boston, Detroit, Seattle, and Utah Symphonies, New York Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, ensembles including Lontano, Psappha, Riot Ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble, London Sinfonietta, Österreichisches Ensemble für neue Musik, Chroma, New Juilliard Ensemble, the Carducci, Daedalus, and Mivos Quartets, the Fidelio, Peabody, Bakken, and Horszowski Trios, and New York City Opera VOX. 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 Claire Booth (soprano), Susan Narucki (soprano), Wendy Richman (viola), Zoe Martlew (cello), Robin Michael (cello), Rowland Sutherland (flute), Eric Lamb (flute), and pianists Sarah Cahill, Clare Hammond, Marilyn Nonken, Xenia Pestova, Kathleen Supové, and Huw Watkins. Her music has been performed at festivals including Aldeburgh, Aspen, Bowdoin, Cheltenham, Fontainebleau, Huddersfield, Dartington, and Tanglewood.

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, London) and performed in venues including the Concertgebouw and the BBC Proms, and a New York Philharmonic commission for chamber orchestra Game of Attrition, described by Time Out as “at turns spry, savage, sly and seductive… so enrapturing.” Sierra’s highly individual works have been nominated and awarded on several occasions, including 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, and a Leverhulme Research Fellowship. 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, Vermont, Composers Now New York, and the Composer Portraits Series at NYC's Miller Theatre, among others. Her music is the subject of a series of portrait recordings by the esteemed Bridge Records label. Arlene Sierra, Vol. 1, recorded by the International Contemporary Ensemble, received rave reviews internationally and was featured by NPR Classical, which described its “remarkable brilliance of colour, rhythmic dexterity and playfulness.” The orchestral disc Game of Attrition: Arlene Sierra, Vol. 2 has been 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 has described Sierra’s latest release Butterflies Remember a Mountain - Arlene Sierra, Vol. 3 as “a wonderful chamber music issue that enthrals from first bar to last.” Other labels representing Sierra’s work include NMC, New Focus Recordings, and Coviello Classics.

As Utah Symphony Composer-in-Association in 2021-2022, Arlene 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. Recent projects include Birds and Insects, Book 3, commissioned by the Barbican Centre for pianist Sarah Cahill, and Kiskadee, a Toulmin Foundation commission for the Detroit Symphony with further scheduled performances with the Dallas, Illinois, Louisiana, and Wheeling Symphonies.

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. An engaging speaker on composition and contemporary music, invited lectures and presentations include Oxford University, Cambridge University, New England Conservatory, Eastman Conservatory, New York University, Universität Mozarteum Salzburg, and Yonsei and Ewha Universities (South Korea). Arlene Sierra currently serves as Professor of Music Composition at Cardiff University School of Music. She lives in London with her husband, British composer Kenneth Hesketh, and their son Elliott.