Annie Gosfield (1960) 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 soloists. 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. The recipient of the 2008 Foundation for Contemporary Arts’ prestigious “Grants to Artists” award, Gosfield’s essays on composition have been published by the New York Times and featured in the book “Arcana II”. Active as an educator, she has taught composition at Princeton University, Mills College, and California Institute of the Arts.
Dedicated to working closely with performers, Gosfield has created new works in collaboration with musicians such as ex-Kronos cellist Joan Jeanrenaud, pianist Lisa Moore, cellist Felix Fan, the Miami String Quartet, and the Bang on a Can All-Stars. Her music has been performed worldwide by some of the best interpreters of contemporary music, including the Flux Quartet, Silesian String Quartet, So Percussion, Talujon Percussion, Present Music, Newband/The Harry Partch instruments, Agon Orchestra, Rova Sax Quartet, The West Australian Symphony Orchestra New Music Group, Blair McMillen, Chris Cutler, Marco Cappelli, George Kentros, Fred Frith, Felix Fan, Sarah Cahill, Anthony de Mare, 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, Spoleto Festival USA, OtherMinds, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Settembre Musica Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Festival, Company Week, and three "Radical New Jewish Culture" festivals curated by John Zorn. Her music has been presented at venues including The Miller Theatre, Merkin Hall, Alice Tully Hall, The Anchorage, The Stone, Tonic, (New York City); Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco); Monday Evening Concerts (Los Angeles); Walker Art Center (Minneapolis); Teatro Olimpico (Rome); Théâtre de la Ville (Paris); Ujazdowski Castle (Warsaw); The Hermitage (Saint Petersburg); and many other spaces worldwide. Gosfield's portrait concert at Merkin Hall was featured in the New York Times' “Best of 2007” issue.