Professor Arlene Sierra

(she/her)

BA, BMus (Oberlin), MMus (Yale), DMA (Michigan, Ann Arbor)

Publication

• Date
• Type

Research

Current projects include A Young Mind in Old Bees, commissioned by Ben Roidl-Ward with the Jupiter and NOVO Quartets with support from the Vaughan Williams Foundation and the University of Illinois System/Cardiff University Collaboration Fund, as well as a new work for violinist Michael Foyle. Recording projects in progress include two further portrait discs in the Bridge Records series, a recording of orchestral works Nature Symphony, Bird Symphony, and Kiskadee, and a collection of works for string quartet and related chamber ensembles.

Teaching

At undergraduate level and postgraduate taught levels, I teach modules on composition, orchestration, and contemporary repertoire.

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 colouration. 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).

Recordings

    •    Birds and Insects - Arlene Sierra, Vol. 4. Steven Beck and Sarah Cahill, piano. (Bridge, 2025)
    •    Butterflies Remember a Mountain - Arlene Sierra, Vol. 3. Benedetti-Elschenbroich-Grynyuk Trio, Horszowski Trio. (Bridge, 2018)
    •    Urban Birds, Xenia Pestova, Kathleen Supove, Sarah Nicolls. (NMC, 2014)
    •    Game of Attrition - Arlene Sierra, Vol. 2. BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Huw Watkins, piano, Jac van Steen, conductor. (Bridge, 2014)
    •    Music of Arlene Sierra, Vol. 1. International Contemporary Ensemble, Susan Narucki, soprano, Jayce Ogren, conductor. (Bridge, 2011)
    •    Other works appear on New Focus Recordings and Coviello Classics

Honours and awards

• Leverhulme Research Fellowship, 2020
• PRS Composers Fund award, 2017
• Nomination for Best Contemporary Classical Composition (Moler for Symphony Orchestra), Latin GRAMMY Awards, 2014
• PRS Women Make Music award, 2012
• Composer of the Year, Classical Recording Foundation, 2011
• Charles Ives Fellowship, American Academy of Arts and Letters, 2007
• Paul Jacobs Award commission, Tanglewood Music Center, 2002
• Otto Eckstein Fellowship, Tanglewood Music Center, 2001
• 1st Prize, Toru Takemitsu Composition Award, Tokyo Opera City Cultural Foundation (Aquilo for Symphony Orchestra), 2001

Grants for commissions, performances, and recordings include American Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers, Britten-Pears Foundation, Copland Fund for Music, Ditson Fund, Hinrichsen Foundation, League of American Orchestras, National Endowment for the Arts, New Music USA, New York State Council for the Arts, PRS Foundation, Society for Promotion of New Music, Vaughan Williams Foundation, Virginia Toulmin Foundation

Professional memberships

• Member, Performing Rights Society (2000 - present)
• Writer and Publisher Member, American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (1997 - present)

Academic positions

• 2016 - present, Reader/Professor, Cardiff University
• 2004 - 2015, Lecturer/Senior Lecturer, Cardiff University
• 2003 - 2004, Composition Tutor (UG and PGT), Cambridge University
• 1994 - 1999, Rackham Doctoral Fellow, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Speaking engagements

• BBC Radio Three
• Bangor University
• Bristol University
• Bowdoin International Music Festival
• Brigham Young University
• Cambridge University
• Cheltenham Composer Academy
• Cheltenham Festival
• Conservatorio Superior de Música Joaquín Rodrigo
• Columbia University – Miller Theatre
• Donne Women in Music – Royal Albert Hall
• Eastman School of Music
• Ewha University, Seoul
• Freie Akademie der Künste Hamburg
• Institute of Musical Research
• Kings College London
• Kings Lynn Festival
• Kingston University
• League of American Orchestras
• Louise Blouin Institute, London
• Opera America New Works Forum
• Oxford University
• National Portrait Gallery, London
• New England Conservatory
• New York City Opera VOX
• New York University
• Southbank Centre
• Southern Methodist University
• ResonanceFM
• Royal Holloway, University of London
• University of California at San Diego
• University of Chicago
• University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
• Universität Mozarteum Salzburg
• University of Utah
• VanderCook College of Music
• Walker Art Gallery, Minneapolis
• Wayne State University
• Westminster College
• WNYC Radio
• Wuhan Conservatory of Music
• Yale School of Music
• Yellow Barn Festival
• Yonsei University, Seoul
• York University

Committees and reviewing

• 2024 - : Chair, Research Committee
• 2023 - 2024 : Chair, Postgraduate Taught Board of Studies
• 2016 - 2022: AHRC Peer Review College 
• 2020 - 2021: AHRC-BBC Radio Diverse Composers Funding Panel 
• 2016 - 2020: Deputy Head of the School of Music
• 2012 - 2018: School of Music Rep, University and College Union
• 2012 - 2017: Executive Committee Member, University and College Union
• 2016 - 2017: Chair, Research Committee
• 2013 - 2015: Chair, Postgraduate Taught Board of Studies
• 2008 - 2012: Chair, Concert Committee

External Examining

• Bristol University
• Goldsmith’s College, University of London
• Kings College London
• Oxford University
• Royal College of Music
• Royal Holloway, University of London
• University of Melbourne
• University of Salford

Composition Prize Judging

• British Composer Awards (Opera and Chamber Music categories)
• Ivan Juritz Prize
• Ivor Novello Awards (Chamber Music category)
• Sejong Composition Prize
• Society for Promotion of New Music

Supervisions

I supervise doctoral students working on composition projects ranging from solo and chamber music to large-scale symphonic and stage works, with and without the incorporation of electronic media. Enquiries from prospective candidates are welcome.

Current supervision

Laura Shipsey

Chao Xie

Annabelle Whitcombe

Qiaochu Liu

John Cooney