Annesley Black was born in Ottawa in 1979. She began her studies in electronic music and jazz guitar at Concordia University before continuing her musical education with major composers around the world such as Brian Cherney, York Höller, Hans-Ulrich Humpert, Mathias Spahlinger, Orm Finnendahl and Cornelius Schwehr. 

Her pieces have been performed internationally at various festivals and by notorious ensembles such as the Hessian Radio Orchestra, Ensemble Mosaik, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Ascolta, Ensemble contemporain de Montréal and Nouvel Ensemble Moderne de Montréal. She has received many distinctions for her work, including the Busoni-Foerderpreis der Akademie der Kuenste (2008), the Kompositionspreis der Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart (2009) and a portrait CD from Deutsche Musikrat in their series Edition Zeitgenössische Musik (2013).

Black worked as a sound engineer for institutions such as EXPERIMENTALSTUDIO des SWR and ensemble recherche. She has collaborated with many choreographers, artists, film/media artists and theatre directors throughout the years and has been an active member of numerous rock bands such as The New International Standards (with members of Arcade Fire) and The Special Interest Group.

Black is currently the vice-president of the German Society of Electroacoustic Music (DEGEM). She teaches theoretical and practical composition seminars at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main and electroacoustic composition at Dr. Hoch’s Conservatory. 

Photo : Matthias Lehmann