Bryce Dessner


Bryce David Dessner is an American composer and guitarist based in Paris, also known as a member of the rock band the National. Dessner's brother Aaron is also a member of the group. Together they write the music, in collaboration with lead singer / lyricist Matt Berninger.
In addition to his work with the National, Dessner is known for his independent work as a composer. His orchestral, chamber, and vocal compositions have been commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Kronos Quartet, Carnegie Hall, BAM Next Wave Festival, Barbican Centre, Edinburgh International Festival, Sounds From A Safe Harbour Festival, Cork City County Cork Ireland, Sydney Festival, eighth blackbird, Sō Percussion, New York City Ballet, and many others. His work Murder Ballades featured on eighth blackbird's album Filament, an album he also produced and performs on, and which won the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance.
Dessner has collaborated with artists such as Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Paul Simon, Sufjan Stevens, Nico Muhly, Jonny Greenwood, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Justin Peck, Ragnar Kjartansson, Caroline Shaw, Kelley O'Connor, and Taylor Swift, among others. Dessner is the founder of the MusicNOW Festival, co-founder of Copenhagen's HAVEN festival, and co-curates the festival Sounds From a Safe Harbour. He is a founding member of the improvisatory instrumental group Clogs and co-founder of Brassland Records. In 2018 Dessner was named one of eight creative and artistic partners for San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, as part of incoming Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen's new leadership model for the orchestra from 2020. He has a master's degree in music from Yale University.

Early life

Dessner grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio with his twin brother, Aaron Dessner. Bryce and Aaron Dessner are both Jewish. Dessner's Jewish
upbringing and interests influenced his band's melancholic music. "My brother and I have always been fascinated by liturgical religious melodies in Judaism."

Composer

Dessner's compositions draw on elements from Baroque and folk music, late Romanticism and modernism, as well as minimalism. His unique and individual voice as a composer has earned him a number of high-profile commissions. He is currently working on a new commission for cello ensemble for Fondation Louis Vuitton and Gautier Capuçon's Classe d'Excellence, to be premiered in June 2019. Recent commissions include Triptych premiered by Roomful of Teeth in Los Angeles in March 2019, a major new theatre piece integrating the work of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, in the first time stage rights have been given to use the images in performance ; Concerto for Two Pianos, written for Katia and Marielle Labèque, premiered with London Philharmonic Orchestra in April 2018; Voy a Dormir written for mezzo-soprano Kelley O'Connor and St. Luke's Orchestra, and commissioned by Carnegie Hall; Skrik Trio, commissioned by Steve Reich and Carnegie Hall for the Three Generations Series and premiered by Pekka Kuusisto, Nadia Sirota and Nicolas Alstaedt in April 2017 at Carnegie Hall; No Tomorrow which premiered as part of the Sacrifice Festival, April 2017 and winner of Iceland's Griman Award; The soundtrack for Death of Marsha P. Johnson, the Netflix documentary about the LGBT rights activist ; Wires, commissioned for the legendary Ensemble Intercontemporain, premiered at the Philharmonie de Paris with and Matthias Pintscher in 2016;The Most Incredible Thing written for the New York City Ballet, choreographed by Justin Peck with costumes by Marcel Dzama, which premiered February 2016 at Lincoln Center; Quilting for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which premiered in May 2015 at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and was performed by the LA Phil, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel; Wave Movements, an orchestral work co-composed with Richard Reed Parry and featuring visuals by the photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto, which premiered at the Barbican Concert Hall in London in the spring of 2015; 40 Canons for the Grammy Award-winning Kronos Quartet, which premiered at the Barbican Concert Hall in London in the spring of 2014; Reponse Lutoslawski for the National Audiovisual Institute of Poland, which was premiered by the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Warsaw in fall 2014; Black Mountain Songs for the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, which premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in November 2014 and was released by New Amsterdam Records in March 2017; Music For Wood and Strings with Sō Percussion, which premiered at Carnegie Hall in November 2013; and Murder Ballades a work inspired by American folk music and written for the multiple Grammy-winning new-music ensemble eighth blackbird. The group premiered the piece in Eindhoven in April 2013 and featured it on their 2015 album "Filament." In addition to his work being featured on "Filament," Dessner produced the album which won the Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance in 2016. Murder Ballades is also used as the score for a ballet of the same name, choreographed by Justin Peck for the LA Dance Project. The ballet premiered in Lyon, France in September 2013. In October 2014 the piece was performed by eighth blackbird as a live music accompaniment for a performance by the L.A. Dance Project at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
In addition to the above, important past compositions by Dessner include three string quartets for Kronos Quartet ; Tour Eiffel for the Brooklyn Youth Chorus; O Shut Your Eyes Against the Wind for Bang on a Can All Stars; Lachrimae for the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Scottish Ensemble, and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra; St. Carolyn by the Sea for the American Composers Orchestra and Muziekcentrum Eindhoven; and El Chan for piano quartet or piano duo, and which is widely toured by Katia and Marielle Labèque.
The ballet, Frame of Mind, choreographed by Sydney Dance Company's Artistic Director Rafael Bonachela and featuring Dessner's string quartet compositions Aheym and Tenebre, has been toured all over the world and has won several Helpmann Awards.
The first recordings of Bryce's compositions, performed by the Kronos Quartet, were released in 2013 by Anti- Records. The album, "Aheym," features four of Dessner's compositions: Tenebre, Little Blue Something, Tour Eiffel, and Aheym.
On March 4, 2014 Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Music Classics released "St Carolyn By the Sea; Suite from There Will Be Blood." Performed by the Copenhagen Philharmonic and conducted by Andre de Ridder, the album features three of Bryce's orchestral works as well as the suite from There Will Be Blood by Jonny Greenwood.
May 19, 2015 marked the release on Brassland of Music for Wood and Strings, an album-length work composed by Bryce and performed by Sō Percussion on a set of experimental musical instruments Dessner named "Chord Sticks" and built by Aron Sanchez from Buke and Gase. The instruments function on the 3rd bridge principle, with muting the string attack and let the string resonance swell afterwards.
In April 2019 Deutsche Grammophon released the album El Chan featuring an all-Dessner programme performed by Katia and Marielle Labèque including Concerto for two pianos, El Chan, and Haven with Dessner on electric guitar. The album is dedicated to Dessner's friend and collaborator, Alejandro González Iñárritu, who also designed the album cover.
Also in spring 2019 New York's Metropolitan Museum, for one of its first ever contemporary installations, is featuring the song Death is Elsewhere written by Dessner alongside Aaron Dessner, Ragnar Kjartansson, Gyda Valtýsdóttir and Kristín Anna.
In January 2012, Bryce signed to Chester Novello Publishing for his concert music.
Dessner now resides in Paris and has been increasingly active composing for major European ensembles and soloists.
In 2018 Steve Reich named Bryce "an important composer with a developed technique and an intense emotional voice. He continues today as a major voice of his generation."

Film scores

Dessner has written the score for the major Netflix film The Two Popes directed by Fernando Meirelles, out in late 2019, recorded with London Contemporary Orchestra at London's Abbey Road Studios.
In October 2015, Dessner was tapped along with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto, to compose the score for the Grammy Award-winning director Alejandro González Iñárritu film The Revenant. They received a nomination for Best Original Score in the 2016 Golden Globes and a nomination in the 2017 Grammy Awards for Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media category.
Dessner's piece Tour Eiffel was featured in the 2015 Palme d'Or winner Dheepan, directed by Jacques Audiard. Tour Eiffel is performed by the Kronos Quartet and Brooklyn Youth Chorus.
Bryce and his brother Aaron Dessner co-composed the score for Transpecos, which won the Audience Award at the 2016 South by Southwest. They also worked together on the score for 2013 film Big Sur, an adaptation of the 1962 novel of the same name by Jack Kerouac. The film debuted on January 23, 2013 at the Sundance Film Festival, where it received positive reviews.
In 2007, Dessner and Padma Newsome's quartet, Clogs, had their music serve as the soundtrack to the film Turn the River.

Collaborations

Bryce is a frequent collaborator with many of the most creative and respected artists, such as Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Alejandro Iñarritú, Paul Simon, Sufjan Stevens, Caroline Shaw, Johnny Greenwood, Bon Iver, Justin Peck, Jennifer Koh, Kelley O'Connor, Ragnar Kjartansson and Nico Muhly.

The Most Incredible Thing

"The Most Incredible Thing" is a ballet created by Dessner, Justin Peck and Marcel Dzama. Based on Hans Christian Andersen's dark 1870 fairy tale of the same name, the ballet was written for the New York City Ballet and premiered at Lincoln Center in New York on February 2, 2016. The piece was performed throughout the New York City Ballet's 2016 season and was brought to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in March 2016.

Planetarium

"Planetarium" is a song cycle celebrating the solar system created by Dessner, Nico Muhly, Sufjan Stevens, and James McAlister. The piece was co-commissioned by Muziekegebouw Eindhoven, the Barbican Centre and the Sydney Opera House and had its first run of European shows in March 2012. Planetarium has been performed at the Barbican Centre in London, Muziektheater in Amsterdam, the Sydney Opera House in Australia, Salle Pleyel in Paris and the Brooklyn Academy of Music in April 2013, where it had a four-night run.

The Long Count

"The Long Count" was a large commission for the BAM Next Wave Festival created by Bryce, Aaron Dessner and visual artist Matthew Ritchie. Together they created a work loosely based on the Mayan creation story 'Popol Vuh' that includes a 12 piece orchestra and four guest singers: Kim Deal, Kelley Deal, Matt Berninger, and Shara Worden. The work had its world premiere on September 11, 2009 at The Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, as part of the Ellnora Festival, and its New York premiere in October 2009 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. It has since been performed at the Holland Festival and the Barbican. Tunde Adebimpe, a member of the band TV on the Radio joined Dessner, Aaron, and Ritchie for the Barbican Centre performance.

Forever Love

Forever Love, a work with renowned Icelandic performance artist Ragnar Kjartansson, is a blending of visual and performance art with live music. The piece is a collaborative song cycle written and performed with Aaron Dessner and Bryce Dessner alongside Icelandic artists Gyða and Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir, formerly of the Icelandic band múm. It was commissioned by Eaux Claires Festival and made its world premiere in 2015 where it served as the official starting point of the festival on both Friday and Saturday.
Forever Love marked a live performance reunion for the Dessner twins and Kjartansson, as both artists had previously collaborated on a six-hour video work, , which documents The National performing their three and a half minute song, "Sorrow," for six hours in front of a live audience at MoMA PS1.

Kronos Quartet

Bryce first crossed paths with Kronos Quartet in 2009 when the ensemble's founder David Harrington approached him about composing a piece for their performance at the Celebrate Brooklyn! festival in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. The piece that Bryce wrote, Aheym,, was inspired by the stories of his Jewish immigrant grandparents who settled near the park when they arrived in Brooklyn. In 2011, Bryce was commissioned by Kronos Quartet to compose a piece for the Barbican Centre's "Reverberations: The Influence of Steve Reich" festival in London. That piece, Tenebre, is based on the traditional Holy Week service in which 15 candles are gradually extinguished. Bryce, in his own words, "inverts the service" drawing the listener from darkness into light. Tenebre premiered May 7, 2011 at LSO St. Luke's and featured the pre-recorded vocals of Sufjan Stevens. Bryce continues to work with Kronos, recently writing and dedicating Little Blue Something to them. The piece was inspired by the music of Irena and Vojtech Havel, who blend early music with Czech folk music. It was premiered by Kronos on May 31, 2012 at the Ensems Festival in Valencia, Spain.

Day of the Dead

On March 17, 2016 Bryce and Aaron Dessner announced Day of the Dead, a charity tribute album to the Grateful Dead released by 4AD on May 20, 2016. Day of the Dead was created, curated and produced by Bryce and Aaron. The compilation is a wide-ranging tribute to the songwriting and experimentalism of the Dead which took four years to record, features over 60 artists from varied musical backgrounds, 59 tracks and is almost 6 hours long. All profits are helping to fight for AIDS/ HIV and related health issues around the world through the Red Hot Organization. Day of the Dead is the follow up to 2009's Dark Was The Night, a 32-track, multi-artist compilation also produced by Aaron and Bryce for Red Hot.
Day of the Dead features collaborations and recordings from a diverse group of artists including Wilco, Flaming Lips, Bruce Hornsby, Justin Vernon, The National, The War on Drugs, Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo, Jenny Lewis, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Perfume Genius, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Senegalese collective Orchestra Baobob, composer Terry Riley and his son Gyan Riley, electronic artist Tim Hecker, jazz pianist Vijay Iyer and Bela Fleck.
Of the 59 tracks on the compilation, many feature a house band made up of Bryce, Aaron, fellow The National bandmates and brothers Scott and Bryan Devendorf, Josh Kaufman, and Conrad Doucette along with Sam Cohen and Walter Martin. The National have a couple of tracks on the album, including "Peggy-O," "Morning Dew" and "I Know You Rider."
A Day of the Dead live performance took place in August 2016 at the second annual Eaux Claires Festival featuring Jenny Lewis, Matthew Houck, Lucius, Will Oldham, Sam Amidon, Richard Reed Parry, Justin Vernon, Bruce Hornsby, Ruban Nielson and The National.

Other collaborations and commissions

Bryce is a frequent collaborator with many of the most creative and renowned musicians working today, such as Philip Glass, Bang on a Can All-Stars, and Glenn Kotche. Dessner served as the musical director for Matthew Ritchie's 'The Morning Line' installation, collaborating with Ritchie and a number of contemporary composers, including Lee Ranaldo and Evan Ziporyn. In 2011, Bryce collaborated with Ritchie again, composing a song entitled "To The Sea," which was used for Matthew Ritchie's performance art piece 'Monstrance.' 'Monstrance' was performed in November 2011 on Venice Beach in Los Angeles, California. The performance was accompanied by a multi-media exhibition at L&M Arts, LA.
On July 2, 2009, Bryce performed Steve Reich's "2×5" premiere alongside Reich at the Manchester International Festival. On Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at Stanford University and Friday, January 27, 2012 at Carnegie Hall, Bryce performed the world premiere of David Lang's new composition "death speaks" with Nico Muhly, Shara Worden, and Owen Pallett. Bryce is also featured on the "death speaks" record, which he produced.
Bryce and Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead performed "The Music Of Jonny Greenwood And Bryce Dessner" as part of the 2012 Holland Festival. For the performance, Bryce composed a piece entitled "Lachrimae" as well as performed two other pieces with his brother Aaron Dessner and the Amsterdam Sinfonietta. The program was performed at the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ in Amsterdam and the Muziekgebouw Frits Philips in Eindhoven.
Bryce also recently collaborated with Richard Reed Parry of The Arcade Fire on Parry's album "Music for Heart and Breath."
In 2020, Bryce composed orchestrations for Taylor Swift's eighth studio album, Folklore, which was produced and co-written by his brother Aaron Dessner.

Curator

As well as creating and collaborating, Dessner is highly active as a curator.
Dessner is the founder and curator of the annual Cincinnati-based MusicNOW Festival. He was recently tapped to curate 'Mountains and Waves,' a weekend celebration of his music at the Barbican in London, May 2015, with guests including Steve Reich, eighth blackbird, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Sō Percussion, Caroline Shaw, and the Britten Sinfonia. In September 2015, Dessner curated a weekend of performances at the Cork Opera House, Ireland. He is also the co-founder and co-curator of Crossing Brooklyn Ferry. In March 2010, Dessner co-curated the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville Tennessee.

MusicNOW Festival

The MusicNOW Festival was founded by Dessner in April 2006. The festival is an annual showcase of the best in contemporary music, featuring musicians from around the world, and is held in Cincinnati, Ohio. The first festival was held at the small downstairs room at the Cincinnati CAC and featured performances from Wilco's Glenn Kotche, The Books, Erik Freidlander, Bell Orchestre, Burmese drummer Kyaw Kyaw Naing, and the Clogs. The following year the festival was moved to the Cincinnati Memorial Hall, which would become its home for the next several years. As the festival grew and established itself as an important annual cultural event, Dessner continued to curate line-ups that featured risk-taking artists who do not fit neatly into genre-defined categories.
MusicNOW celebrated its ten-year anniversary of the festival in 2015. To mark this special occasion the festival expanded to include five nights of performances in three venues. The year's festival included performances from Lone Bellow, Mina Tindle, Perfume Genius, The National, Sō Percussion, Butt Nothings, Will Butler, and many others. Continuing the tradition from last year, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra was featured throughout the weekend. In honor of the ten-year anniversary the festival also released "MusicNOW – 10 Years," a compilation album collecting live recordings of some of the best performances the series has seen over the past decade. The festival returns to Cincinnati for its twelve season in January 2017.
Past festivals have featured festival-only collaborations, such as one between David Cossin and Glenn Kotche; new music from Sufjan Stevens, Richard Reed Parry ; and performances by Tinariwen, Steve Reich, Owen Pallett, The National, Grizzly Bear, Joanna Newsom, Kronos Quartet and many, many more.

Sounds From a Safe Harbour

Dessner curated a brand new festival of music and art called Sounds From a Safe Harbour. The festival took place in Cork, Ireland from September 17–20, 2015 and featured new commissions, collaborations and performances in venues throughout the city. The inaugural weekend featured performances by Shara Worden's My Brightest Diamond, celebrated English organist James McVinnie, Sō Percussion, and Mina Tindle. It also featured a collaboration between Bryce, Aaron Dessner, Marcel Dzama, Lisa Hannigan, members of internationally renowned new music group Crash Ensemble and virtuosic Canadian violinist, Yuki Numata Resnick.
After a year off in 2016, Sounds From A Safe Harbour returned to Cork from the 14th to the 17th of September, 2017. The National kicked off their world tour, in support of new album Sleep Well Beast, at the festival on September 16 at the Cork Opera House. Other marquee acts were Lisa Hannigan and Aaron Dessner with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra on September 14, and Bon Iver on September 15th, both also at the Cork Opera House. A myriad of other musicians played in venues around the city across the weekend, as well as the festival featuring Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson presenting his piece "Guilt Trip" at the Crawford Art Gallery from the 14 to the 16th of September.

Funkhaus

Funkhaus was a not-for-profit, one-off gathering of artists in Berlin for a weekend-long festival of music curated and produced by Bryce along with his brother Aaron Dessner, Bon Iver, Berlin's Michelberger Hotel and others. The festival took place October 1–2, 2016 in the historical radio recording studios of the former GDR. Prior to the festival, all the artists spent a week together in Berlin, rehearsing and working in the spaces where the shows took place. The festival featured 80 artists, including Bon Iver, Nils Frahm, Mouse on Mars' Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner, Erlend Øye, My Brightest Diamond's Shara Nova, Lisa Hannigan, Damien Rice, and many more.

Crossing Brooklyn Ferry

Crossing Brooklyn Ferry is a music festival curated by Aaron and Bryce Dessner. The festival showcases bands, composers, singer-songwriters and filmmakers from all corners of the New York music scene. The inaugural festival took place May 3–5, 2012 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and included performances by the Walkmen, St. Vincent, Beirut, The Antlers, yMusic and Jherek Bischoff, as well as newly commissioned films by Jonas Mekas, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tunde Adebimpe, among others. The second season took place April 25–27, 2013 at BAM and included performances by The Roots, Solange, TV on the Radio, Phosphorescent and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. The event also featured a curated program of film shorts and a visual art installation by Andrew Ondrejcak.

HAVEN

Dessner is also co-curator of HAVEN, Copenhagen's annual festival 'for the senses, merging experiments in art, music, beer and food'. The festival, which launched in 2017, explores the ways in which the art forms intersect, providing the opportunity to discover new tastes, sounds and sights. Its inaugural year saw performances from the likes of Arcade Fire, Ariel Pink, and Kamasi Washington.

Producer

Bryce has produced and orchestrated tracks on The National's three most recent albums, High Violet , Trouble Will Find Me., and Sleep Well Beast.
Bryce has produced and orchestrated tracks on The National's two most recent albums, High Violet and Trouble Will Find Me. Outside of his work with The National, Bryce produced eighth blackbird's "Filament", which won Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance in the 2016 Grammy's. He also produced Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang's album Death Speaks, Pedro Soler and Gaspar Claus' album Barlande and Richard Reed Parry's album Music for Heart and Breath, which was released on classical label Deutsche Grammophon. Additionally, Bryce orchestrated tracks on Local Natives' Hummingbird and Sharon van Etten's Tramp, both of which were produced by his brother Aaron Dessner.

Dark Was the Night and Day of the Dead

In 2009, Bryce and Aaron produced an extensive AIDS charity compilation, Dark Was the Night, for the Red Hot Organization. The record features exclusive recordings and collaborations from a long list of artists including David Byrne, Arcade Fire, Sufjan Stevens, Feist, Sharon Jones, Cat Power, Grizzly Bear, Antony Hegarty, My Morning Jacket, and Spoon. Dark Was the Night has raised over 1.6 million dollars for AIDS charities. On May 3, 2009 4AD and Red Hot produced Dark Was the Night - Live, a concert celebrating the newest Red Hot album. The show took place at Radio City Music Hall and featured several of the artists that contributed to the compilation.
In 2016, Day of the Dead, the follow-up to Dark Was the Night was released. Bryce and Aaron also produced this album, and again, all profits will go to the Red Hot Organization's mission to fight HIV/AIDs around the world.

Clogs

Clogs is a mostly-instrumental improvising quartet led by Bryce and Padma Newsome. Since 2001, they have released five widely acclaimed albums on Brassland Records, and have toured with The Books in the UK and played at the Sydney Festival. Clogs' music served as the soundtrack to the Chris Eigeman film Turn the River.
Clogs' musical style and approach is hard to categorize. Although the band members all play classical instruments, their writing process is more akin to that of a rock band or a jazz quartet. Drawing upon a vast variety of styles and influences, the group members bring basic ideas and riffs into rehearsals, which, through group improvisations they then develop into complex, larger-scale pieces. Their music is often influenced by minimalism, folk and rock music, Americana, modernism and Indian classical music.

Brassland

Alongside Alec Hanley Bemis and Aaron Dessner, Bryce founded Brassland Records, a label that has released early albums from The National, Clogs, Doveman and Nico Muhly.

Personal life

Dessner is married to French singer Mina Tindle, who has provided vocals to several of The National's albums.

Works

Albums

With Richard Reed Parry
With David Lang
With Steve Reich
With Erik Friedlander