Anna Webber (b. 1984) is a New York-based flutist, saxophonist, and composer whose interests and work live the overlap between avant-garde jazz and new classical music. With her
Simple Trio, featuring drummer John Hollenbeck and pianist Matt Mitchell, she has released two critically acclaimed albums on Skirl Records:
Binary (2016) and
SIMPLE (2014).
In addition to the
Simple Trio, Webber leads the septet
Percussive Mechanics, with which she has released two albums on Pirouet Records:
Refraction (2014) and
Percussive Mechanics (2013). Her other projects include a quartet with Jonathan Goldberger, Michael Bates, and Jeff Davis; a big band co-lead with Angela Morris;
Jagged Spheres with Devin Gray and Elias Stemeseder; and
The Hero of Warchester with Nathaniel Morgan and Liz Kosack.
Webber has performed and/or recorded with Dan Weiss’
Sixteen; Jen Shyu’s
Jade Tongue; Matt Mitchell’s
A Pouting Grimace and Sprees; the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble; Ches Smith’s Laugh Ash; the Adam Hopkins Sextet; Ohad Talmor’s Grand Ensemble; Fabian Almazan’s
Realm of Possibilities; Noah Garabedian’s
Big Butter and the Eggmen; the Erik Hove Chamber Ensemble; a sextet from Bang on a Can All-Stars member Ken Thomson; Harris Eisenstadt’s
Recent Developments; and the Marike van Dijk
Stereography Project. She recently played in the world premiere of
Sila: The Breath of the World by Pulitzer Prize-winner John Luther Adams at the Lincoln Center.
In 2015 she was the recipient of a grant from the
Shifting Foundation. In 2014 she won the
BMI Foundation Charlie Parker Composition Prize as a member of the BMI Jazz Composers' Workshop. She is the winner of the 2010
Prix François-Marcaurelle at the OFF Festival of Jazz in Montreal. She has been awarded grants from the
Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the
Canada Council for the Arts and residencies from the
MacDowell Colony, the
Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts and the
Millay Colony for the Arts.
Originally from British Columbia, Webber studied music at McGill University in Montreal before moving to New York City in 2008. She holds master’s degrees from both Manhattan School of Music and the Jazz Institute Berlin.
Anna Webber: bandcamp soundcloud Profile photograph by Evan Shay