Annesley Black was born in Ottawa in 1979. She began her studies in electronic music and jazz guitar at Concordia University, and continued her musical education in composition with Brian Cherney at Mcgill University in Montreal, followed by composition studies with York Höller and Hans-Ulrich Humpert (electronic music) in Cologne and mathias spahlinger, Orm Finnendahl (electronic music) and Cornelius Schwehr (film music) in Freiburg.
Her pieces have been performed internationally by ensembles such as the Hessian Radio Orchestra, ensemble mosaik, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble contemporain de Montréal and Nouvel Ensemble Modern de Montréal. She has received many distinctions for her work, including the Busoni-Foerderpreis der Akademie der Kuenste, Berlin (2008), the Kompositionspreis der Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart (2009) and a portrait CD from Deutsche Musikrat in their series Edition Zeitgenössische Musik (production Oct. 2013). In 2018 she was nominated as a member of the music section of Akademie der Künste, Berlin, and an associate composer member of the Canadian Music Centre.
Her works have been performed in Canada, Germany, Poland, Austria, Switzerland, Norway, Ukraine, and Japan in festivals such as the Warsaw Autumn Festival, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Wittener Tage für Neue Musik, Festival ULTIMA, Festival Éclat, Festival Ultraschall and the International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt.
Her complete works are published by “Edition Juliane Klein”. (http://www.editionjulianeklein.de) Annesley Black is the vice-president of the DEGEM- German Society of Electroacoustic Music. (http://www.degem.de/).
As a performer she has appeared in numerous rock bands and as an improviser in various constellations in Canada, Austria and in Germany. She has co-created collaborative film, dance and theatre productions as well as multi-media installations/ performances.
Annesley Black 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, Frankfurt.