Bryce Dessner

Bryce Dessner is a vital and rare force in music. He has won Grammys as a classical composer and with the band The National, of which he is guitarist, arranger, and co-principal song-writer. Dessner’s collaborations include working with Philip Glass, Johnny Greenwood, Bon Iver, Steve Reich, Gustavo Dudamel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Sufjan Stevens, Taylor Swift and Thom Yorke. Dessner is a prolific classical composer. His works range from intimate chamber pieces and scaled-down works for solo instruments to full orchestra scores and concertos. His compositions have been performed by leading orchestras around the world, including the LA and New York Philharmonics, Philharmonia and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras. During the 2024/25 season Dessner will be Artist in Residence at the National Concert Hall, Dublin and Ars Music Festival at BOZAR, Brussels. In addition to being the creative chair of the Tonhalle Zurich last season, his many past residencies include a San Francisco Symphony Collaborative Partner, Artist-in-Residence at London’s Southbank Centre and with Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. Dessner is much sought after as a film composer, with releases including the film Sing Sing, limited series Manhunt, and John Crowley’s We Live in Time. He has garnered great acclaim for his work on films such as Iñárritu’s The Revenant with the late Ryuichi Sakamoto and for his music to Fernando Meirelles’s The Two Popes.