Short bio:
Adrianne Munden-Dixon is a violinist, improviser, and composer known for her “shapeshifting technical facility” (I Care If You Listen). Her work often explores the interaction of timbre, texture, and energy with a combination of playfulness and “white-knuckle energy” (Bandcamp Daily). She has given solo performances at Roulette Intermedium, the Dimenna Center, Princeton University and presented her music at the Darmstadt Summer Course and University of Georgia. She is a founding member of Desdemona and has recently worked with the JACK Quartet, Cassie Wieland, Leo Chang, David Bird, and filmmaker-pianist XUAN. Originally from Savannah, Georgia, she currently resides and is active in the Montreal and New York experimental scenes.
Long bio:
Adrianne Munden-Dixon is a violinist, composer, and improvisor based in New York and Montreal praised for her “animated and driven” performances (Connect Savannah). She is a dedicated performer of classical and contemporary music and has given solo performances at Roulette Intermedium, Princeton University, Columbia University, Oh My Ears, and more. She is a founding member of Desdemona (“an excellent young quartet” The New Yorker) and performs regularly with the Sarasota Opera.
Adrianne has commissioned works for violin and electronics by Phong Tran, Finola Merivale, David Bird, Gemma Peacocke, and Martín Gendelman. She has worked with composers Annie Gosfield, Pamela Z, Tristan Perich, and ensembles including JACK Quartet, Bearthoven, The Parker Quartet, the Eybler Quartet, and members of the Bang on a Can All-Stars. In recent seasons she appeared as a chamber musician at Carnegie Hall, Prototype Festival, Resonant Bodies, Bang on A Can’s Loud Weekend, Banff Centre for Creativity and the Arts, Experiments in Opera, and the Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival.
Her debut EP patterns and cycles was called “bright, colorful violin improvisations, each a compact vision” in The Road to Sound and “intuitive and communicative. Munden-Dixon transforms our idea of what the violin is” by writer and musician Ling Ling Huang. Her compositions have been featured on Metropolis Ensemble’s House Music and as a curator for their Flame Keeper’s series. Forthcoming recordings to be released in spring 2022 include Finola Merivale’s works for strings on New Focus Recordings and improvisations with Leo Chang on Notice Recordings.
She has studied at Carnegie Mellon University, SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Music, Darmstadt Summer Music Course, and Aspen Music Festival. Her principal teachers include Laurie Smukler, Carmit Zori, and Cornelia Heard.
Since forming in 2016, Adrianne has been a member of Desdemona, a New York City-based ensemble devoted to creating unique and inventive performances of repertoire spanning from the Renaissance to world premieres. They have recorded with Grammy award-winning vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant and have worked closely with living composers including Anthony R. Green, Peter Kramer, David Bird, Robinson McClellan, and Kinds of Kings collective, whose six string quartets they gave the New York premiere. Their performance of Magdalene, an opera by 14 composers for soprano, quartet, and harp as part of PROTOTYPE Festival, was hailed as “fantastic” by Opera Wire.
Outside of music, Adrianne is a certified yoga instructor and former competitive surfer. She plays a 1780 Kloz violin.