Joanne Metcalf (she/her)

The music of Joanne Metcalf, acclaimed as “music of great beauty” (Klassik-Heute) and “extraordinarily beautiful” (International Record Review), is known for its evocative lyricism, rhythmic extravagance, “beguiling yet subtly dissonant language” (MusicWeb International) and “beautiful use of vocal colours and texture” (Glasgow Herald). Drawing inspiration from Renaissance and medieval polyphony, ancient Georgian music, and contemporary extended vocal techniques, Ms. Metcalf has forged a musical voice that “evoke[s] earlier musical forms” (The Globe and Mail, Montreal) yet is “unmistakably contemporary” (Glasgow Herald).

Ms. Metcalf’s compositions have been performed and recorded by musicians across the world. Advocates of her vocal music include The Gothic Voices; The Crossing; Variant 6; German vocal quintet amarcord; Canty, Scotland’s premiere female vocal quartet; Cappella Nova; the Dresdner Kammerchor; John Potter; and her longtime artistic collaborators, Singer Pur and The Hilliard Ensemble. Her music has been performed at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Schwetzinger Festspiele, Hannover Bienniale, Beethovenfest Bonn, Washington National Cathedral, Glasgow Cathedral, and the Cheltenham International Festival of Music.

The legendary Gothic Voices recently released Music for the Star of the Sea, Il nome del bel fior, Maria I, and Maria III on the group’s resplendent recording of early and contemporary music, Mary Star of the Sea. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung praised Ms. Metcalf’s music for its “Italianate, flowing singability” while Choir and Organ praised the “glorious, delicately nuanced new works by the brilliant American Joanne Metcalf, including the magical Music for the Star of the Sea.”

Joanne Metcalf has received awards and fellowships from the North Carolina Arts Council, Copland House, the McDowell Colony, the Netherland-America Foundation, and the International Association of Women in Music. Her compositions are recorded on the Linn Records, Oehms Classics, ECM New Series, and National Sawdust Tracks labels.