Bryce Dessner

Bryce Dessner, born in Cincinnati in 1976, is best known to many as a guitarist in the rock band The National. Dessner, though, has forged a significant parallel career as a classical composer, and holds a master’s degree in music from Yale University. Stylistically he ranges widely, from the glittering Ravel-like sonorities of the Concerto for Two Pianos (2018) to the atmospheric orchestral canvases of St. Carolyn by the Sea (2011), where Dessner is partnered on electric guitar by his twin brother Aaron. Dessner is also a keen collaborator with other artists. For The Most Incredible Thing (2016), a ballet based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairytale, Dessner created a pulsing, minimalistic score to complement Justin Peck’s choreography. And in the boldly innovative Music for Wood and Strings (2015), Dessner joined the Sō Percussion quartet to explore the soundworld of the dulcimer-electric guitar hybrid Chordstick, an instrument he co-invented.