Frances White

Frances White writes instrumental, vocal, and electronic music. She studied at the University of Maryland, Brooklyn College, and Princeton University. She has received awards, commissions, grants, and fellowships from organizations such as  The Guggenheim Foundation, The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the Ditson  Fund, the Mary Flagler Cary Trust, the Copland Fund, Prix Ars Electronica, the International Computer Music Association, Hungarian Radio, ASCAP, the Bang On A Can Festival, the Other Minds Festival, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the Dale Warland Singers, the American Music Center, the MacDowell Colony, and the Djerassi Resident Artists Program. Recent works include commissions from the Third Practice Festival for the ensemble eighth blackbird, the Fromm Foundation, the MAP Fund, the Solaris Vocal Ensemble, Commissioning Music USA (formerly Meet the Composer), and The Crossing chamber choir.

White’s music can be heard on CD on the Wergo, Centaur, Nonsequitur, Harmonia Mundi, Albany, and Bridge labels. Two albums of her chamber works are available: Centre Bridge (Mode Records), and In the library of dreams (Pogus Productions). Her music was featured as part of the soundtrack of three of Gus Van Sant’s award-winning films: Elephant, Paranoid Park, and Milk.

White studies the shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute), and finds that the traditional music of this instrument informs and influences her work as a composer. Much of her music is inspired by her love of nature, and her electronic works frequently include natural sound recorded near her home in central New Jersey.