Vanessa Lann (www.vanessalann.com) began composing and playing the piano at age five. She studied composition with Ruth Schonthal at the Westchester Conservatory of Music and holds degrees from Harvard University & the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. Her works are performed in such venues as the Philharmonie (Berlin), Lincoln Center (NY), Wigmore Hall (London), the Doelen (Rotterdam) and the Concertgebouw & Muziekgebouw (Amsterdam), as well as at leading festivals. She has received commissions and prizes from renowned soloists, ensembles and organizations. Her opera, The Silence of Sarah, was premiered in 2013. The large-scale choreographed work O Whispering Suns (2011), for Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Viktor Kopatchinsky and 100 singers, is a setting of Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself. Her orchestral work Dancing to an Orange Drummer was created for the Boston Pops, receiving its first performance under Keith Lockhart in 2015. Lann’s music is broadcast frequently and is included in many CDs and recordings. Her most recent CD, moonshadow sunshadow, is a compilation from the past 25 years. She is the Head of the Composition for Film and Theatre program at the ArtEZ Academy of Music in Arnhem, the Netherlands. Lann received the 2019 Buma Classical Award for being the most-performed Dutch composer worldwide.