Bryce Dessner

Biography

“Dessner [..] moves fluidly between rock and classical and everywhere in between.” - Guardian

Bryce Dessner is a vital and rare force in new music. He has won Grammy Awards as a classical composer and with the band The National, of which he is founding member, guitarist, arranger, and co-principal songwriter. He is regularly commissioned to write for the world’s leading ensembles, from Orchestre de Paris to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and is a high-profile presence in film score composition, with credits including The Revenant, for which he was Grammy and Golden Globe nominated, Fernando Mereilles’s The Two Popes, Mike Mill’s C’mon C’mon and the Bardo, by Alejandro González Iñárritu.

Dessner collaborates with some of today’s most creative and respected artists, including Philip Glass, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Paul Simon, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Sufjan Stevens, Fernando Mereilles, Thom Yorke, Bon Iver, Nico Muhly, and Steve Reich, who named Dessner “a major voice of his generation.” Dessner’s orchestrations can be heard on the latest albums of Paul Simon, Bon Iver and Taylor Swift.

Bryce Dessner has had works commissioned and premiered by today’s leading conductors including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Gustavo Dudamel, Semyon Bychkov, and Santtu Matias-Rouvali. This season alone sees performances of his works by, amongst others, London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, BBC Symphony Orchestra, HR Sinfonieorchester, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and San Francisco Symphony.

Dessner’s recordings have received multiple prestigious awards; commissioned by Kronos Quartet; Tenebre, an album of his works for string orchestra recorded by Germany’s Ensemble Resonanz and which won a 2019 Opus Klassik award and a Diapason d’Or; Impermanence (2021) with Australian String Quartet and which won the Libera award.

In 2023, Dessner scored four films including Greg Kwedar's 'Sing Sing', Thomas Napper's 'Widow Cliquot', Rebecca Miller's 'She Came To Me' and Frederic Tellier's 'Abbe Pierre'.

In the 2023-24 season Bryce Dessner is the Creative Chair of Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich. In addition to his role as one of eight San Francisco Symphony Collaborative Partners, Bryce Dessner is currently Artist-in-Residence at London’s Southbank Centre and with Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra.

News

  • Bryce Dessner scores 'Train Dreams'

    Bryce Dessner scores 'Train Dreams'

    30th January 2025

    Benefiting from Bryce Dessner’s elegiac score 'Train Dreams' is impressing critics

  • Oscar nominated scores

    Oscar nominated scores

    19th December 2024

    The shortlist for the 2025 Oscar for Original Soundtrack features scores by two Wise Music Group composers. Bryce Dessner's music for the A24 film Sing Sing, and Volker Bertelmann's score for the recently released Conclave.

  • A24 Re-Releasing ‘Sing Sing’ in Theaters in January 2025

    A24 Re-Releasing ‘Sing Sing’ in Theaters in January 2025

    4th December 2024

    Fresh off its big night at the Gotham Awards, A24‘s “Sing Sing” will re-open in theaters nationwide next month.

  • Bryce Dessner 'Solos' Out Now

    Bryce Dessner 'Solos' Out Now

    23rd August 2024

    Bryce Dessner has released 'Solos', a sequence of unaccompanied instrumental works written by the composer over the past years.

  • Bryce Dessner's original score from Sing Sing out now

    Bryce Dessner's original score from Sing Sing out now

    14th July 2024

    A24 Music releases Sing Sing (Original Score), by Bryce Dessner. The guitarist and co-songwriter of The National has reunited with director Greg Kwedar for the movie, having previously worked together on Transpecos and Jockey.