Anna Maria Manalo
As A Performer
Anna Maria Manalo is a multi-dimensional musician based in New York who’s active as a pianist, violinist, and composer.
Her performance credits range from Abelardo Hall (Manila) to the Overture Center (Madison) and from MacEwan University (Edmonton) to New York’s Carnegie Hall, and the High Line.
No matter where she’s making music, Anna’s goal is to provoke positive change—a shift in her listeners—so that they experience life from new vantage points.
Project Themes
A consummate collaborator, Anna designs programs that address relevant themes and spark insights and discussion with audiences.
She’s created a series of programs, Music and Microbes, that plumbs the connection between science and art in programs featuring works by Chopin, Schubert, and Tchaikovsky.
Anna also co-created a gallery installation performance for artwork focused on race, improvising on the violin using Ancient Filipino songs over her original piano tracks at Stony Brook University’s Zuccaire Gallery.
As A Composer
As a composer, Anna has premiered her works at the Philippine Consulate and at the UN. Her music has also been heard at the Pan Asian Music Festival in San Francisco, at the University of Chicago, and at the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed First Unitarian Church in Madison. Exploring temporality and technology, Anna’s music combines layers of live and pre-recorded improvisations, which often reference her Filipino roots. Anna’s main composer-mentors are Melinda Wagner, Ursula Mamlok, George Tsontakis and Michael Cjaikowski.
Audiences
With a commitment to bringing concert music to vulnerable audiences, Anna directs a bi-monthly chamber music series at the Gathering Place, a homeless shelter for women and LGBTQ moms in Denver, CO. Anna also directs the MCP Chamber Music Healing series in New York at Mt. Sinai Hospital, as well as two chamber music series in Alberta, Canada: for The Cross Cancer Institute and for the Mazankowski Heart Clinic.
Education
With degrees in piano and violin from CUNY Hunter College (with pianists Abbey Simon, Herbert Stessin) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (pianist Howard Karp and violinist Tyrone Greive), Anna studied composition at the Manhattan School of Music and at the Aspen Music School, and received Music Therapy Training from University of Alberta, Canada. She is certified as a MusicCare Artist (www.musiccare.org)
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AMM Compositions Premiered
Solo
Hindi Kita Malimot1 (2023) for Violin (4’)
Bunkaka 2 (2020) for Violin (4’30”)
Skin Codes (2017) for Violin & Piano track loop (25’-30’)
Three Preludes (1992) for Piano (12’)
Aria II (1991) for French Horn & digital delay (4’15”)
Aria (1990) for Bassoon (4’)
Kuratsa 3 Variations (1986) for Piano (12’)
Chamber (instrumental)
Miniatures (revised 2023) for Piano Trio (15’)
Canon in 3 Modes (1990) for String Trio (4’)
Invention (1990) for Violin and ‘cello (4’)
Sayaw 4 (1990) for Violin and Piano (7’)
Palindrome (1986) for String Quartet (8’)
Chamber (vocal)
Cassandra (2004) song cycle for Mezzo-soprano, Violin, and Piano (30’)
Haven (1996) for Mezzo-soprano and Piano (11’)
Thank You by Sappho (1994) for Mezzo-soprano and Piano (4’)
Manifestations of Time (1991) for Soprano and Piano (5’)
1 Tagalog/Filipino for “I Will Not Forget You”, an original Philippine Art Song by my Great Uncle, Julian Celis Balita
2 An ancient Philippine Air
3 Traditional Filipino folk dance
4 Tagalog/Filipino for “Dance”
Karjaka Magazine feature “Love Thyself” by AMM
Past Work: Millennium Chamber Players
(Photo by Karjaka.com)