Anna Appleby – composer

Anna Appleby (born in Newcastle upon Tyne, 1993) is a Manchester-based composer who mainly writes music for dance, opera and collaborative art forms. She has been in residence with Rambert, Glyndebourne and Streetwise Opera. Anna began drawing as a child and has continued to doodle obsessively ever since, but only took up painting seriously during the pandemic. Her subjects include abstract colour studies, her ever-patient house plants, and numerous unflattering self-portraits. Anna also began painting friends over Instagram Live in 2021 in her eagerness to find new models.

What has creating art meant to you over the last year?

Art has been a way for me to accept the overwhelming silence of the last year. It has also given me great comfort to know my paintings are sitting in the houses of many friends and colleagues while I cannot. Losing a very close friend and composer colleague in 2021 after a year of separation, broke my heart and it was a small solace to be able to paint a picture of her. I feel myself putting tentative shoots out with each picture, hoping to grow within these four walls while I wait for my vaccination.