Anne Mette Iversen

A former student in classical piano at The Royal Danish Academy of Music, Anne Mette has a long musical background behind her. As she studied bass four years at the Rhythmic Conservatory of Music in Copenhagen, Denmark, before she in 2001 graduated from The New School University with a BFA degree in Jazz Performance, she is thoroughly trained in many musical languages. Anne Mette has been living in New York City for seven years.

As she studied bass four years at the Rhythmic Conservatory of Music in Copenhagen, Denmark, before she in 2001 graduated from The New School University with a BFA degree in Jazz Performance, she is thoroughly trained in many musical languages.

Anne Mette has been living in New York City for seven years. She has performed with many prominent artists in the United States and in Europe. She is leading her own groups, is a member of differernt NYC groups,and also freelances in many settings, including classical orchestras. Anne Mette was a selected member of "April", an allstar group led by Japanese pianist Aki Takase, she has toured and recorded with acclaimed singer-songwriter Nina Nastasia, and performed with singer-songwriter Ben Taylor; and she has also shared the stage with many other highly regarded jazz artists.

Composing has always been a natural for Anne Mette. As a composer she has developed her own unique and personal style that has come out of a very special talent for unifying jazz music with European classical music. This is due to her background as a classical piano player, her knowledge and familiarity with the Danish folksong tradition, the Danish Psalm&Hymn-book, the Danish satirical cabaret music, and, of course, her intimate relationship with jazz music; both the standard repetoire, the modern jazz and the avantgarde.

Though her compositions range from classical through composed pieces to modern jazz tunes, she always leaves a signature that is unmistakeably clear.

Without being sentimental or indulging in "cheap tricks", she creates emphatic music that sends the listener off with a head full of images. Picturesqe and expressive are a few describing adjectives. Or as Patrick Jarawattananon from NPR music writes (2008):

"Few other arrangers can deter schmaltz when putting strings to swing. And even fewer possess her sense for dulcet harmonies and exquisitely developed form ? the patient listener is rewarded with a probing, big-R Romantic, strings-only cadenza at the end. Rarer still is the mind that could put it all together in a way that proclaims itself as the work of an improvising musician. Beauty may be hard to find in jazz, but as Iversen proves, that doesn't mean it's dormant in familiar elements, waiting to be expressed."

Anne Mette writes music that falls within various genres. She composes for strings, for choir and for brass instruments.

She composed "Hvor er din bolig vidunderlig" for the 125 year anniversary of The Danish Church in New York. Also, she arranged the music when Denmark hosted 120 United Nations ambassadors, the General Secretary Kofi Annan and Crown Prince of Denmark, His Royal Highness Prince Frederik, to a dinner at the B.B. King Club in New York 2002.
She composed "Rondo Alla Manipula" for 3 cello's which was exhibited at Charlotte Friis' exhibition "Storytelling Furniture" at The Danish Design Council in May & June 2005.

She composed the music to playwriter Britta Sandqvist's one-act'er "Goodby Stanley" that was selected to perform at The Strawberry Festival in New York City August 2005, and she has curated, composed and performed for the Danish General Consulate in New York and The Royal Danish Embassy in Washington DC on several occasions.

Currently Anne Mette is writing for her jazz quartet, for her projects "Poetry of Earth" and on the follow-up to "Best of the West"; a new work for jazz quartet and string quartet.

Anne Mette has received several grants, among others from the Danish Art Foundation, to reward and encourage her work.

Taken from Official Website - http://www.annemetteiversen.com