In 2001, she was the first woman to win the Takemitsu Prize;[6] in 2007 she received a Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters[7] with a citation for music, "by turns, urgent, poetic, evocative and witty." In 2011, a debut CD of chamber music was released by Bridge Records: Arlene Sierra, Volume 1[8][9] and she was named Composer of the Year by the Classical Recording Foundation.[10] A second CD, Game of Attrition: Arlene Sierra, Vol. 2, was released in 2014 including four orchestral works recorded by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Jac Van Steen, conductor.[11] In the same year, Moler, an orchestral work commissioned by the Seattle Symphony, was nominated for a Latin Grammy Award.[12] Sierra's latest release on the Bridge label, Butterflies Remember a Mountain – Arlene Sierra, Vol. 3 (2018) is a chamber disc including performances by Nicola Benedetti, Leonard Elschenbroich, the Horszowski Trio, and Quattro Mani.[13] Sierra was Composer-in-Association with the Utah Symphony for the 2020-21 season.[14]
Sierra's earlier works have their origins in military strategy and game theory, with literary sources including Vitruvius and Sun Tzu, notably: Ballistae (2000) for large ensemble and Surrounded Ground (2008) for sextet,[17] as well as Art of War (2010), a concerto for piano and orchestra.[18]
Many of Sierra's works are inspired by bird song, insect calls, and sounds and processes from the natural world, including Butterflies Remember a Mountain (2013), a piano trio which was inspired by a peculiar detour in the annual mass migration of monarch butterflies. This trio was the starting point for Nature Symphony (Sierra) (2017) commissioned by the BBC Philharmonic and BBC Radio 3.[19] Other works that employ natural sounds and processes include Cicada Shell (2006) for ensemble, Birds and Insects, Books 1, 2, and 3 (2007, 2018, 2023) for piano solo, Insects in Amber (2010) for string quartet, and Urban Birds (2014) for three pianos with percussion and electronics.[20]
These two interests – nature and military strategy – are both evident in her 2009 orchestral work Game of Attrition which takes its structure from processes described by Charles Darwin in The Origin of Species.[21] Larger-scale works along these lines followed, including Nature Symphony (Sierra) and the 2022 work Bird Symphony, a commission from the Utah Symphony, which creates a large-scale four-movement structure using transcriptions of bird song.[22]Kiskadee, an orchestral work from 2023 commissioned by the Detroit Symphony, features the calls of two birds that compete for territory in nature, taking this interaction as a source for the structure of the work.[23][24]
Sierra has demonstrated an interest in dramatic and stage works centered on women protagonists, in scenarios ranging from Faust in the opera Faustine[25] to human trafficking in the collaborative chamber opera Cuatro Corridos.[26] Since 2012, she has been working on a series of original scores to films by Maya Deren for a variety of chamber ensembles, including Meditation on Violence[27] and Ritual in Transfigured Time.[28]
^The Seattle Symphony and Music Director Ludovic Morlot Announce 2012–2013 Season "Press release" (Press release). Archived from the original on 26 May 2012. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
^Oestreich, James, A First and a Finale, Along With A Birthday, The New York Times 23 July 2002 [1]
^Rogers, Madeline, Contact! – Present at the Creation [2], Playbill, 16 Dec 2009
^Quinn, Michael, Bridge Records to launch series dedicated to music by Arlene Sierra, TheClassicalReview.com, 5 April 2011 [4]Archived 24 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine
^Clements, Andrew, Sierra: Cicada Shell; Birds and Insects Book 1; Surrounded Ground, etc – review, The Guardian, 14 July 2011 [5]
