Anna Webber

Anna Webber (b. 1984) is a flutist, saxophonist, and composer whose interests and work  live in the aesthetic overlap between avant-garde jazz and new classical music. Her new  album, simpletrio2000, is an exploration of polyrhythm and a celebration a decade of  working with her band Simple Trio. Featuring Matt Mitchell on piano and John  Hollenbeck on drums, simpletrio2000 is the group’s third album, and a follow-up to the  critically-acclaimed release Idiom, which earned Webber the accolade of being named the  top composer of the year by JazzTimes in 2021. Her music has been called "visionary  and captivating," (Wall Street Journal), and “heady music [that] appeals to the rest of the  body” (NPR). In 2024 alone, she received the Herb Albert Award in the Arts, a Chamber  Music America New Jazz Works commission, and was voted top of both the tenor  saxophone and flute “Rising Star” categories in the Downbeat Critic’s Poll.  

A prolific bandleader, Webber is also known for the Webber Morris Big Band, a group  she co-leads with saxophonist and composer Angela Morris, and her quintet Shimmer  Wince (featuring Adam O’Farrill on trumpet, Mariel Roberts on cello, Elias Stemeseder  on synthesizer, and Lesley Mok on drums) which explores Just Intonation in a jazz  setting. She has additionally performed and/or recorded with projects led by artists such  as Dan Weiss, Miles Okazaki, Roscoe Mitchell, Ranja Swaminathan, Jen Shyu, Dave  Douglas, Matt Mitchell, Ches Smith, John Hollenbeck, and Trevor Dunn, among others. 

Webber is a 2021 Berlin Prize Fellow, and a 2018 Guggenheim Fellow. She has  additionally been honored with the Margaret Whitton Award (administered by the Jazz  Gallery); grants from the Copland Fund (2021 & 2019), the Shifting Foundation (2015 & 2022), the New York Foundation for the Arts (2017), the Conseil des arts et des lettres  du Québec, and the Canada Council for the Arts; and residencies from Exploring the  Metropolis (2019), the MacDowell Colony (2017 & 2020), the Millay Colony for the Arts  (2015), and the Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts (2014). Webber is originally from  British Columbia.