Libby Larsen (b. 1950, Wilmington DE) is one of America’s most performed living composers. Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2024), she has composed over 500 works including orchestra, opera, vocal, and chamber music, symphonic winds, and band. Her work is widely recorded. An advocate for the music and musicians of our time, in 1973 Larsen co-founded the Minnesota Composers Forum, now the American Composer’s Forum. GRAMMY® award winner and former holder of the Papamarkou Chair at John W. Kluge Center of the Library of Congress, Larsen has also held residencies with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Charlotte Symphony, and the Colorado Symphony. From 2014–2020, as Artistic Director of the John Duffy Institute for New Opera, she guided a faculty of practicing professional artists in nurturing and production of new opera by American Composers. Larsen’s 2017 biography, Libby Larsen: Composing an American Life, by author Denise Von Glahn, is available from the University Illinois Press.

Albums

Brush Strokes

Release Date: December 11, 2020
Catalog Number: NV6320
21st Century
Chamber
Flute
Oboe
BRUSH STROKES from Athenia Trio features works for flute, oboe, and bassoon. The program harnesses the impressive versatility of the trio, with six pieces by six different composers, including two commissioned specially for the ensemble: Alyssa Morris’s Brush Strokes, and Robbie McCarthy's The Blind Men and the Elephant.

Parts to Play

Release Date: June 8, 2018
Catalog Number: NV6165
20th Century
21st Century
Chamber
Solo Instrumental
Piano
Violin
On PARTS TO PLAY, critically acclaimed violinist Moonkyung Lee turns from the symphonic environment of the critically lauded label debut, TCHAIKOVSKY, on which she performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, to a more intimate setting, with only pianist Martha Locker as her partner on a selection of works that include both stunning solo performances and intricate yet simple duets.

The Crossroads Project

Release Date: September 9, 2016
Catalog Number: NV6054
21st Century
Chamber
String Quartet
Throughout history, musicians and activists have enlisted the power of music to connect us to the pressing issues of our times. The brainchild of physicist Robert Davies, THE CROSSROADS PROJECT comprises two performances, Rising Tide and Emergence, performed by the Fry Street Quartet in multi-disciplinary collaboration.

Blurred Boundaries

Release Date: April 8, 2016
Catalog Number: NV6038
20th Century
Chamber
String Quartet
Apollo Chamber Players’ present their latest Navona release BLURRED BOUNDARIES, featuring commissions from veteran composers Libby Larsen and Marty Regan, as well as from the winner of Apollo’s inaugural International Commissioning Contest, Erberk Eryılmaz. These three commissions mark the beginning of 20x2020, Apollo’s initiative to commission 20 new folk music-inspired works by the end of the decade. Each of these composers explores culturally-specific musical traditions and presents folk material in ways that are engaging, unique, and revelatory.

Circle of Friends

Release Date: November 13, 2015
Catalog Number: NV6014
21st Century
Chamber
Piano Trio
Viola
Trailblazer.  Advocate.  Innovator.  All of these descriptors apply to Grammy Award-winner Libby Larsen, but at the core is the most important title of all:  Artist.  As the first woman to serve as a resident composer with a major orchestra and one of the most performed and prolific composers of our time (she has over 500 works in her catalog, including 15 operas), Larsen has established a permanent place in the annals of American concert music.