Ann Cleare was born in Ireland in 1983. She studied at University College Cork, graduating with a B.mus and an M.Phil in Composition. In 2008-2009, she participated in Cursus (IRCAM’s computer music and composition course) and then went on to earn a doctorate from Harvard under the direction of Chaya Czernowin and Hans Tutschku. In October 2019, she received an Honorary Doctorate from the National University of Ireland for her contribution to music. That same year, she was awarded the Ernst von Siemens Composition Prize.

Cleare is an Assistant Professor of Music and Media Technologies at Trinity College Dublin. As an artistic collaborator with Dublin Sound Lab, she is working on developing their programming and production of electronic music over the coming years. She is alos a Projects Officer with Sounding the Feminists (#STF), a collective championing principles of equality, inclusivity, and diversity in Irish musical life.

Cleare’s work has been commissioned and presented by major broadcasters such as the BBC, NPR, ORF, RTÉ, SWR, WDR for festivals such as Gaudeamus Week, The Wittenertage fur Neue Kammermusik, International Music Institute Darmstadt, IMATRONIC Festival of Electronic Music at ZKM, MATA Festival, Taschenopernfestival, Sound Reasons Festival in India, Shanghai New Music Week, Transit Belgium, GAIDA, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, and Ultraschall. She has collaborated with groups such as the Crash Ensemble, Quatuor Diotima, the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Divertimento Ensemble, JACK Quartet, Ensemble Apparat, Ensemble Nikel, the Curious Chamber Players, ensemble mosaik, the Experimental Ensemble of the SWR Studios, österreichisches ensemble für neue music, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, ensemble recherche, the Fidelio Trio, Vortex Ensemble, and Ensemble Contrechamps.

In particular, Ann Cleare’s work explores “extended sonic environments” such as in on magnetic fields (2012) for two spatialized violins and one loudspeaker. She continued to explore this approach in eyam i-v (2014) for contrabass flute, contrabass clarinet, electronics, and orchestra, and Earth Waves (2017-2018) for trombone, spatialized vocal ensemble, and moving electronics. Her research is based on exploring the design of hybrid instruments inspired by sculpture, as can be seen in a unit of wrest (2009) for wire and metallic percussive sculpture and electronics or surface station #2 : the relighting of the sun (2012) for double-bell trumpet with electronic sculpture, and lighting and eöl (2014-2015) for percussive sculpture (metallic arm and hand pieces that the percussionist simultaneously wears and plays, and a metallic table instrument with rods that detach onto the percussionist’s fingers, inspired by Edward Scissorhands) and chamber ensemble.

In 2018-2019, she was an artist in residence at the soundSCAPE new music festival in Italy. In 2019, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival devoted a portrait concert to her on its opening night.

Her work is published by Project Schott New York. She is represented by the Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland (CMC).