Frances White (composer)

Frances White (born August 30, 1960) is an American composer. A 2004 Guggenheim Fellow, she composes for the Japanese flute instrument shakuhachi and her work includes the album She Lost Her Voice, That’s How We Knew (2015). Biography White was born on August 30, 1960, to an electrical engineer father and teacher mother, and raised in Bowie, Maryland. White composes for shakuhachi, having become interested in the instrument due to its sound. In 1999, she composed the shakuhachi/tape piece Centre Bridge, inspired by the Centre Bridge–Stockton Bridge. Michelle Nagai of Organised Sound said that “White, through a process of deep immersion in an actual sounding place, and subsequently in her recordings of that place, is able to internalise her experiences as a listener” through that piece. Another piece inspired by the bridge, Center Bridge (Dark River), premiered in 2003 at the New Jersey Symphony. Susan Van Dongen of PrincetonInfo said that “her sensuous, atmospheric compositions … blend her writing with natural and ambient sounds”. In 2004, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. White composed the album She Lost Her Voice, That’s How We Knew, released in 2015 by Ravello Records.