Bryce David Dessner (born April 23, 1976) is a Brooklyn based composer,[1] guitarist, and curator primarily known as a member of the Grammy Award-nominated band The National.[2] In addition to his work with The National, Dessner has made a name for himself as an acclaimed composer, working with some of the world’s most creative and respected musicians. Dessner is also the founder of the MusicNOW Festival, a founding member of the improvisatory instrumental group Clogs and co-founder of Brassland Records. He has a master's degree in music from Yale University,[3] and is currently a composer-in-residence at Muziekgebouw Eindhoven
Dessner's compositions draw on elements from Baroque and folk music, late Romanticism and modernism, as well as minimalism. His unique and individual voice as a composer has earned him a number of high-profile commissions. Dessner is currently working on a piece commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which will be premiered in May 2015 at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and will be performed by the LA Phil, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. Other recent commissions include 40 Canons for the Grammy Award winning Kronos Quartet, which premiered at the Barbican Concert Hall in London in the spring of 2014; Reponse Lutoslawski for the National Audiovisual Institute of Poland, which will be premiered by the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Warsaw next fall; Black Mountain Songs for the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, which will premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in November; Music For Wood and Strings for So Percussion, which premiered at Carnegie Hall in November 2013; and Murder Ballades a work inspired by American folk music and written for the multiple Grammy-winning new-music ensemble eighth blackbird. The group premiered the piece in Eindhoven in April 2013 and has recorded it for release in 2015. Murder Ballades is also used as the score for a ballet of the same name, choreographed by Justin Peck for the LA Dance Project.[5] The ballet premiered in Lyon, France in September 2013. In October 2014 the piece will be performed by eighth blackbird as a live music accompaniment for a performance by the L.A. Dance Project at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Important past compositions by Dessner include three string quartets for Kronos Quartet (Aheym, Tenebre and Little Blue Something); Tour Eiffel for the Brooklyn Youth Chorus; O Shut Your Eyes Against the Wind for Bang on a Can All Stars; Lachrimae for the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Scottish Ensemble, and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra; St. Carolyn by the Sea for the American Composers Orchestra and Muziekcentrum Eindhoven; The Lincoln Shuffle, a cycle of pieces for brass ensemble and electric guitar premiered at Philadelphia’s Rosenbach Library for Abraham Lincoln’s bicentennial; and Propolis for bass clarinet and electronics, co-composed with David Sheppard and Evan Ziporyn for a sound pavilion by Matthew Ritchie.

The first recordings of Bryce's compositions, performed by the Kronos Quartet, were released in 2013 by Anti- Records. The album, "Aheym," features four of Dessner’s compositions: Tenebre, Little Blue Something, Tour Eiffel, and Aheym.[6]

On March 4, 2014 Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Music Classics released "St Carolyn By the Sea; Suite from There Will Be Blood." Performed by the Copenhagen Philharmonic and conducted by Andre de Ridder, the album features three of Bryce's orchestral works (St. Carolyn by the Sea, Lachrimae and Raphael) as well as the suite from There Will Be Blood by Jonny Greenwood.

In January 2012, Bryce signed to Chester Novello Publishing for his concert music.