Anna Heflin is a composer and writer who constructs high-octane, humorous, and sensual worlds with non-linear narratives that thrive on musical and psychological fragmentation. Whether writing a symphony or a staged literature-inspired solo opera for an instrumentalist, she is drawn to the unexpected and channels her highly imaginative virtuosic visions into complex characters and unorthodox narrative arcs that often integrate text and staging. Her long-term collaborations with individual artists and organizations developed over years of working as a freelance violist are central to her process and her core values include trust, risk taking, experimentation, play, open communication, and creative problem solving.

Her compositions do not fit neatly into a box and neither does she – she is invigorated by approaching music from every angle and can be found writing program notes, giving academic lectures, hosting radio shows, leading roundtable discussions, and running her journal Which Sinfonia. Recent performances include the world premiere of Symphony No. 993 (2024) for the Buffalo Philharmonic as part of June in Buffalo, the world premiere of a new work for Canticum Ostrava as part of Ostrava Days 2023, and “To Elvedon” as part of Rochester Fringe Festival 2023. From March 20-22 2025 Experiments in Opera is producing “The INcomplete Cosmicomics” — Heflin’s opera for vocalizing cellist Aaron Wolff and looper at The Tank in NYC on a double bill with a solo opera by Jason Cady.

Her works have been performed by S.E.M. Ensemble at Bohemian National Hall in NYC, at Cathedral of the Divine Saviour in the Czech Republic as part of Ostrava Days, DOX Prague, PowerStation NYC, Bang on A Can, Banff Centre, Arete Gallery, Spectrum NYC, University of Oregon, Rochester Fringe Festival, University at Buffalo and San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Recent commissions include works for clarinetist Andrew Friedman (2021), Hats + Heels Duo (2021), and Duo Purla (2022). Heflin’s debut album, The Redundancy of the Angelic: An Interluding Play (Infrequent Seams, 2021) is out now on cassette and all streaming platforms and has been lauded as “one of the most adaptable releases of the year to date” (Robert Ham).

Heflin received her BM in viola performance in 2015 from University of California Santa Barbara, where she studied with Helen Callus. Heflin graduated with her MM in viola performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 2017, where she studied with Jodi Levitz and took electronic music courses in the Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) department.  After living in NYC and studying composition with Eric Wubbels for over five years, she moved to Los Angeles and is currently pursuing her Doctorate in Music Composition at USC’s Thornton School of Music, where she is working with faculty members Ted Hearne, Nina C Young and Camae Ayewa (Moor Mother).