I am a Facebook whore, I admit. I usually lurk in the background, online-yet-offline, browsing unlocked profiles and stalking minor celebrities.  Tonight I am visible: online, available. Like sitting at the bar, or leaned up against a lamppost, tapping my foot in anticipation of the meet, the rendezvous, the hook-up; I’m waiting for the “plup” sound and green “go” symbol on Facebook Chat to say she’s here. Familiar faces float past with virtual hellos, but I’m waiting for Anna Meredith to appear.

Anna Meredith, the 31 year old Scottish composer, is last year’s Prom queen. She wrote ‘froms’, a daring five-minute piece for the 2008 Last Night finale, a simultaneous performance by five major orchestras across the country, brought together live by satellite in a big controversial bang. It was great stuff.

Apologetic, she finally shows up on Chat, flustered by teatime (her boyfriend, animator Tony Comley, is preparing prawns by a secret family recipe) and recovering from the slow return drive to London from the Suffolk coast. Rehearsals are under way for her latest collaboration, Aldeburgh Music’s opera “Tarantula in Petrol Blue” which premieres at Snape Maltings Concert Hall on 21 February.

She loosely describes the piece as a contemporary urban tale of young people – performed by local young actors – and the web of stories that bind them together, what she calls their “simultaneous strands”. Crafted by playwright and award-winning novelist Philip Ridley, renowned for his dark, magical, often menacing work, she says “there’s definitely something a bit heightened about it.” It features a giant spider after all.

Working closely with Ridley and director Bijan Sheibani - who has “really got under the skin of the whole thing” - Anna says it has been a challenge to pace her work with the story; at eighty minutes it’s the longest piece she’s written: “I’ve got such a responsibility to Philip to capture the feel of it, trying to be really clear with the writing – there’s a directness in his libretto and I don’t want to mask that in unnecessary musical faff-ery.”

She says her main starting point has been Bjork and Arcade Fire (her “poppy influences”) but she has also worked some interesting orchestral instrumentation into the piece. Much of her previous work is seen as experimental; reaction to her Proms composition was mixed, even generating some hate-mail in the post. But here she says it’s a relative perception: “One of the cast members remarked how challenging, new and experimental she is finding the writing, and five minutes later the guy she was working with said he found the same passage refreshingly melodic and enjoyable.”

Anna recognises that her work creates waves: it pushes boundaries, sparks debate, and raises a few hackles. Time will tell if “Tarantula in Petrol Blue” will upset traditionalists, and I suspect she secretly hopes so. Anna is already contemplating a pipeline of future projects: a “Concerto for Beatboxer and Orchestra” with Shlomo, commissioned by Southbank Centre; perhaps some dance music too.  But only after some time out for a spot of exotic travelling, away from lurkers on Facebook like me. With her boyfriend. And possibly spiders.


Anna’s website:  www.annameredith.com

Snape Maltings Concert Hall
Saturday 21 at 7:30pm, Sunday 22 at 6pm, Tuesday 24 at 11am
Tickets £10 Under 27s £5

www.aldeburgh.co.uk