Below you’ll find several versions of Annick Odom’s biography, ranging from a full-length narrative to short and longer formats. Presenters, journalists, festivals, and collaborators are welcome to use or adapt any of these bios for programs, press materials, grant applications, or publicity needs. If a customized version tailored to a specific event or context is needed, feel free to get in touch.
Short Biography
Annick Odom (she/her) is a Belgian-American composer, multi-instrumentalist, improviser, crankie maker, storyteller, and square dance caller whose work blends Appalachian ballads, experimental composition, and narrative performance. Her music, described as “hauntingly beautiful” (Classical Post), spans folk string bands, electro-acoustic collaborations, and chamber ensembles. She performs with Pittsburgh-based band Wake Robin and Parisian folk band Sweet Joe Pye and leads her own chamber ensemble project Linen of Words. Her solo project West Virginia, My Home has commissioned over 20 new works for bass, voice, and crankie storytelling. A dedicated community arts practitioner and researcher, Annick has taught and performed internationally and holds degrees from the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague, KU Leuven, and the University of Michigan.
Longer Biography
Annick Odom (she/her) is a Belgian-American composer, multi-instrumentalist, folk singer, improviser, crankie maker, storyteller, and square dance caller. Known for her evocative blend of Appalachian traditions, contemporary composition, and narrative performance, her work bridges the old and the new, braiding together field recordings, original songs, and community voices into something wholly her own. Described as “hauntingly beautiful” (Classical Post) and “an adventure in every song” (VPRO), her music moves fluidly between the intimate and the expansive.
Annick’s creative practice is deeply rooted in place and tradition. As a performer and composer, she works across genres—from folk string bands and electro-acoustic collaborations to experimental chamber music. She performs in the Pittsburgh-based folk group Wake Robin and regularly in Europe with the Paris-based folk band Sweet Joe Pye. Past collaborative projects include an electro-acoustic duo with Italian composer-performer Tiziano Teodori and the composer-performer trio SQUEE! in Den Haag, The Netherlands. She has performed with regional orchestras and chamber ensembles, and presents traditional music and original songs as a solo artist on bass and voice. Annick is the founder of Linen of Words, an ensemble that performs her compositions and arrangements of Appalachian folk songs and stories; their 2021 Dutch tour was supported by Fonds Podiumkunsten. She also performs widely with singer–songwriters and records remotely from her home studio, contributing bass, voice, and clarinet to folk, pop, and experimental projects.
An avid supporter of fellow composers, Annick has premiered and recorded more than fifty-five new works for bass, voice, clarinet, and mixed ensembles in the past fifteen years. Her long-term solo project West Virginia, My Home celebrates Appalachian cultural heritage by weaving archival ballads and oral histories with newly commissioned works. This evolving project features bass/voice compositions accompanied by crankie visuals and has commissioned over twenty new pieces. Her own compositions explore hybrid forms—combining folk elements, visuals, movement, and experimental chamber writing—and include works such as Four on the Floor and Last Week’s Flowers. Her original compositions Rise Early and Seven Bones were adapted into animated films, both selected for the West Virginia Mountaineer Short Film Festival.
Outside the concert hall, Annick is deeply committed to community-centered arts practice. She is a two-time recipient of the West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship from the West Virginia Humanities Council, through which she studied traditional Appalachian fiddle music with folklorist Gerry Milnes and square dance calling with Taylor Runner. She is a proud member of the West Virginia Storytelling Guild. Annick organizes community crankie projects and leads workshops in traditional music, collaborative composition, storytelling, and arts-based research. She also runs Soundstreams, a monthly community improv lab and concert series in Morgantown, WV, which brings together musicians from Appalachian, classical, and experimental traditions. Through her square dance calling, she helps sustain and revitalize inclusive community dance traditions, and continues to organize dances across the U.S. and Europe, including events in Belgium and France.
As a teaching artist, Annick has worked with a wide range of organizations, including the Sphinx Organization’s Overture violin program, the Rotterdam Philharmonic’s in-school music education initiatives, and dementia-friendly programs such as City Proms Embrace in the Netherlands. She has led refugee-focused composition workshops for El Sistema Greece and for the International Summer Academy in Austria. She has also taught workshops on using music in storytelling and was invited to present at the Kentucky Storytelling Association’s annual conference.
Her work has been supported by grants and fellowships from Folk Alliance International (full scholarship), the West Virginia Humanities Council, the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, the University of Michigan’s Willis Patterson Diversity Award, the Barger Leadership Institute (Goldsmiths internship), and the Judd Family Endowment Fund. Annick has been an artist-in-residence and composer at institutions across North America and Europe, including the Banff Centre Ensemble Evolution Residency, the International Contemporary Ensemble’s Evolution Residency, New Music Mosaic, WestBen Performer-Composer Residency, Nief-Norf Composer-Performer Fellowship, LABO Montreal Fellowship, the SQUEE! Residency in France, New Music on the Point, NKK NXT Residency with the Dutch National Choir, Darmstadt Summer Festival, and the Dutch Impro Academy at Bimhuis Amsterdam.
For 2025–26, Annick serves as Artist-in-Residence at Fairmont State University, where she teaches an interdisciplinary honors course on crankie-making, oral history, and folklife archives; curates the university’s square dance series; and presents public workshops and performances through the Fairmont State Folklife Center and the Presidential Speaker Series. Her performances have spanned local and international festivals and venues, including the Southeast Regional Folk Alliance Conference (Official Showcase Artist) at the Bluegrass Hall of Fame & Museum, the Appalachian Literary and Storytelling Festival, the Rotterdam Bluegrass Festival (solo and with Sweet Joe Pye), REWIRE Festival (with the Free Fall Improvisers Orchestra), Oh My Ears! Festival (soloist and with Black House Ensemble), the Glenville State Folk Festival, the Vandalia Gathering, ZomerJazzFietsTour (Netherlands), and the International Society of Bassists Convention.
Born and raised in Morgantown, West Virginia, Annick spent over a decade living in Southeast Michigan, the Netherlands, and Belgium before returning to her home state. She holds a Master of Music from the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague, a Master of Science in Psychology (cum laude) from KU Leuven, and three undergraduate degrees from the University of Michigan: Clarinet Performance, Double Bass Performance, and Psychology with honors. In 2017–2018, she completed the Global Leaders Program with the Orchestra of the Americas, leading fieldwork in Mexico, Suriname, and Chile focused on civic leadership and creative music-making.
Upcoming projects include the debut album of her ensemble Linen of Words, a European tour, and new commissions that expand her work at the intersection of storytelling, crankie-making, and contemporary composition. She is also a cohort member of Music to Life's Musician Changemaker Accelerator Academy for Spring 2026.
Short Biography
Annick Odom (she/her) is a Belgian-American composer, multi-instrumentalist, improviser, crankie maker, storyteller, and square dance caller whose work blends Appalachian ballads, experimental composition, and narrative performance. Her music, described as “hauntingly beautiful” (Classical Post), spans folk string bands, electro-acoustic collaborations, and chamber ensembles. She performs with Pittsburgh-based band Wake Robin and Parisian folk band Sweet Joe Pye and leads her own chamber ensemble project Linen of Words. Her solo project West Virginia, My Home has commissioned over 20 new works for bass, voice, and crankie storytelling. A dedicated community arts practitioner and researcher, Annick has taught and performed internationally and holds degrees from the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague, KU Leuven, and the University of Michigan.
Longer Biography
Annick Odom (she/her) is a Belgian-American composer, multi-instrumentalist, folk singer, improviser, crankie maker, storyteller, and square dance caller. Known for her evocative blend of Appalachian traditions, contemporary composition, and narrative performance, her work bridges the old and the new, braiding together field recordings, original songs, and community voices into something wholly her own. Described as “hauntingly beautiful” (Classical Post) and “an adventure in every song” (VPRO), her music moves fluidly between the intimate and the expansive.
Annick’s creative practice is deeply rooted in place and tradition. As a performer and composer, she works across genres—from folk string bands and electro-acoustic collaborations to experimental chamber music. She performs in the Pittsburgh-based folk group Wake Robin and regularly in Europe with the Paris-based folk band Sweet Joe Pye. Past collaborative projects include an electro-acoustic duo with Italian composer-performer Tiziano Teodori and the composer-performer trio SQUEE! in Den Haag, The Netherlands. She has performed with regional orchestras and chamber ensembles, and presents traditional music and original songs as a solo artist on bass and voice. Annick is the founder of Linen of Words, an ensemble that performs her compositions and arrangements of Appalachian folk songs and stories; their 2021 Dutch tour was supported by Fonds Podiumkunsten. She also performs widely with singer–songwriters and records remotely from her home studio, contributing bass, voice, and clarinet to folk, pop, and experimental projects.
An avid supporter of fellow composers, Annick has premiered and recorded more than fifty-five new works for bass, voice, clarinet, and mixed ensembles in the past fifteen years. Her long-term solo project West Virginia, My Home celebrates Appalachian cultural heritage by weaving archival ballads and oral histories with newly commissioned works. This evolving project features bass/voice compositions accompanied by crankie visuals and has commissioned over twenty new pieces. Her own compositions explore hybrid forms—combining folk elements, visuals, movement, and experimental chamber writing—and include works such as Four on the Floor and Last Week’s Flowers. Her original compositions Rise Early and Seven Bones were adapted into animated films, both selected for the West Virginia Mountaineer Short Film Festival.
Outside the concert hall, Annick is deeply committed to community-centered arts practice. She is a two-time recipient of the West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship from the West Virginia Humanities Council, through which she studied traditional Appalachian fiddle music with folklorist Gerry Milnes and square dance calling with Taylor Runner. She is a proud member of the West Virginia Storytelling Guild. Annick organizes community crankie projects and leads workshops in traditional music, collaborative composition, storytelling, and arts-based research. She also runs Soundstreams, a monthly community improv lab and concert series in Morgantown, WV, which brings together musicians from Appalachian, classical, and experimental traditions. Through her square dance calling, she helps sustain and revitalize inclusive community dance traditions, and continues to organize dances across the U.S. and Europe, including events in Belgium and France.
As a teaching artist, Annick has worked with a wide range of organizations, including the Sphinx Organization’s Overture violin program, the Rotterdam Philharmonic’s in-school music education initiatives, and dementia-friendly programs such as City Proms Embrace in the Netherlands. She has led refugee-focused composition workshops for El Sistema Greece and for the International Summer Academy in Austria. She has also taught workshops on using music in storytelling and was invited to present at the Kentucky Storytelling Association’s annual conference.
Her work has been supported by grants and fellowships from Folk Alliance International (full scholarship), the West Virginia Humanities Council, the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, the University of Michigan’s Willis Patterson Diversity Award, the Barger Leadership Institute (Goldsmiths internship), and the Judd Family Endowment Fund. Annick has been an artist-in-residence and composer at institutions across North America and Europe, including the Banff Centre Ensemble Evolution Residency, the International Contemporary Ensemble’s Evolution Residency, New Music Mosaic, WestBen Performer-Composer Residency, Nief-Norf Composer-Performer Fellowship, LABO Montreal Fellowship, the SQUEE! Residency in France, New Music on the Point, NKK NXT Residency with the Dutch National Choir, Darmstadt Summer Festival, and the Dutch Impro Academy at Bimhuis Amsterdam.
For 2025–26, Annick serves as Artist-in-Residence at Fairmont State University, where she teaches an interdisciplinary honors course on crankie-making, oral history, and folklife archives; curates the university’s square dance series; and presents public workshops and performances through the Fairmont State Folklife Center and the Presidential Speaker Series. Her performances have spanned local and international festivals and venues, including the Southeast Regional Folk Alliance Conference (Official Showcase Artist) at the Bluegrass Hall of Fame & Museum, the Appalachian Literary and Storytelling Festival, the Rotterdam Bluegrass Festival (solo and with Sweet Joe Pye), REWIRE Festival (with the Free Fall Improvisers Orchestra), Oh My Ears! Festival (soloist and with Black House Ensemble), the Glenville State Folk Festival, the Vandalia Gathering, ZomerJazzFietsTour (Netherlands), and the International Society of Bassists Convention.
Born and raised in Morgantown, West Virginia, Annick spent over a decade living in Southeast Michigan, the Netherlands, and Belgium before returning to her home state. She holds a Master of Music from the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague, a Master of Science in Psychology (cum laude) from KU Leuven, and three undergraduate degrees from the University of Michigan: Clarinet Performance, Double Bass Performance, and Psychology with honors. In 2017–2018, she completed the Global Leaders Program with the Orchestra of the Americas, leading fieldwork in Mexico, Suriname, and Chile focused on civic leadership and creative music-making.
Upcoming projects include the debut album of her ensemble Linen of Words, a European tour, and new commissions that expand her work at the intersection of storytelling, crankie-making, and contemporary composition. She is also a cohort member of Music to Life's Musician Changemaker Accelerator Academy for Spring 2026.