Anna wrote a one-act opera, Drought, with poet Niall Campbell for broadcast studio performance by the BBC Philharmonic and RNCM singers. This has been a unique collaboration and you can find out more here.

Drought was premiered on the 26th October 2022 at the BBC Philharmonic Studios in MediaCityUK, starring Sally Pitts as Charlie, Lila Chrisp as Coll, with conductor Jack Sheen and director Charlie Sinclair. James Gillett was repetiteur and the cover cast were Morgana Warren-Jones and Elspeth Piggott. It was recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

Anna was associated with Glyndebourne along with three other composers as part of Balancing the Score. Find out more here.

Anna was commissioned to write a short song cycle, setting words by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, for the Jerwood Young Artists' Recital Series. It was premiered by Stephanie Wake-Edwards and Matthew Fletcher in the Organ Room at Glyndebourne on the 11th and 14th August 2019. You can listen here.

Here is an excerpt from one of Anna's choruses for Pay the Piper, a collaborative piece commissioned for Glyndebourne Youth Opera. Anna composed the beginning and ending sections and linking passages that joined up sections composed by her colleagues Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade, Ailie Robertson and Cecilia Livingston. The libretto is by Hazel Gould. You can find out more about this innovative approach to storytelling here.

Pay the Piper won 'Best Opera' at the YAM Awards in 2022.

The second video below is the full production of Pay the Piper.

Anna was commissioned to write a fanfare, To the Shore, inspired by Ethel Smyth's 

The Wreckers for three trumpeters of the London Philharmonic Orchestra to play at the opening of the Glyndebourne Festival 2022.

This Pop-Up Opera was commissioned by Tête à Tête Opera Festival for performances outdoors and in public around London during the festival, alongside two other Pop-Up operas by composers Catherine Kontz and Vahan Salorian. The libretto was written by Ruth Mariner. It concerns two penguin parents who sing to their egg about global warming.

Tête à Tête Website (August 2019)

In 2017/18 Anna was commissioned by Streetwise Opera to create 25 minutes of 'linking passages' for their large-scale production Tell Me The Truth About Love at Sage Gateshead. Anna collaborated with writer Meriel Sheibani-Clare. The production received a 4-star review from the Guardian.

Read the 4-Star Guardian Review (2018)

Watch Anna and Streetwise Opera in US documentary 'Turning Point' here

Read Anna's blog for Streetwise Opera here 

This chamber opera was composed for RNCM students and was premiered in Manchester in November 2016 with singers Ann Wilkes, Helen Lacey and Emma Wheeler. It received a second performance at RNCM in April 2017 at which point the composer commissioned choreographer Dane Hurst to create a ballet to accompany it. Citizens of Nowhere follows three islanders stranded on the mainland and explores themes of loss, community and citizenship.

The opera initially grew out of workshops that Hurst and Appleby had participated in at the Cohan Collective in 2016 so this is the end result of that collaboration. The opera-ballet had two preview performances at Rambert and at Ignition Dance Festival, before being premiered in full with conductor Simon Robertshaw at RADA Studios in August 2017 as part of Tête à Tête Opera Festival. The production was funded by Arts Council England's Grants for the Arts, Sheila Forbes CBE and crowdfunding.

Tête à Tête Review (August 2017)

Ignition Dance Festival Review (June 2017)

CITIZENS OF NOWHERE from Tête à Tête on Vimeo.

'Performing the Jewish Archives' was a collaboration between RNCM and the University of Leeds to reimagine a new context for music and words found in Terezin concentration camp in WWII. 

In 2016/17 Anna was Manchester Composer-in-Residence with Streetwise Opera. She led lyric-writing workshops with performers who had experienced homelessness, and created this opera chorus for them to premiere at HOME in April 2017.

Read Anna's blog about the collaboration here

Anna also appeared in the US documentary 'Turning Point' alongside Streetwise Opera. You can watch it here.