Biography

Based in Los Angeles, New Zealand native Linda Dallimore composes for orchestras, chamber ensembles and film.

Linda’s music features jagged melodies, colorful timbres, groove-driven rhythms and assemblage, weaving narratives rooted in psychological processes alongside sociological, cultural, and environmental concerns. Her works emerge from introspection and empathy, drawing on an awareness of cognition and psychology as catalysts for musical ideas. Increasingly influenced by musical feminist icons such as Aretha Franklin and Lauryn Hill from a young age, Linda’s work often takes a female perspective; recalling childbirth, the trials and tribulations of parenthood, and channeling a slow-burning feminist rage as musical fuel.

Linda’s compositions have been played by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Ensemble Klangrauschen, Stroma, the New Zealand Trio and the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble. Linda has participated in festivals across Europe and the US, including the Aspen Music Festival, SICPP (USA), Etchings Festival (France), UPBEAT (Croatia) and VIPA Festival (Spain). She is a member of the Composers Association of New Zealand and represented by SOUNZ centre for New Zealand Music and APRA AMCOS.

Linda is currently completing a Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. She holds a Master of Musical Arts in composition at Yale School of Music, degrees from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and she is an alumna of Berklee College of Music. Her mentors and teachers include Andrew Norman, Donald Crockett, Christopher Theofanidis, Martin Bresnick, Eve de Castro-Robinson, Jonathan Bailey Holland, Marti Epstein and Ben Cadwallader.

Linda serves on the music theory faculty at the Colburn school and the LA Phil’s Composer Fellowship Program for young composers.

As a flutist, Linda has performed in festivals and for large audiences, including the Monterey Jazz Festival (USA), Manly Jazz Festival (Australia), Symphony Under the Stars (NZ).  She has performed in orchestras, jazz bands, and as a session and chamber musician.

An ex-corporate banker, Linda switched to composing later in life and has enjoyed living in Australia, Argentina, Spain and America. She is also Mama to two young children. Her husband Arnaud is a french private chef.