Maria Dessena

Composer, sound designer and arranger Maria Dessena creates original scores and sound design at High 5 Games, where she has been a staff composer for the past 5 years. Maria's transcriptions and arrangements have been published by Woody Guthrie Publications and The Richmond Organization. Her arrangements for rock and jazz orchestra are performed regularly at NYC nightlife events such as Eric Schmalenberger's Blunderland and the Oh! You Pretty Things glam rock series. Also a skilled Music Director, Maria has MD'd for various theater productions, rock ensembles and cabaret shows, most recently including Weimar Girls with alt-cabaret act Mad Jenny and the Society Band at The Slipper Room in NYC. She regularly collaborates with New York theater groups Untitled Theater Company #61 (Velvet Oratorio; Cabaret in Captivity; The Pig, or Vaclav Havel's Hunt for a Pig; Money Lab) and The Brick Theater (Mass; Ich Liebe Jesus; Lord Oxford Presents the American Revolution) and has performed at a variety of NYC venues including Pangea, House of Yes, Merkin Concert Hall, The Greenspace at WNYC, Highline Ballroom and le Poisson Rouge. Maria received her Bachelor of Music from Indiana University in 2000.