COMPOSER BIOGRAPHIES

A

 

Talia Amar (טליה עמר)

(Israel/USA, 1989)

Talia Amar is the recipient of many international awards including the Rosenblum Prize for Promising Young Artist and the Klon Award for young composers. Her string quartet was hand selected by Maestro Lorin Maazel to be performed at Castleton Festival. In 2012, Talia earned her B.M. in composition with honors at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. She earned her M.M. at the Mannes College of Music in New York with Professor Mario Davidovsky and Victor Rosenbaum. She is currently studying for her PhD at Brandeis University where she was awarded the Outstanding Teaching Fellow Award for 2015-2016.

 

Nicoletta Andreuccetti

(Italy/Italie, 1968)

Nicoletta Andreuccetti composes acoustic and electronic contemporary works. She has won awards in several international competitions including 1st prize at the International Electroacoustic Music Competition Musica Nova in Prague and 1st prize at the Utrecht Dutch Harp Composition Contest Utrecht. Her music has been performed in many international festivals: Acanthes 2009 (Metz, Paris), ISCM 2011, International Gaudeamus Music Week 2012, Biennale di Venezia 2012, Festival Music and Performing Arts (NYU 2013), Mixtur 2014 (Barcelona), ICMC 2014 (Athens), Muslab 2015 (Mexico), INTER/actions 2016 Bangor, NYCEMF 2016, CMMR São Paulo, Teatro La Fenice (Venice) 2016, ICMC 2016 (Utrecht), Nweamo 2016 (Tokyo), and The Boston New Music Initiative 2016.

 

Julie Andreyev

(Canada, 1962)

Julie Andreyev is an artist, researcher and educator. Her art practice, called Animal Lover, www.animallover.ca explores more-than-human creativity. Andreyev’s projects are presented internationally. She is Associate Professor at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Vancouver. She recently completed her PhD at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver.

 

Martin Arnold

(Canada, 1959)

Toronto-based composer and performer Martin Arnold studied in Edmonton, Banff, The Hague, and Victoria, where his teachers were Alfred Fisher, Frederic Rzewski, John Cage, Louis Andriessen, Gilius van Bergeijk, Rudolf Komorous, Douglas Collinge, and Michael Longton. Martin is a founding member of the Drystone Orchestra and from 1995-2000 he was artistic director of The Burdocks. Currently, he plays guitar, banjo, melodica and live electronics in Marmots and Cow Paws as well as in bands led by Ryan Driver and Eric Chenaux. Martin works as a gardener and teaches in the Cultural Studies Department of Trent University.

 

Mohamed Assani (محمد آسانی)

(Canada, 1967)

Mohamed Assani is a celebrated sitar player and music creator, known for his creative musical collaborations with artists of diverse genres. He has performed across the globe with orchestras, string quartets, hip hop artists, DJs, world music ensembles, jazz artists, and Indian and Western classical artists—and, of course, solo. According to Georgia Straight, “Assani is both a musician who’s deeply rooted in the artistic traditions of South Asia and a one-of-a-kind innovator who’s bent on ensuring that those age-old forms will survive, and grow, in the modern era. His playing is fierce, resolute, and gripping.”

 

Henri Augusto

(Brazil, 1983)

Henri Augusto started his music career at 10 years old when he first learned to play drums. Seven years later he learned to play guitar. Currently, he is dedicating himself to composition, meanwhile slowly learning piano and saxophone. He also teaches musical theory and composition at a project named “Cursinho Da Capo”. He has previously studied Engineering at the UFABC university but left after three years to pursue his goal of being a musician. He is also a programmer and writes mainly Pure Data, Processing and C++. These experiences contributed to a broader perception of art, science, and technology.

 

B

Martin Rane Bauck

(Norway/Norvège, 1988)

Martin Rane Bauck is a Norwegian composer who mostly writes acoustic chamber music with few notes. He often composes for the ensemble Aksiom, which he co-created in 2010.

Dániel Péter Biró

(Canada/Hungary/USA, 1969)

Dániel Péter Biró is Associate Professor of Composition and Music Theory at the University of Victoria. After studying in Hungary, Germany and Austria, he completed his PhD at Princeton University in 2004. He has been commissioned by major festivals and venues and won international composition prizes. He was Visiting Professor, Utrecht University in 2011 and Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University in 2014-2015. He was elected to the College of New Scholars, Scientists and Artists, Royal Society of Canada in 2015 and awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2017. His compositions are performed around the world.

Hafdís Bjarnadóttir

(Iceland/Islande, 1977)

Hafdís Bjarnadóttir is a composer and electric guitarist who has been active in the Icelandic music scene for almost two decades, collaborating with numerous artists on both sides of the Atlantic. Hafdís combines her training in jazz and contemporary music to produce compositions that have been described as both challenging and accessible. Her past projects include a sound installation for the Nordic Lighthouse at the World Expo in Shanghai in 2010, an orchestral piece based on knitting instructions, two critically acclaimed solo albums, and various commissioned pieces. www.hafdisbjarnadottir.com

Kristian Blak

(Faroe Islands, 1947)

Kristian Blak who is based in the Faroe Islands composes for international classical ensembles, performs locally, and tours internationally as a musician and band leader with jazz, folk, and world music groups. Blak has worked with sounds in nature in several compositions. These include concerts in caves and other natural ”concert halls” in the Faroe Islands where sounds are integrated in the actual performance. Kristian Blak is the artistic director of Summartónar (The Faroe Islands Festival of Classical and Contemporary Music), as well as director of the Faroese musicians’ and composers’ record label Tutl.

Mauricio de Bonis

(Brazil, 1976)

Mauricio de Bonis is a composer, pianist, and Assistant Professor at the Institute of Arts of Universidade Estadual Paulista where he is also the Coordinator of the Bachelor’s and Music Degree programs and tutor in the PET-Música program. He has three degrees from the University of São Paulo: a PhD in Music, a Bachelor’s Degree in Music with a Composition Degree, and a Master’s Degree in Musicology. As a composer, he regularly participates in national and international contemporary music festivals. He also works as a researcher in the areas of Processes of Creation, Analysis, Composition, Citation and Metalanguage in Contemporary Music.

Tim Brady

(Canada, 1956)

Tim Brady is a composer, electric guitarist, producer, and cultural activist based in Montreal. Since 1980 he has composed over 100 works and released 22 CDs. He has performed at major venues around the world (South Bank Centre London, Festival Présence Paris, National Sawdust New York), and worked with the Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto symphonies. His Atacama: Symphonie #3 was called “a work of haunting and explosive power” by Gramophone Magazine, and was nominated for a JUNO in 2014. His current project includes music for the Instruments of Happiness electric guitar collective (4, 20, and 100 guitars), and a 3-opera cycle titled Hope/Espoir. www.timbrady.ca

Charlotte Bray

(United Kingdom, 1982)

Charlotte Bray studied under Mark-Anthony Turnage and Joe Cutler. Her associations include the LSO, LPO, and BCMG, and her work has been featured at the BBC Proms, Aldeburgh, Tanglewood, Aix-en-Provence, and Verbier. 2016 premieres include Stone Dancer for the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Oliver Knussen at Aldeburgh; and Falling in the Fire, a cello concerto for Guy Johnston by the same orchestra under Sakari Oramo. Her many accolades include the RPS Composition Prize, Lili Boulanger Prize, and the Critics’ Circle Award. Charlotte is supported by PRS for Music Foundation’s International Showcase Fund.

Michael Bussewitz-Quarm

(USA, 1971)

Michael Bussewitz-Quarm is a composer, conductor, educator, and a strong advocate for choral music. Michael has built a catalog reflecting his commitment to the community of faith through music. His Dies Magna Requiem, written to honor the first responders and survivors of the 9/11 attacks, is a keystone original work whose separate movements have been performed by the Gregg Smith Singers and Long Island Symphonic Choral Association. As an educator, Michael has championed youth and other amateur singers with his compositions, and advocates for the transgender community, sharing his experience of personal transition through music and words.

Jennifer Butler

(Canada, 1976)

Jennifer Butler is a composer, teacher, and flutist living in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her music has been commissioned, performed, and broadcast across Canada, in the USA, Australia, and Europe. She holds a Doctorate in music composition from the University of British Columbia. Jennifer currently sits on the advisory committee for the ISCM2017 World New Music Days, and is a board member for the CNMN, Redshift, and Standing Wave. She was President of the Canadian League of Composers from 2011-14, member of R. Murray Schafer’s Wolf Project since 2000, and is currently an Associate Composer with the Canadian Music Centre.

 

C

 

Zosha Di Castri

(Canada, 1985)

Zosha Di Castri is a Canadian composer/pianist living in New York. Her work (which has been performed in Canada, the USA, South America, and Europe) extends beyond purely concert music including projects with electronics, sound arts, and collaborations with video and dance. She has worked with such ensembles as the San Francisco Symphony, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the L.A. Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, ICE, Wet Ink, Ekmeles, the NEM, and Talea Ensemble among others. Besides composing, Zosha is currently an Assistant Professor of Music at Columbia University.

 

I-lly Cheng (鄭伊里)

(Taiwan, 1984)

I-lly Cheng started her piano and cello studies at the age of 5 and 10. Besides the profound influences from her classical music background, she has been researching and writing works comprising electronics, soundscape, video, and installations. She is interested in creating works that transmit the expression of musicality and touch the audience. I-lly received her bachelor’s degree in piano at National Taiwan University of Arts, her master’s degree in Composition at National Taiwan Normal University, and second master’s degree in Live Electronics at Conservatorium van Amsterdam. She was a resident composer at Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris in 2014. For more information, please visit: i-llycheng.com

 

Asmati Chibalashvili (ასმათი ჭიბალაშვილი)

(Georgia/Ukraine, 1986)

Asmati Chibalashvili was born in Telavi, Georgia and she graduated from Odessa State A. V. Nezhdanova Music Academy as a composer with Prof. K. Tsepkolenko (2006). She did her postgraduate studies at Kiev National P.I. Tchaikovsky Music Academy with Prof. Yevhen Stankovych (2010). She has won several children composers’ competitions in Odessa and Kiev. She was awarded a diploma from the Georgian Ambassador for the popularization of Georgian art in Ukraine (2002). Now, she is an explorer and junior researcher at the Institute of Contemporary Art of the Ukraine Arts Academy.

 

Justin Christensen

(Canada, 1975)

Justin Christensen is a Denmark-based Canadian composer, researcher, and performer working at Aalborg University as a Post-Doctoral researcher. He has previously earned his PhD in music composition in the UK with Michael Finnissy, completed degrees in music composition at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Netherlands, and degrees in music composition and trumpet performance at McGill University in Montreal. In his music, he enjoys exploring the inner workings of the musical object, rigorously examining it to expose its internal oppositions and generative potential, then delving into it and manipulating the complex and chaotic relations.

 

Robert J. Coe

(USA, 1993)

Robert J. Coe is an award-winning, internationally-performed composer of contemporary classical music. His works have been performed in Tasmania, Ukraine, Amsterdam, and Boston by ensembles including the Videri String Quartet, the Hobart Wind Symphony, the Phoenix Quartet, and the Denali Music Festival String Orchestra. Coe was recently awarded First Prize in the Bruno Maderna International Composition Competition in Lviv, Ukraine, and he was a 2016 Fulbright U.S. Student Program Finalist. Coe studied with Dr. Stephen Lias at Stephen F. Austin State University, and he is now pursuing graduate studies with Dr. Rob Smith at the University of Houston.

 

Murat Çolak

(Turkey/USA, 1984)

Murat Çolak is a composer and producer based in Boston. He writes both electronic music and music for live performers with acoustic and electronic instruments. His works have been featured in festivals and concert series in North America, Europe, Turkey, and Israel. His current collaborators include Ensemble Dal Niente (USA), Wet Ink Ensemble (USA), Ensemble Mise-en (USA), Vertixe Sonora Ensemble (SP), Christian Smith (Percussion, USA), Rosa Soler (Flute, Spain), Chiara Percivati (Clarinet, Italy) and Meitar Ensemble (Isreal) among others. Murat is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in composition at Boston University.

 

Leo Correia de Verdier

(Sweden/Brazil, 1980)

Leo Correia de Verdier is one of the world’s foremost sewing machine players, trained at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Using modern technology, computers, and sequencers, she has developed sewing machine music in new directions, taking it to a whole new level. Leo plays a Brother LS-2125, a traditional electric sewing machine with a rather powerful and clattery sound otherwise associated with heavier machines. Her music is highly structured, with shifting rhythmic patterns and a sound world rich in detail.

 

D

 

Omar Daniel

(Canada, 1960)

Omar Daniel has composed extensively in solo, chamber, electronic and orchestral idioms, and was the 1997 recipient of the Jules-Lèger Award for New Chamber Music. Other composition awards include the 2007 K.M. Hunter Arts Award, the SOCAN National Competition for Young Composers, and the CBC National Radio Competition for Young Composers. He is also an active pedagogue, and holds the position of Associate Professor in Composition at Western University (Ontario). Daniel’s music is firmly rooted in the European concert-music tradition, and exhibits a broad palette of instrumental colour, intricate harmonic language, a strong rhythmic profile, and rigorous architectural design.

 

Gabriel Dharmoo

(Canada, 1981)

Gabriel Dharmoo’s musical practice encompasses composition, vocal improvisation and research. His works have been performed in Canada, the USA, Europe, Australia, Singapore and South Africa. He was awarded the SOCAN Jan V. Matejcek Award (2016), the Fernand-Lindsay Prix d’Europe composition prize (2011), the Canada Council for the Art Robert Fleming Prize (2011) as well as 6 prizes from the SOCAN Foundation Awards for Young Composers. His work as a singer and interdisciplinary artist led to his performative solo Imaginary Anthropologies, awarded at the Amsterdam Fringe Festival (2015) and the SummerWorks Performance Festival (2016). His travel to the ISCM World New Music Days was generously supported by Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.

 

Ding Ling

(China, 1977)

Ding Ling is the Director of the Department of Music Composition of Guangxi Arts Institute. She is also a professor, a tutor of master students, and a leader of the theory of composition and composition technology. She grew up in a family of composers. Her works include symphonic poem The Northern Gulf, symphony The Taiping Kingdom, song cycle Shallow Sing Among the Flowers(a), choral pieces Old Friends and The Northern Gulf Wind, chamber piece Soul, and piano solos Night Song and Bamboo Hat. Her works are performed in China, the USA, and other countries.

 

Ilona Dobszay-Meskó

(Hungary, 1981)

Ilona Dobszay-Meskó is a recognized and well-known conductor, composer, and pianist in the Hungarian music scene. She is also a founder and leader of Ventoscala Symphony Orchestra (Budapest). She has 16 years experience in teaching and lecturing.

 

E

 

Cathy van Eck

(Belgium/Netherlands, 1979)

Cathy van Eck is a composer, sound artist, and researcher in the arts. She focuses on composing relationships between everyday objects, human performers, and sound. Her artistic work includes performances with live-electronics and installations with sound objects which she often designs herself. She is interested in setting her gestures into unusual and surprising relationships with sounds, mainly by electronic means. The result could be called “performative sound art” since it combines elements from performance art, electronic music, and visual arts. Her work transcends genres and is presented at occasions as diverse as experimental or electronic music concerts, open air rock festivals, and sound art gallery venues.

 

Per Egland

(Sweden, 1980)

Per Egland is a Swedish two-time Grammy-nominated composer who writes many kinds of music. Working mainly as a composer of contemporary music, he also writes music for film. Egland´s works range from orchestral music to smaller chamber pieces as well as different kinds of electronic works. Jazz and rock music have always greatly influenced his compositions. While studying in Stockholm in the summer of 2012, Egland was invited with his piece give me your beak! to the New Paths in Music Festival in New York. Egland is currently composing a trombone concerto for Christian Lindberg. He has also played the Sedin Twins several times in hockey. They won every time.

 

John Estacio

(Canada, 1966)

JUNO-nominated composer John Estacio has composed music for several musicians and ensembles, and his works are frequently recorded, performed, and broadcast on international radio and television. In addition to Filumena, he has composed three other operas, most recently Ours which received its premiere in St. John’s, Newfoundland. He has also written a full-length orchestral score for the ballet King Arthur’s Camelot which was remounted by the Cincinnati Ballet in February 2017. His music has been performed at Carnegie Hall by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Edmonton Symphony. He is the recipient of the NAC Award for Composers and his music was performed by Pinchas Zukerman and the National Arts Centre Orchestra during their tours of China and the UK.

 

F

 

Michael Finnissy

(United Kingdom/Royaume-Uni; born/né en 1946)

Michael Finnissy was born in Brixton, London in 1946. He was self-taught from the age of 4 to 18, then studied at the Royal College of Music (London) with Bernard Stevens and Humphrey Searle. He is a repetiteur (dance and opera), teacher (currently at Southampton University), pianist (new music, more than 300 first performances), associate of CoMA (non-professional musicians), president of ISCM (1990-96), and Honorary Member of ISCM. His music is published by Verlag Neue Musik (Berlin), UE, and OUP.

 

Salina Fisher

(New Zealand, 1993)

Salina Fisher’s work explores the musical traditions of Japan and New Zealand, with intriguing experiments in timbre, colour, non-Western modal harmonies, and temporal spaciousness. Her music has been performed throughout New Zealand and internationally, with performances and commissions from ensembles including the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, New Zealand String Quartet, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, NZSO National Youth Orchestra, and Stroma. In 2016, she became the youngest ever winner of the SOUNZ Contemporary Award for her orchestral work Rainphase. In September 2017, she will pursue a Masters in Composition at Manhattan School of Music on a Fulbright Scholarship.

 

Nana Forte

(Slovenia, 1981)

Nana Forte graduated in composition from the Music Academy in Ljubljana. She continued her postgraduate studies in composition at Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden and obtained her master’s degree at Universität der Künste in Berlin. Her compositions are performed around the world and have been broadcasted by various European classical radio stations. Her vocal pieces are performed by renowned Slovenian and world choirs such as the Slovenian Philharmonic Choir, Swedish Radio Choir, and Ensemble Epsilon. She has recently been exploring the field of opera and musical theatre. Her opera debut Paradies oder nach Eden was first performed in 2016 in Vorarlberger Landestheater Bregenz in Austria.

 

David Brynjar Franzson

(Iceland, 1978)

David Brynjar Franzson is an Icelandic composer based in New York. Recent projects include the release of the Negotiation of Context by Yarn|Wire on WERGO, recorded at EMPAC; longitude, an installation based chamber opera in collaboration with the Berlin based Ensemble Adapter; and on Matter and Materiality for solo cello and orchestra, for Severine Ballon, Ilan Volkov, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. David co-runs Carrier Records – a label for new and experimental music – with Sam Pluta and Jeff Snyder.

 

Lori Freedman

(Canada, 1958)

Lori Freedman is internationally recognized as one of the most creative and provocative performers. She is a member of a select group known as “renaissance musicians” as her artistic activities cover many fields: performer of written music, composer, improviser, teacher, and writer. While managing a full performance schedule, Freedman has received commissions to write music for ensembles such as Orkestra Futura, Arraymusic Ensemble, and Ensemble Transmission. Her current discography comprises over 59 recordings, the most recent of which include Greffes (Empreintes digitales), On No (Mode Records), and Bridge (Collection QB). Highlight collaborations include work with Rohan de Saram, Barre Phillips, and Helmut Lachenmann.

 

Paul Frehner

(Canada, 1970)

Paul Frehner’s initial musical experiences came from playing guitar in several rock and folk music groups throughout his teenage years. Frehner’s compositions have been performed and broadcast in Canada and abroad by leading professional soloists, ensembles and orchestras. His works have received numerous national and international awards. In 2007 his work Lila was awarded the Claude Vivier National Award in the Montreal Symphony Orchestra’s International Composition Competition. In 2012 he was awarded the K.M. Hunter Artist Award in Classical Music administered by the Ontario Arts Council. Paul Frehner is on the Don Wright Faculty of Music of Western University where he teaches composition, electroacoustic music and co-directs the contemporary music ensemble.

 

Michiko Fukazawa (深澤倫子)

(Japan, 1969)

Michiko Fukazawa was born in Japan. She received a Diploma from l’Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris as well as a Certificate from Conservatoire d’Annecy. Her piece Lemminkainen’s Mother for string orchestra was performed at Summer Course of Avanti! Summer Sounds 2012 in Porvoo, Finland. She participated in Druskomanija Festival 2012 in Lithuania where her piece Berceuse for piano and electronics was performed. She is also invited as the resident composer at Visby International Centre for Composers in Gotland, Sweden. Other notable compositions include Prisme (2006), Amber (2012), and Clair de lune (2014).

 

Fung Dic-lun (馮迪倫)

(USA, 1988)

Fung Dic-lun is a San Franciscan Cantonese composer. As a multi-instrumentalist, Fung specialises in East Asian strings, and has been nurtured with Chinese music traditions during the years of consolidation. Such background further expands into explorations of ethnic music worldwide. As a specialist in composing for mixed use of folk and classical instruments and infusing folk essences in works, he has achieved numerous international awards. His works are heard in Croatia, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, the USA, Russia, and South Korea. As a researcher, Fung advocates the study of “folk-classic” composition.

 

Vivian Fung (馮偉君)

(Canada, 1975)

JUNO Award-winning composer Vivian Fung has a talent for combining idiosyncratic textures into large-scale works, often including influences such as non-Western folk music. Among her upcoming commissions are new works for the Daedalus Quartet and clarinetist Romie de Guise-Langlois; Humanoid for cello and electronics for a consortium of cellists in North America; Baroque Melting for the San José Chamber Orchestra; and a new orchestral work commissioned by the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa. Born in Edmonton, Canada, Fung received her doctorate from The Juilliard School in New York and currently lives in California. For more information, visit: www.vivianfung.net.

 

G

 

Gao Ping

(China, 1970)

Gao Ping is a composer-pianist born in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. He studied in the USA in the 1990s. In demand as a composer, he has received commissions and performances from musicians around the world. In recent years, his works, such as Four Not-Alike – concerto for multifunction pianist and Chamber Orchestra, pointed to a new direction of Gao’s approach, combining Western and Chinese instruments. Gao Ping has released two critically-acclaimed albums on Naxos. Gao is currently a Composition Professor at Capital Normal University in Beijing and Composer-In-Residence for the Forbidden City Chamber Orchestra, a Chinese instrumental ensemble based in Beijing.

 

Gonçalo Gato

(Portugal/United Kingdom, 1979)

Gonçalo Gato initially studied composition in Lisbon, Portugal. Gonçalo moved to London in 2011 to start his doctoral studies on Algorithm and Decision in Musical Composition under Prof. Julian Anderson’s supervision at the Guildhall School of Music ands Drama. Recently, he was selected to take part in London Symphony Orchestra’s Panufnik Scheme where he was given the opportunity to write and publicly rehearse a new orchestral work. Orchestral works include the award-winning Vectorial-modular (2011) and A Vida é Nossa (2013, for symphonic wind band) premiered by the Banda Sinfónica Portuguesa at the Casa da Música (Porto, Portugal).

 

Vytautas Germanavičius

(Lithuania, 1969)

Vytautas Germanavičius studied accordion, classical piano, and jazz piano in his early years. In 1996, he graduated from the Lithuanian Academy of Music with MA in composition under Prof. Julius Juzeliūnas. In 2005, he received an MFA in electronic music from Mills College, USA. He also studied composition with Prof. Jonathan Harvey and Alvin Curran. He was a recipient of the UNESCO-Aschberg Bursary for residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts (Canada), Fulbright-Scholarship (USA), and Sir William Glock Scholarship (UK). Vytautas Germanavičius currently holds the position of the Chairman of the Lithuanian Composers’ Union Music Foundation and the Chairman of the Lithuanian Section of ISCM.

 

Fredrik Gran

(Sweden, 1977)

Fredrik Gran is an award-winning composer originally from Vällingby suburb in Stockholm, residing in Montréal for his doctorate at McGill University. His music and research intersects electroacoustic and acoustic sound ideas, employing mechanic/robotic interactive units, amplified instruments and objects, computer-assisted transcription of his own electroacoustic music and purpose-made electronic models into the notated sphere of acoustic instruments. Fredrik’s work covers orchestral, chamber, vocal, electroacoustic and live electronic music, as well as music for installations, museums, dance, digital art and visual art.

 

Alejandro Guarello

(Chile, 1951)

Alejandro Guarello was born in Viña del Mar (Chile). His creative work includes more than 70 pieces of chamber and symphonic music, many of them performed in Chile, Europe, Japan, and the USA. Moreover, some of his pieces have received awards and prizes in composition competitions. He has three monographic CDs and several records with his works. He founded, organized, and directed the music composition studies at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile where he is currently a composition teacher. Guarello is also the founder and artistic director of the Contemporary Chilean Music Festival, organized yearly by the same university.

 

Guo Yuan(郭元)

(China, 1965)

Guo Yuan received a doctorate of composition from Tokyo University of the Arts and is currently a professor at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music. His works have been performed in the USA, Canada, Turkey, Poland, Austria, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. He has received domestic and international prizes including the following: finalist in the 2nd Krzysztof Penderecki International Composers’ Competition, Poland; merit prize in the 11th and 15th Tokyo International Competitions for Chamber Music Composition, Japan; honorable mention in the Lutosławski Award 2004 International Composers’ Competition, Poland.

 

H

Mei Han

Mei Han is recognized internationally as one of the leading virtuosi and authorities on the Chinese zheng (zither). Han has performed and lectured on Chinese music worldwide; recorded two Juno nominated CDs; and created a large repertoire of new music, contemporary chamber music, free improv, and world music for the zheng. She has performed with orchestras in China and Canada, and been the subject of national TV and radio specials in many countries.

 

Dr. Irina Hasnas

(Romania, 1954)

Dr. Irina Hasnas studied in Bucharest at the Academy of Music “Ciprian Porumbescu” (1973 -1978) in the Composition Department with Aurel Stroe, Stefan Niculescu, Alexandru Pascanu, and Nicolae Beloiu – all composers belonging to the generation who founded the idea of the national musical school in the Romanian and International Cultural Space. After graduating from the Academy, she had the opportunity to continue her studies under the composer, Theodor Grigoriu. In 2000, she received her doctoral title at the Academy of Music in Cluj-Napoca. Irina Hasnas has been with the Romanian National Radio as an editor since 1987.

 

Vincent Ho

(Canada, 1975)

Vincent Ho received his Associate Diploma in Piano Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music in 1993, his Bachelor of Music from the University of Calgary in 1998, his Master of Music degree from the University of Toronto in 2000, and his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Southern California in 2005. In 1997, he attended the Schola Cantorum Summer Composition Program in Paris, where he received further training in analysis, composition, counterpoint, and harmony, supervised by David Diamond and Philip Lasser from the Juilliard School of Music and Narcis Bonet from the Paris Conservatoire.

 

Etsuko Hori

(Japan, 1943)

Etsuko Hori holds a M.A. from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (1970). From 1991 to 2013, she was a Professor of Music at Toho Gakuen Junior College. Etsuko is a member of the JSCM. Some of her major works include Two Movements for three flutes, 1965 (Zen-on); Concerto for Timpani, Violoncello and Orchestra, 1967 (Zen-on); Concerto for Viola and Orchestra, 1969; Four Landscapes in Oki, 1979. Four Landscapes and Concerto for Viola and Orchestra were awarded 1st prize from the Minister of Education for music.

 

Terri Hron

(Canada, 1977)

Terri Hron performs and creates music in a wide range of settings, often in collaboration with others. Since 2006, Bird on a Wire has been her solo project, where she uses collaboration to integrate new skills into her practice, from live electronics and immersive environments to embodied practices. Terri studied musicology and art history at the University of Alberta, recorder performance and contemporary music at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, and electroacoustic composition at the Université de Montréal. She investigates collaborative practices in the creation of electroacoustic music and temporal and spatial perception in performances with digital media.

 

Geoffrey Hudson

(USA, 1967)

Composer Geoffrey Hudson’s music has been performed across the USA and in Europe. In addition to The Quartet Project, recent commissions include an opera for young audiences, The Bug Opera, and a concerto for viola and chamber ensemble, First Among Equals. Hudson’s work has been supported by grants from the American Composers Forum, New Music USA, Meet the Composer, the International Music and Art Foundation, the Argosy Foundation, the Alice M. Ditson Fund, and others. Hudson received his undergraduate degrees at Oberlin College and earned a Master’s in composition at New England Conservatory.

 

I

 

Madeleine Isaksson

(Sweden/France, 1956)

Madeleine Isaksson studied piano and composition at Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, and obtained diplomas in piano-teaching and composition. Scholarships allowed her to continue her studies abroad in Holland and in France, where she lives and works as composer. In 2005 her CD Failles was released by Swedish label Phono Suecia. She received the Järnåker Award 2012 for Les sept vallées (2006) composed for solo recorder. The music of Madeleine Isaksson has been performed to great success by prominent ensembles at concerts and festivals across Europe and overseas.

 

Sanae Ishida (石田早苗)

(France/Japan, 1979)

Sanae Ishida was born in Nagasaki. In 2002 she studied composition at the Tokyo University of the Arts, and in 2007 she graduated in composition from the Conservatoire National Supérieur Musique. She received a scholarship for the 2006/07 season from the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan. She was selected as a composer-in-residence for Ensemble Linea in 2008 and was also invited to be a guest composer in 2009 for the Atlas Akademy. In 2015, Ishida was awarded the André Jolivet Composition Award. Her works have been performed by many ensembles including soloists of Ensemble Intercontemporain, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and Ensemble Linea.

 

Vera Ivanova (Вера Иванова)

(Russia/USA, 1977)

Vera Ivanova teaches at Chapman University (Associate Professor of Music, Music Theory/Composition Department) and the Colburn School. She graduated from Moscow Conservatory (BM and MM), Guildhall School in London (MM), and Eastman School (Ph.D.) with degrees in music composition. Her compositions have been performed worldwide and have received many national and international awards. Her music has been published by Universal Edition (UE 31899) and released on CD by Ablaze Records (Millennial Masters series, Vol. 2), Quartz Music, Ltd., Navona Recordings (Nova and Allusions albums), Musiques & Recherches (Métamorphoses 2004), and Centaur Records (CRC 3056). More information is available at: www.veraivanova.com.

 

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Friedrich Heinrich Kern

(USA/Germany, 1980)

Friedrich Heinrich Kern is a composer, pianist, and glass harmonica player. Kern began his studies in his home country of Germany where he earned degrees in both piano and composition. He then traveled to
Korea where he studied traditional Korean music and earned a PhD in Music Composition and Theory from New York University. FH Kern has composed works for acoustic and electronic instruments, ranging from solo piano to full orchestra. In his solo performances, he combines his contemporary classical background with a refined pop sensibility to create ethereal and peaceful piano melodies with modern electronic vibes.

 

Heera Kim

(South Korea, 1976)

Heera Kim studied composition and electronic composition with York Höller and Hans Ulrich Humpert in Cologne as well as Wolfgang Rihm in Karlsruhe. She attended Cursus 1 & 2 at IRCAM Paris from 2011 to 2013. She is the winner of Forum Ost & West Prize, Composition Competition of ensemble for new music Zurich, BMW Composition Prize, Günter Bialas Competition, Berliner Opernpreis, and Toru Takemitsu Award. Her works have been widely performed by Zurich Ensemble for New Music, Ensemble Eriprij Apeldoorn, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lorraine, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Ensemble Interface, and Ensemble AsianArt Berlin.

 

Jana Kmiťová

(Slovakia, 1976)

Jana Kmiťová studied piano and composition with Jozef Podprocky and Melánia Hermanova at the Konservatorium in Kosice. She then attended the Highschool for Musical Arts in Bratislava, continuing her studies in composition with Martincek. She also studied at the Musical Univerity of Vienna where she graduated, receiving an award of honour. Since then, he has been living in Vienna. She has been invited to the Takefu Music Festival in 2001, 2003 and 2004, and she won an international prize for composition in 2003.

 

Yuriko Hase Kojima

(Japan, 1962)

Born in 1962 Ms. Kojima received a BFA in piano from Osaka College of Music, BM in composition from the Boston Conservatory, and MA and DMA in composition from Columbia University where she was awarded the Andrew Mellon Fellowships and the Rappaport Composition Prize. She studied composition, computer music, theory, and aesthetics with Tristan Murail, Jonathan Kramer, Fred Lerdahl, Brad Garton, Philippe Leroux, and Betsy Jolas. Her works have been selected for ISCM, the ICMC and the ACL, and performed by the Ensemble Modern and others. She is the Chair Professor of Composition at Shobi University and the artistic director of NPO Glovill.

 

John Korsrud

(Canada, 1963)

John Korsrud is a composer honoured with the City of Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award for Music for 2012, and the 2015 Canada Council Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award. John is a composer based in Vancouver. In 1990, he formed the 18-piece Hard Rsubber Orchestra. In 2010, commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra, John composed and performed on his trumpet concerto, Come to the Dark Side at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Other commissions include the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, CBC Radio Orchestra, Albany Symphony New Music Festival, and several Dutch ensembles. John studied composition with Louis Andriessen in Amsterdam from 1995 to 1997.

 

Tõnu Kõrvits

(Estonia, 1969)

Tõnu Kõrvits is a rising star of Estonian contemporary music. His music is performed more and more frequently in Estonia and abroad. His music leads audiences on hypnotic journeys through the landscapes of nature and folk tradition with enchanting melodies and subtle harmonic colours. Kõrvits composes ensemble and orchestral music, works for solo instruments, choral music, and operas. As a talented and prolific creator, he has gained recognition from the Estonian state and cultural institutions. In 2016 his new CD Mirror was released by record label ECM and in 2017, his Moorland Elegies was released by Ondine. www.emic.ee/tonu-korvits.

 

Maria Christina Krithara (Μαρία Χριστίνα Κριθαρά)

(Greece, 1954)

Maria Christina Krithara achieved the Piano Diploma from the National Conservatory of Athens and the Composition Diploma from “N. Skalkottas” Conservatory. Her works include solos, chamber music, orchestral works, and vocal music. She has also composed music for theatrical plays, television series, and documentaries. She is a professor of Piano class and Musical Analysis at the Municipal Conservatory of Filothei–Psychiko and a member of the executive committee of the Greek Composers Union (G.C.U). Since 2003, she has been Editor in Chief for Polytonon, the G.C.U. journal.

 

Olga Kroupová

(Slovakia/Germany, 1966)

Olga Kroupová studied composition with Juraj Pospíšil at the Bratislava Conservatory and after graduating, she worked in the archive of the Slovak Musical Fund. From 1989 to 1991, she studied composition with Hrušovský and Bázlik at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. She also studied at the Liszt Academy in Budapest where she completed a compositional seminar with Barlow and Huber. She studied electroacoustic music with Pongrácz and worked in Hungarian Radio’s electroacoustic studio. Afterwards, she completed postgraduate study of composition with Redeln at Hochschule für Musik in Detmold, Germany where she settled and has since worked as a freelance composer.

 

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Philippe Leroux

(France/Canada, 1959)

Philippe Leroux was born in Boulogne Billancourt (France). In 1978, he entered the Paris Conservatory. He continued his studies with Olivier Messiaen, Franco Donatoni, Betsy Jolas, Jean-Claude Eloy and Iannis Xénakis. His compositional output (about eighty works to date) includes symphonic, vocal, electronic, acousmatic, and chamber music. He has received commissions from such organizations as the French Ministry of Culture, Radio-France, Südwestfunk Baden Baden, IRCAM, Percussions de Strasbourg, Canadian Council for the Arts, and Ensemble Intercontemporain. Since September 2011 he has been Associate Professor in composition at the Schulich School of McGill University.

 

Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman

(Belgium/Rwanda, 1980)

Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman was born in Rwanda but grew up in Belgium from the age of two. She’s an independent radio producer, vocalist, and composer. Aurélie Lierman’s main focus is her personal field recordings: a large collection of unique sounds and soundscapes from rural and urban contemporary East‐Africa. Sound‐bit by sound‐bit, she’s transforming and sculpting them into what she calls “Afrique Concrète”. Aurélie Lierman’s work has been broadcasted, exhibited, and performed throughout Europe, Israel, Morocco, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and USA. Currently, Aurélie Lierman is developing a set of site specific installations and electroacoustic compositions for Slagwerk Den Haag that was premiered in January 2017.

 

Märt-Matis Lill

(Estonia, 1975)

Märt-Matis Lill’s music reflects his deep interest in Oriental culture and philosophic tradition. His music combines modern Western sonoristic devices as well as refined and concentrated sound perception common to Oriental music. Oftentimes, recited lyrics and music are connected in his scores. Lill studied in Estonian Academy of Music with Lepo Sumera and in Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with Veli-Matti Puumala. He has been the chairman of the Estonian Composers’ Union since 2014. Currently, Lill is writing an opera about the World War I, commissioned by the opera house Vanemuine. This work will be premiered in 2017 in Tartu, Estonia.

 

Nicole Lizée

(Canada,1973)

JUNO-nominated Montreal composer Nicole Lizée creates new music and video from an eclectic mix of influences including turntablism, rave culture, and glitch. Her commission list of over 50 works includes the Kronos Quartet, BBC Proms, San Francisco Symphony, Carnegie Hall, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Montreal Symphony Orchestra. Nicole was awarded the 2013 Canada Council for the Arts Jules Léger Prize. She is a Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellow (Italy) and recently received a Lucas Artists Fellowship Award (California). She was selected by composer Howard Shore to be his protégée as part of the 2015 Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards.

 

Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard

(Denmark, 1979)

Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard graduated from the RMC in Copenhagen and the School of Architecture at The Royal Danish Academy of Art. He has received a number of awards throughout his career. He received the Léonie Sonning Scholarship in 2006 and was awarded by the Danish Arts Foundation in 2007. In 2014 he received the Creative Circle Silver Award for the soundscape to the René Magritte exhibition The Mystery of the Ordinary at MoMA (N.Y.). Furthermore, he teaches at the RMC in Copenhagen and is the founder of Curatorium – a curatorial non-event.

 

Luk Wai Chun Vincent (陸尉俊)

(Hong Kong, 1993)

Luk Wai Chun Vincent is currently a doctoral student in composition at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), studying with Professor Lee Wan Ki Wendy and focusing on fusing Chinese and Western elements in contemporary music. He won the Outstanding Individual Award and the Hong Kong Composers’ Guild mentor program scholarship in the 20th Schools Creative Music Showcase with War of Ferocity. In 2016, he was invited to present his composition Jazz Pipa at UCSD’s Intercultural Music Conference and Concert where he was awarded the Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong Scholarship.

 

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Sky Macklay

(USA, 1988)

Sky Macklay explores bold contrasts, theatrical elements, and the visceral physicality of sound production and perception. Macklay plays with the Ghost Ensemble collective and has toured the USA and Japan. Macklay graduated Magna Cum Laude from Luther College in Iowa where she studied composition. She holds a master’s degree in composition from the University of Memphis and is currently pursuing her doctoral studies at Columbia University. Her works have been performed by ensembles such as ICE, Yarn|Wire, and Firebird Ensemble. Her work has been showcased at the 2010 Midwest Black History Conference and has been a winner in the 2011 Iowa Composers Forum Spring Festival’s composition contest.

 

Giorgio Magnanensi

(Canada, 1960)

Giorgio Magnanensi is an Italian Canadian composer of orchestral, chamber and multimedia works that have been performed throughout Europe and elsewhere; he is also active as a conductor and live electronics performer. As a conductor, he served in many permanent positions in Italy, and as principal conductor of the Vancouver New Music Ensemble since 2000. As a guest conductor, he has conducted in Europe, Japan, and Canada. Giorgio taught composition in various positions in Italy from 1984-1999, and has lectured at the College of Music in Tokyo and University of British Columbia. He is a lecturer at Vancouver Community College, and is the artistic director of Vancouver New Music.

 

Sanda Majurec

(Croatia, 1971)

Sanda Majurec graduated in composition from the Music Academy in Zagreb under Stanko Horvat, and harpsichord under Višnja Mažuran. She attended the International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt and collaborated with the contemporary music composer Robert Zanata in writing pieces for acoustic instruments and electronics. In 2006, she was in residence at the Composers’ Centre in Visby as part of a cultural exchange between Croatia and Sweden. She is a professor at the Arts Academy in Osijek. As a harpsichord player, Majurec performs in Croatia and abroad. She is one of the founders of the Little Harpsichord Festival and the Croatian association of harpsichord players.

 

Andrej Makor

(Slovenia, 1987)

Andrej Makor graduated in music teaching, solo singing, and in music composition at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana. He has also received a Prešeren Award for students of University of Ljubljana (Slovenia). He is continuing his master studies of music composition at the University of Padova (Italy). Makor’s compositions have been published in several collections and have won awards in competitions around the world. As a composer, he works with several choirs, ensembles, and musicians including BBC Singers (GB), BYU Singers (USA), and Salt Lake Vocal Artists (USA). His compositions have also been performed at numerous competitions, festivals, and seminars both in Slovenia and abroad.

 

Laura Manolache

(Romania, 1959)

Laura Manolache studied musicology and composition at the National Music University of Bucharest, and obtained DAAD research scholarships in addition to the scholarship offered by the Romanian Academy. She has been involved with didactic activity at the NMUB since 1991 and has a Musicology PhD. From 2006 to 2012, she was General Director of “George Enescu” National Museum. She creates instrumental-chamber and vocal opuses, concerto and symphonic works, and has been recorded by the Romanian Broadcasting Society. Laura’s works have been edited by “EdituraMuzicală” and Müller & Schade Publishing House. Her works have been performed in Romania, Japan, and many other European countries.

 

Shingo Matsuura (松浦 伸吾)

(Japan, 1979)

Shingo Matsuura was born in Kyoto, Japan. He studied composition with Kei Kondo and Yoko Kubo in the graduate school of Osaka College of Music. He also studied Bandoneon with Nestor Marconi in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Shingo won the second prize for composition (orchestral work) at the 71st Japan Music Competition in 2003, and the first prize at the 2nd International Alkema Composition Contest in 2014. He was a researcher with a fellowship at The Rohm Music Foundation from 2005 to 2007 and is presently a lecturer of composition and musical theory at Osaka College of Music. http://shingo-matsuura.net

 

James B. Maxwell

(Canada, 1968)

James B. Maxwell is a composer of concert music and music for contemporary dance, theatre, film, and media, and is Co-Artistic Director of Restless Productions. Upcoming and in-progress works include a work for eight (or more) electric guitars for Redshift Music’s Vertical Orchestra 2017, a double-concerto for cello, harp, large ensemble, and soundscape, for Couloir (Ariel Barnes: cello, Heidi Krutzen: harp) and Turning Point Ensemble, and a new work for Corey Hamm and Nicole Ge Li’s Piano Erhu Project.

 

Egidija Medekšaitė

(Lithuania/United Kingdom, 1979)

Egidija Medekšaitė studied composition with Prof. Rytis Mažulis at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. In 2003, she took part in the Programme of Composition and Music Technology in Tampere (Finland). She attended master classes in Istebna (Poland), Dundaga (Latvia), and the Acanthes Composition Workshop in Metz (France) where she studied with Jonathan Harvey, Philippe Manoury, and Martin Matalon. She also studied at the Stuttgart Academy of Music with Marco Stroppa and Caspar J. Walter. In 2015, she received a Doctoral degree of Philosophy by Composition at the Durham University (UK). The composer participates in various interdisciplinary art projects, and writes music for dance performances and movies.

 

Mariah Mennie

(Canada, 1978)

Mariah Mennie is an emerging composer based in Vancouver B.C. Her creative explorations include that of composer, pianist, vocalist, arranger, drummer, fire dancer, and music teacher. She is currently completing a BMUS in composition at UBC and holds a music diploma from VCC. She writes and performs with the Plastic Acid Band and also performs and composes with the Plastic Acid Orchestra – a 45-piece rock orchestra. Other collaborations include Redshift Music Society, Hard Rubber Orchestra, Vancouver Electronic Ensemble, Giorgio Magnanensi, Aventa, the End Tree, the Living, Anita Eccleston, Maria in the Shower, and many others.

 

Jared Miller

(Canada/USA, 1988)

Jared Miller’s music has been described as “playful” (New York Times), “hypnotic” (Sequenza 21), and “highly personal” (CBC Radio.) He has worked with many ensembles including the American Composers Orchestra, the symphony orchestras of Vancouver and Toronto, the Juilliard Orchestra, The Attacca Quartet, Latitude 49 and the New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute. Upcoming performance highlights include commissions for the symphony orchestras of Detroit and Toronto, the prairie premiere of Miller’s Palimpsest with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and the premiere of a new violin concerto for Müge Büyükçelen and the Victoria Symphony. Miller is currently based in New York City where he composes and maintains an active teaching career.

 

Lisa Cay Miller

(Canada, 1968)

Lisa Cay Miller is “making some of the most intricate and beautiful music that can be heard in Vancouver today” (The Georgia Straight). Miller’s compositions have been premiered by the Flat Earth Society, de Bijloke ensemble (Belgium) Tetzepi Bigtet (Amsterdam), mmm… (Tokyo), NME, Pianorquestra (Brazil), Ensemble SuperMusique, le GGRIL, Quatuor Bozzini (Montreal), and Vancouver New Music, Standing Wave, Jesse Zubot, Turning Point Ensemble, Rachel Iwaasa, Hard Rubber Orchestra, and François Houle (Vancouver). As a pianist, Miller has performed world-wide with artists such as Nicole Mitchell, Douglas Ewart, Butch Morris, and Jessika Kenney. Miller is the Artistic Director of the NOW Society.

 

Ryan Molloy

(Ireland, 1983)

Ryan Molloy’s work has been performed on four continents for over ten years, including major concert venues such as Tanglewood (USA), Lucerne Hall, KKL (Switzerland), and Kölner Philharmonie (Germany). He has recorded over a dozen albums and his repertoire spans numerous genres from traditional Irish music to contemporary classical music. Ryan is currently a lecturer in composition at Maynooth University. Ryan’s works have won numerous prizes and have been broadcast both nationally and internationally. From 2012 to 2014, Ryan’s compositional work was supported by a BBC Performing Arts Fund Fellowship in association with Moving on Music. Ryan is represented by the Contemporary Music Centre, Dublin.

 

Yasunoshin Morita (森田 泰之進)

(Japan, 1969)

Yasunoshin Morita studied composition under Yori-aki Matsudaira and Frederic Durieux. He won prizes in the composition competition of ISCM Japanese Section, the Bucchi International Composition Competition in Italy, and the Composition Prize for Orchestra of Japan. He gives lectures on Japanese traditional music in CNSMDP in Paris.

 

Jocelyn Morlock

(Canada,1969)

JUNO Award-nominated composer Jocelyn Morlock’s music is hailed as “airy but rhythmic, tuneful but complex” and with “uncanny yet toothsome beauty” (Georgia Straight). Her music is recorded on 20 CDs including the newly released Halcyon, and Cobalt, whose title track won the 2015 Western Canadian Music Award for Best Classical Composition. Jocelyn won the 2016 Mayor’s Arts Award for Music in Vancouver, and is currently the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s Composer in Residence. Recent premieres include Lucid Dreams, a cello concerto written for Ariel Barnes and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and Hullabaloo, written for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

 

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Frederik Neyrinck

(Belgium/Austria, 1985)

Frederik Neyrinck studied in Brussels with Piet Kuijken (piano) and Jan Van Landeghem (composition). In 2008-2009, he studied composition with Marco Stroppa in Stuttgart and in 2012, he began composition studies with Clemens Gadenstätter in Graz. In 2013, the CD Works for Wind Instruments, played by I Solisti del Vento, was released. Neyrinck is composer in residence and one of the founding members of the Odysseia Ensemble. Neyrinck is also involved in TIK TAK TOE, a yearly festival for “recent” music organized at the art gallery D’Apostrof in Meigem, and works with the Platypus Ensemble (Vienna) as a pianist.

 

Hisataka Nishimori (西森久恭)

(Japan, 1986)

Hisataka Nishimori was born in Osaka, Japan and studied composition at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels at Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts. From 2012 to 2015, Nishimori participated in summer master classes at Accademia Musicale Chigiana, and twice received the diploma for most-valuable participant. Awards include the 3rd prize in the 8th TIAA All-Japan Composers Competition (2010), the 1st Prize in Concorso Internazionale di Composizione Musicale “MUSICA e TRA ITALIA E GIAPPONE”, and the 2nd Prize in ACL Young Composers Competition in the 34th ACL Conference and Festival. Nishimori studied under Harue Kondoh, Giorgio Battistelli, and Salvatore Sciarrino.

 

Jordan Nobles

(Canada,1969)

Jordan Nobles has won numerous awards throughout the world including the Sacra/Profana, Unbound Flute Festival, Vancouver Bach Choir, and Polyphonos International Composition Competitions. In June 2017, Jordan was the recipient of the Jan V. Matejcek Award from SOCAN in recognition of overall success in ‘New Classical Music’. He has twice been nominated for Classical Composition of the Year at the Western Canadian Music Awards and won the JUNO Award for Classical Composition of the Year in 2017. He continues to receive national and international performances and commissions, and was named the Emerging Artist in music from the City of Vancouver’s Mayor’s Arts Awards (2009).

 

Éric Normand

(Canada, 1977)

Éric Normand is an improviser, bassist, instrument designer, composer, and record and concert producer. Stuart Brommer of The Wholenote calls him “one of Canada’s most creative musical visions.” As an improviser, Normand developed a personal and radical style of playing on a homemade electric bass equipped with mics and objects feedbacking and vibrating in small electronic devices. He likes to play duets with Jim Denley, Philippe Lauzier, and Pierre-Yves Martel in addition to spontaneous encounters. For seven years, he has led the GGRIL, a 15-piece band that has worked with composers such as Evan Parker, Jean Derome, Robert Marcel Lepage, and Michael Fischer.

 

Farangis Nurulla-Khoja (Фарангис Нурулла)

(Tajikstan/Sweden/Canada, 1972)

Farangis Nurulla-Khoja is a Tajik-Canadian composer born in Dushanbe (Tajikistan) in the family of well-known Tajik composer, Ziyodullo Shahidi. She holds a PhD of Fine Arts in Composition (University of Göteborg, Sweden) and has also studied at the University of California in San Diego and at IRCAM (Paris). Farangis lives by the criteria of the international life and follows the aesthetic language of contemporary music. Her compositions have been performed in concerts and in international festivals of contemporary music in Europe, North America and Asia. She has also received numerous awards.

 

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James O’Callaghan

(Canada, 1988)

James O’Callaghan is a composer and sound artist based in Montréal. His music intersects acoustic and electroacoustic media, employing field recordings, amplified found objects, computer-assisted transcription of environmental sounds, and unique performance conditions. His works, spanning chamber, orchestral, live electronic and acousmatic idioms, audio installations, and site-specific performances, have been awarded national and international prizes, and selected for numerous international festivals. He received a Master of Music degree from McGill University in 2014, studying with Philippe Leroux, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Simon Fraser University in 2011, studying with Barry Truax.

 

Amr Okba (عمرو عقبة)

(Egypt/Austria, 1972)

Amr Okba started his musical education with piano and music theory lessons at the Institute of Arabic Music and Faculty of Music Education. In 1994, Amr obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Management and Business Administration in Egypt. Afterwards, he joined the Cairo Conservatoire. In 1998, Amr obtained his Bachelor in Composition and was awarded with the Rome Prize-State Prize for Artistic Creation which allowed him to study composition with Mauro Burtolotti in Italy. In 2003, he studied composition with Reinhard Febel and with Dieter Kaufmann in Austria. Amr’s music has been performed by several prestigious groups such as Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Mozarteum University Orchestra, and The BBC Symphony Orchestra.

 

John Oliver

(Canada, 1959)

John Oliver’s “wonderfully, creative music” (Fanfare) displays “a delicate yet often complex sense of beauty” (Musicworks). He is the winner of the Classical Composition of the Year Award at the 2013 Western Canadian Music Awards for his orchestral composition Forging Utopia. He has also received high praise for the breadth of his creative output, from orchestral and chamber music to intercultural works, electroacoustic music, and opera. His works have been performed at the ISCM, by the Canadian Opera Company, and major Canadian orchestras and chamber ensembles. His works have been performed in China, the USA, and Europe, and appear on over 20 commercial recordings.

 

Ryszard Osada

(Poland, 1972)

Ryszard Osada has been the national and international winner of competitions including: Nationwide Composition Competition “Łódź’ 98” – 3rd prize; 24 Irino Prize Competition in Japan – an honourable mention; Karol Szymanowski ZAiKS Competition – an honourable mention; 25 Russollo International Composition Competition in Italy – 2nd prize. Osada is a member of the Association of Polish Composers since 2003. He is also a holder of the Ministry of Culture Grant in 2006. In 2007, 2011, and 2013, he received the
scholarship of ZAiKS, and in 2008, he received a scholarship from the Institute of Adam Mickiewicz.

 

Simon Lysander Overstall

(Canada, 1968)

Simon Lysander Overstall is a computational media artist and musician-composer. His generative, interactive, and performative works (simonlysander.net) are presented internationally. He holds an MA in Sound in New Media, Aalto University, Helsinki; a BFA in Music Composition, Simon Fraser University; and a Jazz Diploma, Vancouver Island University.

 

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Maja Palser

(Wales, 1984)

Maja Palser, born in Basel (Switzerland), is of Welsh/Swiss heritage and has been living in Cardiff for over 13 years. She studied at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama under Peter Reynolds, graduating in 2011. Maja is interested in the physiological and spiritual aspects of music, and her work explores the impact of music on the body and mind. Her pieces are widely performed in Wales, Israel, and Armenia. In 2015, she was commissioned by Canolfan Gerdd William Mathias for Wales International Piano Festival and Pro Art Agency for HA-SS Festival in Armenia. Maja’s attendance at ISCM 2017 has been made possible through the generous support of Wales Arts International, the Arts Council of Wales, the Welsh Government, the National Lottery and Tŷ Cerdd.

 

Kjell Perder

(Sweden, 1954)

Kjell Perder was educated at RCM in Stockholm from 1979-88, and studied with Sven David Sandström, Arne Mellnäs, and Brian Ferneyhough. Perder has composed for a great variety of ensembles, with commissions from opera houses, choirs, and ensembles in Sweden and abroad. His music has been performed live and broadcasted in 20 countries across Europe, Asia, North America, and South America. Perders choral and instrumental music is said to have a “special relation to the human voice, to poetry, and to different aspects of love.”

 

Grzegorz Pieniek

(Poland/Austria, 1982)

Grzegorz Pieniek is a Polish composer currently living in Vienna, Austria. In 2003, he studied composition with Lidia Zielinska at the Academy of Music in Poland and in 2009, he earned a Postgraduate Diploma in Composition with Michael Jarrell at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. He has received several prizes in national and international composition competitions including Concurso Internacional De Miniaturas Electroacústicas, Artur Malawski National Composition Competition, and Theodor-Körner-Preis. His works have been performed at music festivals and concerts in Europe and Asia including the Wiener Frühlingsfestival, Festival Internazionale di Musica Elettroacustica del Conservatorio S.Cecilia, and Musicacoustica Beijing.

 

Stefan Prins

(Belgium, 1979)

After graduating as an engineer, Stefan Prins studied piano and composition at the Royal Flemish Conservatory in Antwerp, electronic music at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, and sonology at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. In 2017, Stefan obtained a PhD in composition at Harvard University under the guidance of Chaya Czernowin. He received several important international awards, such as the Kunstpreis Berlin für Musik, Kranichsteiner Musikpreis für Komposition, and ISCM Young Composers Award. His music is performed worldwide. He is the artistic co-director of the Nadar Ensemble and regularly performs as an improvising musician.

 

Veli-Matti Puumala

(Finland, 1965)

Veli-Matti Puumala established himself as one of Finland’s most talented composers during the 1990s. He studied with Paavo Heininen at the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki and attended Franco Donatoni’s courses at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. Since 2005, he has been the Professor of Composition at the Sibelius Academy. In 2011, he was awarded the Erik Bergman Jubilee Prize in recognition of his excellent, versatile work continuing the ethical and spiritual tradition of Modernism. Puumala’s music has been featured extensively at several festivals in Scandinavia and Europe. His music has been recorded on Jase and Ondine labels.

 

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Takayuki Rai

(Japan, 1954)

Takayuki Rai studied composition with Irino and Lachenmann, and computer music with Paul Berg at the Institute of Sonology in the Netherlands. He teaches computer music and composition at Kunitachi College of Music, Toho College of Music, and Sichuan Conservatory of Music. He has previously taught at Lancaster University between 2006 and 2013. His works have been selected at numerous international competitions and have won premier awards at International Electroacoustic Music Competition Bourges and NEWCOMP International Computer Music Competition. He has also been awarded with the Irino Composition Prize. In 1991, he received the ICMA Commission Award.

 

Randy Raine-Reusch

(Canada, 1952)

Specializing in New and Experimental Music for world instruments, Raine-Reusch’s compositions include large-scale site-specific extravaganzas, electro-acoustic diffusions, realtime interactive computer works, soundscapes, soundtracks, chamber works, and graphic scores for improvisation.

 

Clemens von Reusner

(Germany, 1957)

Clemens von Reusner is a composer and sound artist based in Germany who is focused on acousmatic music. He studied musicology, music education, and drums with Abbey Rader and Peter Giger. Since the end of the 1970s, he has been engaged in electroacoustic music, radio plays, and soundscape compositions. He was involved in the development of the music software, Kandinsky Music Painter. He is also a member of the German Society for New Music (GNM), the German Composers Society (DKV), and the German Society for Electroacoustic Music (DEGEM). His music has been broadcast and performed nationally and internationally.

 

Fernando Riederer

(Austria/Brazil, 1977)

Fernando Riederer was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and moved to Florianopolis, South of Brazil, when he was a young child. In 1997, he attended the Escola de Música e Belas artes do Paranám, the School of Music and Arts of Parana in Brazil. There, he studied composition with Maurício Dottori. Fernando lives in Vienna, Austria and has studied at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien (University of Music and Dramatic Arts of Vienna) with Dieter Kaufmann and German Toro-Perez. He has earned several composition awards and has had his music presented in Europe and the USA.

 

Benton Roark

(Canada, 1977)

With work described as “ardent and soaring” (The National Post), “visionary” (The Vancouver Sun), and “an experience of deep and darkling beauty” (The Austin Chronicle), Benton Roark’s compositions have been presented by Tapestry Opera, Théatre Re, Victoria Guitar Trio, Ear Heart Music, Redshift Music, and Aventa. Roark’s work can be heard on a number of recordings, including flutist Mark Takeshi McGregor’s Sins and Fantasies and Arkora’s Songs from the Rainshadow’s Edge (nominated for a 2016 Western Canadian Music Award). Roark serves as Co-Artistic Director of Arkora Music and Associate Artistic Director of Redshift Music Society.

 

Rodney Robertson

(Canada, 1968)

Rodney Robertson is a poet, librettist, novelist, and teacher. Raised in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Rodney lived in Japan for several years before making Vancouver home. His life and work continue to be shaped by his travel experiences and the tension between his mono-cultural rural origins and his current urban, multi-cultural life in Vancouver. Influenced by the works of Margaret Atwood, Al Purdy, Ted Hughes, and Seamus Heaney, Rodney has written over four hundred poems and several libretti. He is currently at work on his first novel, a work of speculative fiction addressing issues such as environmental degradation and intercultural otherness.

 

Demian Rudel Rey

(Argentina, 1987)

Demian Rudel Rey is a composer and guitarist. He graduated in guitar at EMBA and Conservatory Piazzolla. He completed a Degree in Composition where he studied with Santero, and a Postgraduate in Combined Arts at UNA University (Argentina). He attended masterclasses with Arturo Parra, Francis Dhomont, Horacio Vaggione, Annette Vande Gorne, among others. He was awarded or received honorable mentions in TRIME, TRINAC, SADAIC, conDiT, Destellos, FAUNA, IndieFEST Awards, Konex-Mozart Award, Martirano Award, Sagarik Award, and CICE Monaco. His works are performed around the world. He is a coordinator at Bahía[in]sonora Festival, and he is moving to France to earn a Master’s degree in Composition at CNSMD Lyon.

 

Jeffrey Ryan

(Canada, 1962)

Praised for his “masterful command of instrumental colour” (Georgia Straight) and “superb attention to rhythm” (Audio Ideas Guide), and recipient of SOCAN’s 2014 Jan V. Matejcek New Classical Music Award for career achievement, Vancouver-based Jeffrey Ryan writes music that runs the gamut from opera, art song, and choral music to chamber and orchestral work. With awards and recognition including four JUNO nominations, his music has been commissioned, performed, and recorded by orchestras, ensembles, and soloists worldwide. His portrait CD, Fugitive Colours (Vancouver Symphony/Gryphon Trio), launched the Naxos Canadian Classics series and won the 2012 Western Canadian Music Award for Classical Recording of the Year. Please visit his website at www.jeffreyryan.com.

 

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Kaija Saariaho

(Finland, 1952)

Kaija Saariaho is a prominent member of a group of Finnish composers and performers who are now, in mid-career, making a worldwide impact. She studied composition in Helsinki, Freiburg, and Paris, where she has lived since 1982. Her studies and research at IRCAM have had a major influence on her music and her characteristically luxuriant and mysterious textures are often created by combining live music and electronics. Although much of her catalogue comprises chamber works, from the mid-nineties she has turned increasingly to larger forces and broader structures, such as the operas L’Amour de loin and Adriana Mater and the oratorio La Passion de Simone.

 

Alfredo Santa Ana

(Canada, 1980)

Alfredo is a Mexican/Canadian composer writing music in Vancouver since 2003. From 2011 to 2014, Alfredo served as the inaugural Peter Wall Composer-In-Residence at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies at UBC where he collaborated with Margie Gillis to create On Fairness, a work for dancer, flute, violin, and cello that has had multiple performances in Montréal, Vancouver, and New York. His music has been performed by renowned artists including Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw and members of the Music on Main All-Star Band, Turning Point Ensemble, Orchestre de la Francophonie, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and most recently the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

 

R. Murray Schafer

(Canada, 1933)

R. Murray Schafer is Canada’s most outstanding avant-garde composer. He has written in all forms, especially orchestral music, chamber music, and music theatre. He worked for many years in the field of music education, developing musical creativity among children. As a professor of communications at Simon Fraser University, he developed the World Soundscape Project and his influential book The Tuning of the World has been translated into many languages. Schafer’s fondness for choral music dates from his youth when he was a choir boy. A long-standing association with the Vancouver Chamber Choir has yielded several new choral works and three outstanding recordings of his collected choral compositions.

 

Jay Schwartz

(USA, 1965)

Jay Schwartz was born in San Diego, studied music at Arizona State University, and immigrated in 1989 to Germany. Renowned orchestras have commissioned and performed his works, including the New York Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale RAI, the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir, the West German Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Frankfurt Symphony Orchestra, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, and the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. He was an artist in residence at the Cité des Arts in Paris. He received the Rome-Prize from the German Ministry of Culture and will reside at the German Academy in Rome in 2017/2018.

 

Rodney Sharman

(Canada, 1958)

Rodney Sharman is Composer-in-Residence of Early Music Vancouver’s New Music for Old Instruments. He has been Composer-in-Residence of the Victoria Symphony, National Youth Orchestra of Canada, Vancouver Symphony, and Composer-Host of the Calgary Philharmonic’s New Music Festival, Hear and Now. In addition to concert music, Sharman writes music for cabaret, opera, and dance. He works regularly with choreographer James Kudelka, for whom he has written scores for Oregon Ballet Theatre, San Francisco Ballet, and Citadel Compagnie (Toronto). He was awarded First Prize in the 1984 CBC Competition for Young Composers and the 1990 Kranichsteiner Prize in Music, Darmstadt.

 

Remy Siu (蕭逸南)

(Canada, 1990)

Remy Siu is a composer and new media artist based in Vancouver, BC. Recently, his work has involved the construction of automated and variable performance apparatuses that employ light, sound, software, and the body. He is interested in creating friction and stakes between the performer, the interface, and the system through the use of game mechanics and failure. His output spans chamber music, dance, theatre, and audio-visual work. He is the co-founder and co-artistic director of Hong Kong Exile, and co-founder and manager at the Gold Saucer Studio. He studied at SFU Contemporary Arts.

 

Lachlan Skipworth

(Australia, 1982)

Lachlan Skipworth is emerging as one of the leading composers of his generation in Australia, and is currently composer-in-residence with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. After training initially as a clarinettist, Skipworth spent almost 3 years in Japan immersed in the study of shakuhachi, an end-blown bamboo flute, and its ancient honkyoku solo repertoire. After returning to Australia, he began to hone and refine his experience into a highly personal compositional language, displaying his craft and sensibilities across a number of musical genres.

 

Adam Skoumal

(Czech Republic, 1969)

Adam Skoumal is known to audiences in Europe, the USA, and Japan as one of the foremost Czech pianists and composers. Skoumal first won attention as a composer in the Prague Spring competition in 1998, where he won first prize for best contemporary Czech composition. Adam Skoumal studied at the Prague Conservatory under Boguniova and at the Academy of Performing Arts under Jan Panenka and Peter Toperczer. He also attended prestigious schools in the USA (Southern Methodist University in Dallas and Manhattan School of Music in New York under R. Laredo). Adam Skoumal has recorded numerous CDs of the works by Schumann, Dvořák, Smetana, Rejcha and Janáček.

 

Gundega Šmite

(Latvia/Greece, 1977)

Gundega Šmite graduated from the composition department at Jazeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music (Master’s degree in 2007). In the 2005/2006 academic year, she studied at the Jean Sibelius Academy of Music with Veli-Matti Puumala. She is a lecturer in the Latvian Music Academy. She has been a Chairperson of the Latvian Composers’ Union. In 2012, she earned a doctoral degree in arts for her musicological research which concerns the relationship between music and text in contemporary choral music. She has won numerous prizes and her works have been performed in prominent contemporary music festivals including Klangspuren, Time of Music, and Baltic Sea Festival.

 

Linda Catlin Smith

(Canada/ USA, 1957)

Linda Catlin Smith grew up in New York and lives in Toronto. She studied music in New York and at the University of Victoria. Her music has been performed and/or recorded by: Tafelmusik, Other Minds Festival, Trio Arbos (Madrid), Victoria, Kitchener-Waterloo, and Vancouver Symphony Orchestras, Arraymusic, Tapestry New Opera, Via Salzburg, Evergreen Club Gamelan, and the Del Sol, Penderecki, and Bozzini string quartets, among many others. In 2005, Garland (for Tafelmusik) was awarded Canada’s prestigious Jules Léger Prize. Recently, two solo discs of her music have been released: Thought and Desire, with Eve Egoyan, and Dirt Road on the Another Timbre label.

 

Ana Sokolović

(Canada, 1968)

Serbian-born composer Ana Sokolović, who lives in Montreal, has been immersed in the arts all her life. Before taking up theatre and music, she studied classical ballet. She studied composition in Serbia, then completed a master’s degree under the supervision of José Evangelista at the Université de Montréal. Her work is suffused with her fascination for different forms of artistic expression. Both rich and playful, her compositions draw the listener into a vividly imagined world, often inspired by Balkan folk music and its asymmetrical festive rhythms.

 

Kotoka Suzuki(鈴木琴香)

(Canada, 1971)

Kotoka Suzuki’s work engages deeply in the visual, conceiving of sound as a physical form to be manipulated through the sculptural practice of composition. Her recognitions include DAAD Artist-in-Berlin, and First Prize in Bourges and Musica Nova. Her work has been featured internationally by performers such as Arditti Quartet, eighth blackbird, Pacifica Quartet, Earplay, UMS’n JIP, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, and Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra Leipzig. Her work has also been featured in numerous venues and broadcasts such as BBC Radio, Schweizer Radio, Deutschlandradio, Ultraschall, Inventionen, The Stone, ZKM Media Museum, Stanford Live, and MATA. Suzuki is currently an Assistant Professor of Music at Arizona State University.

 

Chiyoko Szlavnics

(Canada, 1967)

Chiyoko Szlavnics is a Canadian composer and visual artist based in Berlin. Her drawings are often inspired by sound, and serve as the basis for her compositions. Szlavnics studied at University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music and with composer James Tenney. A fellowship grant from the Akademie Schloß Solitude brought her to Germany in 1997. Chiyoko Szlavnics’s compositions have been performed at new music festivals and independent concerts alike, and have been featured on radio and in numerous publications. Her drawings have been exhibited in Europe and Toronto. Her music has been released on CD on the World Edition, Another Timbre, and NEOS labels.

 

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Michael Taplin

(United Kingdom, 1991)

Michael Taplin was raised in London and has been actively involved in writing music from an early age. He has studied privately with Dai Fujikura with a grant from the Talbot House Trust. In 2009, Michael accepted a scholarship to study with Paul Neland at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Michael’s music has been performed by the Philharmonia, Ose! Orchestre Symphonique and the London Symphony Orchestra. Michael recently completed his MComp (Distinction) at the Royal College of Music (London) with Simon Holt. Michael Taplin is supported by PRS for Music Foundation’s International Showcase Fund.

 

Dragos Tara

(Switzerland, 1976)

Dragos Tara was born in 1976 in Bucharest and has lived in Switzerland since the age of 5. He studied composition with Eric Gaudibert, Michael Jarrell, and Emmanuel Nunes. He studied electroacoustics with Rainer Boesch and Luis Naón at the conservatories of Geneva and Paris. His works are influenced by electronics and new technologies, in parallel to his activity as an improviser. Dragos is a member of the company CHAU, chamber contemporary music and various improvised music groups. In addition to his composition activities, he is also a curator and researcher, and obtained his Masters in Critical Curatorial Studies in 2016.

 

Serena Teatini

(Italy, 1958)

Serena Teatini lives in Bologna, Italy. Her musical experience grew from listening to “worlds” and silences. She studied Electronic Music in the Bologna Conservatory of Music and earned Diplomas in Piano and Band Orchestration, accumulating various experiences along the way (silent film music; video poetry). In 2009, she received her Diploma in Composition. Emotions, vitality – her music plays between lyricism, polyphony, nostalgia, and rhythm. Her music is performed in Italy and abroad (Festival Angelica 2009 and 2011, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Maison de la Musique, Montreal 2012).

 

Iñaki Estrada Torio

(Spain-Basque Country, 1977)

Iñaki Estrada Torío was born in San Sebastián, Guipúzcoa. At the Superior National Conservatory of Music and Dance of Paris, he studied Composition with Durieux; New Technologies applied to Composition with Naón, Geslin, and Mays; Analysis with Levinas and Ledoux; Orchestration with Cohen; and Musical Acoustics with the professors of the Laboratory of Musical Acoustics of Paris. After receiving a scholarship by the Ministry of Culture and La Caixa, he wrote Kiral, a work framed in the Annual Cursus of Musical Composition of Ircam-Centre the Georges Pompidou. He is currently developing an intense compositional work with both instruments and electronics, and teaching at the Conservatory of Music of Castilla y León.

 

Barry Truax

(Canada, 1947)

Barry Truax is a Professor Emeritus in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University where he taught acoustic communication and electroacoustic music. He worked with the World Soundscape Project, editing its Handbook for Acoustic Ecology, and has published a book Acoustic Communication dealing with sound and technology. As a composer, Truax is best known for his computer music works and multi-channel soundscape compositions. In 1991, his Riverrun was awarded the Magisterium at the International Competition of Electroacoustic Music in Bourges, France. In 2015/2016, he was the Edgard Varèse Guest Professor at the Technical University in Berlin, and Guest Composer at the 2016 BEAST Festival in Birmingham.

 

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Rita Ueda

(Canada)

Rita Ueda is a Canadian composer of orchestral, operatic, and choral music based in Vancouver. Gold medalist at the 2014 Penderecki International Composers’ Competition, Rita has worked with international ensembles such as the Vienna RSO, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Locrian Chamber Players (New York), Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the SYC Ensemble Singers (Singapore). Final student of the Czech-Canadian composer, Rudolf Komorous, Rita studied at Simon Fraser University and the California Institute of the Arts where her teachers include Rodney Sharman, Wadada Leo Smith, Earle Brown, and Lou Harrison.

 

Sabina Ulubeanu

(Romania, 1979)

Sabina Ulubeanu is one of the complex artistic personalities of her generation. Her work comprises composition, photography, musicology, teaching and experimental performance. Conceptually, Sabina is interested in bringing together space, time, and memory – elements that unify music and visual arts. Sabina studied composition in Bucharest and Oldenburg under Tiberiu Olah, Doina Rotaru, and Violeta Dinescu. She is also a member of the Romanian Composers Union. Her works have been performed in Romania, Europe, and the USA, and her photographs have been exhibited in European festivals. Currently, Sabina Ulubeanu is the Artistic Director and co-founder of InnerSound New Arts Festival Bucharest.

 

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Ulpiu Vlad

(Romania, 1945)

Ulpiu Vlad is a graduate of the National University of Music Bucharest, composition section with Anatol Vieru, 1971. In 1972-73, he took part in a programme for foreign students at the Academia di Santa Cecilia, Rome, with Virgilio Mortari. He was a scientific researcher, editor and later the director of the Romanian Musical Publishing House, and Music department director at the Romanian Ministry of Culture. He was professor at the National University of Music Bucharest, 1993-2012. Since 2006, he has been Vice-President of the Union of Composers and Musicologists of Romania and since 2013, he has been President of the Romanian Section of the International Society for Contemporary Music.

 

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Juan Felipe Waller

(Netherlands/Mexico, 1971)

Mexican-Dutch composer Juan Felipe Waller, was born in Mexico City. He studied composition at the Rotterdams Conservatorium, and electronics at IRCAM in Paris. The settings of his works vary from symphonic orchestra to chamber music and electronics often working with multimedia (film, photography, live-electronics). Waller’s compositions in recent years focus on sonorities akin to electronic sounds, created by acoustic means. Some works include Teguala for 120 ceramic tiles and electronics, Chemicangelo for organ, Calumnia for large orchestra, Disborder Control Desborde, Plato Plastic Dialogues and Eye Masking which studies aspects of psychoacoustics. Waller’s music will often superimpose divergent elements, enabling a contextual musical reality to emerge, reflecting a surrealistic environment.

 

Maike Watson

(South Africa, 1989)

Maike Watson (previously Gevers) is a Cape Townian composer and performer. Throughout her childhood, she played a variety of instruments in a variety of genres including classical, jazz, pop, and rock. After completing a B.Sc (Mathematics) in 2009, she continued to study music and graduated with a M.Mus Cum Laude in 2013 after which she started a business, working as a composer and music producer for the film, media, and gaming industry. She has since worked on international feature films, pc, Xbox, smartphone, and tablet games. She has also written and arranged music for international musicals and local groups.

 

Judith Weir

(England, 1954)

Judith Weir was born to Scottish parents in Cambridge, England. Judith Weir studied composition with John Tavener, Robin Holloway, and Gunther Schuller. During the 1990s, she worked as Associate Composer with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. In 2014, she was appointed Master of the Queen’s Music, and in 2015, she became Associate Composer to the BBC Singers. She is the composer of several operas and has written orchestral music for the BBC Symphony, Boston Symphony, and Minnesota Orchestras. Much of her music is available on the NMC, Delphian, and Signum labels. She blogs about her cultural experiences at www.judithweir.com.

 

Lotta Wennäkoski

(Finland, 1970)

Lotta Wennäkoski studied composition at the Sibelius Academy and the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. Her teachers were Eero Hämeenniemi, Kaija Saariaho, Paavo Heininen, and Louis Andriessen. Wennäkoski’s works include Sakara for orchestra (commissioned by Esa-Pekka Salonen), the flute concerto Soie (2009), the mini opera Lelele (2011), Verdigris (commissioned by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, 2015), and Sedecim (2016) for the 100th anniversary of the Sibelius Academy Symphony Orchestra. A CD of her chamber music, Culla d’aria, was published 2008 by Alba Records. In 2015, Ondine released Soie, which consists of Wennäkoski’s orchestral works played by the Finnish RSO.

 

Hildegard Westerkamp

(Canada/Germany, 1946)

Composer Hildegard Westerkamp focuses on listening, environmental sound, and acoustic ecology. She worked with R. Murray Schafer at the World Soundscape Project, is a founding and board member of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology and was long-time editor of its journal Soundscape. She has taught courses in Acoustic Communication at Simon Fraser University with colleague Barry Truax and has conducted soundscape workshops, given concerts and lectures, and coordinated and led Soundwalks locally and internationally. Excerpts of her compositions appear in Gus van Sants’ films Elephant and Last Days and most recently, she collaborated on the soundtrack of Nettie Wild’s film Koneline.

 

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Xiaogang Ye

(China, 1955)

Xiaogang Ye is a member of the 12th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, chairman of the China Musicians Association, vice chairman of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, vice president of the Central Conservatory of Music, and a member of the Board of Directors of the China Film Association. Regarded as one of the leading and influential composers in China, Ye has been commissioned to compose works for many international and state-level activities. Notably, The China Story: Songs of the Earth won great acclaim in its New York, Saarbrücken, Munich, London, and San Jose tour. These successes have promoted extensive cultural exchange and cooperation between China and the West.

 

Kwang-I Ying (應廣儀)

(Taiwan, Republic of China, 1960)

Prof. Ying is the author of The Structure of Chopin Nocturnes-after 1840, Cultivation of Music in Five Years, and Notes of Mind, and is currently on the faculty at National Sun Yat-sen University in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Her compositions have been performed in numerous recitals in the USA as well as in France, Germany, and Asia. A critic from the Washington Post wrote, “…pianist Ying, Kwang-I gracefully and elegantly opened the evening with her 1985 work Moods. These five delightful, short, but by no means insignificant gems explore a delicate world of pianistic colors and ideas.” She has received the grant from the National Culture and Arts Foundation.

Luiz Henrique Yudo

(Netherlands, 1962)

Luiz Henrique Yudo is a Dutch/Brazilian composer of Japanese descent. He received his training as an architect at the University of São Paulo (FAU-USP) and later studied at the Nederlandse Film en Televisie Academie in Amsterdam. He studied privately with the Brazilian composer Damiano Cozzella and the American composer Tom Johnson. Many of his compositions are strongly inspired by visual associations. He writes scores in which there are aspects left open for the musicians to create an individual interpretation. Performers of his music are therefore invited to play a very active role in the creative process.

 

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Isidora Žebeljan (Исидора Жебељан)

(Serbia, 1967)

Isidora Žebeljan studied composition at the Belgrade Music Academy with Vlastimir Trajković (a student of Messiaen) and has been a professor of composition there since 2002. She was elected in 2006 as a member of the Serbian Academy of Science and Arts and in 2012 as a member of the World Academy of Arts and Science (WAAS). Isidora Žebeljan has received commissions from important institutions and festivals such as the Berlin Philharmonic Foundation, Venice Biennale, Bregenz Festival, Genesis Foundation London, and University of Kent. Isidora Žebeljan also regularly appears as a conductor and a pianist of her own works and of the works by other composers.

 

Hao-fu Zhang (张豪夫)

(Belgium, 1952)

Hao-fu Zhang is a composer and tenured professor at the Royal Conservatory of Music of Brussels and member of the Belgian Ministry of Culture Contemporary Music Review Committee. He has won numerous awards in his career thus far. In 2002 and 2006, he was three times awarded by the Belgian Royal Academy of Arts for his works Second String Quartet, Third String Quartet, and La Voûte Ethérée for piano. In 2011, Chinese television CCTV dedicated a full documentary about his musical career. His works have been performed at festivals of modern music in many countries in Europe, North America, and Asia.