Alberta Composers

John Abram was born in England in 1959. After composition studies at Keele University with Roger Marsh and Peter Dickinson he moved to Canada in 1984 to complete a PhD at the University of Victoria with Rudolf Komorous (composition) and Doug Collinge (electroacoustic music). From 1986 to 1988 he was Associate Director and Conductor of the Open Space New Music Series at the Open Space Gallery. Living in Toronto from 1989 to 1994, he co-founded The Drystone Orchestra and was a member of ARCANA, also performing with ARRAYMUSIC, Strange Companions and others. From 1994-2008 he lived in Calgary and was on the teaching staff at Mount Royal University, and ran the Technology Lab there. He continues to engineer and produce MRU's larger recording projects.

George Andrix (b. June 15, 1932) As well as a teacher and conductor, Mr. Andrix has been a performer on violin and viola in symphony orchestras and string quartets both in Canada and the United States since he began his musical studies at the age of 5. His compositions are varied, covering the full range of solo to orchestral scoring.

Arthur M. Bachmann (b. March 27, 1961) Born and raised in Calgary, Arthur began studying viola in Calgary and then went on to receive his Bachelor of Musical Arts degree in Viola Performance and an Artist Diploma in Performance from the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario. For three of the years while at university, Arthur also played professionally with Orchestra London, Canada. In 1984 he went on from London to Vancouver to study viola with Gerald Stanick and then to Banff to attend the Banff Centre School of Fine Arts in their Advanced Studies in Music, Winter program. In 1986 Arthur won a position as violist with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, which he holds to this date.

BANCROFT, (Henry) Hugh . Organist, choirmaster, composer, b Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, England, 29 Feb 1904, d Edmonton 11 Sep 1988; FRCO 1925, B MUS (Durham) 1936, hon FRCCO 1976, D MUS (Cantuar) 1977, hon LL D (Alberta) 1980. He studied with E.P. Guthrie and J.S. Robson in Grimsby before moving in 1929 to Canada, where he served 1929-38 as organist-choirmaster at St Matthew's Anglican Church, Winnipeg. At All Saints Church, Winnipeg, 1938-46 he developed a boys' and men's choir of national renown which specialized in the singing of chants. After two years, 1946-8, as organist-choirmaster at Christ Church Cathedral in Vancouver, conductor of the *Vancouver Bach Choir, and instructor at the British Columbia Institute of Music and Drama, he was organist-choirmaster 1948-53 at St Andrew's Cathedral in Sydney, Australia.

Since his 1950 professional debut, Tommy Banks has, as the Toronto Star pointed out, “…..done everything a musician could wish for.” MacLean’s Magazine observed that “It would be easier to list the things he doesn’t do.”

He is the recipient of the Juno Award, Gemini Award, Grand Prix du Disques-Canada, several ARIA Awards, and a member of the Edmonton Cultural Hall of Fame.

Canadian composer Howard Bashaw is originally from White Rock, B.C. A graduate of the University of British Columbia (DMA, 1989), he joined the Department of Music at the University of Alberta in 1993. Prior to this he taught at the University of British Columbia and the Université Canadienne en France. Working almost exclusively in the acoustic medium, Bashaw’s repertoire ranges from solo instruments to full orchestra. His musical language is perhaps best described as being broadly contemporary, and his scores exist in various conventional, aleatoric, graphic and hybrid formats.

Allan Gordon Bell was born in Calgary in 1953. He received a Master of Music degree from the University of Alberta where he studied with Violet Archer, Malcolm Forsyth, and Manus Sasonkin. He also did advanced studies in composition at the Banff Centre for the Arts where his teachers were Jean Coulthard, Bruce Mather, and Oskar Morawetz.

Allan Bevan was born in Toronto, and did his undergraduate studies in music at the University of Windsor, and at Queen’s University in Kingston. His composition teachers and mentors include Istvan Anhalt, Howard Bashaw, Allan Bell, Clifford Crawley, David Eagle, Malcolm Forsyth, Paul McIntyre, and William Jordan. Mr. Bevan holds the M. Mus. degree from the University of Alberta and a Ph. D. in Composition from the University of Calgary.

Rolf Boon is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre, Member of the Canadian League of Composers, Audio Engineering Society and New Music Edmonton. His compositions continue to receive national and international exposure including recent performances in Vancouver, Toronto, Krakw, Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, Los Angeles, and Beijing. Furthermore, his work has been broadcast on Access Radio and CBC radio/television. Rolf has received many commissions from individuals, multimedia groups, and organizations and was the principal composer for the 1995 Canada Winter Games. He is a recipient of the ACIFA provincial teaching award.

Carmen Braden lives in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories and works as a composer, performer, and field recordist. All her musical creations are influenced by the sonic environment, both natural and man made, and she uses original texts in many works. Braden’s works reflect her connection to the contemporary classical world as well as her experience as a jazz pianist, and singer-songwriter.

Sean Clarke is a composer, theorist and flutist from Calgary, AB. His pieces have been performed in France, the United States, and across Canada by groups including Ensemble Arkea, the Land’s End Ensemble, and the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne. They have been featured in festivals by the World Saxophone Congress, the Société de Musique Contemporaine de Québec, New Music Edmonton, the North America Saxophone Alliance, the Canadian University Music Society, and New Works Calgary, who commissioned a work for their 25th Anniversary season. He has also written several works for young performers, one of which is published by the Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto) in the Level 1 saxophone syllabus.

Cheryl Cooney is an associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre, who resides in Alberta. After graduating from the University of Alberta with a Bachelor of Music in piano performance, she received a scholarship to study at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria where she studied composition with Cesar Bresgen, piano with Erika Frieser, and conducting with Kurt Prestel. After being granted the Abschluss Diplom and returning to Canada, she became a founding teacher of the North Peace Conservatory of Music for two years before continuing her composition studies at the University of British Columbia with Elliot Weisgarber.

J. ANDREW CREAGHAN (b. October 22, 1953) is a composer, performer and writer who has been a leader in the field of music for his generation. His recordings have received international acclaim and his concerts have taken him across Canada and abroad. His many compositions have been performed around the world, and span the known genres of music including symphonies, solo and chamber works and choral music.

Dr. Ian Crutchley grew up in Surrey, British Columbia. After participating in high school jazz and concert bands, he attended Douglas College where he began composing and received his first formal lessons in theory, history and saxophone performance. He later transferred to The University of British Columbia where his first completed compositions were performed. He completed a Bachelor of Music in 1988, and a Master of Music in 1993. His teachers included Keith Hamel and Steve Chatman. During this time, Dr. Crutchley began to receive prizes for his works, as well as his first commissions.

Roger Deegan, born in Turtleford, Saskatchewan in 1928, grew up on the Canadian prairies. He attended public school in Turtleford and Edmonton, then earned his Master of Music in Composition from the University of Southern California, where he took special classes in motion picture scoring conducted by Miklos Rozsa and Ingolf Dahl.

Working in Los Angeles from 1949, Deegan married Betty Brown in 1958. The Deegans and their two children spent some time on a ranch near Beatty, Nevada, but moved back to Edmonton in 1967.

QUENTEN DOOLITTLE, born in Elmira, New York in 1925, taught as a Professor of Music at the University of Calgary, from 1960. He took early retirement in June, 1988. A naturalized Canadian citizen, he holds degrees from Ithaca College, Indiana University and the Eastman School of Music.

His formal training in composition was with John Weinzweig; however, a lifetime of musical atmospheres and practical experience performing on the violin and viola and conducting were influential. His American childhood was full of the sounds of a large middle class family in which he was the fifth child of seven: temperance hymns, family sing-songs of popular sheet music, jazz from a brother musician, arrangements of operatic arias for beginning violin in school class lessons, drum solos in the attic from another brother, tap dance rhythms from a younger sister and piano player rolls -- a teeming household of sounds and noises.

David Eagle composes chamber, orchestral and electroacoustic music, and in recent years, has explored computer applications in composition, improvisation, multimedia and sound spatialization. His latest kinetic music compositions use the movement of sound to fundamentally transform the listening experience. An Associate Professor at the University of Calgary, he teaches composition and electroacoustic music and is Director of the Electroacoustic Music Studio and the New Music Ensemble.

John Estacio has served as Composer in Residence for the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Pro Coro Canada, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, and Calgary Opera. These residencies yielded several orchestral and choral works including his opera Filumena. He has also written scores for productions of Othello and Twelfth Night at the Citadel Theatre.

George Fenwick is a free-lance composer and arts administrator. A native Calgarian, he studied composition with Allan Bell and Quenten Doolittle, and received his B.Mus from the University of Calgary.
He has written works for the concert hall and the stage which have been performed throughout Canada, in France, Germany and the USA, and broadcast on CBC Radio. He has also participated in several multidisciplinary projects.
Fenwick has received commissions from the UCalgary String Quartet, Kensington Sinfonia, Spiritus Chamber Choir, the Calgary Youth Orchestra, and Land’s End Chamber Ensemble. His works have been performed by a variety of performers and ensembles, including Alberta Winds, Canadian Chamber Choir, Mount Royal University’s Kantorei, clarinettist Stan Climie, and percussionist Rod Squance.

Canadian Composer Kristin Flores began studying composition at the University of Alberta in 1998. In 2001 she obtained a Bachelor of Music Degree in music composition and theory from the University of Alberta and in 2004 graduated with a Master of Music degree in composition from the University of Alberta. In 2010 she graduated from the University of Calgary with a PH.D in music composition, under the supervision of Allan Bell. She has studied composition with Malcolm Forsyth, Laurie Radford, Howard Bashaw, Paul Steenhuisen, William Jordan, David Eagle and Allan Bell.

MALCOLM FORSYTH, honoured as Canadian Composer of the Year in 1989, has earned international recognition as one of Canada’s leading composers.
Born in 1936 in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, Forsyth majored in trombone, conducting and composition at the University of Cape Town and played trombone for eight years with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra. His career as a composer was launched in 1962, when the orchestra played his first orchestral composition, the overture Erewhon.
In 1968, Forsyth emigrated to Canada and settled in Edmonton, where he joined the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, playing first bass trombone and then, for the next eight years, playing as principal. He also joined the faculty at the University of Alberta, teaching theory, composition and conducting. Forsyth retired from the faculty in 2002, after serving as the University’s composer-in-residence.

Paul Zicheng Fu graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music in China in 1952. Soon afterwards, he became assistant professor of piano, theory and composition at the Studio of Music in Qing Hua University in Beijing, holding this post from 1954-1978. In 1978 he began teaching at the Music Department of the Beijing Teacher's College in China, where Fu was associate professor of Theory and Composition until 1988. In 1991, Fu worked in Calgary as a substitute piano teacher and accompanist for ballet classes at Mount Royal College. From 1991-1994 he studied at the University of Calgary, where he obtained a Master's Degree in Music Composition.

Born in Edmonton, Canada, Vivian Fung has distinguished herself among the foremost composers of her generation. On faculty at the The Julliard School and an associate composer of the Canadian Music Center, Fung has increasingly embraced non-classical influences, including jazz and non-western sources such as Indonesian gamelan and folk songs from the minority regions of China. The New York Times has described her work as “evocative,” and The Strad hails her Uighur-influenced music as, “vital as encountering Steve Reich or the Kronos for the first time.”

Aaron Gervais was born in Edmonton and studied composition in Toronto, San Diego, and the Hague (Netherlands). Prior to studying composition, he studied jazz, rock, and Cuban music, including a summer of private study in Havana.

Aaron's music has been performed across North America and Europe. He has worked with notable ensembles, including the Nieuw Ensemble (NL), orkest de ereprijs (NL), the Ensemble contemporain de Montreal (CA), Tapestry New Opera Works (CA), Toca Loca (CA), Continuum (CA), the Knights Orchestra (US), and the Arditti Quartet (UK). He has been broadcast by CBC Radio 2 and Radio-Canada's Espace Musique.

One of Canada’s busiest composers; Allan Gilliland was born in Darvel, Scotland in 1965 and immigrated to Canada in 1972. Based in Edmonton (Alberta) he has written music for solo instruments, orchestra, choir, brass quintet, wind ensemble, big band, film, television and theatre. His music has been performed by many ensembles around the world including: the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, St. Lawrence String Quartet, Canadian Brass, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Alberta Baroque Ensemble, Pro Coro Canada, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, Hammerhead Consort, Rochester Philharmonic, the Boston Pops and the brass section of the New York Philharmonic. For five years (1999-2004) he was Composer-in-Residence with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, writing 11 works for the ESO including concerti for violin, trumpet, two harps, and clarinet.

Thom Golub lives, performs and writes music in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. His early instruments were piano and drums; later, when he was eighteen, he studied guitar. He started playing electric bass when recording with singer-songwriter John Cooke in the late 1980's. This took him deep into the realm of song structure, recording arts as well as overdubbing a steady rotation of three instruments. Later in the band 'My Cat Julius" (with Cooke) he performed only on guitar for several years as a live act. In the mid 1990's Golub felt he needed to change direction; a year and a half away from music then a stint at the now defunct Sam the Record Man was, odly, just the change he was looking for. He discovered, through the space he had allowed himself, what he loved most about music: Improvisation.

Canadian composer, researcher and multimedia performer Piotr Grella-Mozejko holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Alberta; an M.Mus. in Composition from the same university, where he studied composition with Alfred Fisher and Henry Klumpenhouwer, and theory with Edward Laufer and the late Christopher Lewis; and an M.A. degree in Political Sciences from the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. He also studied composition privately with the late Prof. Edward Boguslawski and Prof. Boguslaw Schaeffer. In 1994, Grella-Mozejko was the only Canadian selected to participate in the prestigious "June in Buffalo" Festival and Conference, where he attended lectures by and master classes with Milton Babbitt, Donald Erb, David Felder, Lukas Foss, Roger Reynolds, and Charles Wuorinen.

Sonya Guha-Thakurta holds both Master of Music and Bachelor of Music degrees in composition from the University of Calgary, where she studied with Allan Gordon Bell, David Eagle and William Jordan. While still a student, she was the recipient of a Godfrey Ridout Award in the SOCAN Young Composers Competition, and won first prize in the 2000 Land’s End Composers Competition. In 2006 she was a nominee for the Emerging Artist Award at the Mayor’s Luncheon for Business and the Arts.

Lesley Hinger is a composer of acoustic and electroacoustic music, currently residing in Calgary, Alberta. Her music has been performed and workshopped across North America and Europe by various ensembles including the Arditti String Quartet, Sound Icon, Land’s End Chamber Ensemble, Ensemble Resonance, Ensemble contemporain de Montréal, l’Orchestre de la Francophonie, Ensemble l’Arsenale, Strata Ensemble, Violet Collective, and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Her works have also been showcased in numerous festivals including Third Practice (Virginia), the National Arts Centre Summer Music Institute (Ottawa), the Composit New Music Festival (Italy), the Strata Festival (aka Sask New Music), the Toronto Creative Music Lab, and New Music Edmonton’s ‘Now Hear This’ Festival.

incent Chee-Yung Ho (b. 1975, Ottawa, Ontario). Canadian composer, currently residing in both Canada and the USA, of mostly orchestral, chamber and piano works that have been successfully performed in both North America and abroad.
Mr. Ho began composing at the age of fourteen. After receiving his ARCT in Piano Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music in 1993, he studied composition with Allan Gordon Bell, David Eagle and William Jordan at the University of Calgary from 1994-98, earning BMus. He then completed his MMus at the University of Toronto in 1998, where he studied with Walter Buczynski and Christos Hatzis. He recently earned his DMA from the University of Southern California while under the supervision of Stephen Hartke.

Michael Horwood was born in Buffalo, N.Y., on May 24, 1947. He studied music composition and theory at the State University of New York at Buffalo with Lejaren Hiller, Lukas Foss, and Istvan Anhalt, receiving his Bachelor's and Master's degrees (1969, 1971). In 1971 he moved to Canada and from 1972-2003 was a professor of music and humanities at Humber College of Applied Arts and Technology in Toronto. During the latter half of the 1970's, Horwood formed Convergence, an improvisation ensemble in which he played piano and percussion. In 2003 he retired from teaching and with his wife moved to Cowley, Alberta

IRENE JOHANSEN (b. December 16, 1958 Drumheller, Alberta). Raised in Calgary, Irene completed a B.Mus. in Composition with William S. Jordan at the University of Calgary, joining the board of New Works Calgary in the 1980's. Since then she has been writing her own brand of chamber and dance music for performance in Canada, the US and Europe, and broadcast on the regional and national networks of CBC Radio. New York Univerity's "Music in Italy" (Festival Gubbio 1990) introduced her work to audiences in Europe. She later returned to NYC to complete her Masters at the Aaron Copland School of Music (Queens College/CUNY), studying composition with Thea Musgrave and Leo Kraft, and analysis with Carl Schachter, Charles Burkhart, and Henry Burnett. In addition to her regular studies, she has participated in many workshops and festivals in composition and conducting in Canada, Europe and the United States

RICHARD JOHNSTON was born in Chicago. His earliest musical influence was Ruth Crazier-Curtis, a teacher at a junior high school but also, and more importantly, a composer that was to introduce the young Johnston to other fellow composers and to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The next step in Johnston's education came in the form of a scholarship, through Sven Lekberg, to Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. Another teacher and one of his greatest influences, Nadia Boulanger, came to lecture in Chicago with the result that, for two summers, Johnston studied intensively with Mlle. Boulanger. She directed his attention to the great composers of Poland. His love for folk-life studies led to a warm association with Zoltán Kodály, who also coloured his life in many ways.

William Jordan was born in Athens, Georgia in 1951. He received a PhD degree in Music Theory from Florida State University in 1976, after completing a MA in Composition at the University of Pennsylvania and a BMus in Composition from the University of Georgia. His teachers included Nadia Boulanger, George Crumb, George Rochberg, and Krysztoph Penderecki.

Jacobus Kloppers (born 1937 in Krugersdorp, South Africa) served as Professor of Organ and Musicology and Chair of the Music Department at The King’s University College in Edmonton, Alberta , Canada since its founding in 1979 until 2008. He is continuing as Full-time Lecturer in Organ and Musicology at King’s as well as Adjunct Professor in Keyboard at the University of Alberta (a position he has held since 1997).

Veronika Krausas (b. 1963) has had her works performed in Australia, Canada, Germany (at the Darmstadt New Music Festival), Romania, the Netherlands and the United States. She has received grants and commissions from Motion Ensemble, the Canada Council, a Millennium Commissioning Grant, and two Interdisciplinary Arts Initiative grants in Los Angeles. Veronika holds a business degree in marketing from the University of Calgary and composition degrees from the University of Toronto, McGill University in Montreal, and her doctorate from the University of Southern California.

Hope Lee is a Canadian composer of Chinese origin. As a "cross-cultural explorer", her work often reflects her interdisciplinary interests and her views of creativity as an endless adventure of exploration, research and experimentation; a challenge to one's breadth and depth. 'Things change constantly and continuously' she says, 'therefore each work should be approached from a fresh angle. Growth is a natural phenomenon reflected in my compositional technique. Not unlike disciplined organic growth - a most fascinating phenomenon - it is the secret of life, the source of true freedom.'

GREGORY LEVIN (b. 1943) came to prominence as a composer in the early 1970s, his reputation growing steadily since then with works performed in concerts and broadcasts throughout Canada and internationally. Besides being a composer, Dr. Levin is also a performer, conductor, and teacher, serving on the faculty of the University of Calgary, where he established himselfafter early studies and career activity in the United States. Among those whom he has studied composition are Luciano Berio and Pierre Boulez. Dr. Levin's body of work includes songs, cantatas, and operas, many involving multi-media compositions, in which mode he has drawn on his diverse musical interests to integrate disparate and seemingly incompatible elements.

Born in Calgary, Alberta, Jeffrey McCune recieved his Masters of Music degree in Composition at the University of Alberta in 1994. In 1988, he was one of three young Canadians chosen for the Special Program in Orchestral Conducting at the University of Toronto with Michel Tabachnik, an associate of Pierre Boulez and the late Herbert von Karajan. His music has been perfomed by the University of Toronto Women's chorus, the Claude Watson School of the Arts Orchesta, The Edmonton Symphony, and The Toronto Symphone, as well as radio broadcasts throughout North America and Europe.

John McPherson has been a multi-faceted professional musician for over 40 years who is increasingly making his mark as a notable Canadian composer. Commissions and grants have been received from the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Edmonton Recital Society, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Grande Prairie Regional College, and the Debut, Wild Rose, and Beau String Quartets. His works have been performed by the ESO, Festival City Pops Orchestra, Mark Fewer, Bill Eddins, Robert Uchida, Hammerhead Consort, Take 3, Windrose Trio, NOWage Orchestra, Beau Quartet, XIA string quartet, and Basstiality. Many of these performances were recorded and broadcast on programs such as Arts National, Two New Hours, and Alberta in Concert.

VERNON MURGATROYD (b. May 23, 1941) is a highly prolific composer, having written works in almost all musical genres. The bulk of his music, however, is composed for piano solo, voice and piano, chorus, and orchestra. Besides composing, he also works as a teacher of piano and theory, band instructor, and accompanist for stage productions and musicals.

Composer Laurie Radford creates music for diverse combinations of instruments and voices, electroacoustic music, and for performers in interaction with live computer-controlled signal processing of audio and video. His music has been performed and broadcast throughout North and South America, Europe and Asia. He has received commissions and performances from ensembles and soloists such as Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Ensemble contemporain de Montréal, Esprit Orchestra, Ensemble Résonance, code d'accès, Traquen'art, GroundSwell, Pro Coro Canada, Innovations en concert, Jean-François Guay, Laura Wilcox, Jean-Guy Boisvert, lanza-Sheppard Duo, Trio Fibonacci, Trio Phoenix, Duo Kovalis, the Penderecki and Molinari String Quartets, the Logos Foundation, and the Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Montréal Symphony Orchestras.

Allan Rae, a prolific Canadian composer, has composed more than one hundred works for Orchestra, Chamber, small ensembles, and solo instruments. In addition to ‘serious music’ he has composed for well over one hundred stage productions, specifically, program music, background music, and music soundscapes for Theatres across Canada. His music has been performed in Alberta, Ontario, British Columbia, New York, California, South America and Europe.

Canadian composer received a Bachelor of Music in 1975 majoring in theory and composition from the University of Alberta. There he studied composition, orchestration and conducting with Malcolm Forsyth and Violet Archer. He also studied with Bruce Mather at the Banff School of Fine Arts, and jazz at North Texas State University and Grant Macewan Community College.

Robert Rival was the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra’s Resident Composer from 2011-2014. His music, written in a contemporary tonal style and inspired by the Canadian wilderness, literature, and classical and romantic musical forms, has been described as "well crafted", "engaging", "immediately appealing", "melodic and accessible", "sophisticated", "memorable"—and his song cycle, Red Moon and Other Songs of War, as "an unequivocal hit". His orchestral works, programmed regularly across Canada, include Lullaby, for the ESO's Carnegie Hall debut—lauded as an "atmospheric dream world" and "a work of quiet rapture and refined sensibility"; the muscular Achilles & Scamander; the dazzling Whirlwind; Northwest Passage Variations on the Stan Rogers tune; the Renaissance-inspired Delights & Discords for chorus and wind ensemble; and the sweeping Symphony No. 2 "Water" whose textures and rhythms were suggested by the ocean and rainforest.

Don Ross' compositions first came about to fulfill his needs as a performer. He holds degrees in clarinet performance from the Universities of Alberta and Toronto, as well as a Master's degree from Northwestern University in Chicago.

"Manus Sasonkin (1930-1992) composer, was born in Brooklyn, NY, on May 30th 1930. He studied composition with Quincy Porter and Paul Hindemith (Yale U), Gardner Read (Boston U), and Arnold Schoenberg (privately); harpsichord with Ralph Kirkpatrick (Yale U); musicology with Karl Geiringer (Boston U); and conducting with Pierre Monteux (Domaine School) and Leonard Bernstein (Tanglewood). Sasonkin's academic career began 1948-9 with a teaching fellowship in theory (Boston U). He was an instructor in theory, harmony, counterpoint, orchestration, composition, and 20th-century techniques at the St Louis Institute of Music 1954-66. He began teaching at the University of Alberta in 1966, where he has trained many composition students

Helve Sastok was born August 31, 1958 in Edmonton, Alberta of parents who had recently emigrated from Estonia. She was brought up in this northern European environment, with Estonian spoken at home and only English in later years. Music is an intergral part of the Estonian culture, and, and a result, she was placed into music lessons. Sastok began group piano lessons in 1964 at six years of age and was quickly placed into private lessons the following year, with Lydia Pals. In 1966, she began violin lessons with Serge Eremenko. These two stayed as her performance instruments all the way through university, with the addition of pipe organ lessons in her final years of the undergraduate degree.

Arlan N. Schultz is assistant professor of music, composition and theory at the University of Lethbridge, where he is head of the composition area. His composition teachers include Brian Ferneyhough, Roger Reynolds, Chinary Ung, Harvey Sollberger, Brian Cherney, and Michael Matthews. Academic awards include numerous teaching assistantships and fellowships including the Richardson Foundation Scholarship for Music (Manitoba) and the Kurt Weill Fellowship for music (UCSD). Composition awards include the BMI (1990) and Godfrey Ridout Awards (SOCAN, 1991) for Quartet Opus 10 and Edifice respectively; a commission (1994) from the National Arts Center Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada, as part of the NAC's young composers competition; the Canada Arts Council's Robert Fleming Prize for composition (1995), and Second Prize in the International Mozart Competition (1997), Salzburg for PLI, which has since been published by Universal Edition, Vienna. He has also obtained numerous grants from the Canada Arts Council, the Quebec Council for Arts and Letters, and the University of Lethbridge’s Office of Research Services.

Jacek Sobieraj was born in Gdansk, Poland in 1958. He graduated from the Academy of Music in Gdansk with a Master of Music in Choral Conducting. Since very early in his career he has collaborated with theatre and dance companies, creating a large body of incidental music for plays and experimental projects. In Poland he wrote music for Teatr Wybrzeze and, from 1986 until his departure for Greece in 1987, was the Music Director of the famous avant-garde Polski Teatr Instrumentalny (Polish Instrumental Theatre).

Miroslav Spasov, composer of instrumental and live electroacoustic music, was born in Skopje (R of Macedonia) in 1964. He earned his PhD in Composition at the University of Calgary in 2002 (Allan Bell and David Eagle). Currently he is a Professor of Composition and Computer Music Techniques in the Music/Music Technology Programme at Keele University in the UK. His works have been performed by various ensembles and soloists such as Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra (Czech Republic), New London Chamber Choir (UK), Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra (Canada), János Négyesy and Päivikki Nykter (USA), Leonid Pejsahov and Nadezda Pozarickaya (Canada), Sarah Watts and Michael Bell (UK), Ankara Wind Quintet (Turkey) and others. A number of performances were broadcasted on radio and TV such as WKCR 89.9, Manhattan, New York City, BBC Manchester, CBC Montreal and others.

The Canadian Music Centre celebrated the career of Roberta Stephen as a composer, singer, teacher and prime organizer in the field of music in Calgary. Born April 17, 1931, she received her Master's degree from the University of North Texas and works as a teacher of singing, vocal pedagogy, composition, and advanced theoretical subjects. For over twenty years, she has been the mainstay of Alberta Keys Music Publishing Co. Ltd. and has published dozens of works by her fellow Canadian composers. Her wide repertoire of compositions includes works for various combinations of instruments as well as solo piano, vocal, choral and chamber music. She is currently President of New Works Calgary.

D. Andrew Stewart is a composer and performer of live electronics (gesture-controlled electroacoustic music performance). After developing his own sensor-suit while living in Paris, France, Stewart has expanded performance practices for both DIY and commercially available input devices and has continued to perform his own compositions with acoustic instrument ensembles. To a large extent, Stewart's work has been supported by major awards, grants and research funding from organisations such as: Canada Council for the Arts, SOCAN Foundation, Le Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la société et la culture, NUFFIC Foreign Government Awards Program, Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology, Community of Research Excellence Development Opportunities Program.

Described by Classical Music magazine as a musician of “dazzling commitment and versatility,” Charles Stolte enjoys a career as a saxophonist and composer that takes him throughout the world. Reviews in the Chicago Tribune laud him as a “talented performer with glossy technique and bluesy charm,” and he enjoys frequent support from the Canadian provincial and national governments for his composition projects and performance tours. CBC radio has broadcast his performances and compositions nationally and he and his music enjoy performances across North America and in Europe. He can be heard on a variety of recordings as a saxophone soloist, in the Stolte/Segger Duo with pianist Joachim Segger, as alto saxophonist with the Edmonton Saxophone Quartet and as a former member of Ensemble Mujirushi, Edmonton’s “New Music Supergroup” (Edmonton Journal).

Michael van der Sloot (b. 1991; Medicine Hat, AB) grew up in the Canadian prairies, the eldest son in a very musical family. He has recently written works for the Meadows Wind Ensemble, Calgary Youth Orchestra, violinist Matthew Albert (formerly of eighth blackbird), violist Nadia Sirota, the Northwestern University Cello Ensemble, and the Altius String Quartet, among others. He has studied at Southern Methodist University (B.M. ’13), Northwestern University (M.M. ’15), and the Mount Royal University Conservatory where he received his pre-college training. In addition to his composition, van der Sloot is an accomplished cellist, having played with iconic figures such as Lynn Harrell, Anton Kuerti, Ian Swensen, Andrés and Roberto Díaz, Raphael Wallfisch, and eighth blackbird, and has performed as a soloist with multiple orchestras.

Christiaan’s love of music began at an early age and has been a part of his life since he can remember. His goal is to write expressive and uplifting music that excites both audience and performers.
Christiaan received his Bachelor of Music in Composition from the University of Calgary (2005) where he studied composition and clarinet. His composition mentors included Allan Bell, Miroslav Spasov, David Eagle, Hope Lee, and William Jordan. At the University of Calgary he wrote music for the University of Calgary Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, Harmoniemusik Ensemble, Percussion Ensemble, Saxophone Quartet, and soloists. He also played clarinet in the University of Calgary Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Band and a variety of chamber groups.

Reinhard von Berg was born on July 7, 1945 in Weißenfels, (East) Germany. His parents were refugees from Estonia and Poland. In 1950 the family emigrated to Finland; in 1951 to Edmonton in Canada, where Reinhard received his entire schooling. He started accordion lessons at age 12 (and managed to win the Open Competition at age 15). He started playing organ at 16; at the end of Grade 12 got a summer job and bought himself a piano so he could satisfy the entrance requirements at the University of Alberta. After spending a year working up to Grade VIII piano, he entered the B.Mus. Programme in 1964, as a composition major under Violet Archer.

Zachary Wadsworth’s “vivid, vital, and prismatic” music has established him as a leading composer of his generation. His compositions have been heard in venues around the world, from Washington’s Kennedy Center to Tokyo‘s Takinogawa Hall, and have been performed by such ensembles as the choir of Westminster Abbey, the Yale Schola Cantorum, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Atlanta Philharmonic Orchestra. As the 2012-13 recipient of the Douglas Moore Fellowship for American Opera, Wadsworth was in residence at the Metropolitan Opera and the Santa Fe Opera. In 2014, he had his Carnegie Hall debut.

ARTHUR WARD (June 3, 1915 - September 27, 2009) was a composer, teacher, and organist. He had a Master of Music in Composition from the University of Calgary, where "he came under the influence of Richard Johnston, Gregory Levin and William Jordan". His works have been both published and recorded, and include mainly music for organ, chorus, and recorder.

Scott Whetham joined the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra as Principal Tuba in 1984, and with them has performed the concertos of John Williams and Vaughan Williams. Highlights over the years include the "Northern Lights Tour", moving into the new Winspear Centre, and performing at Carnegie Hall. Other orchestras and ensembles with which he has performed include the Calgary Philharmonic, the RCA Band, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Peru and Broadway's touring production of Annie. He has taught at the University of Alberta, MusiCamp Alberta (formerly MusiCamrose), the University of Regina and the Banff International Festival of Youth Orchestras.