Canadian Music Centre - Prairie Region - Composer Database

The music of Kati Agócs is hailed for merging sensuous allure with lapidary rigor, and is performed by leading musicians worldwide. The Boston Globe has cited its elegance, praising “music of fluidity and austere beauty” which “disperses its energy in unexpected ways,” “combining great tensile strength with a gorgeous unfolding of luminous lyrical episodes, rich inventive counterpoint, and a feeling of deep, elusive mystery.” The New York Times has characterized her chamber music as “striking”, her orchestral music as “filled with attractive ideas”, and her vocal music as possessing “an almost nineteenth-century naturalness.”

Kristi A. Allik was born in Toronto. She has received degrees from the University of Southern California, Princeton University and the University of Toronto. Her teachers include John Weinzweig, James Hopkins, Frederick Leseman, Lothar Klein, Oskar Morawetz and Milton Babbit. She has received numerous commissions and awards including Canada Council grants, Ontario Arts Council grants, a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship, a Chalmers Foundation Award, the Federation of University Women Award and the Irving G. Mills Award. She has had performances of her works in Europe, USA and Canada.

JEAN ANDERSON (B. Mus., L.R.A.M.) was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, England in 1939. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Nottingham in 1960 and a Diploma of Education from the University of Leeds the following year. After teaching high school in England for three years she moved to Minnesota, where she taught in a private girls' school and in a public elementary school as a specialist music teacher. In 1969, she received her master's degree in composition from the Eastman School of Music and came to Canada to teach at the University of Western Ontario (1969-97)

Pianist, composer, conductor, Doctor in composition, Vania Angelova obtained a Doctorate in Composition at the University of Montreal. She also graduated with a master’s degree in piano with the renowned professor Regina Horowitz, sister of the great Russian pianist Vladimir Horowitz. Vania has as well a master’s in Composition with prof. Igor Kovach, and also in Choir and Symphonic Conducting with prof. Alekseev, in ex-USSR.

Dace Aperans (b. Dec. 19, 1953) completed her Masters of Composition at Hunter College of the University of New York, after studying at McGill University with Brian Cherney and Bruce Mather. Besides her compositional activities, she has worked as a musical director, assistant conductor, and music lecturer. She has composed works in the chamber music, vocal, choral, and orchestral genres.

Dr. Violet Balestreri Archer, a seminal figure in Canadian composition, created a distinguished body of work during a career that spanned over six decades. With a life-long commitment to music that left no room for marriage, her music was heralded and performed around the world, and earned honours and awards for her both in Canada and abroad.

Dr. MAYA BADIAN is the only Canadian / Romanian composer to have her life and accomplishments reflected in an international biographical work.
After the international success of the first biographical book (published 2003, Editura Muzicala, Romania), at music libraries requests, an updated and expanded new book was recently released: The Life and The Music of Maya Badian: A Privilege to Soar, Biography by Fred Popovici (published 2010, Pro Ars Publications, Canada). The book was launched on November 5, 2010, at The School of Music of the University of Ottawa in Ottawa.

Wende Bartley (b. 1951) lives in Toronto and is a composer of electroacoustic music, writing in a variety of media, including concert music, computer music, soundtracks, and music for dance. She received her M. Mus. degree in composition from Montréal's McGill University and has worked in the studios at Simon Fraser University, University of Victoria, and the Banff Centre for the Arts. She has received several commissions for electroacoustic compositions through the Canada Council and the Ontario Arts Council, and her works have been broadcast and performed at concerts and festivals throughout North America and Europe.

BEECROFT, Norma Marian was born in Oshawa, Ontario, on 11 April 1934. Her parents were both active in the artistic field, her father, Julian Balfour Beecroft, was a musician and inventor, and was a pioneer in the development of magnetic tape. Her mother, Eleanor Beecroft Stewart, was trained in music and dance, and enjoyed a successful career as an actress. The second of five offspring, Norma has enjoyed an active life in music, as a composer, producer, broadcaster and administrator. Some of her siblings have pursued occupations in the arts and/or technology, Jane (b. 1932) was a poet and painter, Eric (b.1935) was active in film, and Charles Andrew Stuart (b. 1942) is a noted documentarist in the field of natural sciences.

Diane Berry grew up in Toronto, starting piano lessons at age six and flute at 13. She graduated from the music program at York University in 1982 and moved to Halifax to teach and play chamber music. Since then she has lived in Sidney, B.C., Suva, Fiji, and Smithers, B.C., continuing to teach and perform in all three locations. In 1995, after moving to Smithers, she became a founding member of the trio, two Flutes & a Violin, who continue to play together, performing across the north and in Victoria. While working with the trio she also began composing, first for the trio, then began to branch out with works for other ensembles.

GINETTE BERTRAND est née à Montréal en 1949. Elle a obtenu un baccalauréat en composition à l'université Laval en 1976. De 1983 à 1986, elle s'est perfectionnée en électroacoustique à l'université McGill, puis à l'Université de Montréal où elle a terminé une maîtrise en composition en 1986.

Born in Lindsay in 1910, Patricia Blomfield Holt is a third generation Canadian, and great granddaughter of Col. Strickland (brother of Susan Moodie) an early settler from England.
She lived in Wingham Ontario where her musical influences consisted of 3 gramophone records and the Anglican Church choir. Although her parents were not musical, she was given piano lessons which terminated shortly after she moved to Toronto in 1923.
Two events changed the course of her life. Her family and her were invited to a large family gathering. In those days it was customary to ask your guests to sing, play an instrument, tell a story or recite. She was asked to play the piano. She was always "making up" pieces so she played "The Arab's Ride". As a result an elderly family connection (who had studied in Germany) offered her large music library and she encountered Bach, Beethoven and MacDowell and became very engrossed, especially with Beethoven, studying the music, though she couldn't play it.

Toronto based composer Rose Bolton’s works range from orchestral, chamber and vocal music to electro-acoustic and ambient electronic. She has received numerous commissions and prizes, including the 2006 Norman Burgess Fund award, and the Toronto Emerging Composer award

French-Canadian Linda Bouchard has composed over 50 works in a variety of genres, from orchestral and chamber works to dance scores, concerti, and vocal pieces. Her works have been heard extensively on both sides of the Atlantic and have been recorded by the CBC Elan and Analekta Compressions in Canada, ECM Pourtinade in Germany, and CRI Lung Ta, Black Burned Wood in the US. A full compact disc of orchestral works called Exquisite Fires was released in 1998 on the Canadian label Marquis Classics. She has won four SOCAN awards in Canada with Icy Cruise, Revelling of Men, Triskelion, and Fanorev. Her honors in the US include first prizes in the Princeton Composition Contest with Elan, the Indiana State Competition with Fanorev and the National Association of Composers USA Contest with Ma Lune Maligne.

Michelle Boudreau has written about fifty works in various genres, from solo pieces to works for large ensembles and musical theatre.
Her music has been performed in Canada, the United States and Europe by different societies, ensembles and soloists at various events and festivals. Her works have been broadcast on the Internet as well as by Canadian and European radio stations.

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.

Marie-Pierre Brasset completed a bachelor’s degree in composition in 2007 at the Université Laval where she worked with Éric Morin and is currently at work on a master’s degree at the Montréal conservatory, under the guidance of Michel Gonneville. She also holds a degree in classics from the Université du Québec à Montréal. In 2007 she took part in the Bozzini Quartet’s Composer’s Kitchen in Montréal, and attracted attention in 2008 in France where she took home the judges award and the Prix de la Communauté d’Aglommération at the 7th edition of the Rencontres Internationales de Composition de Cergy-Pontoise.

Stacey Brown
Originally from British Columbia, Canadian composer Stacey Brown has been based in Montreal since 2002. Her keen interest in interdisciplinary collaboration is demonstrated by her varied and versatile musical output, comprising both opera and concert works – from solo to orchestra – as well as music for theatre, dance, and film. Her works have been performed across Canada by numerous distinguished soloists and ensembles, including Ensemble Paramirabo, the Bicycle Opera Project, VivaVoce, Orchestre de la Francophonie, Ensemble Kô, the duo Fiolûtröniq, Pianos Galore, Ottawa New Music Creators, Erreur de type 27, and pianist Matthieu Fortin, as well as vocalists Claudine Ledoux, Daniel Cabena, Sarah Albu, and Vincent Ranallo. She has also collaborated with a number of artists including choreographer Diane Carrière, filmmaker Anna Lupien, and designer Patrick Du Wors.

ennifer Butler’s music has been described as intimate, resonant, and sonorous. Silence, holding and releasing tension, and layered colours and textures are important qualities in many of her compositions.
Her music has been performed across Canada and in the USA by outstanding ensembles and producers such as the Vertical Orchestra, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver New Music, the Western Front (Vancouver), l’Ensemble Lunatik (Quebec City), Arraymusic (Toronto), the Microscore Project (Los Angeles), Continuum Contemporary Music (Toronto), Nu:BC (Vancouver), and Tiresias (Vancouver).

Born in London England in 1896, Amice studied art at the Slade School, and piano with James Friskin. In 1912 the family moved to Oakville, Ontario. Amice continued her musical studies at the Toronto Conservatory of Music as a student of Healey Willan.
During the First World War, she worked in a munitions factory and at the Christie Street Hospital while continuing her musical studies, and in 1922 won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in England, where she studied with Vaughan Williams. At Oxford she met the archaeologist Leonard Woolley who encouraged her to pursue archaeological drawing, and in 1927 she became involved with the documentation being done by the Egypt Exploration Society of the Temple of Seti I at Abydos. Calverley completed five volumes on Egyptology that are considered epic achievements in the field.

Allison Cameron is a composer of mostly chamber works that have been performed throughout Europe and North America; she is also active as an experimental performer.
Her works have been performed at numerous festivals, including Bang on a Can (New York), Emerging Voices (San Diego), Evenings of New Music(Bratislava), the Festival SuperMicMac (Montréal), the Newfoundland Sound Symposium, New Music across America, and the Rumori Dagen (Amsterdam) as well as several in Toronto.

Nicole Carignan is now Professor in Intercultural Education at the Department of Education at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM). Previously, she was Professor at the Cleveland State University, Ohio. She also taught composition in Indonesia at the Akademi Musik Indonesia, Yogyakarta, Java. She has also held the position of music teacher at the Commission scolaire des Mille-Îles, now Commission scolaire de Laval, just north of Montréal.

Described as "evocative and kaleidoscopic” (Seattle Times), the music of Dorothy Chang has been praised for its colourful and often impressionistic scoring, as well as for its dramatic intensity and expressive lyricism. Her music is rooted in the Western art music tradition but often reflects the eclectic mix of musical influences from her youth, ranging from marching band tunes and folk songs to traditional Chinese music.

Diane Chouinard was born in Montreal. After spending two years in Boston and in Geneva, she lived in Toronto, where she studied piano at the Royal Conservatory of Music. In 1982 she moved back to Montreal and eventually obtained her Master of Music degree at the University of Montreal, where she studied composition with Michel Longtin and electroacoustic with Francis Dhomont.
Since then, various professional musicians playwrights and other artists have commissioned her, due to her diverse styles of compositions. Momentous events like the tragedy of the Montreal School of Engineering, the environment and Quebec folk themes have often been a source of inspiration.

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.

Jean Coulthard was born in Vancouver in 1908 to a pioneering British Columbia doctor, Walter Coulthard, and to Jean Robinson Coulthard, a singer, music teacher, and influential figure in early musical life on the west coast.
Coulthard attended public schools in Vancouver, then spent a few experimental months at the new Point Grey campus of the University of British Columbia. But Coulthard and her parents knew she was headed for a thoroughly musical life and career. In the late 1920s she traveled to London for a year of study with Ralph Vaughan Williams at the Royal College of Music.

Katarina Curcin sang with the Jeunesses Musicales World Youth Choir and World Chamber Choir, and earned a Bachelor of Music in her native Serbia before coming to Canada in 1999. She holds Masters and Doctorate degrees in composition from the University of Toronto. Her composition teachers were Dusan Radic, Gary Kulesha, Chan Ka Nin and Christos Hatzis. Her orchestral works include: Above the Clouds (Vancouver Symphony Orchestra Olympic commission; also performed by TSO); a Double Concerto for violin and percussion; the children’s ballet suite Princess for a Day and a Cantata in nine movements Stabat Mater.

Debbie Danbrook (b. 1956) is one of the few players in the Western world of the Japanese classical flute, the shakuhachi. She studied music at the University of Toronto and the Royal Conservatory of Music in the late 1970s and attended shakuhachi master classes in Japan from 1986 to 1988. Her compositions for the instrument meld contemporary classical and New Age techniques with the traditional 17th century shakuhachi repertoire. Apart from recording with other artists on the albums Tanoshii (1993) and Groupo Gekko (1995), Ms. Danbrook has released a Shakuhachi Meditation Series of seven compact discs.

Janet Danielson is a composer whose works have been performed in England, the U.S., and Canada by ensembles ranging from the Vancouver Chinese Instrument Ensemble to the Vancouver Symphony and CBC Radio Orchestras. Her recent commissioned works include an opera, The Marvelous History of Mariken of Nimmigen, commissioned by Music in the Morning; The Occupation, a song collaboration with poet Robert Bringhurst, for baritone, marimba and viol da gamba; and In the Very Highest Place, a setting Wu Li’s poetry for chorus and the Orchid Ensemble (marimba, zheng, erhu) premiered November 2007. Her realization of Verbum Caro, a 17th-century Canadian Ursuline carol, was premiered in Rome at Christmas 2007, and a string quartet for the Royal Society of Canada Symposium on War and Peace in November 2008.

Zosha Di Castri is a Canadian composer/pianist living in New York. Her work (which has been performed in Canada, the US, South America, Asia, and Europe) extends beyond purely concert music, including projects with electronics, sound arts, and collaborations with video and dance.

Christine Donkin studied music composition at the University of Alberta and University of British Columbia. She composes choral, chamber, and orchestral works which are performed across the continent and beyond, including such prestigious locations as Carnegie Hall, the Moscow Conservatory, and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Mumbai. She has won awards at national and international composition competitions, and six companies publish her music.

Emily Doolittle’s music has been described as “eloquent and effective” (The WholeNote), “masterful” (Musical Toronto), and “the piece…that grabbed me by the heart” (The WholeNote). Doolittle has been commissioned by such ensembles as Orchestre Métropolitain, Tafelmusik, Symphony Nova Scotia, and Ensemble Contemporain de Montreal, and supported by the Sorel Organization, Opera America, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Fulbright Foundation, among others. Originally from Nova Scotia, Canada, Doolittle was educated at Dalhousie University, Indiana University, the Koninklijk Conservatorium, and Princeton. From 2008-2015 she was on the faculty of Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. She now lives in Glasgow, Scotland, where she is an Athenaeum Research Fellow at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Margaret (Isobel) Drynan (b Brown). Teacher, composer, organist-choirmaster, writer, b Toronto 10 Dec 1915, d Oshawa, Ont, 18 Feb 1999; B MUS (Toronto) 1943, ARCT 1975, honorary FRCCO 1984. Her teachers included Arthur Benjamin, Madeline Bone, Michael Head, E. Kelvin James, Campbell McInnes, Molly Sclater, and Healey Willan. A member for 37 years of the St Mary Magdalene church choir, she also sang in Toronto with the Tudor Singers and with Reginald Stewart'sToronto Bach Choir (approximately four years with each). In Oshawa she was organist-choirmaster 1950-3 at Holy Trinity Church, and was founder and conductor 1953-68 of the Canterbury Singers of Oshawa. She was supervisor of music 1960-9 for the Oshawa elementary school system and music consultant 1969-81 to the Durham Region Board of Education. She was a founding member (1963) and president 1973-5 of the Oshawa District Council for the Arts and a founder of the Oshawa Arts Centre.

Chantal Dumas uses sound to explore new possibilities for narration. Since 1993 she has been conceiving and producing works for radio as a freelance writer; her “stories” have been heard on public radio and at festivals in Canada, the United States, Europe, and Australia. She is also active in musical improvisation. She has played with writer-performer Geneviève Letarte, Danielle Palardy Roger, the grand orchestre d’Avatar, and Vancouver’s The View. She has received a number of grants and received awards for her 1997 collection of sound novellas Le parfum des femmes and her 2001 “radio roadmovie” Le petit homme dans l’oreille. Her most recent work, Dans la pâleur des jours gris, was broadcasted by SFB (Berlin

Martha Hill Duncan is an award-winning composer, choral conductor, piano teacher and an examiner for the Royal Conservatory of Music. A transplanted Texan, she began piano lessons at the age of eight, received a vocal diploma in the first graduating class of the Houston High School for Performing and Visual Arts and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with studies in composition and piano.

DR.SOPHIE-CARMEN ECKHARDT-GRAMATTÉ (b. Moscow, USSR, 6 January 1899; d. Stuttgart, Germany, 2 December 1974) received her early training in piano from her mother, a pupil of Nicholas Rubinstein, and continued piano as well as violin studies at the Conservatoire in Paris. At the age of eleven she made a double début on the violin and piano and by 1919 was performing concerti on both instruments. Living in Berlin from 1914, she studied with Bronislaw Huberman. In the twenties she toured with Edwin Fischer as a two-piano team. In 1920 she married the painter Walter Gramatté.

Anne E. Eggleston, composer and pianist, was born September 6, 1934 in Ottawa, Ontario (and died in November, 1994). She received her Artist Diploma (Toronto) in 1956 and her Master of Music at the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, N.Y. in 1958. She has studied in Ottawa with Gladys Barnes and Robert Fleming, at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto with Pierre Souvairan (piano), Oskar Morawetz, Godfrey Ridout, and John Weinzweig (composition), and at the Eastman School of Music with Bernard Rogers (composition) and Emily Davis and Orazio Frugoni (piano). She is also bilingual.

A native of Rossland, B.C., Jean Ethridge (1943- ) began her formal study of music as a piano student of Helen Dahlstrom. After completing her ARCT diplomas in performing and teaching in 1962, she studied piano with Boris Roubakine and composition with Jean Coulthard at the University of British Columbia, graduating with a Bachelor of Music degree in Composition in 1967. In 1967-68 she studied composition with Bernard Stevens, and piano with Denis Matthews and Eric Harrison at the Royal College of Music, London, England. The summers of 1978 and 1979, she was a participant in the Composers' Workshop at the Banff Centre. From 1970 until 1992, she lived and worked in Victoria, B.C. Presently she is a resident of the Shuswap area of BC.

Monk Feldman, Barbara (b. 1950s, Québec province). Canadian composer of mostly chamber works that have been performed in Asia, Europe and North America.
Ms. Monk Feldman studied composition with Bengt Hambræus at McGill University in Montréal from 1980-83, where she earned her MMus. She then studied with Morton Feldman, to whom she was later married, at the State University of New York at Buffalo from 1984-87 and there earned her PhD, on the Edgard Varèse Fellowship.

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.

The music of Dr. Alexandra Fol has been performed by ensembles such as the Montréal Symphony Orchestra, the Sofia Symphony Orchestra, the McGill Symphony, the orkest de ereprijs, the Orchestre de la Francophonie, the New Score Chamber Orchestra, the Trinity Wall Street Choir, the CYE ensemble, thingNY ensemble, among others. She has composed music for documentary movies, including “Ancient Thrace – Door to Immortality”, sponsored by the NetHeritage fund of the European Union.

Conspicuously described as “a musical revolutionary”, she is known internationally as one of Canada’s most provocative and creative performers. Her work includes contemporary, improvised and electroacoustic music, and she frequently extends into multidisciplined forms collaborating with dance, theatre and visual arts. Over 30 composers have written solo bass clarinet music for her and her work has been recorded on 24 commercial CD’s most recently A un moment donne (13 improvisations for solo clarinet/bass clarinet on the Ambiances Magnetiques label, AM 103), Close, Barbie’s Other Shoe, Tsirkus, and Indigo. Just prior to the release of her debut feature solo album HUSKLESS! (Artifact 20) she received the 1998 Freddie Stone Award for the “demonstration of outstanding leadership, integrity and excellence in the area contemporary music and jazz”.

Susan Frykberg (New Zealand/Canada) is a composer of electroacoustic and instrumental music who often combines feminist ideas and selected theatrical processes in her work. She has created a number of 'environments' in which stories (often mythological), of women's lives are the context for her music. Since the birth of her son, Esha, much of her music has attempted to bring some sense of the momentous and awe-inspiring nature of birth-giving (and hence motherhood), into her work.

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.”

Composer, pianist, educator, Mary Gardiner, B.A. Honours (Music), A.R.C.T. (Piano Performance) has composed for piano (including a piano concerto), string orchestra, voice, choir, chamber and vocal ensembles. Her music has been described as ‘rich in ideas’, ‘well-crafted’ and ‘honest without contrivance’. It has been published, recorded, broadcast and performed across Canada and internationally.

Yvonne began her musical career as a pianist following her studies at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta. At age thirty, she embarked on music composition, and completed a degree in composition at the University of Victoria, studying with Christopher Butterfield and graduating in 1994 with distinction. She continued her compositional studies at the University of British Columbia completing a Master in Music in 2005 after working with both Stephen Chatman and Keith Hamel. She has also studied composition on several occasions privately with Canadian composer, Malcolm Forsyth.

Susan Griesdale is an award winning Composer, Piano Teacher, Clinician, and Adjudicator. She earned her ARCT from the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto and studied Composition and Theory with Composers Michael J. Rudman and Julian Miran. Susan has published collections for piano, violin, flute, chamber music for toy pianos and choral works. One of her recent projects was an ensemble piece for junctQín keyboard collective, a performance trio that specializes in innovative works for keyboard as well as a choral piece for She Sings Women’s Choir out of Kingston Ontario.. You will find her violin music in the 2013 RCM Violin Series and her piano music is listed in the 2008 RCM Piano Syllabus; as well as the ACNMP’s Contemporary Showcase Syllabus.

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.

Emily Hall completed undergraduate studies in both piano performance and composition at Mount Allison University, where she directed 24 musicians performing her chamber and vocal music (1999). Here, she displayed her interest in multiple forms of expression, including lighting design, costume design and video projection.
She holds a Master’s degree in composition from McGill University, studying with Jean Lesage, Denys Bouliane, and John Rea. Her thesis, "Inside is the Sky", for chamber orchestra and mezzo-soprano, is based on texts by renowned Canadian poet Lorna Crozier and garnered a second prize in the Godfrey Ridout Awards of the SOCAN Foundation, 2005. The following year, she won in the same category for her choir work, "Curious Rêve".

HELEN HALL, born Montréal in 1953, is a Montréal-based composer and filmmaker. She studied classical guitar and composition at the University of British Columbia and at McGill University in Montréal. Her music has been performed and broadcast in North America and Europe, and has been featured on CBC's Two New Hours, Radio Canada's Musique Actuelle, Le Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, New York's Bang on a Can Festival, Sonic Disturbance Festival of Sound in Ohio and the Subtropic Music Festival in Florida. Her work has been inspired and influenced by the music of many Eastern European composers, by American minimalism and postminimalism, and by the seminal work of John Coltrane and Albert Ayler, among others.

Victoria resident Joan Hansen was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and grew up in Mission, B.C. After attaining her B.A., Hansen continued her music studies at UBC, majoring in piano and in composition with Jean Coulthard. Later, having attained her Pb teaching certificate for graduates (UVIC Ed.) she taught in Vancouver and North Vancouver schools. On returning to Victoria she attained an AVCM and taught both private and class composition and 20th-Century music courses at the Victoria Conservatory of Music, and started the composition classes at VCM summer school, now held at UVIC Piano Summer School.

Composer and clarinettist Suzanne Hébert-Tremblay studied at several Conservatoires de musique du Québec and at University of Montréal, and she pursued further training in Paris (IRCAM).
She has written about 40 works, most of them inspired by Nature. Six of them are based on bird songs: “I grew up at the edge of a forest where I used to spend the better part of the day. My fascination with birds and their songs led me to become a birdwatcher. Still today, I regularly leave behind the city and its entertainments (TV, Internet, etc.), especially in summer. These escapes seem necessary for my equilibrium, and I believe it is during these beneficial breaks that I am most prolific as a composer.

Ruth Watson Henderson has an international reputation as a leading Canadian composer of choral music, and as an admired pianist and organist.
She has done much to promote the artistry of children through her wealth of compositions for treble voices, using the expertise gleaned over 29 years as accompanist of the Toronto Children’s Chorus under Jean Ashworth Bartle. She has also written a wide spectrum of acclaimed works for adult choirs, beginning while accompanist of the Festival Singers under Dr. Elmer Iseler.

Considered “among the most important composers writing in this country” (D. Ariaratnam, The Record), Alice Ho is a Hong Kong-born Canadian composer acclaimed for her “distinctly individual” style and “organic flow of imagination.”
She has written in many musical genres and received numerous national and international awards, including the 2014 Prince Edward Island Symphony Composers Competition, 2014 Kitchener Waterloo Symphony Friendship Orchestral Composition Competition, 2013 Dora Mavor Moore Award “Outstanding Original Opera” for her opera Lesson of Da Ji, 2013 Boston Metro Opera International Composition Competition, K.M. Hunter Artist Award, du Maurier Arts Ltd. Canadian Composers Competition, MACRO International Composition Competition, Luxembourg Sinfonietta International Composition Prize, and International League of Women Composers Competition.

Laura Ricketts Hoffman was born in Lynchburg, Virginia. She received the Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from Radford University in Radford, Virginia and the DMA in Composition from the University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, where she studied with Don Freund. In 1990 Dr. Hoffman moved from to Halifax, Nova Scotia; becoming a Canadian Citizen in 2005. She has been an active member of the arts community as composer, teacher and arts administrator.

Melissa Hui was born in Hong Kong and raised in North Vancouver, British Columbia. She received her doctorate from Yale University and masters degree from the California Institute of the Arts. Her mentors include Mel Powell, Jacob Druckman, Martin Bresnick, Morton Subotnick and Earl Kim.
Initially inspired by the haunting music of the African pygmies and Japanese gagaku court orchestra, she strives to create a personal music of ethereal beauty, intimate lyricism, and raucous violence.

Vocalist and saxophonist Joane Hétu was born in Montreal in 1958. A composer, author, and improvisor, Hétu was one of the founding members of the JUSTINE and WONDEUR BRASS creative collectives. Since 1992 she has been directing her own ensemble, CASTOR ET COMPAGNIE, which performs her erotic, disconcerting songs and she has been working together with Jean Derome as NOUS PERÇONS LES OREILLES. She performs in improvisational events and has collaborated on many dance, poetry and film music projects. Joane Hétu has made numerous concert tours and appeared in many festivals and events in Europe, Canada, and the United States. Her discography lists more than a dozen releases.

Rhené Jaque, née Marguerite Cartier en 1918 à Beauharnois, a obtenu un diplôme du Bureau Central et un Lauréat en musique en 1935. L'année suivante elle entrait en religion dans la congrégation des soeurs des Saints Noms de Jésus et de Marie, congrégation vouée à l'éducation et l'enseignement des jeunes. Tout en enseignant le violon et les matières théoriques au Mont Jésus-Marie dès 1938 et à l'École Supérieure de Musique d'Outremont devenue École de Musique Vincent-d'Indy en 1950, elle poursuivit ses études musicales couronnées par l'obtention d'un Baccalauréat (1949) et d'une Licence en Composition musicale (1955) de l'Université de Montréal.

Monique Jean lives and works in Montreal. She studied electroacoustic composition at the Université de Montréal under the supervision of Francis Dhomont. In addition to her acousmatic compositions, her work is also regularly associated with video and experimental films, with dance and with installations. Her harbour symphony “L’Appel des machines soufflantes” (The Call of Blowing Machines), a commission of Radio–Canada, was premiered in March 1998 at the Port of Montreal and in 1999 she was an invited composer during the “Rien à voir (5)” concert series produced by Réseaux (Montreal). Finalist in the Ciber@rt (Valencia, Spain, 1999), Musica Nova (Prague, Czech Republic, 2001) and Bourges (France, 2002) competitions, her works are regularly performed and broadcast during numerous national and international concerts and festivals.

Naina Jinga was born in Cluj-Napoca, Romania - a city with ancient musical traditions, where some of Romania’s most famous and well-known contemporary composers live, teach and create.
Naina Jinga began playing the piano at the age of four, and writing her first compositions at twelve. She has appeared as a piano-soloist with Romanian orchestras, in solo and piano-duos piano recitals. She graduated from the "Gheorghe Dima" Academy of Music in 1991 (B.Mus), where she was later appointed as an Assistant Professor and, in 1998, as an University lecturer. She holds a M.Mus and a Ph.D. in Composition with a “Magna cum Laude”.

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.

EUPHROSYNE KEEFER was born on June 9, 1919 in Eastbourne, Sussex, England. Keefer majored in composition and piano at the Royal Academy of Music in London, England, and in addition, gained experience playing viola with the orchestra. She studied composition under Alan Bush for four years and also worked with Norman Demuth and Herbert Merrill.
Anticipating a career in singing, Keefer was awarded a scholarship for study with Frederic Austin, and was accepted as a soloist with Sadlers Wells Opera. However, she married a Canadian mining engineer and raised a family in the Canadian north. From 1963-1977 Keefer composed and taught piano and theory in Toronto.

Elizabeth Knudson (b. 1981) is a Vancouver-based freelance composer. She began composing at a very early age--as soon as she could reach the keys of the piano while sitting on her mother's lap, she began telling her mother to "write this down!" She was promptly enrolled in piano lessons. Elizabeth holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Music from Simon Fraser University (2004), where she studied with David MacIntyre, Owen Underhill, Janet Danielson, and Barry Truax, and an Masters degree in Composition from the University of British Columbia (2006), where she studied with Keith Hamel. In 2008, she was accepted as an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre.

Born into a musical and artistic family in L’viv, Ukraine, Sofia Kraevska began her music studies at an early age. After Immigrating to Toronto, Canada, in 1989, she earned a Bachelor of Music Degree in Piano Performance at the University of Ottawa (2001). Sofia holds a Diplôme Supérieur in Piano Performance from the Schola Cantorum in Paris, France (2000), a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance (2003), and a Doctoral Degree from the University of Miami in Composition, with cognate in Conducting (2009). Her classical works have been premièred in Canada, Austria and the United States.

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. In 2002 Motion Ensemble released Mnemosyne, a CD of solo and chamber works. Her piano pieces are published by Frederick Harris Music Publishers. Under her production group Vera Ikon Productions, she has produced and composed music for yearly shows since her arrival in Los Angeles. Veronika currently teaches theory and composition at the University of Southern California at the Thornton School of Music.

LARYSA KUZMENKO (b. Jan. 23, 1956) Ms Kuzmenko studied with Oskar Morawetz and Walter Buczynski at the University of Toronto where she received her Masters Degree in Composition. Her works have received numerous performances and have been broadcast on the CBC and CJRT. She has had a number of works commissioned by the Ontario Arts Council and has had her compositions performed by the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, Beverly Johnston and the Vesnivka Choir.

Daria Dobrochna Kwiatkowska (b. 1969, Poland) moved to Canada in June 2002, where she resided in Toronto. She currently lives in Birmingham, England with her husband, composer Scott Wilson, where she works as a freelance composer and music teacher. Her compositional interests include a range of musical possibilities from chamber to orchestral music, as well as mixed media, non-western instruments, and music for unconventional spaces.

Diane Labrosse is a musician, composer and improviser who, over the past fifteen years, has been performing regularly on the musique actuelle and improvised music stages in Canada as well as in Europe where she participated in many major festivals. She is founding member of Justine, Les Poules and Wondeur Brass along with Joanne Hétu and Danielle P. Roger, and is presently pursuing several other projects including Parasites (Martin Tétrault), Île Bizarre (Ikue More and Martin Tétrault), Petit traite de Sagesse pratique (a variable geometry project), L'Oreille à Vincent (Christof Migone, Michel F. Côté, Martin Tétrault and the sound sculptor Jean-Pierre Gauthier). For the past several years, she has been especially active creating music for dance (Andrew de L. Harwood, Catherine Tardif, Harold Rhéaume, Séminaire chorégraphique de FLAK, Richard Siegal), for films and for radio. She and percussionist Michel F. Côté wrote the music for Robert Lepage's play La Géométrie des miracles.

Chantale Laplante’s music combines her background in jazz with instrumental composition and electroacoustic music. Many styles and composers may have inspired her work but Debussy and Feldman are the most influential; their interest in creating a sonic impression and their proposals around the use of melody and motives, call upon her own approach. For a few years she has worked in the context of the musical miniature, a great laboratory for the exploration of timbre and various worlds of sounds. All the while she has developed a strong interest for polyphony which led to more textural works, blurring the notions of time and space, an aesthetic that can also be found in her improvisations with laptop. Laplante’s music rests on the elaboration of atmospheres, inviting the auditor to dive into the sound, and its poetic resonance. She has composed for orchestra and chamber orchestra, solo instruments and electroacoustic music. She has also composed many works of mixed music that combines acoustic instrument and electroacoustic music.

RACHEL LAURIN, organist, composer and improviser, was born in l96l, in St-Benoît, Province of Quebec, Canada. After her studies at the Montreal Conservatory, she became Associate Organist at St-Joseph’s Oratory, Montreal (1986-2002), and from 2002 to 2006, she was Titular Organist at Notre Dame Cathedral, Ottawa. She now devotes herself to composition, recitals, master classes and lectures.

Emilie Cecilia LeBel is a Canadian composer whose compositions have been performed across Canada and internationally. Emilie is the recipient of the Canadian Music Centre’s Toronto Emerging Composer Award (2012), and the Canadian Federation of University Women Elizabeth Massey Award. The Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, The Banff Centre, York University, and the University of Toronto, has supported her work.

Grace Jong Eun Lee is a composer and a performer dedicated to inter-culturalism. She received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music from the University of British Columbia (Piano and Composition). Her compositions reflect a combination of Korean, Chinese (Erhu) and Western instruments (flute, clarinet, piano, string and percussion). She is strongly influenced by the sounds of nature and often uses them in her works to convey the East Asian sense of space and emptiness. Her interest in playing both traditional and contemporary music and composing for the Kayagum blossomed in Canada.

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.'

Dr. Jacqueline Leggatt received her B.Mus in Piano from Queen's University at Kingston, and her M.Mus and DMA in Composition from the University of British Columbia where she studied with Eugene Wilson. She has written works for film, plays and dance although her primary activity is in chamber music. Her works have been performed throughout Canada and the U.S. Jacqueline is presently teaching at the Vancouver Academy of Music.

Elise Letourneau’s compositional style blurs the lines between classical, jazz and popular music. Her mastery of various genres and instruments informs her innovative work, with an unflinching attention to melodic beauty. Her extreme sensitivity to lyrical poetry, and to the voice itself, gives her music a singable quality that begs for great interpretive skill. She writes and chooses texts that embody groundedness and goodwill, and sets them in motion through her music. Her instrumental music also reflects this lyrical sense.

Caroline Lizotte is internationally reknown as a brilliant Canadian harpist and composer. Her works for harp are experiencing an ever-growing development. They are celebrated and performed around the world, in festivals and international competitions for harp, and listed among the most influential works of the harp repertoire in late 20th and 21st century. Ms. Lizotte leads a solid career as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician over the last 25 years. She is the second harp with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal since 2003 after serving as the interim principal harpist in 2002. She is now in her twentieth season as the principal harpist with the Orchestre Symphonique de Trois-Rivières. She has worked, recorded and toured with several ensembles and orchestras of Eastern Canada, and she often figures in the credits for classical and popular recordings and movie soundtracks.

Nicole Lizée is a Canadian composer, sound artist and keyboardist based in Montreal. Her compositions range from works for large ensemble and solo turntablist featuring DJ techniques fully notated and integrated into a concert music setting, to other unorthodox instrument combinations that include the Atari 2600 video game console, omnichord, stylophone, Simon and Merlin hand held games, and karaoke tapes.

Born in Argentina in 1972, Analia Llugdar carried out studies in piano and composition at Cordoba National University (Argentina) where she obtained a degree in piano performance in 1999. She continued her composition studies at Laval University and then at the Université de Montréal where she completed her Masters under the direction of José Evangelista. She completed her Doctorate at the same institution under the guidance of Denis Gougeon. Over the course of her composing career, she has received the 1st Prize at the Université de Montréal Orchestra Composition Competition, 2nd Prize at SOCAN’s Sir Ernest MacMillan Awards and most recently the 1st Prize in the chamber music category at the CBC Radia Canada’s 15th National Competition for Young Composers, the Jeunesses Musicales du Canada Award, and the Grand Prix of the Canada Council for the Arts.

One of Canada’s most highly regarded and most often performed composers, Alexina Louie was born in Vancouver in 1949. At the age of seven she began piano studies and at seventeen became an Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Piano Performance. Louie continued her piano studies at the University of British Columbia where she also attended the composition classes of Cortland Hultberg, graduating with a Bachelor of Music in Music History in 1970. She then went on to post-graduate work at the University of California at San Diego with Robert Erickson and Pauline Oliveros, completing her Masters of Arts in Composition in 1974. Remaining in California for the rest of the decade, Louie taught piano, theory and electronic composition at the City Colleges of Pasadena and Los Angeles. She has lived in Toronto since 1980, where she works as a freelance composer for concert, dance, television and film.

Born in Vancouver in 1960, Ramona Luengen received both her B.Mus and M.Mus from the University of British Columbia where she studied composition with Cortland Hultberg and piano with Jane Coop. In 1996 she completed her Doctor of Music in Composition from the University of Toronto with Derek Holman and Harry Freedman.
Luengen has composed extensively in the choral genre and has been commissioned and recorded by Canada's finest choirs as well as the CBC. Her works have been performed in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, and broadcast on CBC, BBC and the national radio stations of Denmark, Germany, Hungary, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden.

LEILA LUSTIG was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and lived in various parts of the United States before moving to Canada in 1987. She holds a bachelor's degree in voice and a master's degree in composition from UCLA, and a PhD in composition and theory from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Her teachers included Roy Harris, Roy Travis, Bert Levy and Robert Crane. Leila's PhD dissertation was the opera "Deirdre of the Sorrows," on a libretto she adapted from John M. Synge's play.
She spent 14 years in radio as a music producer and program director, producer of a number of classical music programs for the National Public Radio and American Public Radio networks, and creator/host of the long-running series "Music in Buffalo" for WNED-FM in Buffalo, NY, for which she composed the theme music. She was president of the Composers' Alliance of Buffalo for two years.

Bassoonist and composer Catherine Magowan is principal bassoonist with the Sudbury Symphony Orchestra since 2002, and regularly freelances throughout Ontario. She was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore award in 2010 for the opera Giiwedin, which she co-composed with Spy Dénommé-Welch, and together they are completing their second opera and collaborating on various other projects.
In 2012 her chamber piece, Bike Rage, (also with Dénommé-Welch), took first prize by audience vote in Baroque Idol (presented by the Aradia Ensemble), and more recently she and Dénommé-Welch premiered Spin Doctors for clarinet, violin and piano as part of the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra’s regular season.

Victoria Maidanik (b. 1969) has graduated from the Odessa Special Musical School of Professor Stolyarsky (Ukraine) in 1987 where she studied theory, piano, and composition with Jan Freidlin. In 1987 she was accepted into the Moscow Gnessin¹s Music Academy where she studied composition in the class of Kirill Volkov, while taking private consultations with Sofia Gubaidulina. Since 1990 Miss Maidanik has been living in Toronto. In 1994 Victoria Maidanik had graduated from the University of Toronto, Faculty of Music, where she studied composition in the class of professors Lothar Klein and Walter Buczynski.

Katia studied composition in Quebec and Hamburg and then Arabian and Syrian music in Beirut. While pursuing these studies, she participated in courses under the direction of Franco Donatoni, Ennio Morricone, Manfred Stahnke and P. Louis Hage. She is presently pursuing her doctorate at the University of Montreal with Michel Longtin.

Afarin Mansouri is co-Founder and Artistic Director of ICOT. An award winning composer, Afarin has collaborated with various Ensembles, organizations and Festivals such as National Ballet of Canada, Cathedral Bluff Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Tirgan Festival, Nuit Blanche, KW Open Ears Festival, ICOT Orchetstra, Windag Choir and Ensemble, TorQ Percussion Ensemble and St Augustine Duo. Her compositions cover variety of styles and genres from orchestral to electronic music and have been performed in Canada, United States and South America.

Isabelle Marcoux est née à Rimouski en 1961. En 1987, elle obtient une maîtrise en composition de l'université Laval sous la direction de François Morel. Elle poursuit ensuite ses études au doctorat à l'université McGill avec Brian Cherney et Bruce Mather jusqu'en 1992.
Les œuvres d'Isabelle Marcoux ont été jouées au Canada, aux États-Unis et en Europe. Parmi les ensembles qui ont interprété sa musique, notons l'Orchestre symphonique de Québec, l'Ensemble contemporain de Montréal, les Thirteen Strings of Ottawa ainsi que différents solistes québécois et européens.

Kye is a professional cellist and composer of both classical and jazz music and an avant garde improviser. She has produced five CDs: Standard Time, a compilation of jazz standards; Winter's End and Say When, original jazz compositions with Don Thompson and In the Moment and Chiaroscuro, spontaneous compositions with Thomas Baker.
Kye's compositions have been heard on television and radio, in films, dance performances and theatre and in various Toronto venues such as Glenn Gould Studios, Harbourfront, NY Centre for the Performing Arts, and the Music Gallery as well as in Austria and the United States.

An award-winning composer and conductor, Stephanie Martin has wide musical interests ranging from Gregorian chant to gamelan; from Froberger to folksong. A guardian of musical heritage and a creative collaborator, she is known for imaginative programming and for creating sustainable musical communities

Sylvaine Martin est née au Québec, à East-Angus, le 11 août 1956 de parents canadiens français. Elle étudie la musique à partir de 7 ans, en commençant par apprendre à jouer du piano et en même temps qu'on l'innitie aux rudiments du ballet classique dans les classes des débutants des Grands Ballets Canadiens. Très vite, elle s'intéresse aussi à improviser au piano mais l'enseignement musical traditionnel veut qu'on ramène rapidement l'élève à ses devoirs d'exécutant des morceaux de musique classique. Cependant, cette prédisposition à la créativité a raison du formalisme académique et la jeune artiste, alors adolescente, s'avèrere aimer autant le dessin et la peinture qu'elle s'essaie à la choréographie dans ses cours de danse.

Shelley Marwood is an emerging composer currently based out of Toronto, Ontario. She has had works performed across Canada and in the U.S., by ensembles such as the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Windsor Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal, Rubbing Stone Ensemble, and the UCalgary String Quartet. Recent commissions include works for Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (Olympic Commissioning Project 2010), Windsor Symphony Orchestra (Windsor Canadian Music Festival 2009), New Works Calgary (Happening Festival 2009), and the Cincinnati Youth Wind Ensemble in 2011.

Canadian composer, performer, and founder/artistic director of Winnipeg's new music series, MUSIC INTER ALIA, is a free-spirit. In the world of music, McIntosh does not limit herself to any one particular style of writing. Her music, which ranges from light and humourous to spacious and evocative has been performed by musicians in Canada, the United States, England, France, Germany, Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Switzerland. As well as writing commissioned works for orchestra, chamber orchestra, voice, chamber groups, and solo performers, she creates theatrical and musical pieces for herself which she performs using piano, spoken voice, electronics, percussion and slide projections.

Cassandra Miller (1976) is a Canadian composer of chamber and orchestral music, currently living in the north of England. For the last few years, her compositions have explored the transcription of pre-existing music (often vocal) as a way to translate its musicality/vocality into another experience. She has also been interested in what she calls “iconic directions” – that is, music that goes up, music that goes down, sometimes music that goes back and forth. Her present work also involves direct and personal collaboration with a wide international network of solo musicians, as well as ensembles and orchestras. From 2010 to 2013, Cassandra was Artistic Director of Innovations en concert in Montreal.

Lisa Miller’s compositions have been premiered by de Bijloke ensemble (Ghent, Belgium) the Tetzepi Bigtet (Amsterdam), mmm… (Tokyo), the Quatuor Bozzini (for the National Film Board of Canada with director Marv Newland, Montreal), Vancouver New Music, Standing Wave, Turning Point Ensemble, The Vancouver Chinese Instrumental Music Society (Vancouver), and the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra,The Left Coast Ensemble and Earplay (San Francisco). Miller has directed workshops (for the Now Orchestra and the Vancouver International Jazz Festival) and produced concerts and multi media installations (Vancouver New Music, Costal Jazz and Blues Society, Circus Maximus, Western Front Society). New commissions will be premiered in 2013 by Pianorquestra (Brazil), Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa (piano) and François Houle and Jane Hayes (clarinet and piano, Vancouver).

Elma Miller, composer, music typographer, writer and teacher, received the B Mus and M Mus from the U. of Toronto. She studied composition with Walter Buczynski, John Beckwith, Lothar Klein and John Weinzweig; electronic music and theory with Gustav Ciamaga and William Buxton. Studies in aesthetics with Geoffrey Payzant and media with Marshall McLuhan also have had a considerable influence on her thought processes.
She used her Sir William Erving Fairclough composition graduating scholarship to take part in the Stanford U. computer music workshop studying with John Chowning and Leland Smith, whose notation programme she was to adapt as her main computer music typographical tool. In the summer of 1980 she was in the composition master class of Polish composer Boguslaw Schaffer at York U. (England).

Maria Molinari is active both as a concert music composer and as a composer for the screen. Concert music highlights include the featuring of her Four Sketches for Chamber Orchestra in National Ballet of Canada dancer Stephanie Hutchison’s Sketches of Her and the premiere of her Tre Pezzi per Violino e Pianoforte by acclaimed violinist Moshe Hammer and pianist Marc Widner on the 2003 summer festival circuit.
A prize winner in the 2002 Stratford Festival of Canada's Composition Contest for Young Composers, Maria’s setting of Willow Song from Shakespeare's Othello was subsequently performed in 2007 by The Guelph Symphony Orchestra with featured soprano soloist Rosalind Pickett. In 2008, Maria was selected to participate in the Victoria Symphony’s Reel Music Festival for which she created an original orchestral score for the film Running.

Composer, oboist, and teacher Patricia Morehead is the founder of CUBE Contemporary Chamber Ensemble. She holds degrees from New England Conservatory of Music (B.M. in oboe) and The University of Chicago (Ph.D. in composition) and diplomas from the Royal Toronto Conservatory of Music (Canada), the Conservatoire National de Musique (Paris, France) and the Accademia Chigiana (Siena, Italy). She has concertized as an oboist in North and South America, Europe and Asia. She made her Carnegie Recital Hall debut in 1977, and she has commissioned and premiered more than 60 works written for her family of oboes.

Jocelyn Morlock
With a discography of twelve CDs, and numerous performances and broadcasts throughout North America and Europe, Jocelyn Morlock is fast becoming known as one of Canada’s leading composers.
With its “shimmering sheets of harmonics” (Georgia Straight) and an approach that is “deftly idiomatic” (Vancouver Sun) Morlock’s music has received numerous national and international accolades, including: Top 10 at the 2002 International Rostrum of Composers; Winner of the 2003 CMC Prairie Region Emerging Composers competition; winner of the Mayor’s Arts Awards in Vancouver (2008); two nominations for Best Classical Composition at the Western Canadian Music Awards (2006, 2010) and most recently a Juno Nomination for Classical Composition of the Year (2011, Exaudi.)

osemary Mountain has a formal education in both composition (MMus) and music theory (PhD), and has also been greatly influenced by other artforms and by non-classical and non-Western music. She has been occupied with teaching, administration, and research for the last few decades (in the UK, Portugal, and Montreal) but is now free of external commitments to allow a focus on composing, disseminating her research findings, and travel. She is particularly interested in exploring different tunings and time-scales; her familiarity with electroacoustics, a move away from urban life, and a small collection of non-Western instruments allows her to incorporate both natural and non-standard sounds into her new works, whether directly or as models to be transformed into acoustic textures. See her website for further information.

With music described as “breathtaking” (Kitchener-Waterloo Record), “imaginative and expressive” (The National Post), “a pulse-pounding barrage on the senses” (The Globe and Mail), and “Bartok on steroids” (Birmingham News), Kelly-Marie Murphy’s voice is well known on the Canadian music scene. She has created a number of memorable works for some of Canada’s leading performers and ensembles, including the Toronto, Winnipeg, and Vancouver Symphony Orchestras, The Gryphon Trio, James Campbell, Shauna Rolston, the Cecilia and Afiara String Quartets, and Judy Loman.

F. Jane Naylor (née Lodge) holds a BA (McMaster); Teacher’s ARCT (RCM 1980); and BMus (UPEI 1983). Born in 1941, she grew up in Dundas, Ontario and studied piano and theory as a teenager. After living/working in other provinces and Europe (including being inspired by Radio3 Classical in England), she resumed music studies as a part-time student at UPEI while juggling a full-time job, family life and part-time teaching. Her professors there included Dr. Frances Gray for Piano and Theory, and Carl Mathis for Composition. She continued to learn on her own through analyzing, teaching and composing, as well as requesting feedback on her work from several Canadian composers, especially helpful being the late Srul Irving Glick.

Farangis Nurulla-Khoja (b. Sept 2nd, 1972) - A Tajik-Canadian composer, she holds a Doctorate of Fine Arts in Composition (University of Gothenburg, Sweden).
Farangis Nurulla-Khoja is the granddaughter of noted Tajik composer Ziyodullo Shahidi. She studied at the Ziyodullo Shahidi Music School in Dushanbe and entered the Tajik State Conservatory in 1991. The sudden dissolution of the Soviet Union, followed in Tajikistan by the civil war, interrupted her exploration of the current of native sounds, and brought her to the Pitt Rivers Museum of Oxford University, from where she moved to Sweden.
In 1995 she entered the Gothenburg School of Music to study with Ole Lutzow-Holm, obtained her MA in Composition in 1999, and her Diploma in 2003. Having also studied at the University of California in San Diego with Brian Ferneyhough and Roger Reynolds, as well as at IRCAM, she lives by the criteria of the international life and follows the aesthetic language of world music.

Originating from Mexico and now a Canadian resident, Alejandra Odgers obtained bachelor degrees in oboe and composition at the National School of Music in Mexico. Later, she completed a master’s and doctoral degree in composition at the Université de Montréal. She has studied with Francisco Viesca, Mario Lavista, Arturo Márquez, Paul Barker, José Evangelista, Alan Belkin and Jean-Jacques Nattiez, among others.

Dubbed "especially glorious... ethereal" by Whole Note, and "a highlight of the concert" by the Boston Musical Intelligencer, the music of Canadian composer Tawnie Olson has been performed by a wide range of ensembles and individual musicians, including the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gemini Duo, Duo Fiolûtröniq, the Satie Quartet, the Land's End Ensemble, the Canadian Chamber Choir, the Guelph Chamber Choir, the Yale Camerata and Yale Pro Musica, bassoonist Nadina Mackie Jackson, and harpsichordist Katelyn Clark. She has won awards from the SOCAN foundation and the Guelph Chamber Choir/Musica Viva, and is a two-time semifinalist in the Sorel Foundation competition.

Jennifer O'Neill
Jennifer M. O’Neill, a native of Newfoundland, hold a Bachelor of Music from Memorial University and a Masters of Music from the University of Calgary where she studied composition with Allan Bell. While in Calgary she also studied with David Eagle and William Jordan. At Memorial University she studied composition with Clark Ross. During her time in university she received many scholarships and awards for composition.

After completing studies in classical music and jazz at Montreal’s Cégep de St-Laurent, Cléo Palacio-Quintin embarked on a career in the world of contemporary music. A meeting with the renowned flautist Robert Dick proved to be decisive, instilling in her a passion for improvisation. In 1997 Ms. Palacio-Quintin received a Masters degree from Université de Montréal, where, under Gisèle Millet, she specialized in contemporary music performance. After she completed her performance studies, her interest in creative expression led her to delve into composition as well.

Juliet Palmer moved from New Zealand to New York in 1990 to work with interdisciplinary pioneer Meredith Monk, completing her PhD at Princeton University in 1999. Based in Toronto, her work has been featured around the world with performances at: New York’s Lincoln Center, London's South Bank Centre, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Bath International Festival, Voix Nouvelles France, Italy’s Angelica Festival, Evenings of New Music Bratislava, Musica Ficta Festival Lithuania, NYYD Festival Estonia, The Istanbul Festival, Soundculture Japan, The Adelaide Festival, The New Zealand International Arts Festival and Canada's Sound Symposium.

Born in Sherbrooke, ISABELLE PANNETON began her musical training through piano lessons with Irène Ducharme. After three years of scientific studies, she transfered to the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal where she was awarded first prizes in counterpoint (1977), harmony (1979) and fugue (1980), in Magdeleine Martin's classes, as well as first prizes in analysis (1981) and composition (1984) with Gilles Tremblay. Her curriculum also included studies in orchestration, electro-acoustic music and conducting.

Lavinia Kell Parker (b. 1977) has been the recipient of awards in national and international competitions, including the New York Treble Singers Composition Competition, the International Alliance of Women In Music New Genre Award and the Ruth Watson Henderson Choral Composition Competition. Her formal training began at Wilfrid Laurier University and she has continued her studies with residencies in France and the United States. Teachers have included Glenn Buhr, Linda Caitlin Smith and Peter Hatch.

Monica Pearce, originally from Prince Edward Island, is a composer of new classical/contemporary music with a particular affinity for solo and chamber music, opera, and electronics.
Monica co-founded the emerging composer collective the Toy Piano Composers in 2008 with Chris Thornborrow, where they, along with Elisha Denburg, are the Artistic Directors. The Toy Piano Composers have presented over 120 new works.

Composer and librettist, Marie Pelletier has composed since 1984 over sixty musical works. A graduate of the University of Montreal (Bachelor of composition with Serge Garant and Master of theory and composition with Massimo Rossi), she possesses the ability of both musical composition and drama.
Most of her works have been heard either on the radio or during concert-performances not only in Canada but also abroad: United-States, Ireland, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, China, etc.

BARBARA PENTLAND (1912-2000) was born in Winnipeg and began to write music at the age of nine, an activity which was met with strong disapproval from her conventional and socially prominent parents. She nevertheless continued to write surreptitiously during her school years in Montreal and was eventually "allowed" to study composition while at finishing school in Paris.
On her return to Canada, parental indifference and ill health continued to frustrate her progress as a composer until 1936, when she received a fellowship enabling her to continue studies at the Juilliard Graduate School in New York, where her teachers included Frederick Jacobi and Bernard Wagenaar; and at the Berkshire Music Centre, where she worked with Aaron Copland.

Anita (A.D.) Perry has always been fascinated by sounds. Her introduction to formal musical training was through ballet lessons and this movement-oriented approach has continued to influence her composing and performing. At the University of British Columbia, Perry studied piano with Lee Kum Sing and composition with Cortland Hultberg. Perry has written over one hundred solo and various sized ensemble works which explore a diverse musical style ranging from simple Renaissance tonality to complex harmonies and aleatoric elements. As a result, some of her works are composed in a traditional mode, while others show an impressionist influence and a fondness for whole tone modalities. A composer, piano instructor and theory teacher for over 30 years, Perry is an active member of the British Columbia Registered Music Teachers’ Association and acts as secretary for the South Okanagan Branch and the Provincial Executive. Perry currently teaches and composes in Summerland, British Columbia with her husband.

Laura Pettigrew received her Masters and Bachelor of Music in Composition from the University of Regina. studying with Dr. Tom Schudel. Laura is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre, member of the Canadian League Composers, SOCAN, International Women’s Brass Conference and member/Prairie representative of Association Canadian Women Composers.

Katya Pine’s multi-ethnic background gives her an appreciation for all styles of musical expression. Her music education extends from piano, to violin, African drumming and sitar, studying with members of Nexus and disciples of Ravi Shankar. A Dean’s List Scholar, Katya’s degree in Musical Composition is from the University of Toronto, instructed by John Beckwith and John Weinzweig. Post-graduate she received the prestigious Chalmers Award, completed composition studies with composer Charles Camilleri in London, England, and studied Jazz and Contemporary Music at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta.

Born, raised and educated in the United Kingdom, she studied at the Royal College of Music (organ and cello) and at the University of Manchester (Mus.B. and Ph.D. in historical musicology). She has held full-time teaching positions at the University of Manchester Faculty of Music (Research Assistant, Director of the Electronic Music Studio, and Supervisor of Academic Studies for Music undergraduates); Huddersfield Polytechnic School of Music (Lecturer II); and at Carleton University, where she is Associate Professor of Music and Supervisor of performance and Practical Studies. Her current areas of teaching comprise composition, theory, analysis, counterpoint, orchestration, and issues of concert music since the Second World War.

Nova Pon (b. 1983) is a music composer based in western Canada. She has composed in major cities, a small island community, and an isolated forested acreage, in genres ranging from orchestral, chamber music, wind band, and choral works, to collaborations with film and dance, to educational and amateur music making. She enjoys embracing the unique challenges of each project as inspiration for new approaches to meaningful expression.

Elizabeth Raum is active both as an oboist and as a composer. She earned her Bachelor of Music in oboe performance from the Eastman School of Music in 1966 and her Master of Music in composition from the University of Regina in 1985. She played principal oboe in the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra in Halifax, Nova Scotia, for 7 years before coming to Regina in 1975. She now plays principal oboe in the Regina Symphony Orchestra.
An extremely prolific composer, her works include 3 operas, over 50 chamber pieces, 15 vocal works, choral works including an oratorio, several ballets, concerti and major orchestral works. Pieces by Elizabeth Raum have won many prestigious awards, have been heard throughout North America,Europe, South America, China, Japan, and Russia, and have been broadcast extensively on the CBC. She enjoys a reputation of being one of Canada's most "accessible" composers, writing for varied mediums and in remarkably diverse styles.

Darlene Chepil Reid (b. 1958) has been a life-long resident of Thunder Bay, Ontario. She graduated with an BSc in Chemistry and Mathematics from McMaster University in 1981.
Her first study of music took place as a piano student in the early 1990's. She graduated with an AMus diploma in Piano Pedagogy in 2001. She has studied trombone with John Jasavala, John Helmer and Larry Zimmerman; tuba with David Norris. Darlene attended Lakehead University as a part-time student while working as a private piano teacher and free lance musician in Thunder Bay. Her first compositions were written while studying at Lakehead University with Aris Carasthathis. Darlene graduated with a HBMus in 2003, receiving the Chancellor's medal for highest academic standing.

Lorraine was born and raised in Saskatchewan, Canada. As a child, she took private voice lessons and sang in her church choir, school choir, and community choir. She went on to further her studies in the Department of Music at the University of Saskatchewan and graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree (with distinction).

Lorraine first heard the Vancouver Chamber Choir perform live in Saskatchewan in the late 1970s. She later attended a Choral Federation workshop presented by Jon Washburn. Following her move to the West Coast, Lorraine joined the Choir full-time in the Fall of 1988.

Abigail Richardson-Schulte was born in Oxford, England and moved to Canada as a child. Ironically, she was diagnosed completely and incurably deaf at 5. Upon moving to Canada, her hearing was fully intact within months. Her music has been commissioned and performed by major orchestras, presenters, music festivals and broadcasters including the Festival Présences of Paris. Abigail won first at the prestigious UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers, after which her music was broadcast in 35 countries. She also won the Karen Kieser Prize, CMC Prairie Region Emerging Composers Award, and Dora for “Best New Opera”.

Canadian composer Sylvia Rickard moved from Toronto to Vancouver in 1948. After studies in piano and theory for many years, Rickard took a couple of composition courses at U.B.C. with Jean Coulthard. Rickard got her B.A. degree there in French and Russian, 1959.
After travelling, and living in France, U.S.A., India and West Germany, Rickard began, after 11 years of “absence” from music, private composition lessons in earnest, with Jean Coulthard. Through this marvelous mentor a jump-start to prize winning, CBC radio broadcasts and performances, by star performers, Rickard’s career in music began.

NICOLE RODRIGUE studied at the École de musique Vincent d'Indy where she was awarded her bachelor's degree and a specialist teaching certificate. She continued her training at the Faculty of Music of the University of Montreal and received a "licence" in secular music. Feeling a growing attraction for composition, she goes to McGill University where she joined in the composition class of professors Istvan Anhalt and alcides lanza. She is the first woman to receive a Master of Musical Arts (MMA) in composition.

Danielle Palardy Roger (Laval, 1949) • compositrice/interprète Essentiellement autodidacte, Danielle Palardy Roger est percussionniste, compositrice et improvisatrice. Active depuis 1980 dans le milieu de la musique actuelle montréalaise, membre fondatrice des ensembles Justine, Wondeur Brass et Les Poules, elle a également initié de nombreux projets de musiques improvisées, dont Double-Sens, Canevas et l’Ensemble SuperMusique. Percussionniste et improvisatrice au style inimitable : elle organise le rythme en-dehors du temps et projette un discours fort et complexe en accumulant et superposant une grande variétés de gestes. Elle a fait plusieurs tournées de concerts au Canada, en Europe et aux Etats-Unis et elle a participé à de nombreux festivals internationaux et événements prestigieux.

Ms. Roi received her Bachelor of Music degree in composition from Queen's University in 1987 and her Master of Music degree in composition from McGill University in Montréal in 1992. She then attended courses on computers in music and psychoacoustics at Stanford University in 1994-95, where she also attended seminars in composition with Jonathan Harvey, Jody Rockmaker and David Soley in 1995-96.

Originaire de Québec, Lucie Roy compose ses premières chansons à l'âge de 14 ans et se fait connaître en remportant divers concours. Dès 1981, elle mène principalement une carrière professionnelle d’interprète jazz. Elle fait partie de formations musicales variées, chante pour de grands orchestres « Big Band » de la ville de Québec et dirige ses propres ensembles jazz. On la remarque particulièrement à titre de compositrice et chanteuse lors des festivals de jazz à Montréal, à Québec et à Rimouski et lors de l’émission en direct Jazz sur le vif, produite et diffusée par Radio-Canada à l’échelle nationale. Passionnée par l’interprétation, la création et la vie des grands compositeurs jazz, Lucie Roy présente aussi avec son quintette éponyme des spectacles hommages à Cleo Laine (1997) et George Gershwin (1999) au Café-spectacles du Palais Montcalm.

Fiona Ryan is an award winning Nova Scotian composer who specializes in composing vocal and instrumental music for live performance. Fiona's compositions often incorporate dramatic and extramusical elements, and her compositions have been performed in various venues in Canada, the USA, and the UK. Fiona currently lives in Halifax, NS, where she composes and teaches composition, music theory, and ear training courses at Dalhousie University's Fountain School of Performing Arts. Fiona has worked as a music instructor, music director for choirs and musicals, concert and conference organizer, and performer. In 2013, Fiona graduated from the university of Toronto with a Doctor of Musical Arts in composition, where she studied composition with Chan Ka Nin, James Rolfe, and Christos Hatzis.

Educated in Canada and the USA, Ms. Rymal is well known as an organ recitalist, accompanist and piano/voice teacher. She is a teacher of piano, voice and theory in the Music Department at York University and organist/choir director at St. George’s on-the-Hill Anglican Church. Ms. Rymal is also an Associate of The American Guild of Organists and a member of the following music organizations: ORMTA,NATS,ACWC and the ACCC She is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre and is published through Warner Chappel and McGroarty Canadian Publishing.

MICHELINE COULOMBE SAINT-MARCOUX was born in Notre-Dame-de-la-Doré, Québec, on August 9, 1938. She began harmony studies with François Brassard and also took piano lessons from him. She travelled to Montréal to pursue her musical training and studied first at the Institut Cardinal-Léger with Yvonne Hubert (piano) and later at the École Vincent-d'Indy where she continued piano studies with Claude Champagne. Gilles Tremblay, Françoise Aubut and especially Clermont Pépin helped her to attain a level of skill that is rare in a young composer.

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.

Heather Schmidt, pianist and composer, has emerged as one of the most talented, exciting and versatile musicians of her generation. She has received national and international recognition through performances, broadcasts, commissions and awards in Canada, the United States, France, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, the Czech Republic, England, Finland, Iceland, Mexico, and Brazil. Originally from Calgary, Alberta, she is currently based in the United States.

Composer and performer Sabrina Schroeder (b. 1979, Vancouver, Canada) writes music for acoustic ensembles, electronic sound, and extended performance or installation environments. Maintaining a fascination with tactile sounds and unique gestural language, her work finds much of its underlying impulses in the grain of daily events, exploring patterns and synergies both on the surfaces and within more intuitive layers of perception.
Her work has been presented throughout North America and Europe by groups that include the Orchestra de Ereprijs (Netherlands), OCNM Ensemble (Czech Republic), Arraymusic Ensemble (Toronto), Frequenzen (Germany), and toured throughout Canada and Europe by Nadia Francavilla, and by Quatuor Bozzini (Montreal).

Dr. Laura Sgroi (Silberberg) recently completed her Doctoral degree in music composition at the University of Toronto. She has composed music in a variety of genres including orchestral, chamber, choral, electroacoustic and top 40/popular music. Her compositions and piano improvisations have been featured live on CBC Radio's Here and Now three times and twice on Metro Morning.
She is the youngest composer featured on the album "Woman Runs with Wolves" (Centrediscs, 2013) by percussionist Beverley Johnston. She is also the youngest composer featured on the 2016 Juno Nominated Album "Spin Cycle" (Centrediscs, 2015) performed by the Afiara String Quartet and DJ Skratch Bastid.

Pianist of the Classical Repertoire, Marie-Paule Simoneau analyses conscientiously the form and style of the music she interprets, adding to it the vivacity of her intelligence and the very personal colours of her emotional richness. All this won’t prevent her from taking pleasure all along her career in making known the various elements of ballroom music.
Marie-Paule Simoneau excels in producing musical arrangements. She polishes anew the melodies adapting them to the level and dimension of the choirs. She turns them into a singing polyphony. They are either totally new, or transformed and enhanced so the choristers rediscover them with joy. The accompanists can also discover refined orchestral reduction that she made.

Jana Skarecky was born in Prague, in the Czech Republic, on November 11, 1957. She emigrated to Canada with her family in 1968.
She holds a Bachelor of Music degree (Honours Composition) from Wilfrid Laurier University (Waterloo, Ontario), where she studied composition with Barrie Cabena, and a Master of Music in composition from the University of Sydney, Australia, where she studied with Peter Sculthorpe. She has an ARCT in piano performance, having studied piano with Erhard Schlenker.

ANITA SLEEMAN (née Andrés) was born on December 12, 1930 in San Jose, California to immigrant parents. She grew up in a rich multi-cultural area in San Francisco. Her father, Alexander Andrés, was a graphic artist and painter. He was born on a train near Toledo, Spain and came to the USA via Panama, Honduras, and Cuba. Her mother, Anna Dolgoff, an art student and milliner, hailed from Stavropol in the Caucasus region of Russia, and came to the USA after living with her family for a number of years in Uruguay. Anita has a younger sister, Alma.
Exhibiting a high aptitude for music at a very young age, she began piano lessons at age three, adding trumpet and horn during her school years. Sleeman's first major composition, a processional march for band, was played at her community college graduation.

Linda Catlin Smith was born in New York in 1957, and currently lives in Toronto. She studied composition and theory with Allen Shawn in NY, and with Rudolf Komorous, Martin Bartlett, John Celona, Michael Longton and Jo Kondo at the University of Victoria in British Columbia; and attended lectures of Morton Feldman, by invitation, in Buffalo, NY. She studied piano with Nurit Tilles and Gilbert Kalish at SUNY/Stony Brook, and with Kathleen Solose in Victoria, where she also studied harpsichord with Erich Schwandt.

Serbian-born composer Ana Sokolović, who has lived in Montreal for two decades, has been immersed in the arts all her life. Before taking up theatre and music, she studied classical ballet. She studied composition at university under Dusan Radić in Novi Sad and Zoran Erić in Belgrade, then completed a master’s degree under the supervision of José Evangelista at the Université de Montréal in the mid-1990s. 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. The winds of change brought by her work quickly vaulted her to a prominent position on the Quebec, Canadian and international contemporary music scenes.

ANN SOUTHAM was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1937 but lived most of her life in Toronto. After completing musical studies at the University of Toronto and the Royal Conservatory of Music in the early 1960's, Ann Southam began a teaching and composing career which included a long and productive association with modern dance. As well as creating music for some of Canada's major modern dance companies and choreographers including The Toronto Dance Theatre, Danny Grossman, Dancemakers, Patricia Beatty, Christopher House and Rachel Browne, she was an instructor in electronic music at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and has also participated in many "composer-in-the-classroom" programs in elementary and high schools. While a great deal of her work was electroacoustic music on tape, in her later years she became increasingly interested in music for acoustic instruments.

JUDY L. SPECHT, composer, performer and educator, was born in Prince Rupert, British Columbia in 1943. Her formal music training began on the piano and the accordion. She earned an ARCT degree in piano at age 19. While at the University of British Columbia she studied composition with Elliot Weisgarber, flute with Harriet Crossland and piano with Glen Geary. She received a B.Mus. degree in 1975 and an M.Mus. in 1980.
Her compositions include concert works for keyboard, chamber ensembles, orchestra, solo voice and chorus, and music for the stage, including an operetta. Her style is lyrical, often contrapuntal, sometimes modal, but usually with a tonal focus. She has been recorded for broadcast by the CBC and published by Gordon V. Thompson and the Canadian National Conservatory of Music.

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.

Evelyn Stroobach is a professional musician and an award winning, published composer with a Master of Music degree from Indiana University. She has won regional, national and international awards for her works. Her compositions have been performed in Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia. Her orchestral works have been performed by the Czech Philharmonic in Prague, the Zabrze Philharmonic in Poland, Camerata Europaea: Orchestra of the European Union in Berlin, the Ukrainian State Symphony Orchestra in Kiev, the Kharkov Philharmonic Orchestra in Ukraine, the National Philharmonic of Romania, the Oradea Philharmonic Orchestra of Romania, the Ploiesti State Philharmonic of Romania, the Bacau Philharmonic of Romania, the Pleven State Philharmonic of Bulgaria, the Karaganda State Symphony Orchestra in Kazakhstan, the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra of Canada, the North Bay Symphony of Canada, the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra and the Thirteen Strings of Ottawa, Canada.

Karen Sunabacka’s music has been performed in Canada, the USA, Brazil and the United Kingdom. In November 2013 the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra premiered "Never to Return," a commissioned piece about her great-great Grandmother Mathilda, who suffered from metal illness as a result of difficult conditions on the remote Canadian Prairies. Earlier in the year (February 2013), the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra also commissioned and premiered her piece, "Born By The River." Another exploration of her prairie relatives, this piece was inspired by her Métis Grandmother Lenore Clouston (nee Birston).

Kotoka Suzuki, born in Tokyo, Japan, is a composer focusing on both multimedia and instrumental practices. She has produced several large multimedia works, including spatial interactive audio-visual work for both concert and installation settings, in collaboration with artists and scholars from other disciplines.

Chiyoko Szlavnics is a Canadian composer, flutist and saxophonist, with an international career based in Berlin. She graduated from the University of Toronto Faculty of Music with Honours in 1989 (Flute Instructor: Douglas Stewart), after which she performed in numerous original music theatre productions and worked as a freelance musician in Toronto. In 1992, she joined Hemispheres Music Projects, and in 1993, began composing for this ensemble, as well as for her own trio Gohroh and contemporary dance projects in western Canada (New Dance Horizons). She became a founding member of 40 fingers saxophone quartet the following year, and began private studies with composer James Tenney.

Nancy Telfer is a Canadian composer who received her formal education at the University of Western Ontario where she concentrated on music education, composition, piano and voice. She then worked full-time as a composer.
Since 1979, she has composed more than 350 works for soloists, chamber ensembles, orchestras, bands and choirs, almost 200 of which are published in Canada, the United States and Europe. Her music is performed in many different countries and she has been commissioned by many fine performers. She has also been in demand as an adjudicator and guest conductor.

Jill Townsend is a well-known composer, arranger and educator based in Vancouver, BC.
She is a prolific writer for her own ensemble, and has written music to feature Ian McDougall, Jiggs Whigham, Campbell Ryga and Brad Turner in concert and recordings. The National Jazz Awards twice nominated the critically acclaimed Jill Townsend Big Band for Large Ensemble of the Year.
Jill's music has been recorded and performed by several ensembles throughout North America. Her composition Waltz of the Jellyfish and arrangement of Old Folks, which first appeared on the Jill Townsend Big Band CD, Tales From the Sea, have been recorded by SWOJO (Seattle Women's Jazz Orchestra) and released on their latest CD, "Meeting of the Waters". Jill was also a guest conductor with SWOJO in 2006, for a concert featuring her original compositions and arrangements.

After piano studies at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, Roxanne Turcotte focused on composition and music technology, earning a master’s degree in electroacoustic composition from the Université de Montréal, where she studied under Marcelle Deschênes, Francis Dhomont and Serge Garant. Active as a composer and sound designer, Turcotte has built her aesthetics around a cinema-like art of integration. She also creates and performs music for television, cinema, radio, the stage, the Internet, and circus arts, in addition to creating sound, music, and visual installations. She is asked to sit on composition juries, and she regularly performs composition training sessions and workshops.

Sara Scott Turner's career as a composer has evolved from studies in London (Sir Lennox Berkeley), Paris (Nadia Boulanger), U.S. (Roy Harris) writing 12-tone and atonal music to more recent accessable works inspired by social issues. Such compositions include SECRET MUSIC (1992) which was written for Remembrance Day and SONGS OF RESISTANCE (1993) in celebration of Louis Riel Day, both broadcast on CBC for those occasions.

Rita Ueda is a composer, sound designer and music teacher in Vancouver, Canada. Her recent works include “forty years of snowfall will not heal an acient forest” for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, “Escape from the Evil Alien Surfblasters” for 8 hand piano ensemble, and “Still Shaking from the Latté,” a piano solo for Misuzu Kitazumi-Burns, a member of the LA Piano Unit. This Season, her “as the snowflakes return to the sky” for string orchestra will be performed by the Vienna Radio Symphony and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra.

Born in Montreal, Quebec, Leslie Uyeda is a composer, pianist and conductor.
She studied piano with the late Dorothy Morton at McGill University and with William Aide at the University of Manitoba. She has played chamber music since her student days and continues to perform her own music with her colleagues.
During 20 years in opera, Leslie worked as a coach, pianist and conductor with the Canadian Opera Company, L’Opera de Montreal, Manitoba Opera, Opera Hamilton, the Banff Centre and the Chautauqua Institute of Music in New York. She also collaborated with some of Canada’s best singers, performing recitals with Tracy Dahl, Richard Margison, Brett Polegato, Wendy Neilsen, Heather Pawsey, Liping Zhang, Jean Stilwell and Viviane Houle. After moving to Vancouver, B.C., Leslie became Chorus Music Director at Vancouver Opera, where she also conducted several mainstage productions.

Carol Ann Weaver is a celebrated Canadian composer/pianist whose music has been heard throughout North America and in various parts of Europe, Africa, and Korea. Her genre-bending music ranges in style from classical to jazz, avant garde to folk, creating new fusions of roots and art music, much of it colored by her long standing passion for African music. Exploring various edges, she has composed for turntablist, worked with soundscapes, drum circles, acoustic and electric instruments, and created dramatic and theme-oriented productions and festivals. Her ongoing composition projects include many varied forms, styles, and media — vocal/keyboard, jazz-related, chamber, solo, dance, dramatic, choral, orchestral, and electroacoustic music Critics laud her work for its daring, its vitality, its blending of cultural voices, its embrace of various styles.

Hildegard Westerkamp was born in Osnabrück, Germany in 1946 and emigrated to Canada in 1968. Her daughter, Sonja Ruebsaat was born in 1977 and is the designer of her webpage. After completing her music studies in the early seventies Westerkamp joined the World Soundscape Project under the direction of Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Vancouver. Her involvement with this project not only activated deep concerns about noise and the general state of the acoustic environment in her, but it also changed her ways of thinking about music, listening and soundmaking. Her ears were drawn to the acoustic environment as another cultural context or place for intense listening. The founding of Vancouver Co-operative Radio during the same time provided an invaluable opportunity to record, experiment with and broadcast the soundscape. One could say that her career as a composer, educator, and radio artist emerged from these two pivotal experiences and focused it on environmental sound and acoustic ecology. In addition, composers such as John Cage and Pauline Oliveros have had a significant influence on her work.

GAYLE YOUNG (b. 1950) is a composer, author and inventor of musical instruments and notational systems. The earliest of Ms. Young's extensive essays about music, an article describing her invention of and performances upon the microtonal percussion instruments, the Amaranth and Columbine, appeared in the premiere issue of Musicworks magazine in 1978. In 1987 she became the Managing Editor of this publication. Along with creating her own electroacoustic compositions, Ms. Young has authored a biography of Hugh LeCaine, the foremost Canadian inventor of electronic instruments.