Curriculum Vitae
Professional Experience
Jul 2009
Com­po­si­tion Fel­low
Cham­ber Music Con­fer­ence and Com­posers’ Forum of the East
Ben­ning­ton VT, USA
By invi­ta­tion. Duties include com­pos­ing a work for ama­teur musi­cians and coach­ing the ensemble.
Feb 2009
ork­est de ereprijs Young Com­posers Meet­ing
Apel­doorn, the Netherlands
Win­ner of the 2009 com­pe­ti­tion. Wrote a piece for the ensem­ble, par­tic­i­pated in masterclasses.
2008–present
Artis­tic Direc­tor
Recy­cled 80s Live
Canada
Con­ceived and orga­nized the cre­ation of a concert-length, ampli­fied piece for night­clubs based on quo­ta­tions of ‘80s pop songs, includ­ing com­po­si­tion of the score, hir­ing of musi­cians, arrang­ing for per­for­mances, and cre­at­ing audio–video sup­port materials.
Nov–Dec 2009
Banff Cen­tre Fall Cre­ative Music Res­i­dency
Banff, Canada
Sep–Dec 2007
Konin­klijk Con­ser­va­to­rium Res­i­dency
the Hague, the Netherlands
Pro­fes­sional devel­op­ment res­i­dency and com­po­si­tion mas­ter­classes with Mar­tijn Padding.
Aug 2007
Domaine For­get Acad­emy New Music Sem­i­nar
St-Irénée QC, Canada
Par­tic­i­pated in mas­ter­classes. Rehearsals and per­for­mance with the Nou­vel ensem­ble mod­erne.
Feb 2007
Arditti Quar­tet Res­i­dency, UC San Diego Vis­it­ing Artist Pro­gram
San Diego, USA
Com­posed a piece for the Arditti Quar­tet. Rehearsals, record­ing, and mas­ter­classes with the quartet.
2005–2007
Teach­ing Assis­tant
Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia, San Diego
Prepa­ra­tion: Three-month, inten­sive ped­a­gogy sem­i­nar on teach­ing crit­i­cal read­ing and writ­ing to undergraduates.
Duties: Attend­ing lec­tures and meet­ings with pro­fes­sors, cre­at­ing les­son plans based on course read­ing, teach­ing classes, hold­ing office hours, help­ing stu­dents develop research papers, and grad­ing writ­ten assign­ments and exams.
Classes Taught: (Music) MUS1B Music The­ory, MUS12 Intro to Opera, MUS4 Intro­duc­tion to West­ern Music His­tory, LTEN159 Pop­u­lar Music of the ‘60s; (World Lit­er­a­ture) MMW2 The Great Clas­si­cal Tra­di­tions, MMW3 The Medieval Heritage.
2005–2006
Com­poser in Res­i­dence
Ensem­ble con­tem­po­rain de Mon­tréal Généra­tion 2006
Mon­tréal, Canada
Wrote a piece for the ensem­ble, gave a mas­ter­class on my music at the École de musique Vin­cent d’Indy, rehearsals with stu­dent musi­cians, work­shop and rehearsals with the ensem­ble, cross-Canada tour.
Aug 2005
Tapes­try New Opera Works Composer–Librettist Lab­o­ra­tory
Toronto, Canada
Com­po­si­tion of four short opera scenes with four libret­tists, daily mas­ter­classes and dis­cus­sions, rehearsals with per­form­ers, performances.
Sep 2004–Jan 2005
Uni­ver­sity of Toronto Con­tem­po­rary Opera Show­case Pro­gramme
Toronto, Canada
Only under­grad­u­ate stu­dent invited to par­tic­i­pate. Wrote a cham­ber opera for U of T stu­dents, rehearsed with the singers and ensem­ble, held meet­ings with the music director.
Spring 2004
Artis­tic Direc­tor, Orga­nizer
Uni­ver­sity of Toronto – Har­vard Com­po­si­tion Exchange
Orga­nized a student-run exchange between com­po­si­tion stu­dents at both uni­ver­si­ties. Curated a con­cert of stu­dent works.
Spring 2004
Artis­tic Direc­tor, Organizer
Curated a con­cert of new music for sax­o­phone in Toronto. Respon­si­ble for find­ing per­form­ers, com­pos­ing a new piece, mak­ing pro­gram­ming deci­sions for other reper­toire, and pub­li­ciz­ing the concert.
Sum­mer 2002
Artis­tic Direc­tor, Organizer
Curated a con­cert of new music for stu­dent com­posers at the Uni­ver­sity of Alberta. Respon­si­ble for find­ing per­form­ers, com­pos­ing a new piece, mak­ing pro­gram­ming deci­sions for other reper­toire, and pub­li­ciz­ing the concert.
1995–present
Pri­vate music instruc­tor in per­cus­sion, com­po­si­tion, music the­ory, and history.
Awards
2009
  • Alberta Cre­ative Devel­op­ment Ini­tia­tive Grant
  • Canada Coun­cil for the Arts Com­mis­sion­ing Grant (Ensem­ble Res­o­nance, Calgary)
  • Canada Coun­cil for the Arts, Travel Grant
2008
  • Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor of Alberta Emerg­ing Artist Award
  • SOCAN Awards for Young Com­posers: Serge Garant Award (Cham­ber Music), third prize
  • Alberta Foun­da­tion for the Arts, Music Project Grant
2007
  • Cul­ture no.3 selected by the ISCM Cana­dian Sec­tion as part of their sub­mis­sion to the 2008 ISCM World Music Days in Lithuania
  • Canada Coun­cil for the Arts, Com­mis­sion­ing Grant (Toca Loca, Toronto)
2006
  • Canada Coun­cil for the Arts, Grant to Pro­fes­sional Musicians
  • SOCAN Awards for Young Com­posers: Pierre Mer­cure Award (Solo or Duet), first prize
  • Canada Coun­cil for the Arts, Grant to Pro­fes­sional Musicians
  • UC San Diego, Travel Grant
2005
  • Neil D. Gra­ham and William Erv­ing Fair­clough Grad­u­at­ing Schol­ar­ships (Uni­ver­sity of Toronto)
2004
  • SOCAN Awards for Young Composers:
Serge Garant Award (Cham­ber Music), sec­ond prize
God­frey Rid­out Award (Vocal Music), third prize
  • George Coutts and Gwen­dolyn Grant Aca­d­e­mic Schol­ar­ships (Uni­ver­sity of Toronto)
2003
  • Tryp­Tych Toronto Young Com­posers’ Com­pe­ti­tion, first prize
  • Mon­ica Ryck­man and Ben McPeek Aca­d­e­mic Schol­ar­ships (Uni­ver­sity of Toronto)
2000
  • Jazz Band Most Valu­able Mem­ber Award (Grant MacE­wan College)
1999
  • Louise McK­in­ney Schol­ar­ship and entrance schol­ar­ship (Grant MacE­wan College)
  • Alberta Foun­da­tion for the Arts, Study Grant
1998
  • Alberta Foun­da­tion for the Arts, Study Grant
Education
2005–2007
M.A. in Com­po­si­tion, Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia, San Diego
Com­po­si­tion study with Chi­nary Ung and Philippe Manoury.
2002–2005
B.Mus. in Com­po­si­tion, Uni­ver­sity of Toronto
(Addi­tion­ally: Jazz Per­for­mance, 2002–2003)
Grad­u­ated with hon­ours. Com­po­si­tion study with Chan Ka Nin, John Hawkins, and Alexan­der Rapoport; per­cus­sion study with Bob McLaren.
1999–2002
B.A. in Com­po­si­tion, Uni­ver­sity of Alberta
Com­po­si­tion study with Howard Bashaw; per­cus­sion study with Brian Jones. Trans­ferred to the Uni­ver­sity of Toronto in 2002.
1998–2001
Music Diplo­mas in Com­po­si­tion and Jazz, Grant MacE­wan Col­lege
Grad­u­ated with hon­ours. Com­po­si­tion study with Gor­don Nichol­son; per­cus­sion study with Brian Thurgood.
May–Jun 2001
Com­po­si­tion and Folk­loric Cuban Per­cus­sion Stud­ies, Havana, Cuba
Com­po­si­tion: Guido López-Gavilán, Insti­tuto Supe­rior de Arte.
Batá drum­ming: Tony Urdaneto, Bal­let Folk­lórico Nacional.
Rumba drum­ming: Raul González, Con­junto Clave y Guaguancó.
Affiliations
  • Soci­ety of Com­posers, Authors, and Music Pub­lish­ers of Canada (SOCAN)
  • Cana­dian Music Cen­tre, Asso­ciate Composer
  • Cana­dian League of Composers
  • Cana­dian New Music Network
Presentations and Selected Academic Work
2008
2007
  • Cul­ture no.1 included in the SCI Jour­nal of Music Scores (Vol. 40)
2006–present
2006
May 2005
  • Radio inter­view, CIUT, Music Fac­tory. Toronto, Canada
Live inter­view and fea­ture broad­cast of my music
2004
  • Guest lec­turer, Com­posers’ Sem­i­nar, Uni­ver­sity of Toronto
Gave a pre­sen­ta­tion high­light­ing the par­al­lels between rhyth­mic con­structs in Cuban music and func­tional tonality
Languages
  • Eng­lish – Mother tongue, com­pletely flu­ent, prin­ci­pal lan­guage of study
  • French – Spo­ken at home since child­hood, com­pletely flu­ent, used for research and study
  • Span­ish – Strong read­ing, writ­ing, and oral flu­ency; used for research and study
  • Ger­man – Basic read­ing, writ­ing, and oral fluency
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