UE composers from Canada

Aris Carastathis is Professor of Theory /Composition and Chair of the Department of Music at Lakehead University, Thunder Bay Ontario, Canada. He is an Associate Composer and Voting Member of the Canadian Music Centre, and President of New Music North. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Louisiana State University where he studied composition with Dinos Constantinides. A composer of over one hundred works, Carastathis has received commissions from the Canadian Music Centre, Music Canada 2000, Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, Norman Burgess Memorial Fund, Lakehead University Centre for Northern Studies, Louisiana Sinfonietta, Acadia Trio and LSU New Music Ensemble. Carastathis' music has been performed in Austria, Belgium, Canada, England, Germany, Greece, Italy, Kazakhstan, Poland, Serbia and USA. Many of his works are available through the Canadian Music Centre Distribution Centre and Universal Edition.

Michael Matthews studied composition with Larry Austin, Ben Glovinsky and Aurelio de la Vega before completing his Ph.D. in composition at North Texas State University in 1985. In 2012 Matthews retired from twenty-seven years of full-time teaching at the Marcel A. Desautels Faculty of Music, University of Manitoba; he is now Professor Emeritus there. Matthews is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and currently lives and works in Berlin. He has been the recipient of numerous commissions and awards, including a Rockefeller Foundation residency at the Bellagio Center in Italy, the International Computer Music Prize, a scholarship to the Composition and Computer Music Seminar of the Bartók Festival in Szombathely, Hungary a Major Arts Grant in music from the Manitoba Arts Council. Matthews is a conductor and a founder and artistic director of the GroundSwell new music series. From 2002-2004 he was Composer-in-Residence with the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra.

Michalis Andronikou is a composer and musicologist currently residing in Calgary, AB, Canada. He holds a PhD in composition from the University of Calgary. He received his Bachelor’s and Integrated Master’s degrees in musicology from the Department of Music Studies, University of Athens, Greece. Michalis has composed music for small and large ensembles, theatre plays, art exhibits, movies, and songs. Eight CDs with his works have been released since 2003, and his scores are published by the Canadian Palliser Music Publishing, the Bulgarian Balkanota, the Italian Da Vinci Edition, the English Trübcher Music Editions, and the American Alea Publishing & Recording. Michalis is an associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre, a member of the Canadian League of Composers, a theory examiner of the Royal Conservatory of Music, a member of the Greek Composers Union, a member of the Center of Cypriot Composers, and Ambassador of Culture for the Hellenic Institute of Cultural Diplomacy.

Philon (Phil) Nguyen (born 1978) is a composer of opera music. He was born in Montreal (Quebec, Canada). As a child, he studied piano. Later, he would study film music composition at UQAM (Quebec, Canada) where he completed a DESS. His music also explores computational techniques applied to music composition. Phil also holds a PhD in Information Systems Engineering from Concordia University in Montreal (Quebec, Canada) where he researched neurological and cognitive techniques for the study of engineering design and creativity. Phil is completing a PhD in Fine Arts at Concordia University under Eldad Tsabary. Phil has also followed workshops and tutorials at IRCAM and Darmstadt with composers such as Grégoire Lorieux, Chaya Czernowin, Steven Kazuo Takasugi, Arne Gieshoff, Hans Thomalla and Sarah Nemtsov.

Phil's compositions include an opera based on the play by Sarah Kane, Phaedra's Love (2020), the choral work Fragments for an Unfinished Requiem (2019), an opera based on a libretto he wrote for Sophocles' Antigone, entitled Sophocles: Antigone (2021) and a remodernisation of Chekhov's Cherry Orchard (2023).

Phil describes his music as musical deconstructivism, following the use of the term in architecture.

On his spare time, Phil also enjoys composing for short movies, amateur or professional. Film music has taught him the intimate relation between music and its effect, the semiotic relationship between image and sound and these have influenced his stage work.

Veronique Vaka, born in 1986, is a composer based in Iceland. She studied classical cello performance at Vincent-d’Indy, electroacoustic composition at the University of Montreal and completed a Master's degree in music composition from the Iceland University of the Arts.

Veronique's works are rooted in the geology and topography of Iceland. From the inner core of the Earth to its outer shapes, she explores the narrative of landscapes. Her orchestral piece Lendh, re-imagining the geothermal region of Krýsuvík, was internationally praised by critics and described as "operating on a geologic scale, with tectonic bass textures" by The New York Times and "a marvel" by British music magazine Gramophone. Lendh was nominated for the Icelandic Music Awards and the Nordic Council Music Prize. In 2020, she began a Glacier Series; a compilation of works with the transformation of glacial landscapes as groundwork, to create awareness of climate change. Among these works is the cello concerto Gemæltan written for the renowned Sæunn Þorsteinsdóttir, expressing the melting of Síðujökull: "We are living the most rapid change of Earth’s forces that a single generation has experienced. Glaciers, that before moved at geological speed of centuries and millennia, are now vanishing in a lifetime of a single human being [...]" -programme note by Andri Snær Magnason. Gemæltan received a nomination for the Icelandic Music Awards, Composition of the Year. Also in this series is the viola concerto Vanescere, written for Þórunn Ósk Marinósdóttir, where Veronique observed the changes of Sólheimajökull during one year: "We hear the glacier’s changing shape in movements by degrees: the shifting of one note in a chord, the twisting or contracting of a texture [...]" - programme note by Andrew Mellor. 

An important aspect of Veronique's music is the perception of time. It is constructed as an independent layer of music that can fluctuate with different velocities and even come to a complete standstill. It expands, contracts and alters the sense of time.

Veronique has written symphonic works, concertos, and a variety of music for ensembles, from string quartets to large chamber works. She has been performed by celebrated soloists and ensembles across continents. Her works have appeared at a variety of festivals such as Cresc... Biennale für aktuelle Musik, Tertulia Chamber Music, Chamber Music Festival on Valentia, Myrkir Músíkdagar, Tónlistarhátíð Rásar 1, Kammermúsíkklúbburinn and Sumartónleikar í Skálholti. Since 2021, her works have been published by Universal Edition in Vienna. 

Among upcoming projects are Erda, a double Violin Concerto for Niklas Walentin and Ensemble Storstrøm, Boreas, a new work for the pianist Pallavi Mahidhara and a new string quartet written for Siggi String Quartet.

Veronique is a member of Tónskáldafélag Íslands (the Society of Icelandic Composers).

OCCURRENCE, released on the 22nd January 2021. Sono Luminus

LENDH, f. orchestra, w/ Iceland Symphony Orchestra and Daníel Bjarnason

Sono Luminus: http://bit.ly/ISOocSL

Spotify: http://bit.ly/ISOocSp

Nýir vængir, released the 18th December 2021, DísaRecords

VÖTN, f. soprano and piano w/ Herdís Anna Jónasdóttir and Bjarni Frímann Bjarnason, poem by Steinunn Arnbjörg Stefánsdóttir

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/2CsDgg0PT4jWGbgEipxfYg?si=7cea71feb1bc47a3