Canadian composers Maria Case (Toronto) and Gayle Young (Grimsby) are the latest recipients of the Roberta Stephen Composition award.

The Roberta Stephen Award offers support to a Canadian woman composer aged 36 or older for professional development such as further studies, conferences, or workshops, or composers’ festivals. The prize was established by Calgary composer and publisher Roberta Stephen and is administered by the Association of Canadian Women Composers.

Maria Case

Maria Case is an accomplished composer, performer, music theorist, and choral conductor. Founder of the Artemis Trio and Artemis ensemble, Case directs the 60-voice Annex Singers and is Director of Music at the Glebe Road United Church. Her compositions include choral works, song cycles, works for piano, and works for chamber ensemble. Her award will go toward her next composition project, a cycle of pieces for chamber choir in which each singer functions both as an ensemble member and as a soloist, utilizing madrigal-like independence of voice lines. Case will use the Roberta Stephen award for consultations with Dr. Hilary Apfelstadt at the University of Toronto throughout the compositional process.

Gayle Young

Gayle Young’s wide-ranging compositional interests include expanded tuning systems, instrument design, sound sculpture, and acoustic ecology, merging performance, design, and composition. The Roberta Stephen Award will assist Young to lecture and perform at the 14^th annual Visiones Sonores conference and festival at the Centro Mexicano para la Música y las Artes Sonoras in September 2018. Young’s participation in this conference will be followed by a two-week residency at the CMMAS in February 2019, which will enhance her international profile, provide her with new networking opportunities, and give her an opportunity to become familiar with current electroacoustic techniques.

 For further information, contact: Janet Danielson jrd@sfu.ca 250 886-4534

Press release: RobertaStephenPressRelease2018