Bio

Kristiana Tavityan is a Bulgarian-Canadian composer and clarinetist entering her final year of a Master of Music degree with a concentration in composition at the University of Ottawa, studying under Dr. Kelly-Marie Murphy. Kristiana grew up in Halifax, and in 2023, she graduated from Dalhousie University's music program with a bachelor's degree in composition, where she studied under Amy Brandon. Kristiana started composing while studying music at Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC), where she was exposed to numerous genres such as classical, jazz, big band, film, and pop writing. 

Kristiana has had her pieces played at the Open Waters Festival and by the Quasar Quartet at their Scotia Festival concert, and her new string quartet premiered in the Ottawa Chamberfest student competition concert. She has also participated in Array Music's Young Composers Workshop in Toronto and Standing Wave's Compocon workshop for emerging composers in Vancouver. While studying at Dalhousie University, she participated in various composition workshops featuring performers such as Norm Adams and Nicola Baroni. In 2024, the new music ensemble Alkali Collective performed her piece Into the Storm after she won their 2023/24 Call for Scores. In June 2024, Kristiana wrote a string quartet for Quatuor Bozzini as part of their 2024 Bozzini Lab student workshop. Kristiana attended the 2024 Screen Music Program for emerging film and video game composers in Pavia, Italy.

Kristiana has gained a love for orchestration, film and video game music, songwriting, and arranging. She aims to increase her film and video game music portfolio while growing her composition career as a freelance composer. In her music, Kristiana explores chromaticism and extended techniques blended with art music traditions while being inspired by jazz forms and jazz harmonies.