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CHRISTOPHER DONISON

Christopher Donison Christopher Donison is a Canadian composer, conductor, pianist, lecturer, inventor, and advocate of challenge to conventional paradigms of thought. A piano student of Winifred Wood and graduate in piano performance from the School of Music, at the University of Victoria at Victoria , British Columbia- he went on to win a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Music Direction in Toronto and to serve as Music Director of the Shaw Festival in Niagara-0n-the-Lake, Ontario, for ten years (1988-1998) where he conducted over 1,000 performances, created a string quartet residency programme, and wrote more than a dozen scores for plays and orchestrations for many more.

He continued to pursue graduate studies in composition at State University of New York at Buffalo and has composed choral, chamber, and orchestral works. In 1998 he finished an unfinished Gershwin musical for the Estate of George and Ira Gershwin to mark the centenary of George Gershwin's birth. In January 1999 he appeared as guest conductor with the Kingston Symphony where he premiered his own first symphony: Symphony Erotica.

His concert works include Symphony Erotica, 7 Encounters for Soprano and Flute, the award winning Choral Prophecy performed by the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge , England, on their first North American Tour, Theme and Conversations for Orchestra, and The Little Match Girl for Orchestra, Narrator, and Dancer, choreographed adapted and narrated by Veronica Tennant, two string quartets, The Rashomon Quartet, and The Seagull Quartet for string quartet and distant oboe, and Music-by-the-Sea, quintet for clarinet and string quartet.

He is also the inventor of the Donison-Steinbuhler Standard, a smaller 7/8 alternative piano keyboard which is hoped will become universally available for study, competition, and performance within a generation to help eliminate the discrimination exerted upon the smaller half of the world by a one-size-fits-all standard that favours the larger half. Prototypes of that piano keyboard have been donated to both The Victoria Conservatory of Music and the University of Victoria, as well as the Banff School of Fine Arts and numerous other institutions.



CV

Music by the Sea

    Since 2006 Donison has been the Founder and Artistic Director of Music by the Sea at Bamfield , Vancouver Island
    musicbythesea.ca

    "For many years it has been an abiding vision of mine--a place for a life-changing experience, where the most promising talented young musicians from around the world would have the opportunity to perform and study with some of the world's finest musicians in a natural setting that has no equal--the bold and mystic beauty of the West Coast of Canada's Vancouver Island.

    During a concentrated period in the summer musicians would take in the powerful inspiration this stunning part of the world elicits--and it would focus the muse. And as the years passed, the music would draw audiences to a region which is ascendant--which is growing, culturally and economically--the Pacific Northwest. I invite you to share in this vision."





Past Positions

  • Music Director-Shaw Festival (1988-1998)
  • Faculty-Performing Arts Medical Association Symposiun-Aspen 1999
  • Advisory Board Member-Small Ensembles Program-Orchestras Canada
  • Executive Board Member-Association of Canadian Librettists,Composers,and Lyricists




Programs

  • Founder: Shaw Festival String Quartet Residency




Published Writings

  • Piano & Keyboard Magazine--July/August 1998




Recordings

  • The RASHOMAN QUARTET
       - The Amati Quartet (1997)




Selected Credits

    2002 CONDUCTOR
      Victoria Symphony, 20th century American
      Barber, Copland, Gershwin


    2001 COMPOSER AND LIBRETTIST
      Eyes on the Mountain
      an opera commissioned and premiered by Opera Studio, Victoria , B.C.
      Music-by-the-Sea
      a film for Air Canada, Jaffa Paddon Productions, Toronto, Ontario
      --recording by Lafayette String Quartet-Victoria B.C. .



    2000 COMPOSER
      Clarinet quintet for Chamberworks
      Hamilton Ontario
      Three Piano Pieces
      Jean Coulthard Composition Competition commissioned composer and adjudicator, July, 2000 .
    CONDUCTOR / PIANIST
      Gershwin Rhapsody Gala
      Victoria, B.C. producer John Shandro


    1999 COMPOSER / CONDUCTOR
      Symphony Erotica
      Symphony Erotica commissioned by O.A.C. and Laidlaw Foundation premiere January 15, 1999, Grant Hall, Kingston Symphony


    1998 CONDUCTOR, ARRANGER, ORCHESTRATOR, COMPOSER
      A Foggy Day
      completed this unfinished Gershwin Musical for the Estate of George and Ira Gershwin in the centenary of George Gershwin's birth premierred Shaw Festival, extended run through 1999 season.


    1997 CONDUCTOR
      The Chocolate Soldier
      Shaw Festival David Latham dir.
    COMPOSER
      The Seagull for String Quartet


    1996 COMPOSER
      Choral Prophecy
      performance- The Chapel Choir of Clare College of Cambridge England-- North American tour
      Rashomon Quartet
      String Quartet
      The Little March Girl
      for orchestra, narrator, and dancer performances - Vancouver Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, Victoria Symphony 1996-97 season.Veronica Tennant narrator, and choreographer
    MUSIC DIRECTOR / CONDUCTOR / ORCHESTRATOR
      Mr. Cinders
      [dir. Christopher Newton]
    MUSIC DIRECTOR / CONDUCTOR
      My Fair Lady
      The Citadel - Edmonton


    1995 COMPOSER
      Symphonic Choral Prophecy The Kingston Symphony
      Glen Fast, Conductor
    MUSIC DIRECTOR / CONDUCTOR / ORCHESTRATOR
      The Zoo
      [Glynnis Leyshon dir.]
      Cavalcade
      [Christopher Newton-dir.}


    1994 COMPOSER
      Busman's Honeymoon
      [dir. Christopher Newton]
    MUSICAL DIRECTOR
      Lady Be Good
      [Dir. Glynnis Leyshon]
    MUSICAL DIRECTOR
      Puttin' On the Ritz -The Belfry Theatre
      [Dir. Glynnis Leyshon]


    1993 COMPOSER
      Theme and Conversations for Orchestra-The Kingston Symphony
      [Glen Fast, Conductor]
    MUSICAL DIRECTOR, CONDUCTOR and ORCHESTRATOR
      Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
      [Dir. Glynnis Leyshon]


    1992 MUSICAL DIRECTOR, CONDUCTOR and ORCHESTRATOR
      On the Town
      [Susan Cox, Dir.]
    COMPOSER
      7 Encounters for Flute and Soprano
    ORCHESTRATOR
      God Save The Queen / O Canada
      performed by The National Youth Orchestra, The Victoria Symphony


    1991 COMPOSER
      Lulu
      [Christopher Newton, Dir.]
    MUSICAL DIRECTOR, CONDUCTOR and ORCHESTRATOR
      A Connecticut Yankee
      [Tom Diamond, Dir.]


    1990 COMPOSER
      Waltz of the Toreadors
      [David Giles dir. (England)]
    MUSICAL DIRECTOR
      Nymph Errant
      [Cole Porter-North American premierre]


    1989 COMPOSER
      Man and Superman Peter Pan
      [Charleston Theatre Company]
    MUSICAL DIRECTOR
      Nymph Errant
      [Cole Porter-North American premierre}


    1988 COMPOSER
      You can Never Tell
      [Olympic Arts Festival]
    PIANIST
      Hit The Deck


    1987 CONDUCTOR / ARRANGER
      Marathon 33
    PIANIST
      Girl Crazy
    COMPOSER
      Peter pan
      Shaw Festival, Ian Judge dir. (England)


    1986 MUSICAL DIRECTOR, CONDUCTOR and ORCHESTRATOR
      Cavalcade
    MUSICAL DIRECTOR
      The Desert Song
      Toronto
    PIANIST
      Anything Goes


    1985 MUSICAL DIRECTOR, CONDUCTOR and ORCHESTRATOR
      Cavalcade
    MUSICAL DIRECTOR, CONDUCTOR and ORCHESTRATOR
      Sweeney Todd
    PIANIST
      Naughty Marietta


    1984 ARRANGER AND PIANIST
      Roberta


    1983 PIANIST
      Tom Jones


    1982 PIANIST
      The Desert Song


    1981 ASSOCIATE MUSICAL DIRECTOR
      Say Hello To Harvey
      anew musical by Leslie Bricusse. Royal Alex , Toronto, Ontario. Donald O'connor starring.


    1980 PIANIST
      Puttin' On The Ritz


    1979 PIANIST
      Puttin' On The Ritz
      Spokesong
      Piaf


    1978 CONDUCTOR
      Jesus Christ Superstar
      The Jerry Gosley Smile Show


    1977 MUSICAL DIRECTOR
      The Jerry Gosley Smile Show



Film

  • Making Theatre
       - (Cineroutes Productions-Antony Azzopardi Dir.)




Awards

  • Dora Mavor Moore Award
       - Outstanding Musical Direction
  • '95 New Music Competition
       - Edmonton-Choral works



Education

  • University of Victoria, Victoria B.C.
       - Bachelor of Music conferred in 1976 [with distinction] in piano-performance

  • Graduate Studies, composition
       - New York State University at Buffalo




Teaching Experience

  • Faculty, Victoria Conservatory of Music 1976-79
  • Visiting Professor of Composition-Brock University 1995-6



Memberships and Affiliations

  • s.o.c.a.n. , A. F. of M., A.C.L.C.L., CMRRA




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