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.

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."

• 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

• Founder: Shaw Festival String Quartet Residency

• Piano & Keyboard Magazine--July/August 1998

• The RASHOMAN QUARTET
     - The Amati Quartet (1997)

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

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

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

• 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

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

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