Composer Fellowship
The Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra Composer Fellowship program was launched in collaboration with the Ontario Region of the Canadian Music Centre in our 18-19 Season. The program is aimed at connecting early-career composers with professionals in the orchestral world to nurture and develop new skills through mentorship and the creation of a new work.
Composer Fellows participate in mentorship opportunities with Music Director Gemma New, Composer-in-Residence Abigail Richardson-Schulte, HPO musicians and staff. Each Composer Fellow also writes a new work to be premiered by the HPO.
CALL FOR APPLICANTS
The deadline has passed for the 23-24 Season Composer Fellowship call for applications.
Meet the 23-24 Composer Fellows
Kathryn Knowles
Kathryn Knowles is a composer, cellist, conductor, and writer currently based in Toronto, Ontario. Her compositions have been played in workshops by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the New Orford String Quartet, and the Penderecki String Quartet. Her most recent piece, Dreams of Hope, was commissioned by Joseph Petric and funded by the Canada Council for the Arts. She is currently collaborating with Morgan-Paige Melbourne to write a musical titled Between Fires, also funded by the CCA. Kathryn has performed and recorded with Juno-nominated singer-songwriter Lindsay Schoolcraft, and she recorded tracks for an upcoming album by the Juno-winning band, OKAN. Her poetry and short stories received honourable mention in the Writer’s Digest 89th Annual Writing Competition, and her debut fantasy trilogy, The Quiescence Trilogy, is available for purchase now. In addition to this, Kathryn is also a Centre Director with Sistema Toronto, the Music Director of Music4Life String Orchestra, and the Founder of Mad Endeavour.
Michael Maevskiy
Michael Maevskiy (b. 1997) is a Russian-Canadian composer currently based in Kingston, Ontario. Michael’s music has been performed across Canada and Italy and he has had the opportunity to participate in multiple workshops including the highSCORE festival (Pavia, Italy), Tuckamore Chamber Music festival (St. Johns, N.L.), Bozzini Lab (Montreal, QC), Scarborough Symphony Orchestra’s New Generation Composer workshop (Toronto, ON), the Orford New Music Workshop (Orford, QC), and the inaugural Piano Lunaire’s Composers’ Symposium (Toronto, ON). Michael’s work has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, and in 2022, he was awarded a SOCAN Foundation: Young Composer’s Award in the solo/duets category. His music has also been included in the ACNMP’s Contemporary Showcase syllabi for piano and violin. Michael received a Bachelor of Music from the University of Toronto, where he studied composition with Abigail Richardson-Schulte.
Paul Kawabe
Paul Kawabe is a composer based in Toronto. He completed his undergraduate and Master’s degree in composition at the University of Toronto and has participated in composition programs with the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance, the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra, and Orford Music Academy. Stylistically, his music hinges on dramatic narrative development and evocative soundscapes. Inspiration for his pieces is found in art, architecture, or a story. The emotional impact of these mediums will occasionally become a North Star while writing, where the goal is to bring about a similar experience through sound. His piece Pitch Black Alchemy was recently programmed by The Bedford Trio at their concert in April 2023.
Meet the 22-23 Composer Fellows
Gavin Fraser
Gavin Fraser is a composer, bass-baritone, and educator hailing from Antigonish, Nova Scotia. His music “often balances on a tightrope between static beauty and violence” and has been described as “fresh with pithy modesty” (NY Classical Review ’17). Often inspired by dreams, the ocean, climate justice, and storytelling, Fraser composes for diverse forces, including chamber groups, vocal works, large ensembles, electroacoustic music, and music for film. Fraser’s compositions have been performed across North America and Europe. Most recently, his piece awake my dawn, my fair one was spotlighted in an episode of CBC’s Tapestry (’22), which explored birdsong in urban areas during the pandemic. In 2021, he collaborated with Barbara Hannigan and the EQ ensemble on the new short chamber opera Penelope (’21) and was commissioned by Jonathan Crow for a new chamber work which premiered at the Toronto Summer Music (’21). Fraser has received numerous awards, notably the Karen Kieser Prize in Canadian Music and the 1st place award in the electroacoustic category for the SOCAN Foundation Awards for Young Composers. He’s also received awards from the Land’s End Composer Competition, the University of Toronto’s COVID-19 Global Student Engagement Award, the Nova Scotia Talent Trust, and the Canada Council for the Arts. Fraser served as the composer in residence at the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance (’21-’22), as well as their program director and resident composition teacher. He recently completed his doctorate in composition at the University of Toronto
Cadu Verdan
Cadu Verdan is a Brazilian composer based in Ontario, Canada. He is inspired by feelings or events that are part of the human experience, and interested in the use of texture and colours to express his musical ideas. He was selected for the Fresh Inc Festival 2020 organized by the Fifth House Ensemble, USA, and had the world premiere of his string trio Monomania, a commission made possible by the Steven R. Gerber Trust. He is twice winner of the Classical Music Award of the National Foundation of Arts (FUNARTE), Brazil, the most important award in Brazil for classical music, with this works O peso do Eco (2014) and Sobre a angústia (2016), performed respectively at the XXI (2015) and XXII Biennale of Contemporary Music (2017). Verdan was finalist at Tinta Fresca festival (2015) with his Alucinações cadavéricas for symphony orchestra performed by the Filarmônica de Minas Gerais, Brazil. A graduate of Illinois State University (M.M.) and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (B.M.), he is currently pursuing a PhD in Music Composition at the University of Western Ontario.
Program support provided by:
Conductor Fellowship
The HPO is thrilled to be a participating orchestra in the Women and Musical Leadership program led by Tapestry Opera. This program addresses a historic gender inequity on the podium by providing female and non-binary conductors active mentorship with leading conductors in the field, deep and varied experience with professional companies, and a robust artistic network. HPO Music Director Gemma New is among the program’s conducting advisors.
Meet the Year 3 Cohort of Conductor Fellows
Kelly Lin
Kelly Lin is a Chinese-Canadian conductor who has gained recognition for her magnetic, captivating, and inspiring interpretations of a diverse range of musical genres, from classical to contemporary. As the founder and Artistic Director of Ensemble Lagom, her performances have been praised for their advocacy of under-represented voices. Kelly earned her master’s degree in orchestral conducting from McGill University, where she was the recipient of the Hnatyshyn Foundation – Christa and Franz-Paul Decker Fellowship in Conducting. She has studied under renowned mentors such as Alexis Hauser and Guillaume Bourgogne. Kelly’s reputation has led her to work with professional orchestras and ensembles across Canada and internationally, and she has performed in major music festivals such as Toronto Summer Music, Ottawa Chamberfest, and 21 Stops Music Festival. Kelly’s recent conducting engagements include concerts with Ensemble Obiora, Ensemble Lagom, Hatch Ensemble, McGill Symphony Orchestra, and McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble.
Monica Chen
A native of Vancouver, Monica Chen is one of the conducting fellows at the Orchestre Métropolitain, assisting Yannick Nézet-Séguin since 2021. She will be the Assistant Conductor of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra for the 2023-2024 season and one of three finalists at Domaine Forget chosen to perform in concert with the Orchestre symphonique de Québec two years in a row. Recent conducting engagements include working with Opera Kelowna, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec and the Orchestre Métropolitain. She has participated in festivals at the Eastman School of Music, Domaine Forget International Summer Academy, the UBC Chamber Music Festival, and the University of Oregon Conducting Institute, working closely with maestros Jonathan Girard, Neil Varon, Thomas Rösner, and Bramwell Tovey. She holds two Masters, one in Orchestral Conducting from UBC, studying with Dr. Jonathan Girard and the other in violin performance from Indiana University, studying with Mimi Zweig.
Meet the Year 2 Cohort of Conductor Fellows
Maria Fuller
Saskatchewan-born conductor Maria Fuller is a rising star on the international music scene, praised for her “fiery and dynamic” performances (The Walleye Magazine) and “subtle control, careful focus and thorough professionalism…” (Chronical Journal of Thunder Bay). Sought after as a conductor, pianist, vocal coach, trumpeter, composer and arranger, Maria brings an unparalleled energy and infectious joy to her craft on and off the podium. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano from McGill University, a Masters of Music in Piano, Artist Diploma in Operatic Coaching, and a Masters of Music in Orchestral Conducting from College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). Maria was the 2019 David Effron Conducting Fellow at the renowned Chautauqua Institute, and competed in the inaugural La Maestra International Conducting Competition in Paris in 2020.
Naomi Woo
Conductor ​Naomi Woo, named by CBC in 2019 as a “Top 30 Classical Musicians under 30”, is the Assistant Conductor of Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and the first-ever Music Director of Sistema Winnipeg. Born in Newfoundland and raised in North Vancouver, Naomi conducts across Canada and is noted for her work as a socially-engaged artist and educator, with appearances at the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, Regina Symphony, and the Saskatoon Symphony. An advocate for opera and new music, Naomi will lead the Canadian premiere of Du Yun’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Angel’s Bone (re:Naissance Opera) and the world premiere of Ellis Ludwig-Leone’s The Night Falls (BalletCollective, American Opera Projects). She holds degrees from Yale, Université de Montréal, and Cambridge.
Meet the Year 1 Cohort of Conductor Fellows
Jennifer Tung
Currently the artistic director of Toronto City Opera, Mississauga Children’s Choir and assistant conductor of the Mississauga Symphony Orchestra, Jennifer is also an accomplished singer and collaborative pianist. She has performed with orchestras, given recitals and has served on faculty in summer programs internationally. Jennifer debuted with the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival conducting their production of The Mikado in 2017 and has returned to conductSweeney Todd and Tragedy of Carmen. In 2019, she debuted with Opera York conducting their production of La Traviata and was the assistant conductor for Tapestry Opera and Opera on the Avalon’s joint production of the Dora award winning new opera Shanawdithit by Dean Burry and Yvette Nolan. Jennifer is on faculty at the Glenn Gould School and holds degrees in vocal performance and collaborative piano from the Eastman School of Music. She studies conducting with Denis Mastromonaco.
Juliane Gallant
Conductor, pianist, and coach Juliane Gallant has been based in the UK for the past 8 years, where she trained at the National Opera Studio and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She worked as musical director on operas such as Carmen, La bohème, Tosca, La Traviata, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, Orphée aux enfers, and Les contes d’Hoffmann. She is an Opera Awards Foundation bursary recipient. Juliane has regularly taken part in conducting courses at the Royal Opera House, both in person and online during the pandemic, studying with Alice Farnham, Jessica Cottis, and Sian Edwards.