Dr. Andriy Talpash

Andriy Talpash is an active composer, conductor, and educator. He has composed works for several ensembles and soloists, including Calgary’s Ensemble Resonance and The Rubbing Stone Ensemble, Continuum Contemporary Music, Ensemble contemporain de Montréal, Ensemble KORE, and theWinnipeg Symphony Orchestra. His works have been performed throughout Canada, the United States, and Brazil, and have been broadcast on Canadian, Australian, Spanish and Turkish national radios. He has received grants from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Canada Council for the Arts, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Some awards include: First Prize in the 2000 SOCAN Young Composers Competition, Sir Ernest Macmillan prize for his orchestral composition Queezinart– hocket in a blender; second place in the chamber music category of the 15th CBC/Radio-Canada National Competition for Young Composers (2002-03) for his piece HWY 2. Andriy represented Canada at UNESCO’s International Rostrum of Composers in Vienna, Austria (June 2003).

Andriy attained the degrees of Bachelor of Music (composition and saxophone performance) from the University of Alberta, Master of Music (composition) from McGill University and Doctor of Music (composition) from McGill University. He studied composition with Brian Cherney, Howard Bashaw, Malcolm Forsyth, and attended composition master classes with Louis Andriessen and Etienne Rolin.

Since 2005, Dr. Talpash has been teaching music composition, theory, and orchestration at the University of Alberta. He is also the music department’s New Music Coordinator, and directs the music department’s new music ensemble, Contempo.

Diana Tayler 

Diana Tayler is a composer, arranger, performer (harp, voice) and musical educator based on Treaty 6 Territory in Edmonton, Alberta. Diana turned to composition as a medium for her artistic expression after spending many years travelling across the country and abroad, engaging and performing with diverse musical communities in Asia and Eastern Europe. In her compositions, she uses extended techniques and deconstructs sound to explore resonance and tonal colour and bring the listener inside the sound worlds she creates. She has recently developed a fascination for creating acousmatic works that exist perpetually, and is drawn to the idea that with each listening of a piece it is rendered anew. Diana has completed graduate studies in composition and linguistics at the University of Alberta, and an Associate diploma in Piano Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music (ARCT). She is active in community music as a clinician and adjudicator, in local arts organisations, and in Edmonton’s vibrant choral community.