Biography

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Updated November 15, 2009

Born in 1975, Robert Rival is a composer of music for chamber ensemble, orchestra, voice and theatre who writes in a contemporary tonal style characterized by drama, clarity and lyricism. The Toronto Star has described his music as "brisk and bounding"; the Vancouver Sun as "memorable"; the Ottawa Citizen as "melodic and accessible," "well crafted," "engaging" and "immediately appealing".

Rival's works have been broadcast on CBC radio and performed in Canada, USA, UK, Ireland, Germany and France, by ensembles and musicians including the Gryphon Trio, Musica Camerata (Montreal), the Ottawa Symphony, the National Academy Orchestra the Canadian Sinfonietta Chamber Players, Boris Brott and Denise Djokic, in venues and festivals including the National Arts Centre (Canada), Dublin National Concert Hall, Bridewell Theatre (London, UK), Salle Cortot (Paris), Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, NY International Fringe Festival, Festival Vancouver, Redpath Hall (Montreal), Heliconian Hall (Toronto), Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre (Toronto) and Hamilton Place Great Hall. A Canada Council for the Arts grant recipient and an Associate Composer of the CMC, he has been commissioned by Toronto's Talisker Players and by the Ottawa Youth Orchestra.

Rival has a DMA in composition (University of Toronto, 2009), an MFA in musical theatre composition (New York University, 2002) and an MMus in composition and theory (University of Ottawa, 1998). In 2004 he obtained a diploma from the European American Musical Alliance summer composition program in Paris. His major studies have been with Alexander Rapoport and Steven Gellman.

Rival's chamber music regularly appears at the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival. His catalogue includes a Piano Trio, a Clarinet Trio and a Schubert Fantasy for violin and piano. His song cycle Red Moon & Other Songs of War was premiered by Melanie Conly and Peter Longworth; the chamber version by Alexander Dobson and the Talisker Players. Other works include Six Pieces for solo piano written for Michael Esch.

Rival's orchestral works include the one-movement Symphony "Maligne Range" that was inspired by a hiking trip in the Canadian Rockies, the children's piece Maya the Bee for orchestra and narrator and The Great Northern Diver, a symphonic poem about the common loon. Red Moonrise over Lac Rhéaume for string orchestra was a finalist in the 2004 Oare International String Orchestra Composing Competition (UK) where it received the Orchestra 2nd Prize and Audience 3rd Prize.

Rival's theatre works include The Overcoat, a one-act musical based on the Gogol story, staged twice in 2002, at the NY International Fringe Festival and the Bridewell Theatre.

In addition to composing, Rival is active as a music writer and scholar. A recipient of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) doctoral award for his research on Shostakovich, the Canadian University Music Society awarded him the 2009 George Proctor Prize for best graduate student paper. He has also read papers at the Sixth Biennial International Conference on Music Since 1900 and at the Shostakovich 2006: International Centenary Conference, both held in the UK.

Rival has written program notes for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Summer Music Academy and Festival, Ottawa Chamber Music Society and the University of Toronto Faculty of Music. He has also published liner notes for four of the Gryphon Trio's latest CDs on the Analekta label; an article on Gary Kulesha in SOCAN's Words & Music; and a feature on Messiaen for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

While based in Toronto, during the 2009-10 academic year, Rival is teaching aural skills and theory as a sessional instructor at the University of Windsor School of Music. He is married to Chantal-Andrée Samson, a realist oil painter who also teaches life-drawing at Humber College in Toronto.

SHORTER BIO (155 WORDS)

Updated November 15, 2009

Robert Rival (b. 1975) is a Canadian composer whose contemporary tonal style is characterized by drama, clarity and lyricism, described by critics as "well crafted," "engaging" and "immediately appealing". His music, for chamber ensemble, voice, orchestra and the stage, has been broadcast on CBC radio and performed by the Gryphon Trio and other leading Canadian musicians and ensembles. The Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival has presented his music since 2004, including a Piano Trio, Clarinet Trio, the song cycle Red Moon & Other Songs of War and a Schubert Fantasy. His orchestral works include the one-movement Symphony "Maligne Range". He has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the latter for his research on Shostakovich. Rival's writing has appeared as liner notes for Analekta and as program notes for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He has a DMA in composition from the University of Toronto. www.robertrival.com

SHORTEST BIO (89 WORDS)

Updated November 15, 2009

Robert Rival (b. 1975) is a Canadian composer whose contemporary tonal style is characterized by drama, clarity and lyricism, described by critics as "well crafted," "engaging" and "immediately appealing". His music, for chamber ensemble, voice, orchestra and the stage, has been broadcast on CBC radio and performed by the Gryphon Trio and other leading Canadian musicians and ensembles. He has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Rival has a DMA in composition from the University of Toronto. www.robertrival.com

	Ottawa Symphony Orchestra conductor David Currie discusses Overture with Robert Rival during rehearsal at the National Arts Centre. (photo by Peter Lindell)