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155 words | 89 words | E-mail for
high-resolution digital press photo
Updated November 15, 2009
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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".
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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
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Ottawa Symphony
Orchestra conductor David Currie discusses Overture
with Robert Rival during rehearsal at the National Arts Centre. (photo
by Peter Lindell) |
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