10 Years of Composition Academy at LAMP

LAMP’s annual Composition Academy has emerged as a standout opportunity for emerging composers in Canada

LAMP’s Composition Academy offers a blend of master classes, collaborative learning opportunities, hands-on writing and score workshops. It culminates in a concert of world premieres written by participants and inspired according to pre-set instrumentation. In recent years, themes have included new music inspired by poems from Sue Goyette's Masterworks-winning anthology OCEAN, the vibrant visual art of painter Craig Rubadoux and the L'nuk hieroglyphic poetry of three-time award winning author and interdisciplinary artist Michelle Sylliboy.

Led by a remarkable team of Canadian composers (Dinuk Wijeratne, Matthias McIntire and Roydon Tse), LAMP’s popular Composition Academy also includes guest faculty which changes each year including Ana Sokolović, Dorothy Chang, Amy Brandon, Nicole Lizée and many more well known Canadian and international composers.

The final works are always prepared and performed by professional musicians – another aspect that distinguishes LAMP's program from other composition schools or festivals. Not only highly skilled, these are artists who love contemporary music and are as invested in this experience as any of our composers.

Taken together, it’s the perfect destination for serious young composers.

Each year, composers are asked to produce one piece up to five minutes long. The days spent at LAMP will be for refinement and working with the faculty and performers to create the final composition which will premiere in LAMP’s beautiful concert hall on the final evening of the program. composers will also collaborate to produce a group composition from start to finish while here.

Past participant testimonials:

"Having been to composition workshops in the US and Canada, it is hard to think of any other composition institute that can rival what LAMP offers in terms of performance resources and quality of tuition", says Roydon Tse, winner of 2018 Lieutenant Governor of Alberta's Emerging Artist Award.

Composition 2024 Academy participant, Reid Contreras Woelfle: “LAMP sets a surreal and unmatched standard for what Canadian Contemporary/New Music workshops can be. The faculty, staff, performers and participants all contributed towards a well-crafted, unique and unforgettable experience. LAMP was absolutely transformative in my journey as an emerging composer, and I am grateful for the lessons, relationships and memories I will hold very dearly for the rest of my life.”

While bassist Travis Harrison writes, "In five years of new music festivals… I have never been to or played in a concert that presented such a high caliber of composition and maintained it throughout the night… I really do believe this program should be on the radar of anyone who cares about new music, and especially those hoping to pursue a career in composition."

This limited enrollment program (maximum eight participants) is open to composers with at least one degree in composition aged 35 and under. Exceptionally talented undergrads will be considered with a reference letter from a current mentor and/or professor. With limited spaces available, we encourage you to apply early. Those who do not fit program criteria will be welcome to audit classes.

Composition Academy 2025

9 - 21 June 2025 - A success!

Participants this year each composed a piece 5-8 minutes long, performed by violin, cello and piano, in an evening of world premieres to be held in LAMP’s concert hall. There were two groups who then composed and performed one additional piece from start to finish while at LAMP.

This year’s Academy brought together some of the most innovative creative voices of today and tomorrow.

LAMP’s Composition Academy offers a blend of master classes, collaborative learning opportunities, hands-on writing and score workshops. 2025 guest faculty member is Canadian composer Nicole Lizée. Nicole’s compositions range from works for orchestra and solo turntablist featuring DJ techniques fully notated and integrated into a concert music setting, to other unorthodox instrument combinations that include the Atari 2600 video game console, omnichords, stylophones, Simon™, vintage board games, and karaoke tapes. In the broad scope of her evolving oeuvre she explores such themes as malfunction, reviving the obsolete, and the harnessing of imperfection and glitch to create a new kind of precision.Awards include the 2024 JUNO Award for Classical Composition of the Year, the 2023 Music Critics Association of North America Award for Best New Opera, the 2022 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Opera (her opera received six Dora Awards), the 2019 Prix Opus for Composer of the Year, the 2017 SOCAN Jan V. Matejcek Award, the 2013 Canada Council Jules Léger Prize for Chamber Music and the Canada Council Robert Fleming Prize for achievements in composition.