Curriculum Vitae
This
Canadian-born composer, now in his mid-twenties, is a figure likely
to make his mark before long.”
Richard Whitehouse,
www.classicalsource.comCanadian composer Christopher Mayo was the recipient of the 2005 Royal Philharmonic Society Composition prize. As a result of this he was commissioned to write Passed the Last River for Michael Collins and the Dante String Quartet, which was premièred at the 2006 Cheltenham Festival and broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
His work Nineteen Frames has received a Serge Garant Award in the 2005 SOCAN Awards for Young Composers, was selected in the Continuum Contemporary Music call for works, and has been performed in Canada, the UK and USA.
Christopher has also been awarded the Richard Sadlier Prize, the William Erving Fairclough Scholarship, and the Glenn Gould Composition Award. Christopher is a member of the Camberwell Composers’ Collective who will be New Music Associates at Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge for the 2008-2009 season.
Born in Toronto in 1980, Christopher studied at the University of Toronto earning an Honours Bachelor of Music degree. He relocated to London in 2003, where he obtained a Master of Music in Composition from the Royal College of Music studying with Julian Anderson. In 2006 Christopher began doctoral studies at the Royal Academy of Music studying with Philip Cashian.
Christopher has supplemented his studies with attendance at numerous composition courses, including the Bang on a Can Summer Music Institute, the Young Composers’ Meeting Apeldoorn, the Britten-Pears Programme, Dartington International Summer School, and the arraymusic Young Composers Workshop. Christopher’s attendance at these courses has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Canadian Aldeburgh Foundation, the Ralph Vaughn Williams Trust and the Bliss Trust/PRS Foundation.
Recent projects include a large-scale composition commissioned by Tatton Park, Knot for chamber orchestra, premeired by the Esprit Orchestra, residencies at Aldeburgh and Wooda Farm with the Camberwell Composer’s Collective, performances at Faster than Sound, the Aldeburgh Festival and Kettles Yard, attendance on the Britten-Pears Programme, a chamber opera for Tête à Tête and a work for the Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra conducted by Susanna Mälkki.
Upcoming commissions for 2008 include works for the Faster than Sound Festival at King’s Place, Handel House Museum, Lionel Handy and the Royal Academy of Music as well as a contribution to the NMC Songbook to be recorded and released on NMC Recordings.