David Berezan
composer

David Berezan is a Calgary composer that has written music for mixed chamber ensembles, solo instruments, and digital media. A number of his works integrate the use of digital sound sources and performers on acoustic instruments, through the use of interactive computer software applications. Collaborative works with other artists include music for modern dance, audio work for web designers, and a sound and sculpture installation at the Nickle Arts Museum, Calgary. He has a particular interest in the electroacoustic genre of acousmatic music, or, "cinema for the ear". Extensive travel through many regions of Europe, Russia, China, and Southeast Asia has influenced his works - in particular, recordings made in these locations have been integrated into a number of pieces. The desire to express location and landscape in his music has more recently turned to an exploration of sounds recorded in southwestern Canada.

His education includes an undergraduate degree in History and studies in Russian language and literature at the University of Calgary. Initial musical experience was formed in the late 1980's alternative and experimental pop music scene in Calgary and Edmonton, performing with several groups as well as working on his own music. He studied jazz bass performance at Grant MacEwan Community College in Edmonton and subsequently began composing following studies with Gordon Nicholson in 1995. In 1996 he was awarded second prize in the Edmonton Composers Concert Society's Young Composers Competition and in 1998 he attended summer workshops in computer-based sound synthesis and algorithmic composition at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, Stanford University. A work of his appears on the 1997 CD Presence, released by the Canadian Electroacoustic Community. Currently, he is completing his Masters degree in composition at the University of Calgary, where he has studied with composers David Eagle, William Jordan, and Allan Bell. Selections of his work in the Sound Travels repertoire recently won second and fourth prizes in the 2000 Times/Play awards for young and emerging Canadian sound artists.