| Bio : |
Composer, musician, playwright and actor Alex Eddington completed his Master’s degree in composition at the University of Alberta, where he studied with Howard Bashaw, Paul Steenhuisen and Andriy Talpash. His undergraduate training was in his native Toronto with Gary Kulesha, Alexander Rapoport and John Hawkins. He has attended workshops for emerging composers including the National Arts Centre Young Composers’ Programme in 2006, and the 2008 Quatuor Bozzini Composer’s Kitchen in Montréal. His musical works have been commissioned and performed in Canada and internationally by established artists and presenters, including Quatuor Bozzini, the Talisker Players, members of l’Orchestre de la francophonie canadienne (OFC) , the Edmonton Saxophone Quartet, the Toronto Chamber Choir, and Vox Novus, as well as a younger generation of professionals such as Kristin Mueller-Heaslip, Jeremy Maitland, Catherine Carignan and the Silver Birch String Quartet. In 2008, his orchestral work Reiteration was the winner of the Orchestras Mississauga Emerging Composer Competition. He received a 2004 SOCAN award for his monodrama Death to the Butterfly Dictator!, and in the same year, Dance Attack! for orchestra was a finalist in the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s “New Creations” young composers’ competition. Mr Eddington is a member of the Edmonton Composer’s Concert Society, and an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre. Alex Eddington’s stay in the theatre-rich city of Edmonton led him to musical collaboration with local actors and dancers in both casual improvisation experiments and full theatrical productions. His collaborative work has been presented by Mile Zero Dance, Nextfest, The Works Art and Design Festival, the InterFEAR festival, and the University of Alberta Department of Drama. In 2005 Alex Eddington was the recipient of a SSHRC grant for a project exploring new intersections of music and theatre/dance. Mr Eddington has toured the Canadian Fringe festival circuit in his own original plays: WOOL (2006), The Fugue Code (2007) and Old Growth (2008); and an original production of TJ Dawe’s comic monologue Tired Clichés in 2009. Alex Eddington combined his two loves — music and theatre — in his 2008/09 Urjo Kareda Residency at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, where he workshopped a new play (Emily C) and apprenticed with three professional sound designers. As a choral singer, Alex Eddington has appeared with Pro Coro Canada, the Edmonton Opera Company Chorus, and the University of Alberta Madrigal Singers in performances with Alberta Ballet and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. He has also appeared as an improvising musician — on accordion, piano and toy instruments — with Mile Zero Dance and the Naked Band. Mr Eddington has been a conductor for two concert bands, a CD project by singer/songwriter Mike Ford, and for numerous performances of his own works. He has appeared as a concert narrator with members of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, and has curated concerts of composed and improvised music by emerging Canadian musicians. Alex Eddington is based in Toronto, Canada. |