| Bio : |
Drawing on a rich background of artistic experience, Benton Roark’s creations are concerned with the various intersections of diverse forms of expression such as theatre, art song, electronic sound, chamber music, and various folk musics and mythologies. His works have been performed and read in North America and in Europe by a variety of ensembles, including Théatre Re, the 2010 Erasmus IP Ensemble, the McGregor/Nesselroad/Chan Trio, the Quatuor Bozzini, the Aventa Ensemble, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the University of British Columbia Strings, the Penderecki String Quartet, the Victoria Symphony Orchestra, the UBC Contemporary Players, the Turtle Island String Quartet, and the Tempest Flute Ensemble. He has acted in devising and directing roles in the Babel Theatre workshop, UBC Interdisciplinary Arts performances, and stagings of his own works, while as a writer he counts two stage works and no fewer than fifty individual lyrics to his credit. As a composer, he has completed residencies and programs with the Erasmus IP Project in Cuneo, Italy, at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada, the Fontainebleau Sessions in France, the Czech American Institute in Prague, and the Konservatorium Winterthur in Switzerland, and he holds degrees from Oberlin College and Conservatory and the University of British Columbia. His past teachers include Mathias Steinhauer, Ladislav Kubik, John Anthony Lennon, Stephen Chatman, Keith Hamel, Allain Gaussin, Francois Paris, Meryn Cadell, and Tom Scholte. He is currently working on a doctoral dissertation in experimental music theatre under the supervision of Dorothy Chang at the University of British Columbia. |