Andrew Staniland (born 1977) is a Canadian composer and guitarist. He is currently a professor of Composition and Electronic Music at the Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Biography
Andrew Staniland was born in Red Deer, Alberta, in 1977. His first instrument was the guitar, and he began playing in heavy-metal bands as a young teen. Staniland began formal studies in jazz and arranging at Grant MacEwan Community College in Edmonton (now MacEwan University), where he also studied composition with Gordon Nicholson. He then studied classical guitar at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, before obtaining both a Master's and Doctorate degree in Composition from the University of Toronto.
A composer whose work has been performed and broadcast in over 35 countries, Staniland has been commissioned by musicians and ensembles such as cellist Frances-Marie Uitti, Duo Concertante (violinist Nancy Dahn and pianist Timothy Steeves), the Gryphon Trio, and Les Percussions de Strasbourg. He has also been an Affiliate Composer with both the National Arts Centre Orchestra (2002–2004) and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (2006–2009), and in 2005 was a composer-in-residence at the Centre de Création Musicale Iannis Xenakis in Paris.
In 2010 Staniland joined the faculty of the School of Music at Memorial University of Newfoundland, where he teaches composition and electronic music. There Staniland founded the Memorial ElectroAcoustic Research Lab (MEARL), where he is part of a cross-disciplinary research team that has created the Mune, an electronic music performance instrument that "combines the functionality of a MIDI controller ... with the expressiveness and simplicity of an acoustic instrument."
Staniland is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre, a member of the Canadian League of Composers, and an inaugural member of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada.
Honours and awards
Staniland has been the recipient of many prestigious awards, including a 2018 ECMA Award for Classical Composition of the Year (for The River is Within Us), the 2016 Terra Nova Young Innovator Award, the National Grand Prize of EVOLUTION (presented in 2009 by CBC Radio 2/Espace Musique and The Banff Centre), and the 2004 Karen Keiser Prize in Canadian Music. He has also received three Juno nominations.
Education
B.Mus., University of Lethbridge
M.Mus., University of Toronto
D.M.A., University of Toronto
Compositions
Chamber music
Exit Eden (2017) for flute and harp
Hypernova (2017) for five flutes
Equations Constellations (2015) for guitar and harp
The Ocean is Full of its Own Collapse (2015) for narrator, piano and violin (based on Lisa Moore's novel February) Choro: “The Joyful Lament for Villa Lobos” (2014) for 2 guitars Four Elements (2014) for string quartet Orion Constellation Theory (2014) Version 2, arranged for two snare drums Time Travels Light (2014) for percussion quartet The Beauty of Reason (2013) for cello and harp Flute Vs Flute (2012) for two flutes (acoustic version) Flute Vs Flute (2012) arranged for flute and cello The River is Within Us (2011) for violin and piano Solstice Songs (2011) for piano trio (violin, cello and piano) Air (2010) for accordion and percussion HeX (2010) for percussion sextet Pentagrams (2010) for two accordions Pentagrams (2010) arranged for accordion and piano Devolution (2009) for chamber ensemble Full Circle (2005) for guitar After the Crash (2004) for percussionist Alchemy (2003) for piano and five solo strings Trio (2002) for harp, piano and percussion 13 Images (2001) for soprano and clarinet Two Pervasive Miniatures (2000) for small chamber ensemble