Winner of 2024 CMC Prairie Region, Emerging Composer Competition: Robert Humber
The Canadian Music Centre, Prairie Region (CMCPR) is pleased to announce that Robert Humber (Calgary) is the winner of the 2024 Emerging Composer Competition (ECC) for his piece, warmth comes.
The CMCPR – ECC is a joint project of the Canadian Music Centre, Prairie Region, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (WSO), and the Winnipeg New Music Festival (WNMF) and is entirely funded by an anonymous donor.
Humber’s piece was premiered at the 2024 edition of the Winnipeg New Music Festival, by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.
The competition was adjudicated based on anonymous score submissions. The panels for these editions consisted of:
Laura Pettigrew, CMC Associate Composer
Daniel Raiskin, WSO Music Director and WNMF Artistic Director
Julian Pellicano, WSO Associate Conductor
Amy Brandon, WNMF Composers Institute Mentor Composer
Robert Humber (he/him) is a Canadian
composer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist, producer and educator. In May 2019, he graduated with a Master’s Degree in Music Composition at University of British Columbia where he studied with Jocelyn Morlock, Stephen Chatman, Dorothy Chang and Keith Hamel. In 2017, he completed a Bachelor’s degree in Music Composition at Memorial University of Newfoundland, where he studied with Andrew Staniland and Clark Ross. He has written and performed music for concert halls, films, dance, video games and interactive sound installations, and has several upcoming recordings of his pieces. Recently, his 6-piano piece “murmurations” was named runner-up in Open Ears Festival’s 2022 competition. A growing interest in the intersection between music and other artistic disciplines has led to such collaborations as Fire Kedgy’s Howl, a dance collaboration with Hilary Knee and Neighbourhood Dance Works premiered in August 2022. He is currently composing a 25-minute dance piece/visual EP called to unwind a sea shell in collaboration with pianist Stephen Eckert, dancer Hilary Knee and videographer Giancarlo Delgado Aspiazu.
Robert currently lives in Calgary with his fiancé Jessica and dog Beans. He loves exploring new places, playing the Irish bouzouki, and roasting coffee beans.