About the composer

                    Rose Bolton

                    Esprit Orchestra Commissioned Composer - 2003/04

                    Esprit commissioned Rose Bolton to write an orchestral piece, Under Unturned Rocks, for its World Premiere performance conducted by Alex Pauk at The Weekend in April, 2004.

                    Rose Bolton grew up in Toronto, Canada, and holds a Bachelor of Music (Theory and Composition) from the University of Western Ontario. She has recently completed her Masters degree in composition at McGill University. Her teachers have included Denys Bouliane, John Rea, Alexina Louie, Peter Paul Koprowski and Jack Behrens. She is currently finishing her thesis for a Master's degree in Composition from McGill University.

                    Rose is the recipient of the H.C. Aitken prize of the 1995 New Music Concerts' young composers' competition. Her prize-winning work, Ostinato, was premiered by the New Music Concerts ensemble in 1996, conducted by Robert Aitken, and was aired on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio program Two New Hours.

                    Her works, for both electronic and acoustic media, have been performed at numerous concerts in Toronto and London, Ontario and Montreal, and she has been appointed as Composer in Residence for the Canadian Electronic Ensemble.

                    Ms. Bolton has recieved commissions from accordionist Joseph Petric of Toronto new music ensemble The Burdocks and from The Canadian Electronic Ensemble. This past summer, she was chosen to work with composer Gary Kulesha in the Canadian Contemporary Music workshops Discovery series at the Festival of the Sound.

                    In 1996, she participated in the orchestral reading sessions for young composers hosted by the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as the 10th annual Young Composers' Workshop sponsored by Toronto's Arraymusic.

                    Recently, Rose Bolton was one of five young composers who participated in the Génération 2000 project directed by conductor Veronique Lacroix which involved six performances by L'ensemble contemporain de Montréal in a cross-Canada tour.

                    In April, 2002, she was chosen to be the recipient of the Toronto Emerging Composer Award, the Toronto Community Foundation and the Canadian Music Centre. In speaking about the recipient, the jury stated: "Ms. Bolton is an outstanding artist, clearly at the threshold of establishing an important presence upon the Canadian music scene. Her work is imaginative, fresh, strikingly original, and convincing. Her proposal matches the awards criteria perfectly demonstrating 'artistic excellence matched by innovation, experimentation, and a willingness to take risks.'"