KEITH HAMEL

Keith Hamel was born in 1956 in Morden, Canada. He is known both as a composer and a music software developer. He studied music at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and Queen’s University in Canada, and pursued graduate studies at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the USA. He holds a Ph.D. in Music from Harvard. Hamel has written both acoustic and electroacoustic music and has been awarded many prizes in both media. His works have been performed by many of the finest soloists and ensembles both in Canada and abroad. He has received commissions from the Vancouver Symphony, Ensemble InterContemporain, IRCAM (Paris), Vancouver New Music, the Elektra Women’s Choir, Hammerhead Consort, and by soloists such as bassoonist Jesse Read, clarinetist Jean-Guy Boisvert, flutist Robert Cram, saxophonist Julia Nolan, pianist Douglas Finch and others. As a specialist in computer applications to music, some of his recent compositions focus on interaction between live performers and computer controlled electronics. 

Keith Hamel is an associate of the Canadian Music Centre, a member of the Canadian League of Composers and the Canadian Electroacoustic Community, and is the Canadian representative to the International Society of Contemporary Music. He has been a professor of composition and Director of the Computer Music Studio at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver since 1987.