Christopher Mayo (born 1980) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

contemporary classical music Contemporary classical music is classical music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern, and included seria ...

. Born in Toronto, Mayo studied at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

where he was awarded the Glenn Gould Composition Prize and the William Erving Fairclough Scholarship and earned an Honours Bachelor of Music Degree. Mayo relocated to London in 2003, where he studied with Julian Anderson and in 2004 obtained a Master of Music in Composition from the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...

. In 2011 Mayo obtained a Ph.D in Composition from the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke of ...

where he studied with

Philip Cashian Philip Cashian (born 1963) is an English composer. He is the head of composition at the Royal Academy of Music. Biography Philip Cashian was born in Manchester in 1963 and studied at Cardiff University and the Guildhall School of Music and Dr ...

. Mayo has received numerous awards including the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize in 2005 and the Ensemble contemporain de Montreal's Generation 2010 Audience Prize. Mayo's work has been commissioned and performed by numerous ensembles and organizations such as the

London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...

, the

Vancouver Symphony Orchestra The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (VSO) is a Canadian orchestra based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The VSO performs at the Orpheum, which has been the orchestra's permanent home since 1977. With an annual operating budget of $16 million, it is ...

, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Tête à Tête Opera), Ensemble contemporain de Montreal,

Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (NEM), based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, is one of the world's premier chamber orchestras specializing in contemporary classical music. It was founded in 1989 by Lorraine Vaillancourt Lorraine Vaillancourt, (born September ...

, ACME (American Contemporary Music Ensemble) and L'arsenale,

Motion Ensemble In physics, motion is the phenomenon in which an object changes its position with respect to time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed and frame of reference to an observer and meas ...

Handel House Museum Handel & Hendrix in London (previously Handel House Museum) is a museum in Mayfair, London, dedicated to the lives and works of the German-born British baroque composer George Frideric Handel and the American rock singer-guitarist Jimi Hend ...

, Michael Collins and the Dante Quartet, arraymusic,

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

and the MATA Festival. Mayo wrote a piece for inclusion on the NMC Recordings album The NMC Songbook which won the 2009 Gramophone Contemporary Award. Mayo's music has been performed at festivals such as

Bang on a Can Bang on a Can is a multi-faceted contemporary classical music organization based in New York City. It was founded in 1987 by three American composers who remain its artistic directors: Julia Wolfe, David Lang, and Michael Gordon. Called "the cou ...

Summer Music Festival, Aldeburgh Festival and

Cheltenham Music Festival The Cheltenham Music Festival is a British music festival, held annually in Cheltenham in the summer months (June, July) since 1945. The festival is renowned for premieres of contemporary music, hosting over 250 music premieres as of July 200 ...

. In September 2012, Mayo was announced as the

Manchester Camerata The Manchester Camerata is a British chamber orchestra based in Manchester, England. A sub-group from the orchestra, the Manchester Camerata Ensemble, specialises in chamber music performances. The orchestra's primary concert venue is The Bridg ...

Composer in Residence for the 2012/13 season during which time he wrote three new works for the ensemble. Mayo is a member of the Camberwell Composers Collective along with fellow composers

Mark Bowden (composer) Mark Bowden (born 1979, Wales) is a Welsh composer of classical music. Biography Bowden studied composition with Richard Steinitz at the University of Huddersfield before completing a master's degree at the Royal College of Music where he stud ...

Anna Meredith Anna Howard Meredith (born 12 January 1978) is a Scottish composer and performer of electronic and acoustic music. She is a former composer-in-residence with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and former PRS/RPS Composer in the House with Si ...

Emily Hall Emily Hall (born 1978) is a composer of classical music, electronica and songs. Her music has been performed by the Duke Quartet, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Brodsky Quartet, the London Sinfonietta, and the Philharmonia; it has been broa ...

and Charlie Piper. Together with his fellow Camberwell Composers Collective members, Mayo served as New Music Associate at Kettle's Yard in Cambridge from 2008-2010. In 2009 Mayo appeared in the

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

television documentary Classic Goldie in which he assisted the UK drum and bass musician

Goldie Clifford Joseph Price MBE (born 19 September 1965), better known as Goldie, is a British music producer and DJ. Initially gaining exposure for his work as a graffiti artist, Goldie became well known for his pioneering role as a musician in th ...

to write a commission for performance in the 2009

Proms The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...

season. Mayo has also undertaken numerous orchestration projects for notable pop music artists including collaborations for the

Polaris Music Prize The Polaris Music Prize is a music award annually given to the best full-length Canadian album based on artistic merit, regardless of genre, sales, or record label. The award was established in 2006 with a $20,000 cash prize; the prize was incr ...

and with Canadian singer-songwriter

Carly Rae Jepsen Carly Rae Jepsen (born November 21, 1985) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. After studying musical theatre for most of her school life and while in university, Jepsen garnered mainstream attention after placing third on the fifth season of ...

and Canadian Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq. Mayo's recent premieres have included commissions for Crash Ensemble and Alarm Will Sound. As a distinguished alumni, Mayo was named an Associate of the

(ARAM) in their 2018 Honours and Awards list.

References

External links

Official website

Canadian Music Centre webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayo, Christopher 1980 births 21st-century classical composers Living people Canadian classical composers Alumni of the Royal College of Music Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music University of Toronto alumni Canadian male classical composers 21st-century Canadian male musicians