Erik Ross composes for all musical media and he has written for productions that include electronics, theatre, film and dance. He has written works for artists and ensembles such as the Esprit Orchestra, the Memphis Symphony, the Vancouver Symphony, Tapestry New Opera, the Hannaford Street Silver Band, the Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan, the Gryphon Trio, the Aldeburgh Connection, Arpatambora, the Caliban quartet, Toca Loca, the Lee-Villanueva Duo, oboists Sarah Jeffrey and Joseph Salvalaggio, steelpanist Liam Teague, accordionist Joseph Petric, hornist Gabriel Radford, saxophonist Wallace Halladay, percussionists Fernando Rocha and Ryan Scott, soprano Carla Huhtanen and counter-tenor Scott Belluz. His compositions have been performed by artists such as vocalists Tracy Smith Bessette, Norine Burgess, Matthew Leigh, Allyson McHardy, Marion Newman, Giles Tomkins and Vilma Vitols, as well as oboist Diana Doherty, hornists Nancy Goodearl and Joan Watson, percussionists Graham Hargrove, pianist Gregory Oh, the Talisker Players and the Land’s End Chamber Ensemble. He has had live performances of his works in Australia, Canada, England, Japan, Latvia, Thailand, and the United States.
He holds a Doctor of Music degree from the University of Toronto where his advisor was Christos Hatzis and he was a two-time recipient of the John Weinzweig Scholarship. He spent two years composing for the Canadian Composers Music Workshop at the Festival of the Sound under the direction of Gary Kulesha, and he has acted as musical interpreter for numerous John Oswald projects. He also takes great enjoyment in performing contemporary classical/jazz/rock repertoire, particularly that of his peers, and he is an improvising pianist and keyboardist. He has received numerous awards, fellowships and scholarships, including top prizes at SOCAN, and has received commissions from the Canada Council, the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council, the Music Gallery, Roger D. Moore and the Laidlaw Foundation.
He is an avid educator, and has taught private and conservatory piano, theory, improvisation and composition lessons to individuals of all ages and ability levels for 15 years. He has been an instructor/composer for numerous music programs including: education director for Soundstreams Canada’s Cool Drummings Festival; the Canadian Music Centre’s outreach program; with the Gryphon Trio at Earl Haig Secondary School; the Classical Music Conservatory; the Canadian Composers Music Workshop; the Canadian League of Composers’ Composing the Future; the Canadian Children’s Opera Company’s OPERAtion KIDS program; Young People’s Theatre’s (Lorraine Kimza) Music Theatre program.
Dr. Ross’s Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra was premiered by Joseph Salvalaggio and the Memphis Symphony in 2003, and it was performed again at the 2004 International Double Reed Society Conference in Melbourne, Australia, by Diana Doherty under the direction of Nicholas Daniel. His piano trio was premiered by the Gryphon Trio at the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, he wrote a chamber opera for Tapestry New Opera Works’ production at the 2002 Opera America Conference, and he wrote a marimba concerto for Ryan Scott and the Esprit Orchestra in 2006.
Commissions in recent years include an accordion/audio piece for Joseph Petric, a vocal work for the Music Gallery at the SoundaXis festival in Toronto, a piece for Toca Loca’s P*P Project, a sax/percussion/audio piece for Wallace Halladay and Ryan Scott, a solo steelpan and brass band piece for Liam Teague for the 25th anniversary season of the Hannaford Street Silver Band, and a cave installation that was produced in collaboration with the Contemporary Keyboard Society through the New Music in New Places series of the Canadian Music Centre. Recent premieres include a large work for the Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan and a chamber orchestra piece for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. He is currently building future vocal/operatic projects with librettists Alexis Diamond, Phoebe Tsang and James Wilson, and recently completed a large choral work for the Canadian Chamber Choir with text by Lorna Crozier. He will also be writing a double concerto for saxophonist Wallace Halladay and percussionist Ryan Scott for the upcoming 30th anniversary season of the Esprit Orchestra.