Amy Brandon

JUNO-nominated composer Amy Brandon’s pieces have been described as “gut-wrenching and horrific” (Critipeg), “otherworldly, a clashing of bleakness with beauty” (Minor Seventh), and “arresting, riveting music, highly original and individual” (Simon Cummings, 5:4). Recent works include a cello concerto for Jeffrey Zeigler (Simulacra, 2022), and works for JACK Quartet (Lysis, 2023), Orbit Ensemble (Caeli Nullius, 2024), Ensemble ArtChoral (Dust of the Water, 2023), ChromaDuo (plesiosynchronous, 2022), and Polycoro (Aenigmata, 2023; Night is the Darkest of Weather, 2022). In 2025 she will complete pieces for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (NextGen) and guitarist Sam Wilson.

A prolific composer for guitar, her works have been featured on seven guitar-focused albums since her first solo guitar and electronics album, Scavenger, was released in 2016, including commissioned pieces for the Cicchilliti-Cowan Duo, Emma Rush, Libby Myers and Joseph Ehrenpreis. Her second studio album, Lysis, was released on New Focus Recordings in August, 2024 featuring solo, chamber and orchestral works. She has also created a number of augmented reality and physical installations, including an underwater sound installation in a swimming pool at Memorial University for Sound Symposium 2022. These and other works have been featured at the Gaudeamus Festival (Screen Dive), the Winnipeg New Music Festival, Maison symphonique de Montréal, the RE:FLUX Festival, ClusterFest, Chorus Festival (London, UK), Open Waters Festival, Women from Space, the MISE_EN Festival, Hochschule für Musik und Theater (Germany), Trinity College (Dublin) and other venues in the UK, Brazil, Austria, and the USA.

Amy currently teaches composition at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and courses in film music and video games at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick.