Composer Competition Winners 2024

International Winner

Håkon Guttormsen (Denmark)

for 3 Almqvist Songs

Håkon Guttormsen is a Norwegian composer living in Denmark. He is about to begin his Master studies in Composition at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, where he studies with composers Jeppe Just and Bent Sørensen. For his music, Håkon draws upon his diverse interests ranging from obscure Scandinavian literature to that of being an active jazz trumpet player. His piece for the 2024 Arcady Emerging Composer Competition is a cycle of 3 short songs set to texts by the eccentric Swedish romantic poet Carl Jonas Love Almqvist, which he also translated into English.

Canadian Winner

David Archibald

for To A Stranger

Informed by a unique blend of the piano writing of his performance studies, jazz and improvisation, popular music, and writing, David Archibald has a compositional style that incorporates a patchwork of classic and contemporary sounds. His music has been premiered in his home of the Maritimes and around Ontario and continues to be performed in Toronto, consisting of works for varied instrumentation from vocal, piano, and instrumental chamber music to choral.