Winning piece:
Song of the Wood
Ian Evans Guthrie (b. 1992) is emerging as a tour-de-force composer and pianist. He recently won 1st prize in the Arcady Composition Competition, 2nd place in the American Prize, and 2nd prize in the Great Composers Competition: Music of America, in addition to his many other composition and performance prizes and recognition from ASCAP, SCI, MTNA, National Federation of Music Clubs, Webster Community Music School, and other nationally- and regionally-recognized music organizations and clubs. In addition, many of his works have been performed publicly around the world from groups such as Indaco String Quartet, fEARnoMUSIC, Portland’s Metropolitan Youth Symphony, the Northwest Symphony Orchestra, the Moore Philharmonic Orchestra, and many others.
Guthrie graduated from Texas Christian University with his master’s under a teaching assistantship, where he studied composition, theory, and piano performance, and will begin his Doctor of Music at Florida State University in Fall 2017. You can find more information about him at ianguthriecomposer.com.
Dylann Miller (Aurora, ON)
Winning piece:
Two Irish Blessings
Dylann Miller is a fourth year student at Wilfrid Laurier University studying voice with Marianne Bindig and composition with Linda Catlin Smith. Dylann has been very fortunate to have her work performed across the Kitchener-Waterloo region at venues such as KWCMS’ Music Room, and by various ensembles such as Wilfrid Laurier’s Concert Choir, the Laurier Singers, The Prometheus Trio, Audax, and 5play. Dylann was also the recipient of a SOCAN Foundation award in 2016, in the Godfrey Ridout category for her SSSAAA piece, Remember. As a vocalist, Dylann was awarded a bursary from York Region’s Celebration of the Arts in 2015 and performed in Opera Laurier’s fall opera excerpts as Virtù in the Prologue of l’incoronazione di Poppea. Dylann was also a co-director and member of Audax from 2015-2016, an all-women’s improvisation ensemble founded by Katerina Gimon in 2014. At the end of her undergraduate degree, Dylann intends to apply for a master’s degree in composition.