Biography of CHAN Ka Nin

CHAN Ka Nin is a two-time Juno Award winner for Best Classical Composition. His works have been performed by notable ensembles and artists including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Orchestra, CBC Vancouver Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Esprit Orchestra, Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra London Canada, Symphony Nova Scotia, Amici, Mirò Quartet, Purcell Quartet, Rivka Golani and Lawrence Cherney.

His numerous international awards include Béla Bartók International Composers' Competition, Barlow International Competitions, International Horn Society Composition Contest, Jean Chalmers Award, PROCAN Young Composers' Competition and Amherst Saxophone Quartet Composition Competition.

Professor Chan was born in Hong Kong and moved with his family to Vancouver in 1965.  At the University of British Columbia he studied composition with Jean Coulthard while pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering.  After graduation he decided to continue studying composition with Bernhard Heiden at Indiana University where he eventually obtained his Master's and Doctoral degrees in music.  Since 1982, he has been teaching theory and composition at the University of Toronto.

In 2001, his opera Iron Road, written with librettist Mark Brownell, won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Musical. In 2002, his chamber work Par-çi, par-là, which was recorded by Ensemble Contemporain du Montréal, won the Juno Award for Best classical composition. In 2006, the composer’s symphonic wind piece Memento Mori was in the semi-final of Coups de vents in Lille France.