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2026 Competition Finalists

Lily Koslow

Lily Koslow is a Montréal-based composer, pianist, and vocalist whose music explores the tension between delicate timbral nuance and visceral intensity. Influenced by surrealist literature and a wide spectrum of electronic music, their work combines vivid gestures and intricate textures into immersive sonic worlds which are governed by their own internal logic.

Deeply engaged with mixed and electroacoustic media, Lily has undertaken residencies with the Yale Center for Collaborative Arts and Media (New Haven), Le Vivier / Ukrainian Association of Electroacoustic Music (Paris), the Akademie der Künste (Berlin), and 鶹ýվ Percussion Ensemble (Montréal).

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Relishing creativity through collaboration, Lily works closely with performers to discover unique playing techniques and weave them into an expressive musical discourse. Lily's most recent projects include the creation of new pieces for Quatuor Bozzini, Ensemble Éclat, Quatuor Mémoire, and Yale Cellos. They have also collaborated with members of Talea Ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble, Divertimento Ensemble, Attacca Quartet, Ensemble Paramirabo, and Nouvel Ensemble Moderne. Lily studied composition at 鶹ýվ (B.M.) and the Yale School of Music (M.M.), where they worked with Jean Lesage, Katherine Balch, David Lang, Martin Bresnick, and Aaron Jay Kernis.

Ashton Latimer

Ashton Latimer (b. 2006) is a Canadian composer from Vancouver, British Columbia, inspired by the textures and sound worlds that can be created by acoustic instruments. Through this exploration, he has begun to earn recognition through awards, competitions, and performances of his work.

His orchestral work Purification was awarded the SOCAN Young Composer Award in the Under 21 Large Ensemble category and was selected for the 2024 Hugh Davidson Composer Readings with the Victoria Symphony. In 2025, he completed his piece Overflow for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra as part of the Jean Coulthard Readings, where he is also engaged in a six-month mentorship. In addition, Purification was a finalist in the Edmonton Pops Composer Competition, and his string quartet Ghost Ballerina won the senior category of the Langley String Quartet Competition.

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Ashton has written for a wide range of ensembles, including symphony orchestra, wind ensemble, chamber groups, and solo instruments. His recentworkEmergence and Infestation premiered at the Southeast Horn Workshop at Appalachian State University. His music has been performed by musicians such as the Sonorous Trio, the Rose Gellert String Quartet, UNCSA Viola and Horn Ensembles, and recorded by percussionist Ksenija Komljenović.

Alongside composing, Ashton is a dedicated French horn player. He has performed with the Vancouver Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra, BCMEAHonourWind Ensemble, the Kiwanis Celebration Band, and the Fraser Valley Wind Ensemble. He is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Music in Composition at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where he studies composition with Jared Miller and horn with Maria Serkin and Wyatt Gibson.

Fiona Marchetto

Fiona Marchetto is a multi-genre composer and performer who is fascinated by how music can be a driving force in storytelling. She has performed as concertmaster at the Trentino Music Festival, Opera 鶹ýվ, and the National Academy Orchestra, and collaborated with indie bands like Hot Little Rocket and theShiverettes, opening for Death Cab for Cutie.

Fiona hosted the award-winningClassicoolon CJSW and was commissioned by the American Modern Ensemble, with her work Bedtime Stories premiering at the 2024 Mostly Modern Festival. She recently completed her B.Mus. at 鶹ýվ under the guidance of Andrew Wan, NicoleLizée, and Chris Paul Harman, and has had several of her works performed through the 鶹ýվ Association of Student Composers. She also scored Impressions, a short film by Kendall Scully, released the single your eyes only, and placed third at the inaugural Arts and Letters Club of Toronto’s Emerging Canadian Composer Competition.

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As a composer, Fiona strives to write music that reflects her identity and brings stories to life.This translates into writing music for the stage and screen.Her recent compositions are rooted in the concept of ekphrasis, a mode of intertextuality with Greek origins. Though often a verbal medium that describes, expands, and comments on a visual artistic work, Fiona has extended this approach to music. She is interested in exploring her relationship to classical works and often uses acoustic spatialization, aleatoric notation, and non-classical references to engage in dialogues with existing artworks.

Recent compositions include Dramatis Personae, a suite for solo strings based on Shakespearean characters, and I Ask Myself, for 23 string instruments, which draws on non-classical musical elements to tell the story of her life in Montreal.

Liam Ritz

Liam Ritz is a Canadian composer based in Toronto, currently RBC Affiliate Composer of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.His music draws from diverse influences, including popular music, jazz, visual arts, literature, dance, and theatre.In recent years, Ritz’s compositions have delved into themes of memory and place, integrating references and quotations from various artistic forms to create multi-layered contextual meanings.

Ritz has collaborated with ensembles including the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Talea Ensemble, and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, and has worked with performers such as Gustavo Gimeno, Gemma New, and CameronCrozman.

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His works have been presented at festivals and workshops across North America, including the Bowdoin International Music Festival, Winnipeg New Music Festival, Orford Music Academy, Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra’s What Next Festival, Scotia Festival of Music, and the Canadian Contemporary Music Workshop. Ritz’s music is also performed internationally in solo and chamber recitals across Canada, the United States, Italy, Finland, Argentina, and Japan.

Recognized as one of CBC’s “30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians under 30,” Ritz has received seven SOCAN Foundation Young Composers Awards, a PrixArtistiquefromJeunessesMusicales Canada, and a 2020 City of Hamilton Arts Award. His work has been supported by the Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, RBC Emerging Artists Project, and SOCAN Foundation.

Heparticipatedin the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra Composer Fellowship Program (2018–19), Winnipeg New Music Festival Composers Institute (2022–23), and Bowdoin International Music Festival Composition Program (2024). Ritz holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Toronto, where he studied with Abigail Richardson-Schulte, and has completed private studies and masterclasses with Peteris Vasks, Kalevi Aho, Dai Fujikura, Tania León, Robin deRaaf, Ana Sokolović, Jean Lesage, Derek Bermel, HaralabosStafylakis, and Kelly-Marie Murphy.

Roydon Tse

Chinese-CanadiancomposerRoydonTse creates music that speaks across cultures, drawing from shared human experiences and reflecting on the challenges of climate change, the depths of grief, and the ever-evolving cultural fabric of our world.

Roydon’s 2024/25 season saw performances by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Marin Alsop, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Macao Orchestra, Esprit Orchestra, Chor Leoni, and members of the United States Naval Academy Band.

His latest concerto, Restless World Anew, for the Dali Quartet, was co-commissioned by the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra and the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music, exploring our relationship with the natural world. The Asian Youth Orchestra toured his Illuminate throughout China, Taiwan, and Japan in August, performing in venues such as Shanghai’s Oriental Arts Center and Tokyo’s Opera City Concert Hall.

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These build on prior performances and commissions by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Edmonton Symphony, Hamilton Philharmonic, Shanghai Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, and musicians from the Minnesota, Paris Opera, and La Scala Orchestras. His vocal music has been presented by the Atlanta Opera, City Opera Vancouver, Canadian Art Song Project,iSing! Suzhou, Tapestry Opera, andl’Opérade Montréal.

Roydon’s work has been recognized withnumerousawards, including seven SOCAN Foundation Awards, the Washington International Composition Prize, Lieutenant Governor of Alberta’s Emerging Artist Award, Sir James Lougheed Award of Distinction, and the Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prizes, making history as the first recipient of both the Protégé and Distinguished Artist awards.

Born in Hong Kong,Roydonstudied in the UK before earning his doctorate in composition from the University of Toronto. He currently serves as Assistant Professor of Composition and Theory at the University of Saskatchewan.

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