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  •   Meg Sheppard and Shawn Mativetsky in a performance of alcides lanza's 'ontem'
  •   Julie Wilson-Bokowiec performing 'The Suicided Voice' from ICMC 2009
  •   Composition Doctoral student David Adamcyk at work in our main studio


September 11th, 2017


Graham Sommer Competition for Young Composers
New in 2017, the Graham Sommer Competition for Young Composers encourages the creation of new Canadian chamber music by up-and-coming composers. The competition recognizes works for chamber music formations, including piano, that have the potential to engage a wide audience and become part of the standard repertoire. This national competition is administered by McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The jury is made up of international and Canadian composers, Canadian musicians, and seasoned chamber music concert-goers. Five finalists will receive cash prizes ranging from $5,000 to $15,000 CAD and their works will be premiered in a concert at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University. Submissions for the 2017 Graham Sommer Competition for Young Composers are now open. The deadline to apply is December 1, 2017. more


August 29th, 2017


Welcome to Georgia Spiropoulos, Distinguished Visiting Chair in Music (Composition) and Acting Director of the Digital Composition Studios for the 2017/18 academic year. Born in Athens - Greece, 1965. She studied classical piano, harmony, counterpoint and fugue in Athens and she worked as a performer, arranger and transcriber of Greek oral-tradition music. She moved to Paris in 1996 where she studied composition & electroacoustic music with Philippe Leroux, form analysis with Michael Lévinas and computer music at IRCAM (with Jonathan Harvey, Tristan Murail, Brian Ferneyhough, Marco Stroppa, Philippe Hurel and Ivan Fedele) and at the "Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences" (EHESS, Paris) with Marc Chemillier, Pierre Judet de la Combe and Francis Zimmermann. She won the "Villa Médicis Hors les Murs" prize for NYC and she has been made Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters of the French Republic. Georgia Spiropoulos collaborates regularly with IRCAM where she has been working as a composer-in-residence. She gave lectures and master classes at Columbia University NY, University of California Santa Barbara, IRCAM, Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, University of Paris 7 and Paris 8, ICMC and SMC International Conferences, Paris Conservatory CRR, Tel Aviv Conservatory, Alte Schmiede-Vienna, French Institut of Athens. She writes articles on contemporary music and she has been a jury member for the ICMC and SMC International Conference and for IRCAM Cursus and artistic research residences. She is the Instructor of: MUCO341-Digital Studio Composition I, Fall 2017



...More "News"...

The McGill 'Digital Composition Studios' ( formerly the 'Electronic Music Studio' ) was founded in 1964. As part of the Composition Area, it plays a vital role within the Schulich School of Music at McGill University. Its mission is to promote and facilitate all activities within the School of Music that involve the creative and applied use of music technologies. As such, it is a meeting place for students, faculty members, and visiting artists and researchers in composition, performance, music technology and sound recording.

Activities within the Digital Composition Studios include teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels, compositional projects, performance of works involving technology, creation/research activities (including CIRMMT artistic and research projects), and collaborative projects, as well as supporting events at the Schulich School of Music as required.

Prospective students should note that the Composition Area does not offer a program exclusively in electroacoustic or computer music composition. All students are expected to be proficient in instrumental composition, although extensive opportunities do exist to work with a wide range of approaches to music technology, including mixed works, interactive composition, gestural controllers, acousmatic works, multichannel audio, computer-assisted composition and more.

The DCS is one of three areas within the Schulich School of Music that explore the interaction of music and technology. The other two are the Music Technology Area and the Sound Recording Area.

The Digital Composition Studios (DCS) comprise three large composition studios and three smaller project studios.

Studio 1 - The principal composition studio more
Studio 2 - Classroom/Lab for MUCO 541 and MUCO 542 , Classroom for MUCO 341 and MUCO 342 more
Studio 3 - This is our Research/Rehearsal space more
Studio 4 - This is our lab for MUCO 341 and MUCO 342 more
Studio 5 - Musical Applications of Symbolic Computation (MASC) Lab more
Studio 6 - Our Analog Studio (in need of some renovation) where we keep our Moog Modular and other analog toys. more

Concert Gear

List of Equipment for concerts and rehearsals. more


Controllers & Instruments

List of Controllers/Intruments. more


List of Printing/Binding equipment more