Elizabeth Raum

Composer

Participated in the 2019 edition

Elizabeth Raum’s works have been heard throughout North America, Europe, South America, China, Japan, and Russia, and have been regularly broadcast on CBC. She has also written for film and video and has won awards for the documentaries Saskatchewan River and Like Mother, Like Daughter, as well as the feature film Sparkle. She produced Canada’s first classical music video with an original score, titled Evolution: A Theme With Variations, which premiered at the CBC gala in 1986. An extremely prolific composer, her works include four operas, more than 80 chamber music pieces—including interactive soundscapes with live performers—17 vocal works, choral works including an oratorio, various ballets, concertos, and large-scale orchestral works. Enjoying a reputation as one of Canada’s most “accessible” composers, she composes for a wide variety of formats and in admirably diverse styles. Raum has received commissions from prestigious organizations such as the Winnipeg Ballet, the Calgary Philharmonic, Symphony Nova Scotia, the Nexus Percussion Ensemble, the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, and the St. Lawrence String Quartet. Raum has released a number of commercial CDs, including “How Bodies Leave Ecstatic Marks,” the album on which her “Dark Thoughts” won Best Classical Composition at the 2008 Western Music Awards. In November 2010, Raum was awarded the Saskatchewan Order of Merit. She is also featured in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the New Grove Dictionary of Opera, and the New Grove Dictionary of Women Composers, as well as in numerous other publications.