John Oswald
composer

Governor General’s Media Arts Laureate, Ars Electronica and Untitled Arts Award winner, Marshall McLuhan Fellow, as well as an inductee into the CBC Alternative Walk of Fame, a composer in residence in various countries, as well as coiner of the music genre plunderphonics, John Oswald was third in a list of the most internationally influential Canadian musicians, tied with Celine Dion.

Beginning in the early ’80’s he created soundtracks for dozens of choreographers, including James Kudelka, Holly Small, Bill T Jones, and Margie Gillis, up until 1995, when he presented as his retirement concert new choreographies commissioned from two dozen of his favourite collaborators, each set to an interlocking fragment of a score with a mysterious history. He has since worked with dancers on rare but very special occasions.  

In recent decades he has created Stillnessence, an evolving light fresco portrait of hundreds of life-size individuals;  Art and Drinks, a bar/gallery which specialized in time-based images; the Watchbook dynamic e-reader app; a performance for 1000 strings; and the orchestra score b9, a condensation of all nine Beethoven symphonies into half an hour. 

For Peggy Baker Dance Projects: John created the score for James Kudelka’s This Isn’t the End, and Tedd Robinson’s The Transparent Recital.

For more information visit 6q.com and pfony.bandcamp.com