Bruce Mather » Biography

Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 1939

• Composer
• Performer (piano)

Bruce Mather was born in Toronto, but has made Montréal his home since 1966 and is considered one of Québec’s most important composers. He studied piano with Alberto Guerrero and composition with Oskar Morzwetz, Godfrey Ridout and John Weinzweig at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto and at the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto, completing his Bachelor’s degree in 1959. Post-graduate studies took him to France where he worked with Darius Milhaud (composition), whom he had met previously at the summer course in Aspen, and Olivier Messiaen (analysis). Mather completed a master’s degree at Standford University with Leland Smith and received his doctorate from the University of Toronto in 1967.

Mather’s music has been performed regularly throughout Canada and is frequently heard in the United States and Europe. He has been commissioned by numerous major orchestras and contemporary music organizations at home and abroad, including the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio France, the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec, Toronto New Music Concerts, the Esprit Orchestra, the Rouen Chamber Orchestra, Trio Basso (Cologne), and the Collectif musical international de Champigny (2e2m). Mather was appointed to the Faculty of Music at McGill University in 1966, and remained there for over thirty years, teaching analysis, advanced harmony, and composition. He also directed the institution’s contemporary music ensemble.