Featured Artist

Alfredo Santa Ana

I was born in Mexico City and have lived in Vancouver, Canada since 2003 where I write concert music, electronic music, and sometimes even film music.

Some recent highlights in my career as a composer include a number of commissions from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Blueridge Chamber Music Festival, and Music on Main. In the summer of 2023, I also had the wonderful opportunity to travel to my hometown of Mexico City to film a video of my work for flute and electric guitar Wave Remote commissioned and performed by the McGregor-Verdejo Duo.

The music I write is sometimes difficult to categorize as each individual composition is sometimes written for a very specific instance. I’ve created incidental electronic music for promenade theatre, brass orchestra music for dance troupe, and site-specific music for 18 electric guitars for the atrium of the Central Branch of the Vancouver Public Library. Writing music for this variety and range of opportunities has been a very powerful source of creative fuel.

Having extraordinary artists perform and engage with my music, is one of the most rewarding aspects of composing, and I’ve had the privilege to work with some exceptional talent like Grammy and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw, composer/songwriter Gabriel Kahane, dancer and choreographer Margie Gillis, and Vancouver indie legend Veda Hille. I also get to collaborate frequently with incredible artists and Canadian treasures that I consider great friends, like pianist Miranda Wong, poet Colin Browne and flautist Mark Takeshi McGregor.

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