Alfredo Santa Ana

Since 2003, Alfredo Santa Ana has been living in Vancouver, Canada, located in the ancestral Coast Salish territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. From here, he has collaborated with a number of artists and ensembles that he really admire. These include the NYO Canada, Standing Wave Ensemble, Turning Point Ensemble, Orchestre de la Francophonie, the Victoria Symphony, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and most recently the vocal ensemble musica intima.

Some recent highlights in his career include having extraordinary artists perform and engage with his music, like Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw, Gabriel Kahane, dancer and choreographer Margie Gillis, and Vancouver indie legend Veda Hille. Through his work, Alfredo also gets to collaborate frequently with incredible artists and Canadian legends that he also considers great friends, like poet Colin Browne and flautist Mark Takeshi McGregor.

Alfredo received his formal training of European Western music tradition at the University of British Columbia where he wrote a string quartet for his doctoral dissertation in 2010 on the idea of impermanent large-scale form, where the form of the piece changes every time it is performed. Shortly after graduating, he became the inaugural composer in residence for the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies at UBC (2011-2014), and became an Associate Composer with the Canadian Music Centre.

In addition to composing for live performers who primarily play in concert halls, Alfredo also writes music for films, play guitar in an avant-prog rock band called Square, and he produces and performs as Ghost Shepherd, a music project with my partner, writer Alisen Santa Ana .

In 2021, Alfredo released his first album of electronic/ambient music called Nightscape.