Ryan’s Bio
Canadian composer Ryan Purchase strives to write music that is satisfying and meaningful to performer and listener alike. He began composing while pursuing an undergraduate degree music performance, as an orchestral trombonist. He studied composition with Dr. Thomas Schudel at the University of Regina, took several lessons with composer Elizabeth Raum, and wrote primarily solo and chamber works for himself and his friends to perform in recitals.Ryan’s first major premiere was given by the Regina Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players in 1998, when they requested the inclusion of his Sinfonietta: Koskenkorva on a program of Finnish and Finland-inspired music. Newf, an electroacoustic work for trombone and pre-recorded soundscape that was written (and premiered by the composer) around the same time, has become one of his most often-performed works. Professor Richard Raum, Ryan’s former trombone instructor, performs Newf as part of his Introduction to Music course, and at orientation for incoming music students at the University of Regina. In 1999, Ryan’s setting of John V. Hicks’ Where You Begin Like Rivers was chosen as a finalist in a CBC Saskatchewan composers’ competition, and the subsequent performance was broadcast on CBC Radio.
The New Peasant’s Tale, composed for and dedicated to the undergraduate brass quintet that Ryan coached as a graduate student at the University of Toronto in 2001, has since been performed by Toronto Symphonic Brass, Niagara Brass, University of Saskatchewan Faculty Brass, and Forest Festival Brass.
In 2003, Ryan was commissioned by cellist Liza McLellan, and the result was Variations on a Jamaican Folk Song. This collaboration with Ms. McLellan was the beginning of a musical relationship that continues to this day; his most popular work to date is a setting of her poetry, Four Poems by Liza McLellan, And One Not, which has been performed at the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra’s chamber music series, at the Regina New Music Festival, and has also been recorded by bass trombonist Barnaby Kerekes. More settings of Ms. McLellan’s text are planned for the future.
Ryan’s first large-scale commission came in 2004 from Wendy Grasdahl, artistic director of Edmonton-based adult concert band Festival City Winds. Ascent, the resulting work, was written in honour of the organization’s ten-year anniversary. Ryan was awarded a grant from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts to write this work.
In 2006, Ryan’s Devorah Nign was recorded by klezmer band The Lithuanian Empire. Also that year, trumpetress Amy Horvey commissioned Apparatus Inconcinnus for her solo recital tour of Canada. Ms. Horvey has performed the work at venues across Canada, in New York City (at Dave Douglas’s Festival Of New Trumpet Music), and as part of a lecture tour of Italy with Edward Carroll. Recently, she has included it on her solo recording, "Interview", on the Malasartes Musique label. The recording is available here.
Following the success of Ms. Horvey’s electrifying performances, commissions began to roll in from all sides. Resulting works from this period include:
Something Missing in my Heart Tonight has Made my Eyes So Soft, my Voice So Tender for violinist Carmelle Pretzlaw
Prelude & Fugu for oboist Beth Levia and French hornist Mary Fearon
Opacity No. 1 for trumpeter Jeremy Maitland
Tuba Manifesto for tubist Tom McCaslin
Northern Nights for Edmonton chamber ensemble Wind, Women, & Song
The 53 Stations of the Tokaido, Book One for violinist Ewa Sas
Opacity No. 2: The Pond for clarinetist Rebecca Wexler and harpist Virginia Rogers. The Pond was awarded a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts and premiered at Living Music Under Living Skies.
Following this busy period, Ryan devoted some time to refinishing old works, taking a handful of composition lessons with Andriy Talpash and David McIntyre, and making his scores available through his website, hippocampalmusic.com. He relocated to Ottawa, Canada’s capital city, in 2008. He has since been commissioned by Capital BrassWorks (a brass choir consisting primarily of Ottawa’s National Arts Centre Orchestra’s (NACO) brass section, who premiered The Green Door under the direction of Alain Cazes in early 2009), experimental trumpeter Craig Pedersen, and percussionist Stephen Stone.
Ryan is a member of the Society of Composers, Authors, and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN), the Canadian League of Composers (CLC), Other Music e.V., and the Ottawa New Music Creators (ONMC).
Artist’s Statement
Ryan believes very strongly that music should be communicative. Music that is intended for background use, or that exists solely to represent a mathematical equation, for example, holds no interest for him. As he often tells his trombone students, music is a language; and no matter how pleasant the voice, a person with nothing interesting to say might as well stay quiet. Ryan has developed a strong love of klezmer music, especially its deep reliance on expressiveness and the infinite variance found from performer to performer – and even from performance to performance! As a result, his compositions frequently leave many interpretive decisions to the performer, and give the performer every opportunity to imbue the piece with their own style and sound.
As a performer himself, Ryan recognizes the importance of a piece being enjoyable to play. This performance-based approach leads to music which, although sometimes challenging to learn, is ultimately very rewarding.
