Aiden Hartery

PhD Candidate
Composition
Email: aharter2@uwo.ca


Aiden Hartery (b.1988) is a composer, trombonist, and educator from Labrador City, Newfoundland and Labrador. His music has been described as having “great delicacy with entrancing, impressionistic touches full of imagery” (E. Champagne), and can be heard in a variety of mediums, including works for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, choir, band, and orchestra. Aiden has been developing his music to focus on the incorporation and transformation of cultural elements from his native province. This can be through the interpretation of a folk song, the setting of a poem or ballade, depicting a work of art, or drawing inspiration from more abstract concepts from the region’s folklore, or naturally occurring experiences such as the northern lights, or old ‘wives’ tales’.  His music attempts to bridge the gap between what is familiar and what may be uncharted territory to a listener; the preservation of the old and presentation of the new.

Currently a PhD candidate in Music Composition, Aiden’s thesis focuses on the creation of an opera based on the Basque whalers who were stationed in Red Bay, Labrador, during the sixteenth century. This research and development has awarded Aiden with two Ontario Graduate Scholarships (2016, 2017), the Pioneers Scholarship Fund from the Anima Anthropological Resources Association Incorporated (AARA Inc.), as well as Doctoral Research Fund from Western University which allowed Aiden to travel to the Basque Country in Spain to visit and research important elements related to the opera.

His music has been commissioned by musicians and ensembles such as Orchestre Metropolitain, The Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra, Duo Concertante, Reverb Brass, Newman Sound Men’s Choir, the Festival Wind Orchestra, Dr. Aaron Hodgson, Dr. Stephen Ivany, and The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada. His music has been performed throughout Canada, the United States, England, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Aiden graduated with a Bachelor of Music (Hon.) in 2011 and a Bachelor of Music Education in 2012 from Memorial University of Newfoundland, and a Master of Music Composition in 2014 from the University of Toronto.

You can listen to Aiden’s music at his website: www.aidenhartery.com