Owen Underhill
Biography
Owen Underhill is a Canadian composer and conductor who lives in Vancouver where he is Artistic Director of the Turning Point Ensemble, a large professional chamber ensemble dedicated to twentieth and twenty-first century music, and a faculty member in the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University.
As a composer, Underhill writes for diverse combinations including orchestra, voice and choir, a wide variety of chamber music, and interdisciplinary and cross-cultural collaborations. Recent works include his Bee Studies with poetry by Renée Saklikar, and his Cello Concerto, recorded by cellist Ariel Barnes and the Turning Point Ensemble on Orlando Records. His music is on several additional recordings including his 2011 disc Still Image with the Bozzini Quartet.
As a conductor, Underhill has conducted over 250 premieres with organizations such as the Turning Point Ensemble, CBC Radio Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Ostrava Days, New Opera Days Ostrava (NODO) and Vancouver Intercultural Orchestra. Active as a programmer and promoter of contemporary music, Underhill was Artistic Director of Vancouver New Music from 1987 to 2000, and President of the Canadian Music Centre from 2010 to 2014. He is a former student of Rudolf Komorous and has premiered and conducted his work on many occasions.