Eliot Britton (b.1983) – composer, sound artist – integrates electronic and instrumental music to create an energetic and colourful personal language. Each of his compositions expresses his eclectic musical experience, including that of sound designer, producer, orchestral and jazz performer, DJ, and audio technician. By drawing on these sound worlds and others, Eliot Britton’s compositions are bursting with a variety of resources only possible in the 21st century. His compositions have been heard by audiences across Canada and internationally.
Eliot Britton is currently pursuing his PhD in music research and composition at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University under the supervision of Prof. Sean Ferguson. Here Britton has worked as a course lecturer, studio assistant and composer in residence for the Digital Composition Studios. He was awarded the director’s prize for research on live electronic music and recently held the position of composer in residence for the McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble with the Digital Composition Studio. He currently holds a SSHRC Bombardier graduate scholarship to fund his research.
Prior to his work at McGill, Eliot Britton studied with Matthews and Fitzell at the University of Manitoba, and was also conferred with certification from the Precursor Productions School of Electronic Music. Throughout his studies, Eliot Britton has won numerous awards and scholarships. Recent accolades include 1st prize in the Hugh Le Caine Category in the SOCAN competition, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Scholarship (SSHRC), winner of the Winnipeg New Music Festival’s Young Composers’ Competition, and the Margaret H. Tyler Award in music. Select performances of Britton’s work include: NIME Norway, EMS New York, the CCMW Toronto, McGill CME in Montreal, Winnipeg New Music Festival, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, the Winnipeg Fringe Festival, and the Pazzia Performing Arts Collective in Edinburgh, Eliot Britton continues to evolve musically.
Having recently finished his masters he continues pursuing a doctoral thesis on the analysis of rhythmic syntax in avant-garde electronic music and its relationship to electroacoustic music.