Owen Belton Composer of Music for Dance,
Theatre and Film
BIOGRAPHY
Owen Belton has been writing music for dance since 1994 when he created the music for Shapes Of A Passing, Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite's piece for Toronto-based Ballet Jorgen. This was soon followed by music for the critically acclaimed film short, A Hollow Place, directed by Dan Sadler. Since then, he has created many scores for dance companies including Kidd Pivot, BJM Danse, The National Ballet of Canada, The Stuttgart Ballet, Ballet BC, Ballett Frankfurt, Nederlands Dans Theatre (NDT), and The Cullberg Ballet. Owen has also scored several short films and plays including Theatre Replacement's acclaimed "Clark & I in Connecticut" in 2008. In June of 2009 Owen won the Dora Mavor Moore award for best dance score for Emergence which was performed by The National Ballet of Canada and choreographed by Crystal Pite.
Owen Belton graduated from the Simon Fraser University School for the Contemporary Arts in 1993, where he studied composition with Owen Underhill and Barry Truax. He studied computer music where he was introduced to granular synthesis, an important element in many of his compositions. He incorporates a wide range of acoustic and electronic instruments in his music, as well as incorporating everyday and found sounds from time to time. Nothing is too strange to avoid consideration.
Owen has his own digital music studio where he weaves his sonic webs. He also works as a recording engineer for other composers and musicians, and performs as a singer-songwriter with the band Lost Hombre.
Recent projects include:
- In 2011 traveled to New York to work with Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet to complete the score for Grace Engine which will premiere in Germany in the fall of 2011. Owen also designed the score for Richard III for Bard on the Beach in Vancouver and is currently working on a new piece for Kidd Pivot, premiering in October 2011.
- In 2010 composed the score for a Bravo! film-short based on a book poetry (YesNo) by Dennis Lee which has been screened at many film festivals including the TIFF and VIFF in 2010 as well as two other short films "Grandmere" and "In a Moment".
- In 2009 as well as scoring Emergence, Owen created the score for Dark Matters performed by Kidd Pivot which premiered at the NAC in Ottawa in April. It was featured in Vancouver in February 2010 as part of the Cultural Olympiad and has been touring worldwide since then.