Richard Mascall

Award winning Canadian composer, Richard Mascall grew up in Toronto, Canada but originally hails from England.  His classical music training began at North Toronto Collegiate Institute, as well as at the Royal Conservatory of Music. A graduate of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music, Richard studied composition with Walter Buczynski, Glenn Buhr and Christos Hatzis, amongst others. Richard’s music first gained public attention in 1992 when his virtuosic work for solo violin, Labyrinth, was performed by celebrated Canadian violinist, Andrew Dawes at the CBC Young Composers Competition. Labyrinth was chosen by the CBC to represent Canada at the 1993 International Rostrum of Composers in Paris, France. Since then his music has been widely performed across Canada by many of the leading orchestras, ensembles and soloists. With recent performances of his work in Estonia, England, Finland and South Korea his music is beginning to be heard around the globe. 

 Mr. Mascall moved to a small rural Ontario town in 2005 where he works as a freelance composer/arranger, violinist, conductor and music educator. From 2006-2010 he served as the Composer-in-Residence for the Georgian Bay Symphony. In recent years, his music has been increasingly featured on new CD releases; Marc Djokic’s award-winning ‘Solo Seven’, Beverley Johnston’s acclaimed ‘The Spirit and the Dust’, and the Ensemble Made In Canada’s JUNO nominated Mosaique project, for which Richard’s piano quartet Petroglyphs represents the province of Ontario.

During the past fifteen years, Mr. Mascall has taken a great interest in aboriginal art and culture and has to this point written over a dozen native themed works. In January 2012, Mr. Mascall was honoured with the spirit name ‘Singing Beaver on Water’.