and everything that
sings in the carbon of stone and bone
like a page of love, wind-lost from a hand, unread.
– Anne Michaels, ‘There Is No City That Does Not Dream’ (from Skin Divers)
“arresting and strangely alluring”
Cecilia Livingston specializes in music for voice. She is composer-in-residence at the Canadian Opera Company (2022-) and was composer-in-residence at Glyndebourne (2019-2022). Her music is driven by melody, mixing styles to create work that is lyrical and unsettling, and her work has been performed at Glyndebourne, Teatro Colón, Teatro Carlo Felice, Bang on a Can’s summer festival, Toronto’s Nuit Blanche festival, in recital at Koerner Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Barbican, and the Kennedy Center, by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, Tafelmusik, and Soundstreams, and is available on recording from Deutsche Grammophon.
“[music that asks] slow burning, sometimes fiery questions”
Current projects include an orchestral song cycle with Orange Prize winning poet Anne Michaels and new work for the Canadian Opera Company. Winner of the 2024 Louis Applebaum Composers Award “for excellence in composition for theatre, music theatre, dance or opera”, Cecilia’s creative work is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council, and SOCAN Foundation.
Cecilia was a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Postdoctoral Fellow in Music at King's College London and her writing has been published in Tempo, the Cambridge Opera Journal, The Opera Quarterly, and in The Cambridge Companion to Composition. She has given papers on contemporary opera at the Royal Musical Association, American Musicological Society, and Modern Language Association (MLA) annual conferences; in 2024 she was appointed to the MLA Forum Executive Committee on Opera and Musical Performance for a five-year term. In the summer of 2022 Cecilia joined the faculty of the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and she is Vice-President of the Canadian League of Composers and an associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre.
Cecilia is represented by Stratagem Artists in New York.
“this vast and curious creative mind”
“a radiant and openhearted musical language”
‘Snow’ and ‘Silver’ from Lullabies
Deutsche Grammophon
freezing, 2024
Emily D’Angelo, mezzo
JUNO Award winner, Classical Album of the Year
‘Paula Modersohn-Becker’ from Breath Alone
Deutsche Grammophon
Breathe, 2024
Hera Hyesang Park, soprano
2024 OPUS KLASSIK Award
Fall River, the legend of Lizzie Borden
2026
opera
80’
libretto by Michael Patrick Albano
University of Toronto
with the generous support of Denton Creighton and
Kristine Vikmanis and the Roger D. Moore Distinguished Visitor in Composition fund at the Faculty of Music
Breath Alone
song cycle
25’
Hera Hyesang Park, soprano
Katelan Tran Terrell, piano
text by Anne Michaels
Carnegie Hall, New York, 2023
with orchestra, 2024
photo by Cylla von Tiedemann
mark
2023
viola, baritone, chorus, percussion, and celeste
40’
Soundstreams
text by Duncan McFarlane
dir. Tim Albery, cond. David Fallis
Matisse
hyacinth: songs of the Minotaur
2023
song cycle for soprano/mezzo and piano
15’
SongFest
text by Duncan McFarlane
Laura Strickling, soprano; Shawn Chang, piano
image by Dog and Pony Studio
luna premit
2023
song cycle for high voice and piano
20’
Canadian Art Song Project
Lawrence Wiliford, tenor; Steven Philcox, piano
text by Anne Michaels and Duncan McFarlane
Glyndebourne
Pay the Piper
2022
opera
Glyndebourne, with Psappha
dir. Stephen Langridge
winner, Best Opera, RESEO Youth Music Awards
Capture
2022
for chorus and cello, 20’
a retelling of The Unicorn Tapestries
text by Duncan McFarlane
Fountain School of the Performing Arts
Dalhousie University
Garden of Vanished Pleasures
2021, 2025
75’
devised and directed by Tim Albery
Soundstreams
finalist, Opera America Awards for Excellence in Digital Opera
“Cecilia Livingston, a female composer holding space in a male-dominated field”
2026
Fall River, the legend of Lizzie Borden (80’)
opera, University of Toronto
suppported by Denton Creighton and Kristine Vikmanis, and the
Roger D. Moore Distinguished Visitor in Composition Fund at the Faculty of Music
2025, April 25-27
Toronto, Canada
Garden of Vanished Pleasures
dir. Tim Albery
Soundstreams; Marilyn and Charles Baillie Theatre, Canadian Stage
finalist, Opera America’s 2022 Award for Excellence in Digital Opera
2025, April 6
Brooklyn, NYC
Nothing Can End (15’), song cycle for baritone and piano
Gregory Feldmann, baritone; Michael Brofman, piano
Brooklyn Art Song Society
2025, April 6
Edmonton, Canada
After the Wind
New Orford String Quartet, Edmonton Recital Society
2025, April 2
Calgary, Canada
After the Wind
New Orford String Quartet, Mount Royal University
2025, March 30
worldwide
Snow and Silver, from Lullabies
’freezing’, Deutsche Grammophon; Emily D’Angelo, mezzo
JUNO Awards, Classical Album of the Year (Solo Artist)
2025, March 27
Lunenberg, Canada
Penelope
Meghan Lindsay, soprano; Carson Becke, piano; Musique Royale
2025, March 26
Halifax, Canada
Penelope
Meghan Lindsay, soprano; Carson Becke, piano; Scotia Festival of Music
2025, March 22
Toronto, Canada
Sooner than Later
Tapestry Opera, Nancy & Ed Jackman Performance Centre launch concert
2025, March 21
Toronto, Canada
guest lecture, ‘Lives in Music’, University of Toronto Faculty of Music
2025, March 14
London, Canada
2025, March 9
Cobourg, Canada
After the Wind
New Orford String Quartet, Les Amis Concerts
2025, March 6
Kitchener, Canada
After the Wind
New Orford String Quartet, Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Series
2025, March 5
London, Canada
After the Wind
New Orford String Quartet, BMO Auditorium, Western University
2025, March
worldwide
profile, Choral Repertoire by Women Composers. Ed. Hilary Apfelstadt and Alan Troy Davis. GIA Publications, 2025. 408-411.
2025, February 19
Toronto, Canada
Paula Modersohn-Becker, from Breath Alone
Kirsten Leblanc, soprano; Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, cond. Johannes Debus
2025, February 14
Waterloo, Canada
Leap of the Heart
Laurier Symphony Orchestra, Wilfrid Laurier University
cond. Cynthia Johnston Turner
2025, February 8
Luskville, Quebec, Canada
2025, February 2
Notre Dame, IN, USA
Salt Air (Kalyso, Circe, Penelope)
Laura Strickling, soprano; Daniel Schlosberg, piano
LeBar Recital Hall, University of Notre Dame
2025, January 27
radio / worldwide
Salt Air (Kalyso, Circe, Penelope)
Laura Strickling, soprano; Daniel Schlosberg, piano
live from WFMT Chicago
2025, January 25
Toronto, Canada
Gone with the Winds
University of Toronto Wind Ensemble, New Music Festival
2025, January 18
Winnipeg, Canada
2025, January 16
Ann Arbor, USA
Penelope
Martha Guth, soprano; Erika Switzer, piano; University of Michigan
2025, January 10
London, Canada
Breath Alone; Kalypso
Susan Gouthro, soprano; Marie-Elise Boyer, piano
von Kuster Hall, Western University
2024, December 17
New York City, USA
2024, June
worldwide
2024, August 30
worldwide
Snow and Silver, from Lullabies
’freezing’, Deutsche Grammophon; Emily D’Angelo, mezzo
with Sophia Muñoz (piano), Bruno Helstroffer (electric guitar), Jonas Niederstadt (bass guitar, synth, percussion)
2024, May 30
Toronto, Canada
Kalypso
Ariane Cossette, soprano; Brian Cho, piano
Canadian Opera Company Concert Series, Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre
Presented by TD Bank Group
2024, May 15
Toronto, Canada
Parting
Simone Osborne, soprano; Rachael Kerr, piano
Canadian Opera Company Concert Series, Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre
Presented by TD Bank Group
2024, May 1
Hamilton, Canada
Noyade
Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Gemma New
2024, April 15
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Paula from Breath Alone
Hera Hyesang Park, soprano
orch. Teatro Colón, cond. Marcelo Ayub
live and worldwide broadcast
Mamá Húngara with Deutsche Grammophon for Stage+
2024, April 13
Bilbao, Spain
Penelope, Moon
Emily D’Angelo, mezzo; Sophia Muñoz, piano
Sociedad Filarmónica
2024, March 10-24
New Brunswick, Canada
Kalypso
Clare Lowe, soprano; Maryse Gallant, piano
tour, Jeunesses Musicales Canada
2024, March 8
Toronto, Canada
guest lecture, University of Toronto ‘Lives in Music’ series
2024, March 3
Manchester, UK
Paula, from Breath Alone
Hera Hyesang Park, soprano; Bretton Brown, piano
Manchester Song Festival 2024
2024, March 1
London, UK
Paula, from Breath Alone
Hera Hyesang Park, soprano; Bretton Brown, piano
Milton Court Concert Hall, Barbican
2024, February 25
Somerset, UK
Paula, from Breath Alone
Hera Hyesang Park, soprano; Bretton Brown, piano
Cedars Hall
2024, February 23
Toronto, Canada
Gone With the Winds: Cecilia Livingston with Mozart and Dvorak
Canadian Opera Company Concert Series, Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre
Presented by TD Bank Group
2024, February 11
Kingston, Canada
Breath Alone
text by Anne Michaels
Rachel Krehm, soprano; Kingston Symphony, cond. Evan Mitchell
2024, February
worldwide
Paula, from Breath Alone
text by Anne Michaels
’Breathe’, Deutsche Grammophon
Hera Hyesang Park, soprano
Orchestra del Teatro Carlo Felice, cond. Jochen Rieder
2024, January 9
New York, USA
Garden of Vanished Pleasures
dir. Tim Albery, Soundstreams
OPERA America New Works Forum
Association for Opera in Canada Showcase
“Creators in Concert: Canadian New Works”
Marc A. Scorca Hall, OPERA America’s National Opera Centre
“Nothing New Under the Sun: Composition as Adaptation.” The Cambridge Companion to Composition. Ed. Toby Young. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024. 257–269.
Interview: ‘Soundstreams present The Bright Divide’, Foyer, Art Gallery of Ontario (Oct. 2023)
Cover feature, La Scena Musicale magazine, Vol. 28 No. 6 (Apr-May 2023), pg. 22-24. Online here.
Feature profile, Opera Canada magazine, Vol. 63 No. 4 (Spring 2023), pg. 26-29.
Artist talk, University of Toronto ‘Lives in Music’ series
“Room to Fail or Doomed to Fail? How misunderstandings of creative labor in opera undermine new works.” Modern Language Association convention, 2023
Contact
Stratagem Artist Management, LLC.
New York, NY USA
info@stratagemartists.com
tel. 646.847.9924
Justin Werner
Founder and President
jwerner@stratagemartists.com
Rebecca Townsend
Artist Manager
rtownsend@stratagemartists.com
For score inquiries and to submit performance information, please use the form here.