Welcome to the website of Toronto-based Canadian composer Mark Richards. Check here regularly for the latest news, upcoming performances, audio samples, and more.

News

Article Accepted to Top Music Theory Journal

An academic article by Richards has been accepted to the music theory's premiere journal, Music Theory Spectrum. The article discusses Beethoven's gradual style change over his career from the perspective of an important feature of his sonata forms known as the "medial caesura". The article will appear in the journal's fall issue of 2013.

Professor Job in Lethbridge

In August of 2011, Richards was hired as a professor of music theory at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta for the 2011-2012 academic year, teaching courses in music theory, music history, and the music of Beethoven. While the position is currently for a single year, there is the possibility of the contract being extended into 2013.

Commission to Write Opera on Laura Secord

Richards has been commissioned by the Music Niagara festival to compose a new opera on the story of Laura Secord, the Canadian heroine of the War of 1812. A workshop of excerpts is scheduled to take place in summer 2012, and a complete, fully staged version in summer 2013.

Hamlet Excerpts Performed in October

Toronto chamber group Via Salzburg performed excerpts from Richards' opera arranged for string quartet. More...

Richards’ Dissertation Goes Online

PDFs of Richards’ full 75,000-word dissertation and its abstract are now available on the “Academic” page of this site.

Richards Obtains PhD

On April 13, Richards successfully defended his PhD thesis in music theory at the University of Toronto. The 75,000-word dissertation explores the idea of musical tension in the sonata forms of Beethoven. Richards has several academic papers that relate to these ideas forthcoming in academic journals and will be presenting a paper on musical form in Beethoven at the national Society for Music Theory conference in October.

Commission for New Children’s Opera

After the successes of his Hamlet, Richards continues to be active in the operatic realm, and has been commissioned by Off Centre Music Salon to write a children’s opera on the story of Thumbelina by Hans Christen Andersen. Excerpts will likely be performed in Off Centre's 2011-2012 season with a complete performance to follow soon after.

Audio Samples from New Works

Hear live excerpts from two of Richards’ latest works, The Green Oasis, a song cycle set to poems from a set of the same name by 20th-century Canadian poet Bliss Carman, and Chopin Reflected, a work for piano duet celebrating the birth of Frédéric Chopin in 1810. Both works were premiered in April 2010 in Toronto, the song cycle by baritone Nathaniel Wiseman, cellist Sybil Shanahan, and the composer himself at the piano, and the piano duet by Brett Kingsbury and Erika Crino.

  • Samples to appear here soon!

Richards in The Toronto Star

On Aug. 14, 2008, the The Toronto Star published a story about Richards and his Hamlet opera by classical music critic John Terauds.