2025 Composer Competition Winners announced, June 15th 2025!
We are excited to announce the winners of GroundSwell’s 2025-26 Emerging Composers Competition! Our jury, comprised of Quasar members Marie-Chantal Leclaire and Jean-Marc Bouchard and prominent Canadian composer Vincent Ho, was very impressed with the quality of the 65 submissions we received from across the country. Canada certainly has no shortage of exceptional musical talent! After careful deliberation and discussion, the jury decided on the following winners:
First Place (commission and performance): Takuto Fukuda, a post-doctoral student at Concordia University
Second Place ($750 prize): Alexandre Amat, a doctoral student at l’Université de Montréal
Third Place ($500 prize): Philippe Macnab-Séguin, who recently obtained a DMus. from McGill University
In addition to these planned prizes, the jury was so impressed with the work of Noé Petit Bohnert, a high-school student studying in Montreal, that they decided to add an Honourable Mention for her.
Congratulations to the winners, and thanks to all the applicants for your excellent submissions!
Winners Announced June 15th, 2023!
Watch the world premiere of Ghost Story, by Carly Toperosky-Splett, winner of GroundSwell’s 2023 Composer Competition.
Carly Splett
Carly Toperosky Splett is a young Canadian composer. They obtained their Masters of Music Composition at McGill University in 2022, and Bachelor of Music at University of Calgary in 2019. Carly’s role as a composer is to create spaces with a set time duration. These spaces function in the role of storytelling, and are used to challenge perception and preconceived notions in public audiences, musicians and academics. Their works focus heavily on texture and structures, with these and other music materials creating a cohesive whole through tenuous and sometimes intangible connections.
Scott Jodoin is an eclectic composer and performer from Steinbach, MB, known for his imaginative works. He studied composition at the University of Manitoba under the tutelage of Örjan Sandred and Gordon Fitzell. He has achieved successes in composition competitions, winning the Frances Seaton Choral Composition Competition in 2018 with his piece “Springtime Melting” and earning third place in GroundSwell’s 2015 Emerging Composers Composition Competition with “rem•i•ni•scence” (with Freya Olafson)..Among his larger-scale works are the two-act opera “Mai ’68” (2015), jazz orchestra piece “Two Left Feet” (2016), and “Three Vignettes of Northwestern Ontario” for flute, cello, and live electronics (c. GroundSwell, 2019). He has enjoyed working with esteemed ensembles and musicians such as the Pearls Before Swine Quartet, Ensemble Paramibo, Allen Harrington, Sean Taubner, Martha Durkin, Victoria Sparks, and Sarah Jo Kirsch. In addition to his composition activities, Scott is also a pianist-singer-songwriter in the jazz-pop genre. With a background in software development, Scott explores the intersections between algorithmic and musical construction, while also finding inspiration in the mysteries of the everyday.
Winners Announced June 15th, 2023!
Winner will compose a new work for Vancouver-based pianist Corey Hamm. The commissioned work will be for solo piano (5 minutes duration) and be premiered in the spring of 2024 in Winnipeg. Winner’s travel and accommodation, as well as the commissioning fee, will be covered by GroundSwell.