Nicholas Von Moreau, composer

Nicolas Vön Moreau is a composer, sound designer and audio artist with a passion for creating music that tells stories. His work spans across personal music albums and projects in the video games and film industries, where his creativity is unleashed through various kinds of projects, each with a unique touch and sense of identity.

Nicolas’ love for music began in high school, where he studied in the Jazz-Pop Music-Study Program at André-Laurendeau. During that time, he and his group won several performance awards at the Disney Performing Arts Festival and performed at the 2014 Montreal International Jazz Festival. He continued to develop his skills at Cégep Marie-Victorin, studying in jazz drums and arrangement along with earning multiple performance awards at the Jazz Fest des Jeunes du Québec.

After earning a bachelor degree in composition and jazz arrangement with a minor in digital music from Université de Montréal, Nicolas took his passion to the next level by completing an international double master’s degree in composition for screen in the InMICS program. He studied in Belgium and France.

One of his proudest achievements is the score for Ma Tendre Moitié, which was nominated for Best Original Score at the 2024 Digital Griffix Awards and received an Honorable Mention at SoundTrack_Cologne. Always curious and eager to grow, Nicolas is working into carving out a place for himself in the world of video game music while staying open to new challenges and discoveries

Christian Belter

Christian Belter, composer

Christian is a composer, pianist and arranger from Ontario, Canada. His love of music began when he first heard the main theme to Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man when he was a child. He began piano lessons at age 9 and started composing shortly thereafter. He enrolled in the Bachelor of Music program at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario in 2019.

During his time at university, Christian studied composition with James Wright, Jen McLachlan and Jesse Stewart. He also studied jazz arranging with Mark Ferguson, as well as jazz piano with Steve Boudreau and Yves Laroche. In his last year, he was a pianist for the Carleton University Jazz Ensemble led by composer, arranger and trumpeter Ed Lister. Christian also arranged two pieces which he performed alongside the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra (OSO) Wind Quintet and other students as part of the OSO 2022-2023 season. He graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Performance in May of 2023.

Over the summer of 2023, Christian took private composition lessons with award-winning composer, conductor and pianist Hooshyar Khayam.

Christian has scored a psychological horror feature film The Girl Inside The Polaroid, an animated comedy short Birdy Man, a short detective parody Now Let Me Tell You Something, and a surrealist short The Esoteric Itch. He is a freelance pianist, playing in choirs and bands around Ottawa. In his free time, he practices classical guitar and reads dusty old books.

Danial Shebani, composer

Danial Shebani

From composing the soundtrack for an Amazon Prime series to receiving a commission  from the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, Danial Sheibani – an Iranian-Canadian  composer and conductor – has written for concert, film, TV, advertisements, theatre,  dance, and visual art, working with University of Toronto Opera and Symphony Orchestra,  the Verona Quartet, the Norfolk New Music Ensemble, Standing Wave Ensemble, and  many more. He is the recipient of many accolades including 3 SOCAN Young Composers  Awards, NYO Emerging Composer Mentorship Program, the Ontario Remembrance  Scholarship, the Ellen Batell Stoeckel Fellowship, and many more. 

His compositions explore themes regarding the imperfections of the human psyche.  Working with evocative soundscapes that aim to create trance-like atmospheres and  ques)on the listener’s perception of time. With every piece, he writes to evocate vivid 

imagery of the listener’s memories and introduce them to new worlds of sensa)on,  thought, and feeling. 

As of 2024, he is pursuing the fourth year of undergraduate studies at The University of  Toronto with his primary teachers being Christos Hatzis, Richard Danielpour, and David  Serkin Ludwig. His past teachers include Gary Kulesha, James Rolfe, and Larysa Kuzmenko. Selected works have been published by Alea Publishing, Modern Sound Collective, and  Sonaria. Outside of his composing work, he is also the co-founder, conductor, and director  of finance for the Blank Canvas Sound Collective which he started with his peers at the  University of Toronto.

www.Danialsheibani.com

Rahul Tekaram, composer

Rahul Tekaram

Born and raised in Toronto in an age where Western Classical Music is shunned in today’s world, I represent a continuation and survival of the boundaries within tonality. Compared to other colleagues, I began my musical studies in high school and private instruction late through my teenage years. Since then, I have continued to grow in my education, even attaining a bachelor’s of music with honours at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music.

My compositions range in many styles within the Classical idiom, such as neo-classicism, neo-romanticism, impressionism, expressionism, and film scoring. In terms of my continuing experience in instrumentation, they range from orchestration, chamber, choral, & keyboard. For my journey as a theorist, I am researching the secrets of Hindustani/Carnatic styles within Indian Art Music, and how they can be intertwined with Western composition. The Indian Raga is a fundamental aspect of this style of music, and it offers many possibilities for a post-tonal style that represents an ever-evolving multicultural world.
Some compositions reflect characteristics of the raga, one being a piece dedicated to the Bedford Trio’s annual Immersed concerts. Other contributions include theoretical papers on the subject, and pursuing to research it further in graduate studies.

Regarding my film experience, I have worked closely with students from Sheridan College and in scoring their animations. Whenever it comes to music, I believe “it is not a matter of the simplicity or complexity in Art, but rather its emotional integrity that drives oneself to a connective state of mind.”