Biography

Fiona Ryan is an award winning Nova Scotian composer who specializes in composing vocal and instrumental music for live performance. Fiona is also active as a performer, music teacher, and music director. In addition to her musical activities, Fiona also writes and works as a writing tutor, and occasional part-time academic. 

Although most of Fiona's creative work is centred around music, her pieces often incorporate dramatic elements. Fiona often creates music for concert performance, but also has experience composing for film and theatre (including composing, arranging, and recording music for Neptune Theatre's recent production of Salt-Water Moon). Fiona's work has been performed in various venues in Canada, the USA, and the UK.

Fiona currently lives in Halifax, NS, where she composes, teaches, tutors, and works as a music director and performer. Fiona's compositions were included on two recordings released in 2017, and her song cycle Lady of the Lake was nominated for composition of the year for he 2018 East Coast Music Awards.

Fiona holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in composition from the University of Toronto, a Master of Music in composition from Newcastle University (UK), and a Bachelor of Music with a concentration in performance from Dalhousie University.  Fiona has led workshops and given presentations about music and creativity at conferences, and her love of learning also prompted her to pursue additional training, workshops, and courses in teaching, performance, dance, and video/sound editing. 

Fiona's creative interests include creating work that explores relationships between music and writing/communication and exploring the creative possibilities of transforming ideas from one art form to another.