Keiko Devaux

Keiko Devaux
Born1982 (age 41–42)
Castlegar, British Columbia
NationalityCanadian
EducationUniversité de Montréal
Known forMusical composition
AwardsAzrieli Commission for Canadian Music
Websitehttps://keikodevaux.com/

Keiko Devaux (born 1982) is a Canadian composer of contemporary classical music.[1] She is most noted for her 2021 composition "Arras", which won the Juno Award for Classical Composition of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2022.[2]

She was born in Castlegar, British Columbia to a Japanese-Canadian mother and French father in 1982, and raised in the town of Nelson. In the 2000s, Devaux was active in the Canadian indie rock scene composing, touring, and recording albums in groups such as The Acorn, which she joined in 2006 on keyboards and marimba,[3] and Adam and the Amethysts.

In 2017 she earned a Master of Music in instrumental composition from the Université de Montréal with a thesis on the topic of "Musical 'translations' of experience through the interpretation of extra-musical forms and patterns". In 2019 she was the recipient of the inaugural Azrieli Commission for Canadian Music, the largest prize for new music composition in Canada.[4]

In 2020 she was awarded a two-year residency at the National Arts Centre Orchestra as a Carrefour composer. She won Quebec's prize for composer of the year from Conseil arts et lettres de Quebec and OPUS in 2022.[5] She is currently completing a doctorate in music composition (Composition et création sonore) at Université de Montréal under the direction of Ana Sokolović and Pierre Michaud.

  1. ^ "Keiko Devaux remporte le prix Opus de la compositrice de l’année". Le Soleil, March 7, 2022.
  2. ^ Holly Gordon, "Here are all the 2022 Juno Award winners". CBC Music, May 14, 2022.
  3. ^ Michael Barclay (September 17, 2007). "The Acorn, Family Affairs". Exclaim!.
  4. ^ "Azrieli Foundation conducts a new approach to launching its prize-winning composers". Toronto Star, November 20, 2020.
  5. ^ Emmanuel Bernier (May 6, 2022). "Des prix Opus à saveur pandémique". La Presse (in French).