Vincent Ho is a Canadian who is widely recognised as one of the most exciting composers of his generation. He has made waves in the music world of North America despite being fairly early in his compositional career, receiving numerous prizes, accolades, and prominent commissions in a relatively short space of time.
Ho's music is rich and energetic - a unique integration of influences ranging from the visual arts, electroacoustic and natural soundscapes, traditional classical music forms, and the physical properties of the instruments and ensembles for which he writes. His music is sensual, sonorous and richly textured, and Ho gives considerable attention to the audience's experience of his intricate sound-worlds. Ho is currently Composer in Residence with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, where he has held tenure since 2007.
Ho has already done much to distinguish himself as a composer. Born in Ontario, Canada, in 1975, he began his musical training at Canada's Royal Conservatory of Music, where he received an Associate Diploma in Piano Performance in 1993. Mentored by a series of composers including Allan Bell, David Eagle, Christos Hatzis, Walter Buczynski, and Stephen Hartke, Ho gained bachelor and masters degrees from the University of Calgary and the University of Toronto respectively, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Southern California. While still an undergraduate student, Ho was awarded a scholarship to attend the Schola Cantorum Summer Composition Program in Paris, France, where he received tuition from faculty of the Juilliard School of Music and the Paris Conservatoire.
Ho sprang to prominence in 1999, when in the course of the year he received prizes for his first string quartet and his piano work Three Scenes of Childhood, and an audience prize for the latter in the Toronto New Music Festival. String Quartet No.1 received further recognition nearly a decade later when it was nominated "Best Classical Composition of the Year" in the Western Canadian Music Awards following its release on CD. Ho received a plethora of prizes in the interim, including the prestigious Fromm Music Commission from Harvard University for his Sonata for Violin and Piano, the 2005 Hultgren Solo Cello Works Biennial and EARPLAY's 2004 Donald Aird Memorial Composition Award for Stigmata, the 2006 Robert Fleming Young Composer of the Year Prize and Portland Chamber Music Festival's 2006 Composers' Competition Prize for Shattering the Ethereal Resonance.
Ho began a tenure as Composer in Residence with Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in 2007. The ongoing position, as well as a number of other commissions, have provided many opportunities for Ho to produce significant works for orchestra, including Nighthawks (2000), Dragon Realms (2006), Red Zen (2008) and Fallen Angel: In Memoriam Richard D'Amore(2008). Most significant is his Arctic Symphony, a work inspired by Ho's 2008 trip to the Arctic, and described as "a mature and atmospheric work that firmly establishes Ho among North American composers of note."
