Owen Belton Composer of Music for Dance,
Theatre and Film
BIOGRAPHY
Owen Belton has been writing music for dance since 1994 when he created the music for Shapes Of A Passing, Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite's piece for Toronto-based Ballet Jorgen. This was soon followed by music for the critically acclaimed film short, A Hollow Place, directed by Dan Sadler. Since then, he has created many scores for dance companies including Kidd Pivot, BJM Danse, The National Ballet of Canada, The Stuttgart Ballet, Ballet BC, Ballett Frankfurt, Nederlands Dans Theatre (NDT), and The Cullberg Ballet. Owen has also scored several short films and plays including Theatre Replacement's acclaimed "Clark & I in Connecticut" in 2008. In June of 2009 Owen won the Dora Mavor Moore award for best dance score for Emergence which was performed by The National Ballet of Canada and choreographed by Crystal Pite.
Owen Belton graduated from the Simon Fraser University School for the Contemporary Arts in 1993, where he studied composition with Owen Underhill and Barry Truax. He studied computer music where he was introduced to granular synthesis, an important element in many of his compositions. He incorporates a wide range of acoustic and electronic instruments in his music, as well as blending non-musical sound. Nothing is too strange to avoid consideration.
Owen has his own digital music studio where he weaves his sonic webs. He also works as a recording engineer for other composers and musicians, and performs as a singer-songwriter under the name Lost Hombre.
Recent projects include:
- In 2009 as well as scoring Emergence, Owen created the score for Dark Matters performed by Kidd Pivot which premiered at the NAC in Ottawa in April. It will be featured in Vancouver in February 2010 as part of the Cultural Olympiad. He is currently working on a score for a Bravo! film-short based on a book poetry (Yes-No) by Dennis Lee.
- In 2008 Owen went to work with Crystal Pite and Cullberg Ballet in Stockholm for the premiere of Matter of a Maker which was very well received and will be touring in Sweden in late 2009.
- In 2007 worked with NDT and Crystal Pite for a second time to create The 2nd Person which was a great artistic success and has toured extensively in and outside of the Netherlands
- In 2006, Owen wrote the music for Kidd Pivot's Lost Action, which has been touring every year since. He also created the score for Mrozewski's C.V., for the National Ballet of Canada which premiered in Toronto in May, and was also performed in London, England.