ABOUT
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, the NYO Emerging Composer Mentorship Program, the Ontario Remembrance Scholarship, the Ellen Batell Stoeckel Fellowship, and many more.
His works explore themes regarding the imperfections of the human psyche, working with evocative soundscapes that aim to create trance-like atmospheres and question 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 sensation, thought, and feeling.
His commission, Out of Thin Air, for the National Youth Orchestra of Canada was premiered at Koerner Hall in July of 2024 and recorded by the CBC. It was also taken on tour to Saskatoon and Edmonton. His upcoming opera, The Magic of the Forest, is scheduled to premiere by COSA Canada in 2025 in Toronto and at Mount Allison University, NB, in the summer. His work for Bassoonist Darius Farhoumand will premiere at his graduating recital at the Yale School of Music.
As of now, 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 and the Modern Sound Collective.
The Blank Canvas Sound Collective before the inaugural concert.
Photography © 2023 Jingyi Zhou
Outside of his composing work, he is also the co-founder, principal conductor, and director of finance for the Blank Canvas Sound Collective which he started with his peers at the University of Toronto. He has also co-founded a media production company with his collaborator, Keanu Gathy, called Sonaria LLC which aims to work with diverse genres and styles of music. Recently, he joined as the lead singer, bass guitarist, and co-composer of a modern metal band called Ash Lake, based in Toronto, which is currently working on releasing its first album. He also teaches piano, voice, and theory in his private studio.
He has also taken part in the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music’s International Conducting Training Program where he conducted Sanctus and Benedictus from the Mozart Requiem with orchestra, chorus, and soloists. His mentors in the program were Dr. Joe Miller and Dr. L. Brett Scott. His conducting mentors include Thomas Burton (choral) and Gary Kulesha (orchestral) who have helped him grasp his technique and voice as a conductor. He is also an active vocalist, studying under Mark Daboll. Singing in many different choirs around Toronto has shown him a more human aspect in music which he hopes to present in works of his own. He has enrolled in summer studies at the Norfolk New Music Workshop, CCM Choral Intensive, Cascade Composers Workshop, Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance, and Compocon 2023 – Standing Wave.
In theatre, he has worked with directors such as Shelley Mayer and Ethan Joshua to deliver music of its highest quality. He has also composed for theatre director and writer, Carleigh Pace-Tonna's sci-fi radio play, Re-Gen (2021). He was also commissioned to compose the score for Shelley Mayer's Our Passion (2023) which premiered at Seeley Hall in Trinity College. Danial was the composer of Banafsheh Taherian's Iranian podcast, Chai with Banafsheh. He has also worked with film director and writer, Joshua Ampuero, on composing for the short films The Scruff (2021) and One Good Thing (2021). In addition to short films, he also composed for Joshua Ampuero and Michael Barrett’s Amazon Prime series, Red Sands (2022).
He has also studied film scoring with George Oldziey and Orchestration with Tim Huling from the film scoring department at Berklee College of Music and has also workshopped with film composers such as James Newton Howard, Harry Gregson-Williams, Tom Holkenborg (aka Junkie XL), Christoph Beck, Christopher Lennertz, and Phillip Klein.