Dean Burry

Composer and librettist Dean Burry was born in St. John’s, Newfoundland but grew up in the town of Gander. In 1998, while working as an educator with the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, he was commissioned to write The Brothers Grimm. The opera has been seen by over 165,000 children across Canada since 2001 and has been produced across North America and Europe. At well over 500 performances, The Brothers Grimm is believed to be the most performed Canadian opera ever.

Other major works include The Hobbit for the Canadian Children’s Opera Company and Sarasota Opera, The Scorpions’ Sting for the Canadian Opera Company, The Vinland Traveler and Le nez de la sorcière for Memorial University of Newfoundland, Pandora’s Locker for The Glenn Gould School, the CBC serial radio opera Baby Kintyre (released on the Centredisc and Naxos labels in September, 2014) and Beacon of Light for Rising Tide Theatrein 2015 he was appointed the Artistic Director of the Canadian Children’s Opera Company and is a professor at the Glenn Gould Professional School of the Royal Conservatory of Music.

Burry was the 2011 recipient of the Ontario Arts Foundation’s Louis Applebaum Composers Award for excellence in the field of music for young people. His most recent compositions include Tempest in a Teacup, which premiered in Guiyang, China, The Bells of Baddeck, The Sword in the Schoolyard (VIVA! Youth Singers of Toronto), the song cycle The Highwayman and a Montreal Chamber Music Festival commission of Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang featuring renowned Canadian tenor Ben Heppner. www.deanburry.com