James Rolfe Photo by Juliet Palmer

2000 Guggenheim Fellowships: James Rolfe

James Rolfe's first opera, Beatrice Chancy, received an extraordinary reception from audiences and critics alike during sold-out productions by The Queen of Puddings Music Theatre Company in Toronto (1998, 1999) and Nova Scotia (1999). The opera was filmed in studio by CBC-TV for national broadcast in Autumn 2000.

Rolfe's music has been commissioned and performed by ensembles in Canada (Arraymusic, Continuum Contemporary Music, Esprit Orchestra, Hemispheres, Sabat-Clarke Duo, Vancouver New Music Society, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra), in the USA (Bang On A Can All-Stars, Cassatt Quartet, Composers Guild of New Jersey, Princeton Composers Ensemble, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and June in Buffalo), and in Europe (Ensemble Contrechamps de Genève, Ensemble Avant-Garde of Leipzig, London’s Ixion Ensemble and Nash Ensemble, and Amsterdam’s Ives Ensemble and Nieuw Ensemble). In 1997, his Fêtes de la Faim was selected for and performed in the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) World Music Days in Seoul, Korea.

Grants and commissions have been awarded to Mr. Rolfe by The Canada Council, The Ontario Arts Council, The Toronto Arts Council, The Arts Foundation of Greater Toronto, The Laidlaw Foundation, and CBC Radio. James Rolfe has studied composition at the University of Toronto and at Princeton University. Mr. Rolfe’s teachers have included Louis Andriessen, John Beckwith, Brian Ferneyhough, Jo Kondo, Paul Lansky, and Steve Mackey.