Rebecca Bruton is a composer, songmaker, vocalist, and guitarist based in Calgary, Alberta. She creates work that moves in the narrow space between
sorrow and celebration, drawing upon interests that include the pace of trekking through the Rocky Mountains, land/blood memory, the choreographic,
multi-species kinship, and the malleable nature of time.
Bruton creates within and across several musical arenas, including experimental chamber music, song, flm scores, and free improvisation. Her chamber compositions are widely performed, having been commissioned by Ekmeles vocal ensemble (NYC), Nordic Afect (IS), Quasar Quatuor de saxophones (Montréal), Arraymusic (Toronto), Ultraviolet Ensemble (Edmonton), and more. Bruton is an avid collaborator, especially across disciplines. In the fall of 2021 she performed in the premiere of We needed to be rescued, a movement and music work she co-created with choreographer and dancer Heather Ware (produced by Dancers Studio West). She also tends to a long-term collaborative friendship with multidisciplinary artist Angela Rawlings, having set Angela’s 2017 book ‘si tu’ to microtonal music for four voices (I n s t i t u, 2021), and worked with Angela in the polyvocal duo Moss Moss Not Moss (Tectonics Glasgow 2016). Autumn 2022 saw Bruton debuting a shimmering ornament of silt, an electro-acoustic multi-channel installation she co-created with Icelandic composer and violinist Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir (Sphere/ Sphère Festival, National Arts Centre, Canada). She also leads Swanherds, an experimental folk supergroup featuring Zoë Alexis-Abrams, Laura Swankey, Ryan Driver, Pete Johnston, Kurt Newman, and D Alex Meeks.