Massimo Guida

Toronto-based Italian-Canadian composer, arranger, theorist, educator, and copyist Massimo Guida was born in Modena, Italy, in 1990, and has lived in Canada since 2008. He completed his doctoral studies in composition at the University of Toronto in 2019, under the supervision of Professor Christos Hatzis. He previously also completed his undergraduate and Master’s studies in composition at the University of Toronto, during which he studied composition with Professors Norbert Palej, Alexander Rapoport, Chan Ka Nin, and Gary Kulesha, as well as classical guitar under Eli Kassner. Described as a composer who writes with “a particularly strong melodic inspiration” by La Scena Musicale in 2012, in 2015, his song cycle Confessions (2014) was the recipient of the Violet Archer Prize, while his choral work Infant Joy (2013) won the Mississauga Festival Choir Competition. Outside of composition, Massimo is deeply interested in music theory, and he has also been the recipient of several academic awards, including a SSHRC CGS Master’s Scholarship for his Master’s research on the music of Alfredo Casella, and multiple Ontario Graduate Scholarships for his doctoral research on tonal structure in Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot (1926), which was supervised by Professor Steven Vande Moortele. His compositions and arrangements have been performed by ensembles such as the Brantford Symphony Orchestra, the North York Concert Orchestra, the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra, the Odin Quartet, the Mississauga Festival Chamber Choir, and the Music4Life Ensemble. A passionate advocate for Canadian contemporary music, Massimo also served on the board of the National Council of the Canadian League of Composers as an Ontario Councillor between 2020 and 2022. Learn more at: www.massimoguida.com