Gary Alan Kulesha (born 22 August 1954) is a Canadian composer, pianist, conductor, and educator. Since 1995, he has been Composer Advisor to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He has been Composer-in-Residence with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony (1988–1992) and the Canadian Opera Company (1993–1995). He was awarded the National Arts Centre Orchestra Composer Award in 2002. He currently teaches on the music faculty at the University of Toronto, where his notable students have included Vincent Ho, Anna Höstman, Abigail Richardson-Schulte, Bekah Simms, and Andrew Staniland. He was appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada in 2023.

Education

Born in Toronto, Kulesha received his musical training at The Royal Conservatory of Music where he earned an associate diploma in piano (1973), a licentiate diploma in music theory (1976), and associate and fellowship diplomas in music composition in 1978. At the conservatory he was a pupil of William G. Andrews and Samuel Dolin. He also studied composition in England from 1978–1981 with John McCabe and in New York City in 1982 with John Corigliano.

Selected works

Opera

Orchestra

Band and wind ensemble

Concertante

Electro-Acoustic

Chamber music

Piano

Choral

Vocal