Jocelyn Morlock (14 December 1969 – 27 March 2023) was a Canadian composer and music educator based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her piece My Name is Amanda Todd won the 2018 Juno Award for Classical Composition of the Year.

Early life and education

Morlock was born in Saint Boniface, Manitoba on 14 December 1969. She studied piano with Robert Richardson, Sr. and completed a Bachelor of Music in piano performance at Brandon University (B.Mus. 1994), where her teachers included Gerhard Ginader (electroacoustic music) and T. Patrick Carrabré (composition). She received both a master's degree and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of British Columbia (M.Mus. 1996, DMA 2002) where her composition teachers included Stephen Chatman, Keith Hamel, and the late Russian-Canadian composer Nikolai Korndorf.

Career

Jocelyn Morlock was Composer-in-Residence with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (2014-2019), after completing her term (2012-2014) as inaugural Composer-in-Residence for Vancouver's Music on Main, co-host of ISCM World New Music Days 2017. Morlock's international career was launched at the 1999 International Society for Contemporary Music's World Music Days with Romanian performances of her quartet Bird in the Tangled Sky, followed by Top 10 at the 2002 International Rostrum of Composers and Winner of the 2004 Canadian Music Centre Prairie Region Emerging Composers competition. Morlock wrote the imposed work for several music competitions including the 2008 Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition (Involuntary Love Songs) and the 2005 Montreal International Music Competition, (Amore). She won the SOCAN Jan V. Matejcek New Classical Music Award in 2018. Morlock's piece My Name is Amanda Todd premiered on 19 May 2016. It is a reflection on the life of Canadian Amanda Todd. It was commissioned and premiered by the National Arts Centre Orchestra as part of the multimedia symphonic work Life Reflected. The piece won the 2018 Juno Award for Classical Composition of the Year. Morlock was the longtime partner of Hard Rubber Orchestra director and trumpeter John Korsrud.

Style

Morlock's music exhibits a quirky and eccentric post-modernism, but is specially centred on emotion. Her musical language is typically tonal or modal, but is expanded with extended techniques and colouristic effects.

Death

Morlock died on 27 March 2023, at the age of 53.

Selected works

Discography

Cobalt, Centrediscs CMCCD 20014 (2014) Halcyon, Centrediscs CMCCD 23817 (2017)

Awards and nominations

JUNO Awards

Classical Composition of the Year

Western Canadian Music Awards

Classical Composer of the Year Classical Composition of the Year Classical Recording of the Year