Born on 18 July 1933 in Sarnia (Ontario, Canada), R(aymond) Murray Schafer is known for his work as a composer, teacher, researcher, visual artist, environmentalist, and public speaker. Schafer’s substantial catalogue of works and writings on music education and sonic ecology, as well as his experimental, sometimes provocative style, have earned him broad international recognition. He was awarded the first Glenn Gould Prize from the Canada Arts Council in 1987, the Molson Prize for his life’s work in 1993, and the Walter Carsen Excellence Award for Performing Arts in 2005. He has received numerous academic distinctions in France, Argentina, and Canada: Honorary Legum Doctor from Carleton (1980), Simon-Fraser (1997), Toronto (2006), and Concordia (2010) Universities; an Honorary Litterarum Doctor from Trent University (1989); and honorary membership of the Toronto Royal Conservatory of Music (2008). In 2007-2008, Schafer was the Michael and Sonja Koerner “Distinguished Visitor” in Composition at the Music Department of Toronto University. In 2009, he was awarded the Performing Arts Prize from the Governor General of Canada for his life’s work.

In 1952, Schafer began study with Alberto Guerrero (piano), Greta Kraus (harpsichord), John Weinzweig (composition) and Arnold Walter (musicology) at the Toronto Royal Conservatory of Music and Toronto University. However, personal and creative differences led him to leave these institutions in 1955 in order to pursue independent, interdisciplinary study. He then spent an extended period abroad, studying literature, philosophy, languages, and visual and performing arts. He spent several years in Vienna, and became a student of composer Peter Racine Fricker (1920-1990) in England. His first years abroad saw the publication of important writings, including: E.T.A. Hoffmann and Music (1975), Ezra Pound and Music: The Complete Criticism (1978), the performance history of an obscure opera by Pound - Le Testament (1920-1921), and British Composers in Interview (1963).

Schafer demonstrates his persuasiveness, acuity and enthusiasm in his writings on Canadian culture and identity, notably in Music in the Cold (1977), which explores the relationship between Canadian identity, culture, its wilderness, and the North. Many of his writings include graphic elements, such as his calligraphic works, The Sixteen Scribes (1981), Dicamus and Labyrinthos (1984), Ariadne (1984), and Shadowgraphs and Legends (2004). His innovative approach to teaching is laid out in Ear Cleaning: Notes for an Experimental Music Course (1967), The Rhinoceros in the Classroom (1975), and The Thinking Ear (1986), all of which have become references for teachers, performers, and researchers. Selections of his writings were published in On Canadian Music (1984) and in a special edition of Open Letter, titled R. Murray Schafer: A Collection (1979). He has made significant contributions to the field of sonic ecology, including his founding of the World Soundscape Project in 1969 at Simon Fraser University (Burnaby, British Colombia), and in the ideas put forward in The Tuning of the World (1977). His writings on theatre and his Patria cycle, which he began in 1966, were published collectively in the tome Patria: The Complete Cycle (2002).

Patria 6: RA was performed in the streets of Leyde as part of the 1985 Holland Festival. Patria 4: The Black Theatre of Hermes Trismegistos was performed at the Liège Festival in 1989. A series of performances of his works took place in a forest and animal sanctuary in Haliburton (Ontario): Patria 7: The Enchanted Forest in 2005, Patria 8: The Palace of the Cinnabar Phoenix in 2006, and Patria the Prologue: The Princess of the Stars in 2007. In 2013, the final version of Patria 7: Asterion was performed near Peterborough (Ontario). In 2009, the Toronto Luminato Festival, in collaboration with Soundstreams Canada, premiered Schafer’s most recent scenic work, The Children’s Crusade (2008).

R. Murray Schafer was an active composer, public speaker, teacher, and proponent of contemporary music in Canada and around the world.