2025 Adjudicators

Dr. Bryn Blackwood is a solo and collaborative pianist based in Toronto, Ontario, with a keen interest in 20th and 21st-century music. As the winner of the 2019 Eckhardt-Gramatt National Music Competition, he gave a Canadian recital tour bringing contemporary Canadian music to nine cities across the country. He recently performed a recital tour of the Maritimes with Debut Atlantic in the fall of 2022. Bryn was featured on the prestigious CBC 30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians Under 30 List for 2019, was a Guest Artist at the 2019 Casalmaggiore International Music Festival, and won the University of Toronto's DMA Recital Competition in that same year.

A recipient of a Joseph-Armand Bombardier SSHRC award for his studies of the Russian-American piano composer Leo Ornstein, he recently published his dissertation "Dissonance Reimagined: Tone Clusters in Leo Ornstein's Early Piano Music" while completing a Doctorate of Musical Arts at the University of Toronto. Formerly a student of the late acclaimed pedagogue Marietta Orlov, he has also studied with Ilya Poletaev and James Hibbard. Bryn received his Bachelor's and Master of Music degrees from Western University and McGill University respectively.

In addition to his solo activities, he is an avid collaborator with singers in Toronto, and was the class pianist for many vocal courses during his time at UofT. He strives to integrate his understanding and reverence for the voice into his approach to the piano. Also a dedicated teacher, Bryn teaches at the Lane School of Music and maintains his own private piano studio. He has given masterclasses at Brandon University and Mt. Alison University. His performances have been broadcast on CBC radio.