Alt tag
This FARLS talk is presented via Zoom by composer and pianist David Braid, a nine-time nominee and three-time winner of a Juno Award.

David Braid: Do Rules Help or Hinder Originality?

A talk in the Fine Arts Research Lecture Series in Music (FARLS), hosted by the Department of Music

Event

How does a creative composer build with originality from nearly limitless materials? Do rules stifle creativity, or do they enable it? Does creativity emerge by abandoning constraints, or by embracing them?

This talk will deconstruct the creative process illuminating David Braid’s genre-bending classical quartet, “Great Bear River Blues” (2019)—explaining how the vast topic of “The Northwest Territories” specifically informed the creation of original style, melody, harmony, and rhythm.

Wednesday, Sept. 16
12:30 pm
Online via Zoom

Free and open to the public

This talk is part of the Fine Arts Research Lecture Series in Music (FARLS) from the Department of Music.

FARLS host: Dean McNeill

Info: dean.mcneill@usask.ca

Hailed in the Canadian press as “one of his country’s true renaissance men when it comes to music” (The Ottawa Citizen), composer and pianist David Braid is a nine-time nominee and three-time winner of Canada's highest music honour (Juno Award). Braid is a Steinway Artist, Composer-in-Residence for Sinfonia UK Collective, Artist-in-Residence at the University of Toronto, Adjunct Professor at the Danish National Conservatory of Music, and faculty member at the International Chamber Music Festival in Casalmaggiore, Italy. He is a recipient of the Ontario Foundation for the Arts’ prestigious prize: "Paul de Hueck and Norman Walford Career Achievement Award for Keyboard Artistry."


Upcoming Events

Discovering the Amatis

Mar 1, 2026
The March concert in the 2025-26 Amati Concert Series features the Violinist Elation Pauls and pianist Paul Williamson

Bateman Lecture: The Climate Crisis in Canadian Fiction

Mar 5, 2026
Dr. Wendy Roy (PhD) explores how Canadian authors are grappling with environmental change

Career Options for Students of English

Mar 5, 2026
Thinking about a career in English? Explore all paths at the Career Options event

 

See all events