Jennifer Butler

Jennifer Butler is a composer, teacher, and flutist living in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her music, described as “beautifully remote” (Vancouver Sun), “intimate” (Globe and Mail), and “disquieting” (Vancouver Observer), has been commissioned, performed, and broadcast across Canada, in the United States, Australia, and Europe.

She holds both a Master’s degree and Doctorate in music composition from the University of British Columbia and one of her most sustained artistic influences was her participation from 2000 to 2016, as composer and performer, in R. Murray Schafer’s annual interdisciplinary wilderness project entitled … And Wolf Shall Inherit the Moon.

Recent projects include: Walking in the Public Gardens After Rain, with poetry by Rae Crossman, commissioned by the Blueridge Chamber Music Festival; Heartbeat of the Forest for solo vibraphone, commissioned by Katie Rife; This is Winter, commissioned by the Vancouver Island Symphony, with poetry by Tina Biello; and The Stakes Have Never Been Higher, a commission from Redshift Music and the Vertical Orchestra for 30 percussionists spread throughout the enormous atrium of the downtown branch of Vancouver Public Library.

Jennifer teaches composition as a Sessional Instructor at UBC, and is Composer Mentor for the Okanagan Symphony’s Young Composer Program. She sings in, and also is the composer-in-residence for, Maddalena’s Descant, a new choir for treble voices. In the spring of 2023 she was composer-in-residence for the Sonic Boom Festival, and this fall released her first album, One More Way to See, on Redshift Records.

Jennifer also sits on the National Board for the Canadian Music Centre, is Chair for the Advisory Committee of the BC region of the CMC, and an active board member for Redshift Music and Standing Wave Ensemble. She lives in East Van with her husband and two kids.

This page was last updated in September 2023.