Juro Kim Feliz

With music “[thriving] in the sustained tension, like the kinetic energy emanating from the corners of a frame, the opposing forces holding up a house” (Rachel Evangeline Chiong, 2022), Toronto-based composer Juro Kim Feliz has internationally presented his work across Southeast Asia, North America, and Europe. Born and raised in the Philippines, he studied composition at the University of the Philippines and McGill University under Jonas Baes and Melissa Hui. He also sought further mentorship from composers Liza Lim, Dieter Mack, Linda Catlin Smith, and Japanese koto artists Hiroko Nagai and Masayo Ishigure. Since winning the Goethe Southeast Asian Young Composer Award (2009), he collaborated and received commissions and performances from artists including Continuum Contemporary Music, Thin Edge New Music Collective, Liminar, Ensemble x.y, Marilène Provencher-Leduc, Wesley Shen, and Renee Fajardo.

Feliz was awarded a “Highly Commended” distinction for Hanggang sa Paglubog ng Araw at the Ars Electronica Forum Wallis (2018) and nominated for the “Excellence Award in Music and Entertainment” at the Golden Balangay Awards (2019) in Canada. He completed artist residencies at the Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts (2018), Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts (2019), and the Canadian Music Centre Ontario Library Residency (2018-2019). He joined workshops including the Darmstadt Ferienkurse (2010), Montreal Contemporary Music Lab (2014, 2016), Toronto Creative Music Lab (2017), and the Waterloo Region Contemporary Music Sessions (2017). His music appeared in concert programs for the Yogyakarta Contemporary Music Festivals (2009-2010), Kuala Lumpur Contemporary Music Festival (2009), Asian Composers League Festivals (2009-2015), Music Biennale Zagreb (2017), New Music on the Bayou (2017), MATA Festival (2018), Nief-Norf Summer Festival (2018), MUSLAB (2018), and Cluster XI: Digital Edition (2020). Ablaze Records commercially released Gandingan sa Kagiliran in their compilation album Millennial Masters Vol. 7 (2017). 

Alongside composition activities, Feliz served as producer and co-host of the community radio talk show Sigaw ng Bayan at CKUT 90.3 FM Montreal (2015-2017). Under the Canadian Music Centre Ontario, he produced the article/podcast miniseries Nomadic Sound Worlds (2018-2019) that explores and situates Canadian contemporary music within present-day global migration.