Luba Zuk Piano Duo Composition Prize Award Recipients

2022-2023 | Nicholas Ma and Anita Pari

Nicholas Ma is a pianist-composer studying at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music, pursuing a double major in Piano Performance and Composition in addition to a minor in Music Theory.

At McGill, Nicholas obtained two consecutive Composer-in-Residence positions for the McGill Schulich Singers (2023/24) and Brass Quintet (2022/23). He also received the Paul-Marcel Gélinas et Verna-Marie Parr Gélinas Piano Award, the Vladimir J Elgart Award, the Sir William Peterson Memorial Scholarship, the J.W. McConnell Scholarships, and was the two-time awardee of the Anna Paull Gertler Scholarships, enabling him to further his studies under the tutelage of Canadian composers Jean Lesage and Chris Paul Harman, as well as Georgian concert pianist Marina Mdivani. Additionally, Nicholas received a 2022 SOCAN Young Composer Award in the Under 21 Choral Category, and served as the Vice-President of the McGill Association of Student Composers for the 2022/23 year.

He is currently experimenting with creating larger-scale instrumental works that are able to convey humor and meaning while exploring the boundaries between gestures, intertextuality, and motivic evolution.

Anita Pari is a composer, pianist, and cellist from Ottawa, currently pursuing a PhD in Composition at McGill University. In recent years, Anita’s music has taken inspiration from a variety of themes, ranging from mental health to the study of birdsongs that she has encountered while birdwatching. Through her creative work, she often reflects on and reimagines aspects of her lived experience, drawing from circumstances and events that have shaped her identity.

Anita’s compositional output includes music for orchestra, wind ensemble, choir, various chamber groups, solo piano, and fixed media electronics. Her compositions have been performed by the McGill Wind Orchestra (“Bright Distance Blurring”), the Composer-Performer Orchestration Research Ensemble (“To A Lullaby”), the Cecilia Quartet (“Nocturne for Strings”), and the Harmonia Choir (Worlds Apart: Pappy's Song"), among other groups.