Rob Canning studied music at the University of Wales with Anthony Powers and University College Dublin with Seóirse Bodley where he gained an M.Litt in composition in 1999. He has attended several composition masterclasses including the Gaudeamus International Young Composers' Meeting in the Netherlands and the Stockhausen-Kurse in Germany.
In 1998 he won first prize in the Composers’ Class of the RTÉ Musician of the Future competition. Other awards received include first prize in the international section of the New Music for Sligo Composition Competition (1999), the Emerging Artist Award from Wicklow County Council (2001) and the Macaulay Fellowship (2001) administered by the Arts Council of Ireland.
He has received commissions from RTÉ, Concorde, Music for Galway and the Galway Arts Festival. Among his recent compositions are Room Full of Mirrors for piano, tape and spatialized sound and Garden of the Forking Paths for large ensemble recently premiered by the London Sinfonietta and selected to represent Ireland in the International Rostrum of Composers 2003. He is currently working on a 50' piece for Concorde involving instrumental forces combined with spatialized sound, tape and real-time processing.
