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* Composer
* Educator
* Performer

Mr. Hannah was born in 1945 at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada, and has resided most of his life in various parts of Western Canada. Currently he is living and travelling in Asia and Australia.

In 1969 he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, and a Bachelor of Music and a Master of Music degree from the same institution in 1973 and 1975 respectively. He taught in public schools in Edmonton for many years after receiving a Diploma in Education in 1980.

He is an affiliate composer of the Canadian Music Centre and a member of SOCAN. He has performed as a pianist and clarinettist over the years and has had works performed in Canada and abroad. He was the founding president of the Edmonton Composers’ Concert Society, and remains a member of that group; and was also one of the organisers of the first five Edmonton New Music Festivals. As well, he was the editor of the ECCS newsletter for many years and a contributor to that and other musical publications, as essayist and reviewer. Also, his works appear on several CDs produced by the Edmonton Composers Concert Society, such as Northern Arch/Arc du Nord, soundland alberta/le pays sonore, Brief Confessions Brèves, Stringtime, Visions of Nothingness (for which his Piano Sonata of the same name provides the album title), and Acclamations.

His works range from solo to orchestral and operatic in size and from diatonic to atonal in style. There are some eighty works in his catalogue, including many choral pieces, chamber works for various instruments and combinations, song cycles, orchestral pieces including a folk-influenced Suite of Orchestral Dances, two ballets and a chamber opera entitled Mademoiselle Fifi, after the short story by Maupassant. His one-woman opera, Hundred and Thousands is based on the journals of Emily Carr. He is most interested in texts and stories that express the human condition in a vivid and honest manner, and that are colourful in language and irreverent in tone. He has received commissions from the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Alberta Choral Federation and many performing groups and individuals.
 

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