gravity dances (2023) for clarinet, trombone, piano, percussion, violin, cello, and bass

i. stumbling dance
ii. sinking dance
iii. hurtling dance

Performed June 2023 at the Norfolk New Music Workshop
Norfolk Contemporary Ensemble
Ning Zhang, clarinet 
Yuki Mori, trombone
Makana Medeiros, percussion
Liam Wooding, piano
 Lauren Conroy, violin
Thomas Hung, cello
Alyssa Peterson, double bass
Lisa Moore, conductor

Thumbnail: "Falling Apart" by Sarah Schonert

gravity dances (2023) for septet

Named "The Best Candidate for The Composition Program" at the University of Toronto, Danial Sheibani (b.2003) is an Iranian composer and singer who currently resides in Toronto. Since he was born, he has been surrounded by music and has always kept music as a fundamental part of his life. Moving to Malaysia at the age of 5 has given Sheibani countless musical experiences ranging from finding his interest in piano to composing classical and rock music. A strong interest lies in writing music for multimedia specifically in film and TV. Danial is currently pursuing his second year of his Bachelor of Music at The University of Toronto.

He has worked with theatre directors such as Shelley Mayer and Ethan Joshua to deliver music of its highest quality. He has composed for theatre director and writer, Carleigh Pace-Tonna's sci-fi radio play, Re-Gen (2021). In Addition, Sheibani was commissioned by Josephine Vaccaro-Chang to compose an original score for the advertisement of her Art Exhibition, We Are Colourful Friends (2021). He is also the composer on Banafsheh Taherian's Iranian podcast, Chai with Banafsheh. He has also worked with film director and writer, Joshua Ampuero, on composing for the short films The Scruff (2021) and One Good Thing (2021). He is now currently working on Ampuero's action/comedy western web series, Red Sands (2022), co-written by Michael Barrett. This project is to be released in the Summer of 2022.

Sheibani has also worked with conductor, composer, and lyricist, Emma Colette-Moss to produce two performances that were premiered at the University of Toronto. He was also commissioned by Baritone vocalist, Matthew Black, to compose When You are Old (2022) for the SNATS Annual Art Song Showcase, which premiered at the University of Toronto New Music Festival. He has worked with conductor Dr. Jamie Hillman to record his modern Farsi choral piece, The Affable Enigma (2021), with The MacMillan Singers. Sheibani was formally invited by Larysa Kuzmenko to perform his work, In Myself, There is You (2021), at The Arts & Letters Club in Toronto.

Sheibani has studied film scoring with George Oldziey and Orchestration with Tim Huling from the Film Scoring Department at Berklee College of Music. He has also workshopped with composers such as James Newton Howard, Harry Gregson-Williams, Tom Holkenborg (aka Junkie XL), Christoph Beck, Christopher Lennertz, and Phillip Klein.

gravity dances (2023) for septet

Paul Novak