CANT, Stephanie

Stephanie Cant is a British composer, pianist, conductor, and music educator. She studied music and piano performance at the University of Sussex before completing an M.Mus. in Composition at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her composition teachers included Anne Boyd and Colin Matthews, while her piano studies were undertaken with Anne Auriol Pattman, Peter Wallfisch, and Eric Hope.
Cant began her professional career composing and performing music for contemporary dance. Her early stage works include Dress Piece, created for Dancework, and the multimedia production Chimera Dance. She subsequently developed a diverse catalogue encompassing solo piano, recorder music, chamber works, orchestral and choral compositions, songs, and music for dance. Her works frequently respond to landscape, memory, and environmental change, as illustrated by the piano cycle Seven Fantasies based on Turning the Tide and its orchestral counterpart After the Tide Turned.
Her compositions include Italian Serenade, Sussex Sea Moods for orchestra, Lament for Horn and Orchestra, A Cathedral Waiting for Christmas for eight-part unaccompanied choir, Variations on Kate’s Theme for recorder, cello, and string orchestra, Swaying Figures in a Landscape for string octet, Suite in Ancient Style for cello and piano, and Angelic Imagination for soprano and chamber ensemble. Recorder music occupies an important place in her output, with works such as Winter Seascapes from Ospedaletti, Preston Meditations, Munster Suite, and …but I will miss the seagulls. Her music has been performed by musicians including Michala Petri, Lars Hannibal, Bobby Chen, Jill Kemp, and members of the Bernardi Music Group.