Composer Abigail Richardson-Schulte was born in Oxford, England, and moved to Canada as a child. Ironically, she was diagnosed incurably deaf at 5, but, upon moving to Canada her hearing was fully intact within months. Her music has been commissioned and performed by major orchestras, presenters, music festivals and broadcasters including the Festival Présences of Paris. Abigail won first at the prestigious UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers and had her music broadcast in 35 countries. She won the CBC Karen Kieser Prize, the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best New Opera, the Quenten Doolittle Award from New Works Calgary, the City of Hamilton Arts Award and the Prairie Region Emerging Composer Award.
Abigail specializes in orchestra and chamber music and has had numerous major works commissioned by CPO, TSO, NACO, HPO and more. Her orchestral hit, The Hockey Sweater, is one of Canada's most performed pieces at over 180 performances in Canada and over a dozen in France. She can often be found hosting the piece with different orchestras.
Abigail has been Composer-in-Residence for the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra since 2012. As well as writing for the orchestra, she gives public talks on stage and in the community, hosts concerts, directs livestrams, and runs the orchestra's esteemed Composer Fellowship program. She also teaches composition at the University of Toronto. Recent commissions include the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Russel Braun with the Magisterra Soloists, an accordion concerto for Jospeh Petric and a string quartet for the Lafayette String Quartet. Abigail lives in Dundas with her husband, violinist Michael Schulte, and two English Pointer dogs.
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