Ashley Renee Seward is a composer living and working in so-called Toronto, Canada whose artistic practice centres around liminality, hypnagogia, monotropism, and almost-ness with a specific view to perpetrating genre treason and dramaturgical experimentation. Her music is inspired by her voracious and eclectic listening appetite: on her weekly playlist you might find artpop, doom metal, jazz fusion, Jamaican-Canadian club mixes, experimental R&B, noise-pop, synth hip-hop, jazz-funk, folk-punk, gospel, Ukrainian-Canadian folk-pop, soundtracks to old Polish cartoons, and even regular old Beethoven. Ashley is currently in the process of completing a doctorate at the University of Toronto and has also studied at the University of Calgary and the University of British Columbia. She enjoys writing for all instruments and ensembles, with a particular interest in small chamber ensembles, voice, and operas about toxic, neurodivergent women.
Ashley has written music for readings by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and for performance by Standing Wave Ensemble, Allegra Chamber Orchestra, and the Kensington Sinfonia. In 2021, Ashley’s work “trypanophobia” for viola sola was awarded a runner-up prize in that year’s SOCAN Young Composers Competition. Ashley’s piece “Storms Over Camp Creek” was recorded in 2023 by the Kensington Sinfonia for their album Forces of Nature. In 2023, Ashley was among the first musical artists to be shortlisted for the Portfolio Prize. Ashley’s music has been lauded as “iconoclastic”, “striking”, and “conceptually intriguing” by various composition teachers.
When not composing, Ashley likes to play video games, cook meals, get high, and purchase merchandise for obscure online content creators. She recently acquired an audio interface with loopback functionality and is intent on making it everyone else’s problem.