Daryl Jamieson (b. 1980) is a composer from Halifax, Nova Scotia. He studied at Wilfrid Laurier University with Glenn Buhr and Linda Catlin Smith, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Diana Burrell, and then with Nicola LeFanu at the University of York. He has lived in Japan since 2006, first studying under Jo Kondo at the Tokyo University of the Arts. He currently teaches at Showa University of Music and Zushi Kaisei High School.
Jamieson’s work focuses on time and psychogeography, and is heavily influenced by Nō theatre and Japanese poetry. His largest work to date is a trilogy of musical theatre pieces exploring the transience of matter and sound called the Vanitas Series, which received the 2018 Toshi Ichiyanagi Contemporary Prize. In his citation, Ichiyanagi called the Vanitas Series “an epic musical work of extraordinarily elegance and contemporary topical perspective”. Jamieson’s other pieces include solo, chamber and orchestral works, and many songs. Since 2016 he has begun to incorporate field recordings into his work. His music has been performed around the world by many artists, including the Quatuor Bozzini, Barbara Pritchard, the Orchestre National de Lorraine, and Satoko Inoue.
He founded the intercultural musical theatre company Atelier Jaku in 2013. He is also active as a researcher, writing on the aesthetics of the Kyoto School of 20th-century Japanese philosophers, as well as contemporary music and spirituality. He has received grants and awards from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Society of Music Analysis.