TORONTO, ON – April 10, 2025 – The National Youth Orchestra of Canada (NYO Canada) and the SOCAN Foundation are thrilled to announce Nicholas Denton Protsack as the 2025 Emerging Composer in Residence. This appointment marks a meaningful homecoming, as Protsack’s own compositional journey began during his time as a young cellist with NYO Canada in 2011. 

“I was attending my first enrolment as a cellist with the NYOC when I realized composition needed to be a central part of my life. I was 17,” Protsack recalls. “The entire experience was incredibly vivid and revelatory. I remember my brain buzzing with inspiration almost non-stop…By the end, I was left with a paradoxical feeling like I had just ‘lived inside’ an incredible work of music for six weeks.” 

What started as a life-changing summer for a teenage cellist has come full circle as Protsack is coming back to compose music for the orchestra that sparked his passion for composing music. NYO Canada’s CEO Christie Gray spoke about this with enthusiasm saying, “We are excited to have Nicholas join the NYO Canada fold again in this new capacity. His development from NYO musician to commissioned composer is the perfect reflection of our purpose of promoting Canada’s musical talent through their artistic careers.” 

Now an award-winning composer-cellist whose works have been performed internationally, Protsack brings a distinctive ecological perspective to his music. “I want the audience to hear the shifting, cascading textures the same way they might observe the interwoven flow of a river or the aurora borealis streaking across the sky,” he explains of his upcoming NYO Canada composition. 

The SOCAN Foundation, long dedicated to supporting emerging composers, views this collaboration as particularly meaningful. “Nicholas’s story exemplifies the profound impact musical mentorship can have,” said Julien Boumard Coallier, SOCAN Foundation Grants Manager. “From experiencing orchestral music as a young performer to now creating it for the next generation of musicians – this is precisely the kind of artistic development our partnership with NYO Canada aims to foster.” 

Protsack, who recently completed his PhD in music at Victoria University of Wellington and has won multiple SOCAN Foundation Young Composers Awards, sees this opportunity as the fulfillment of a long-held dream. “I remember thinking it was the last year I would be qualified to enter the SOCAN Awards and I specifically had my fingers crossed I still might get a chance to write a work for the NYOC,” he shares. “I was extremely humbled and excited when I learned that my wish had come true!” 

The resulting composition will be premiered during NYO Canada’s 65^th Anniversary Tour, with the world premiere in Toronto at Koerner Hall on July 18^th at 7:30pm performed by today’s brightest young orchestral musicians – not unlike Protsack himself when he first discovered his compositional voice over a decade ago. 

A bit more about Nicholas Denton Protsack

An ongoing aspiration of BMI Award-winning composer and cellist, Nicholas Denton Protsack (b. 1994), is to seek new connections between music and the natural world. Called a “(composer) to keep a close eye on” by the Canadian Music Centre, Nicholas’ ecologically inspired music frequently explores and blends notated mediums, recorded mediums, and experimental improvisations. His works have been performed internationally in a variety of concert settings, including in North America, Europe, and New Zealand. 

  Recent highlights in Nicholas’ compositional career include winning both a first and second prize in the 2023 SOCAN Foundation Young Composers Awards. He has also received recent commissions from Stroma Ensemble (New Zealand), the Toronto Summer Music Festival, and the American Prize-winning Ensemble for These Times (E4TT). 

  Nicholas is also an active professional cellist that focuses specifically on new music. His projects as a cellist are often collaborative in nature, and frequently span both classical and avant-garde genres. He is a founding member of Moth Quartet in New Zealand as well as the Canadian-based groups Branchroot Ensemble and Sounds Like Things. While his main focus lies in chamber music, Nicholas has also performed as a soloist with orchestras including the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra and the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra. 

  Additionally, Nicholas is the founder and artistic director of Whatnot Records, a genre-defying independent music label that specializes in producing, promoting, and distributing experimental music in all its forms. Since early 2023, Nicholas has released a variety of collaborative and solo projects on the label, as well as music by other artists. His aim in the near future of Whatnot Records is to release a wider variety of experimental music, featuring an extensive roster of emerging and established artists from around the world. 

  Nicholas recently completed a PhD in music at Victoria University of Wellington, where he studied under composers Michael Norris and Dugal McKinnon. His other mentors in composition include David Garner, and his major cello teachers include Jean-Michel Fonteneau, Jennifer Culp, Judith Fraser, and Morna Howie. 

About NYO Canada: 

Since 1960, the National Youth Orchestra of Canada (NYO Canada) has recruited the country’s most promising musicians aged 16 to 28 and prepares them for careers as professional orchestral musicians. Through its tuition-free, full-honorarium program, participants receive intensive mentorship, chamber music experience, recording sessions, and a national concert tour. Today, nearly one in three professional orchestral musicians in Canada is an NYO alum—a testament to the organization’s lasting impact on the cultural landscape. 

About SOCAN Foundation: 

SOCAN Foundation is dedicated to empowering the next generation of music creators and music publishers. The Foundation is an independent organization guided by its board of directors, consisting of songwriters, composers, and music publishers. Learn more about their programs for music composers here: https://www.socanfoundation.ca/programs/ 

For media inquiries, please contact:  

Emily Dunbar 

Communications and Marketing Manager NYO Canada 

edunbar@nyoc.org 416-532-4470 Ext. 225