Kalaisan Kalaichelvan

KALAISAN KALAICHELVAN is a composer and pianist based in Toronto, Canada. His compositional practice spans multiple disciplines, drawing from film, dance, theatre, installation and deals with themes of translation and transference.

Named by Ludwig Van as one of “six emerging Canadian composers to keep an eye on”, his music has been performed and premiered by renowned ensembles such as Pro Coro Canada, the Dior Quartet and Duo Concertante. Kalaisan is a 2021 Fellow of the prestigious Sundance Composers lab and is one of the awarded grantees of the Sundance Institute’s Art of Practice Fellowship. He has held residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and was an alumna of the Canadian Film Centre as as one of the 2021 Slaight Music residents. He was also recently awarded the Creativity Connection Fellowship with Toronto Metropolitan University and was one of the six composers commissioned by the Canadian League of Composers to write for Pro Coro Canada under their PIVOT program. Kalaisan has scored feature films that have premiered at the Cannes Film Festival (“In Flames”), Toronto International Film Festival (“This Place”), Santa Barbara International Film Festival (“Junglefowl”) and the Fantasia Film Festival (“The Protector”).

Kalaisan has been mentored by esteemed composers and music leaders such as Christopher Mayo, James O’Callaghan, Michael Zaugg, Felipe Lara and Suzanne Farrin. He has had the opportunity to work with artists and institutions such as the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, UCross Foundation, Canadian League of Composers, Avaloch Music Institute, Canadian New Music Network, Nuit Blanche TO, Screen Composers Guild of Canada and VIFF.

Kalaisan’s music is defined by its genre-bending boldness, its refined classicism and musical ingenuity. Having worked across various disciplines and communities of thought, Kalaisan seeks to bring together incongruous institutions to build novel structures that reflect his artistic upbringing.