About Ryan T. Janzen
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My Story
I was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and I am proud to call it my home. From a young age I was interested in music - I remember I would often get in trouble for singing in bed. Whether because of this or despite this, my parents started me in music lessons for kids at the age of three, and I began taking piano lessons at six. While writing music did seem interesting to me at that age, my real interest was playing instruments. I was in piano lessons, but I wanted to learn other instruments as well, so I picked up guitar and accordion (one of which had been passed down through my family).
By middle school I'd earned the reputation of trying to play any instrument that was set in front of me (and admittedly, not much has changed on that front). However, that's also when a new interest formed. In the eighth grade, my older sister showed me something that changed my life - notation software. I understand that notation software isn't a dream toy for most kids, and probably more of a necessary evil for most adults, but at the time, I was completely enraptured. I took what knowledge of music theory I had gained from my piano lessons and began transcribing music from my favourite video games (especially Legend of Zelda). Over the next year, I created close to 100 arrangements, all with questionable instrumentation, near-impossible playability, and, if I get my way, none of which will ever see the light of day ever again. But I did learn in that time. By the time I was in the ninth grade, I thought I'd try my hand at writing some original music.
During the ninth grade, I was in a class called "Futures in Business". The main project for the course was to create a product and sell it. Ambitiously, I thought I'd create a CD of original music. The CD included 6 original "fantasy" pieces, which were each only around a minute long (getting a feel for pacing was something that would come much later). The audio was the charmingly atrocious MIDI playback directly from the notation software and the composition itself was - let's just say quaint. Despite that, for $2 apiece, my friends and family humoured me enough to purchase copies. With my windfall earnings of approximately $20, I was motivated to keep writing.
High school saw a growing interest in writing music, and the first time I really thought I would want to make a career out of it. While most of my compositions were never put out into the world, I do remember writing and performing a piano duet with my sister - the sheet music for which has since been lost. The twelfth grade, though, was where I really leaned into writing music. I still hadn't decided on what my genre of choice was, so naturally, I tried a bit of everything. I wrote a piece for jazz band - admittedly a very simple one, but nonetheless my high school band director deemed it good enough for our band to perform! This was a turning point in my writing journey, as I realized just what it means to have others perform your work (and how important playability and accessibility is in writing music).
Another thing, however, that had developed during my high school years was my love for choral music. The school I went to, Westgate Mennonite Collegiate, had mandatory choir in grades 7, 8, and 9 (if you know about Mennonites in Manitoba, this shouldn't surprise you). The more I sang in the choirs, though, the more I loved it. As I moved from grades 7 to 12 (and transitioned slowly from soprano to bass at the same time), I grew to love choir more and more and ended up joining every school choir that I possibly could.
This is where the story takes a rather non-musical turn. Despite wanting to make a career out of music, I decided to go to university for engineering after high school. I was terrified of not making money in a career in music, so I figured since I had good marks in math and physics, I'd be able to make a career out of engineering, and music could go on the backburner. That's not to say I didn't do music in this time (I was actually probably writing even more than I had been before, having purchased a basic version of Cubase). But regardless, I had decided that a full career in music wasn't for me, and that engineering would be "good enough". That lasted exactly one semester. Admittedly, I should have been able to see what the obvious choice should have been, but holding true to the idea that "third time's the charm", I had to get it wrong on the second time, for the sake of the idiom. I went from engineering into computer science, and while I did like that much more, it didn't hold for an entire degree.
Two and a half years into my computer science degree, I was slowly burning out. While I was working on one of my assignments for class, I had a moment of realization: I was never going to be happy working in a field other than music. With that realization, I packed up my things. I walked to the music building, and asked to audition. Within a week I had auditioned, and sure enough, the very next year I was starting my degree in composition.
Throughout my degree, I experimented writing for different instruments and groups, from piano solo to orchestra, electroacoustic to graphic scores. But what really piqued my interest was choral music. In my third year, I was given the assignment to write a piece for choir. By this point, I was singing with the University Singers, so I knew what a high level choir was capable of, and had plenty of material to draw on for inspiration. The first thing I needed was a text. I don't consider myself a poet by any means, so I turned to someone who I knew had written poetry - my sister. Yes, the very same sister who first showed me music notation software. I asked her if I could read some of the poetry she had written in high school, and one particular poem caught my attention. The poem was called "Living". I began writing and I honestly don't remember too much beyond that. I found the words sprang to life on the page very easily, and I was able to find melodic and harmonic lines to squeeze as much meaning out of the text as I possibly could. After a flurry of going back and forth between Sibelius, Cubase, and even a bit of Excel, I had something I was incredibly excited about. I approached Dr. Elroy Friesen, director of the University Singers, and asked if it was something a choir would be able to sing. Amazingly, he offered to add it to the repertoire for the upcoming year, and we even took it to Spain on the choir tour with us during my fourth and final year in the faculty of music.
This roughly leads to where my music journey is now. I'm writing away, singing as much as I can, and trying to make the most out of the amazing and generous opportunities I've been given. I know it's cliché, but I truly wouldn't be where I am now without the generosity and support of my family, friends, and colleagues. So to end I just want to say thank you. To everyone involved. And stay tuned for more music. -Ryan