Afarin Mansouri

Afarin Mansouri is co-founder and Artistic Director of ICOT. An award winning composer, Afarin has collaborated with various ensembles, organizations and festivals such as National Ballet of Canada, Cathedral Bluff Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Tirgan Festival, Nuit Blanche, KW Open Ears Festival, ICOT, Windag Choir and Ensemble, TorQ Percussion Ensemble, and St Augustine Duo. Her compositions cover variety of styles and genres from orchestral to electronic music and have been performed in Canada, United States, and South America.

In addition, Afarin is the founder and director of MUSIC NEST, an associate composer of Canadian Music Centre and an advisory committee member of North York Arts. Currently she is a PhD candidate at York University researching on children’s opera while teaching undergrad courses in solfege, counterpoint, theory, and harmony. She has presented her musical research at many national and international music conferences. Afarin is the recipient of 2013 Music Creation Grant from Toronto Arts Council for her opera “To whom shall I give my heart?”, based on a Persian story by Nader Ebrahimi.