Nadia Schibli

Nadia Schibli grew up in Smithers BC, studying piano and music theory under under Sharon Carrington and composing simple electronic and ambient pieces in her spare time. After acquiring her Grade 10 RCM piano certificate, Nadia went on to begin her undergraduate degree at Douglas College, studying piano with Barrie Barrington and composition with Doug Smith, before transferring to Simon Fraser University as a composition major, studying under Owen Underhill. She also plays keyboards with and composes for the symphonic metal octet Opus Arise, and also plays in the extreme metal band Kymatica.

Nadia’s music often has a dark, expressive, melancholic character, focusing on long, lyrical melodies carried over rich, subtly dissonant harmonies. Drawing inspiration from Leonin to Gesualdo, Chopin to Mussorgsky, Schoenberg to Reich, and progressive metal to Slavic folk, Nadia’s pieces are often slow, haunting and emotional, but with the occasional burst of thundering tone clusters or fiery solo passages. While heavier by nature, these same influences can be heard in her pieces for Opus Arise, including a well received fourteen-minute-long medley of music from the Metroid games for the band’s performance at the 2016 Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo.