Paul STEENHUISEN is an award-winning composer, writer, and broadcaster. He holds a Doctor of Music Arts Degree in Composition from the University of British Columbia, where he was awarded the Governor General of Canada Gold Medal as the outstanding student in all faculties. He also studied simultaneously with Louis ANDRIESSEN at the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague, and with Michael FINNISSY in Hove, England. He subsequently moved to Paris, where he took part in the annual Course in Composition and Computing at IRCAM, then led by Tristan MURAIL.

His music received seven awards in the PROCAN/SOCAN Competition, four from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and first prize in the Vancouver New Music Competition. As well, his piece WONDER was a Recommended Work, ranked third in the world at the International Rostrum of Composers (UNESCO, Paris), and as a result, was broadcast in twenty-three countries worldwide. He was a finalist in the Gaudeamus competition, and most recently was awarded the Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award as the Outstanding Mid-Career Artist in Music (Canada Council for the Arts).