Scott Good
Scott Good is a composer, conductor, concert designer and trombonist whose music is driven by the desire to create beauty, evoke emotion, and play with groove. With a belief in the power of art to enable cathartic events, he has worked with a rich community of musicians, orchestras, ensembles, choreographers, actors, and artists to create intense, meaningful live performance experiences. His music has been described as “a kind of majestic bestial reality” (Globe and Mail), “gloriously cacophonic” (Ottawa Citizen), “sumptuously orchestrated” (Montreal Gazzette), and “dynamic, vivid” (Winnipeg Free Press).
He has composed numerous orchestral works and orchestral arrangement since 2015 in his role of Composer and Assistant Producer with London Symphonia and previously as Composer-in-Residence with the Vancouver Symphony (2008-2011). He is currently collaborating with R&B quartet The McAuley Boys to create a mixed program of pop-infused arrangements alongside classical masterpieces for a winter season spectacular with London Symphonia and choir. His dynamic song cycle, Lasker-Schüler Songs for rising star soprano Midori Marsh and London Symphonia was premiered in 2024. Upcoming projects for orchestra include two silent film scores: The Passion of Joan of Arc for a mixture of voices and period instruments to be premiered by Ensemble Caprice in Montreal in 2026, and a two-and-a-half hour score for large orchestra and chorus to the epic silent film classic Metropolis with the Kingston Symphony, celebrating the film’s 100th anniversary (2027).
He has been commissioned by orchestras across Canada, including Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic, Winnipeg Symphony, Orchestre de la francophonie, and the Esprit Orchestra. Major works include his orchestral score for the 1926 silent film The Hands of Orlac (Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony 2015), his multimedia family concert The Caboose Who Got Loose with solo cello, narration, and projections (Calgary Philharmonic 2022), and his acclaimed trumpet concerto, Between the Rooms “a riotous, percussive bacchanal” (For the Record) with Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony in 2007.
Inspired by the themes of the universal human condition, his lush oratorio The Sleepers contemplates the unity and equality of all humanity, whereas Babbitt, a raucous saxophone concerto, hailed by The Vancouver Observer as “luminous, virtuosic, gleaming music”, is inspired by a mid-life crisis. From global extinction cataclysm in his Kurt Vonnegut-inspired jazz orchestra work Galapagos, to a boiling stew in his overture What the Chickpea Said to the Cook, Scott finds inspiration to create compelling works from all walks and perspectives.
Good’s role has evolved over time to include artistic direction, where he meshes his conducting skills with his knowledge as a composer and arranger to design and produce innovative concerts. These programs focus on modern compositions and hybrid genre music that imbue a widely inclusive atmosphere for our culturally diverse communities. Events of interest include Belonging, a concert of Arabic songs and classical Western compositions with poet/activist Najwa Zebian and songwriter Maryem Toller; In Remembrance, combining classical music with contemporary and traditional songs to reflect the deep, conflicted emotions around the topic of war and sacrifice; and Tapestry, a collaboration with The Light of East Ensemble exploring the music of the East Mediterranean. His aim with these diverse programs is to create bridges and connections revealing our common humanity through music.
Good has an extensive catalog of chamber music compositions and has created works for ensembles such as I Furiosi, and the Madawaska String Quartet, organizations such as InnerChamber and the World Harp Congress, and soloists including trombonist Alain Trudel, and electric guitarist Tim Brady. He has composed test pieces for the Montreal International Music Competition, the Canadian Music Competition, and written for education institutions such as the Glenn Gould School and NACO Young Artists program. He has composed several pieces for children as part of Chamber Factory’s Listen Up! program and served as a mentor in Esprit Orchestra’s Creative Sparks high school program. Current chamber projects include music direction and arranging for the Lonely Child Project, a contemporary music/contemporary circus hybrid theatrical work in collaboration with multi-hyphenate artist Stacie Dunlop and contemporary circus artists Angola Murdoch and Holly Treddenick, with the music of Claude Vivier (2017-present).
Scott Good’s passion for jazz and improvised music can be heard throughout his compositions, especially in hybrid projects with jazz artists and musicians from a variety of cultural backgrounds. Highlights include two major works for the Hard Rubber Jazz Orchestra, Concerto for Cello composed for Jeffrey Zeigler, and Concerto for Improvisor featuring Scott as composer, conductor, and soloist, the concert length crossover project Conjunction, revered as “one of the most fascinating concerts I’ve heard this year” by the Ottawa Jazz Scene, with the Gryphon Trio, jazz bassist Roberto Occhipinti and American-Cuban drummer Dafnis Prieto, including arrangements and original composition Wu Xing (2018), and his 10-part tribute to author Kurt Vonnegut Vonnegut and the Slaughterhouse Orchestra co-written with singer-songwriter Dwight Schenk for rock band and chamber orchestra.
Scott lives in London Ontario with his wife Jennifer Schofield and two children Alex and Nick
