Denis Nassar Baptista

Denis Nassar Baptista is a Brazilian-Canadian composer, pianist, and educator whose music often blends Brazilian rhythmic traditions with contemporary classical language, creating colorful, rhythmically driven works that reflect his multicultural musical background. His compositions span a wide range of genres, including orchestral, chamber, choral, electroacoustic, and music for video, dance, and theatre.   

His music has been performed by numerous ensembles in Canada and abroad, including Land’s End Ensemble, the University of Calgary Orchestra, Orchestre Métropolitain, and the Calgary Wind Symphony. In 2019, two of his compositions were included in the Royal Conservatory of Music voice syllabus and have since been performed by singers across North America.  

His work has received several awards and recognitions, including the Queen Elizabeth II Scholarship, the Richard Johnston Award for excellence in chamber music composition, and an award for outstanding academic achievement from the Government of Alberta.  In 2015, his piece Kosmos received an award at the Land’s End National Composers Competition. 

In 2018, his opera The Incredible Journey (librettist Will Collins) won the international competition Opera Disrupted, and in 2020 he was one of nine composers honoured in the National Composition Competition Beethoven’s Legacy, organized by the Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal, where he was commended for the quality, originality, and imagination of his orchestral writing. His professional activity also includes serving as a judge for the 2024 JUNO Awards in the Contemporary Christian/Gospel Album of the Year category.

Denis moved to Canada in 2010 and has since been active as a composer, performer, and educator, presenting recitals, workshops, and masterclasses at conferences and events. From 2018 to 2025, he worked at Prairie College in Three Hills, Alberta, where he served as Songwriting Program Director and later as Music and Worship Arts Program Director.  

He holds a Bachelor of Music in Composition from the University of Campinas (Brazil) and a Master of Music in Composition from the University of Calgary, and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Music (D.Mus.) at the University of Alberta under the mentorship of Dr. Scott Smallwood. During his master’s studies, he studied with Laurie Radford and David Eagle and was mentored by Allan Bell.  He currently lives in Abbotsford, British Columbia, where he composes, performs, and teaches at Trinity Western University while completing his Doctor of Music degree at the University of Alberta.