The University of Toronto is pleased to announce the 2011 Karen Kieser Prize in Canadian Music will be awarded to Riho Esko Maimets for his work, squall for 2 flutes, cello and piano. Riho is in the second year of the Master of Music degree program at the University of Toronto.
A performance of the winning composition is planned for a concert also featuring the music of several past prize winners and Anders Hillborg, this year’s Roger D. Moore Distinguished Visitor in Composition. The concert, which is part of the Faculty of Music’s New Music Festival, takes place January 27, 7:30pm, Walter Hall (free admission).
The Karen Kieser Prize in Canadian Music is awarded each year to a graduate student in composition whose work is judged by a blue-ribbon jury as especially promising. This award is for Riho Maimets, young Estonian-Canadian composer the second great recognition in this year. In july 2011, Riho was awarded the highSCORE Festival Prize 2011 in Pavia, Italy, in recognition of his "mature and individual style, in spite of his relative youth".
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Karen Kieser was a distinguished triple-graduate of the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto and a former Head of Music at CBC Radio. Friends and colleagues endowed The Karen Kieser Prize in Canadian Music upon her death in 2002 as a tribute to her life, her work and her passionate devotion to the cause of Canadian music and musicians.

The music of Riho Esko Maimets (b. 1988) has been described as "enchantingly beautiful" and having a "unique emotional and communicative impact".
Riho Maimets began his composition studies in 2004 at the Claude Watson Program at Earl Haig Secondary School with the strings teacher, Alan Torok. In 2010, he graduated from the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre in Tallinn, Estonia, where he had studied composition under the tutelage of Helena Tulve and René Eespere. He is currently pursuing graduate studies in composition at the University of Toronto with Christos Hatzis.
Riho Esko Maimets is a composer of concert and film music as well as music for children. His work …aux étoiles for symphony orchestra, written as graduation work of EAMT, has also gained special recognition.

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