Donovan Seidle is a versatile musician - equally comfortable performing in the concertmaster chair or in the soloist spotlight as on the conductor's podium of a scoring stage; composing or arranging for film, large-scale spectacle shows, or video game scores; or orchestrating for a Broadway musical.
Donovan holds a BMus from the University of Calgary (under the tutelage of Edmond Agopian), and an MMus from Northwestern University in the studio of Roland and Almita Vamos (made possible by a fellowship from Northwestern and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago).
Donovan's performing career has included ventures into jazz, blues, fiddling, indie- and noise-rock amongst more typical orchestral, solo, pit, chamber music and recording session projects. As soloist, he has taken the stage several times with orchestra.
As Assistant Concertmaster of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, and Artistic Director/Concertmaster of the Kensington Sinfonia, Donovan maintains a busy orchestral performance schedule.
Despite this, he is often involved in chamber music events and festivals, solo recitals, recording and jam sessions, in addition to his composing projects.
As a writer, he is involved in all manners of freelance composing/arranging and editing: utilizing a diverse skillset from orchestration and synth programming to conducting and producing recording sessions. His output includes soundtracks for indie film, animation, live theatre and orchestra shows, and his arrangements have been featured by professional and youth orchestras alike. Donovan's collaborations and work alongside other performers and composers has enabled him to take part in many large scale productions - spanning fireworks shows, musicals, ballets and large scale production shows; and his wide skill-set made him an invaluable part of the music production team for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
Mr. Seidle's participation in music festivals has taken him around much of the world; he twice attended the Lucerne Festival, focusing on contemporary music and working under the Ensemble Intercontemporain of Paris; took part in the Henry Mancini Festival in Los Angeles; toured Europe-wide with the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra, and has taken part in the Aspen Music Festival as the principal violinist of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble.
Donovan has performed across Canada, the United States, Holland, Belgium, England, Scotland, Germany, Poland, Croatia, Hercegovina, Bosnia, Macedonia, Japan, Switzerland and Italy.