Shreya Jha
MUSICIAN AND COMPOSEr
Shreya Jha is a composer, performer, teacher and medical student at the University of Toronto.
BiOGRAPHY
Shreya Jha is a composer, lyricist, playwright, educator, and medical student at the University of Toronto Temerty Faculty of Medicine. She previously completed dual Bachelors degrees in neuroscience and music composition at the University of Toronto. She is keenly interested in music composition, musical theatre, music education, and interdisciplinary research.
Shreya’s first musical Statistics (book, music, and lyrics) premiered at the U of T’s Drama Festival in February 2019. It then went on to be win the Adams Prize for Musical Theatre at the Toronto Fringe Festival. It made its Fringe debut in 2022. Statistics was shortlisted for the Playwrights’ Guild of Canada’s Robert Beardsley Award and appeared in the 2021 shortlisted play bundle.
Shreya’s second musical Connections was premiered in November 2019. LUV, written as a collaboration, debuted as a cast Album in 2020-2021. 18 Palace Road debuted in fall 2021.
Shreya made her professional compositional debut with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in April 2021. Her piece, Just Tango With Me will be performed at an upcoming concert (TBD) The Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra has performed her pieces String Sonata Op. 8 Mvt 4 - Allegro Vivace, Adversity, Spring in the Step, Forgetting and her arrangement of a traditional Inuit song, This Child. In March 2017 and 2018, the Gryphon Trio premiered her pieces Vexation and Two Left Feet at their Trinity College coffeehouse. The Bold City Contemporary Ensemble selected her piece Journey Through A Daydream for programming in their 2017-2018 season. The Can-Am Trio will premiere her piece Tributes in an upcoming season.
Shreya continuously explores the intersections between music and science, including education and research. She developed a composition program at Sistema Toronto and remains an involved artist. She also works with the Music and Cognition Lab at the University of Toronto Mississauga, the Behavioural Cardiology Research Unit at Toronto General Hospital, and the Toronto Dementia Research Alliance in conjunction with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
Shreya received her Associate of the Royal Conservatory (ARCT) in piano performance with honours in June 2016. She is an active violist and violinist and has played with both the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra and the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
Shreya Jha's Works
by Shreya Jha
A sample of Shreya’s instrumental compositions. Shreya’s works have been performed by ensembles such as the Scarborough Philharmonic and the Gryphon Trio.
Musical Theatre
Statistics
Winner of the 2020 Adams Prize for Musical Theatre
Toronto Fringe Festival, July 6-17 2022
Book, Music, and Lyrics by Shreya Jha
‘Statistics’ tells the story of Rosalind Franklin - a talented biologist working on the structure of DNA in the 1950s - and Rose Andersson, a current-day student trying to get into medical school. The two female scientists, though separated by half a century, each face their own challenges in their races against the clock. In their darkest moments, they form a connection of grit, perseverance, and love for the beauty of scientific discovery.
“The bones of a great, big, impactful musical are here. It’s a foundation that deserves to be built upon. I want a full scale musical about women in STEM on international stages, I want this cast recording on my phone.” -Kelly Bedard, My Entertainment World
Full review: https://www.myentertainmentworld.ca/2022/07/toronto-fringe-must-see-statistics/
Connections
PREMIERED Nov 20, 2019 at the Trinity college dramatic society
Book, Music, and Lyrics by Shreya Jha
Connections, set at Heathrow airport, discusses the potential enduring impact of brief exchanges between people at airports and expresses themes of love, family, and humanity.
LUV
Premiere postponed due to COVID-19
Book by Nick Duarte, Music by Shreya Jha, Lyrics by Nick Duarte and Shreya Jha
LUV describes the trials, tribulations, ups and downs of dating in the modern age. As if romance wasn’t already hard enough, now you need an app for it.
18 Palace Road
Premiered October 15-16 2021 at Grace-Church-On-The-Hill
Book, Music, and Lyrics by Shreya Jha
18 Palace Road explores the vulnerable, close relationship between a music student and teacher and examines how our mentors shape us and how grief affects our craft as artists.
Education
Sistema Toronto
As a composition teacher at Sistema Toronto, Shreya Jha facilitated an online COVID-19 concert partnership with University of Toronto musicians to premiere new pieces written by students in the 2019-2020 academic year.
