Colin Labadie is Assistant Professor, Composition; Foundations of Popular and Commercial Music at Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario. He holds a BMus from Wilfrid Laurier University where he studied with Linda Catlin Smith and Peter Hatch. His compositions explore complex rhythms, patterns, repetition, and subtle change, often juxtaposed against spastic improvisation and timbral extremes. As a guitarist and improviser, his recent interests have involved augmenting the electric guitar through the application of emerging technology. He is currently developing an electric guitar prototype that combines sensor technology with computer software to utilize his playing technique and body movements as a means of control over the sound of the guitar.

Elsewhere, Colin’s work has involved interdisciplinary collaborations seeking to raise social awareness. In 2008, he composed the electroacoustic soundscape for Differ/End: The Caledonia Project, an intermedia drama which explored the ongoing land crisis between First Nations reserve and the City of Caledonia, Ontario. He also co-composed Imaginibus Mundi with Peter Hatch and Heather Olaveson, a work commissioned and premiered in conjunction with the Grand Opening of the Laurier Centre for Music in the Community (LcMc), an outreach program aimed at bringing music into high schools.

Currently, Colin continues to compose instrumental works and performs regularly in several ensembles, including MUGBAIT, an experimental electric guitar duo, and the improvisation ensemble XImE.