Born and raised in the remote Northern-Alberta community of Fort Vermilion, he has lived in Montreal since 1990, where he teaches composition at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University. He is also the Director of the McGill Digital Composition Studios and Associate Director for Artistic Research of CIRMMT (Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology). He has written for ensembles such as the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France, the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec and the Ensemble contemporain de Montréal, among others.