Biography
William Pura was born in Manitoba, Canada and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Manitoba followed by a Master's of Fine Arts degree from Indiana University in the U.S. He subsequently returned to Manitoba where he has taught Printmaking, Drawing and Painting at the University of Manitoba School of Art.
Mr. Pura has exhibited widely in Canada and internationally. Locally he has had solo exhibitions at the Winnipeg Art Gallery and the Centennial Concert Hall as well as private galleries such as the Thomas Gallery, and the Uptown Gallery. He has been included in many international exhibitions in centres such as Chicago, Illinois; El Paso, Texas; Charlotte, North Carolina; Indianapolis, Indiana; Rockford, Illinois; cities throughout Australia; Maastricht, Holland; and Kiev, Ukraine. He is represented by the Ken Segal Gallery in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Besides several public institutions such as The Winnipeg Art Gallery, Department of External Affairs in Ottawa, and the United States Information Agency, Washington DC, his work is part of many corporate and private collections in both Canada and the United States, including: Prudential Life Insurance Co., Miller Brewing Company, Esso Resources, College of Physicians and Surgeons in Manitoba, Nova Corporation, Archer Communications, C.P.Rail, Trimac Corporation, and Pitblado, Buchwald, Asper.
As a composer he has been involved in many aspects of the arts community. As one of the founders of the Manitoba Composers' Association, he served as its president and vice-president. He also served as a council member for the Canadian League of Composers for several years as well as for the Canadian Music Centre Prairie Region.
In 1980 he formed the new music organization IZMusic along with 3 other composers, presenting several concerts of new music each season in Winnipeg. Later, this group merged with two others to form the much larger Groundswell organization. In 1998 he left that organization to pursue other projects.
In 1988 he released his first album of music for violin, performed by Victor Schultz and pianist Alice Enns. This music, along with several newer compositions was re-released on CD under the title Dark Land Black Water.
In 1989, 1990 and 1991 his music was performed in Kiev, Ukraine as part of their new music festivals. In 1993 his composition Sequences was performed by the Winnipeg Symphony at their New Music Festival and RainDances was performed in the Sonic Boom Festival in New York City the same year.
In April 2001, his musical drama Batoche, based on the poetry of Kim Morrissey, was premiered at the Saskatoon Symphony's New Music Festival. This hour-long work used two singers along with 3 dancers and a small ensemble of 10 musicians to tell the tragic story of the Riel Rebellion of 1885 in Saskatchewan.
Other new works include a piece for solo piano, Labyrinth, commissioned by pianist Jamie Syer and New Works Calgary and She Drives Home in Bad Mood from a Party for tenor and chamber ensemble based on a text by writer George Amabile.
For the 2002 exhibition Der Holzweg: The Way through the Woods he created a new work for solo 'cello which was performed by Mark Rudoff for the dance sequence at the opening of the exhibition. This work was edited into a DVD of the same name.
Other experiments in multi-media include Chiaroscuro, developed with artist Edward Bernstein and also available as a DVD.
In 2006 William Pura completed a residency in Passau, Germany at the Kulturmodell where he had an exhibition and a short concert of his music. He continues to work on new projects at his studio near Stonewall, Manitoba.
