JUNO-nominated composer Haralabos [Harry] Stafylakis has developed a distinctive musical language rooted in contemporary classical music and progressive metal, and informed by the traditional Greek music of his Montreal upbringing. “Dreamy yet rhythmic” (The New York Times), with a “terrible luminosity” and “ferociously expressive” (Times Colonist), his music is “an amalgamation of the classical music tradition and the soul and grime of heavy metal” (I Care If You Listen). His compositions bring the large-scale architecture and rhythmic drive of progressive metal into the concert hall, combining intricate metrical interplay with a visceral momentum that “favors doomsday chords and jackhammer rhythms” (The New Yorker).
His works have been performed by orchestras including the Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Victoria, Ottawa, and Québec Symphony Orchestras, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, and Orchestre Philharmonique du Québec.
From 2016–2026, Stafylakis served as Composer-in-Residence of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and Co-Curator of its annual Winnipeg New Music Festival. During his decade-long tenure, he founded and directed the WSO’s Michael Nesbitt Composers Institute, an annual professional-development program providing emerging Canadian composers with orchestral premieres, mentorship, and intensive training with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.
He has collaborated with artists and ensembles including Dame Evelyn Glennie, Animals As Leaders, Rachel Barton Pine, Roomful of Teeth, JACK Quartet, Courtney Swain, Philippe Sly, Vicky Chow, Jenny Lin, Raphael Weinroth-Browne, and Hard Rubber Orchestra, among others.
In 2018–19, Stafylakis collaborated with progressive metal pioneers Animals As Leaders on a symphonic adaptation of the band’s music for metal band and orchestra. His work has appeared on multiple JUNO-nominated recordings: Hard Rubber Orchestra’s 2022 album Iguana featured his metal–big band fusion composition Source Code, with Stafylakis on guitars, while Cicchillitti-Cowan Duo and collectif9’s 2025 album Re/String featured his double guitar concerto To wake and find the world still burning.
Stafylakis’s 2023 album Calibrating Friction (New Amsterdam Records) was nominated for Instrumental Album of the Year at the 2024 JUNO Awards. Co-produced by Stafylakis and Adam Pietrykowski (Van Tilburg), the album features Stafylakis on guitars alongside Javier Reyes (Mestís, Animals As Leaders), cellist Raphael Weinroth-Browne (Leprous), pianist Vicky Chow (Bang on a Can All-Stars), and violinist/violist Fung Chern Hwei (Seven)Suns), among others. Calibrating Friction has been called “an album of the year candidate” (Avant Music News), “a genuinely perfect album. A masterpiece” (Bearded Gentlemen Music), and a “style [that] can change the course of prog metal and perhaps music itself” (The Progressive Subway).
In October 2026, Stafylakis and vocalist-composer Courtney Swain released dontwaitforme, a collaborative EP fusing progressive metal and chamber music, featuring ShoutHouse and drummer Gavin Wallace-Ailsworth of experimental rock band Bent Knee, with Stafylakis contributing guitars.
Other recent and upcoming recordings featuring his music include releases by the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and Miguel Harth-Bedoya (Naxos), Jenny Lin (Sono Luminus), Cicchillitti-Cowan Duo (Analekta), and SHHH!! Ensemble (Leaf Music).
His music has been recognized with the Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, ASCAP’s Leonard Bernstein Award, and SOCAN’s Jan V. Matejcek Award for New Classical Music, with additional support from the Canada Council for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, New Music USA, and FACTOR. Stafylakis is a founding member of the NYC composer collective ICEBERG New Music, with which he has developed interdisciplinary projects spanning music, film, poetry, and improvisational theatre.
Stafylakis holds degrees from McGill University and The Graduate Center, City University of New York. He teaches composition and production at SUNY Purchase and serves on the faculty of the ICEBERG Institute; in 2027, he will serve as Co-Lead Faculty of Chamber Music at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
