His first instrument was the guitar, and he began playing in heavy-metal bands as a young teen.
[2] A composer whose work has been performed and broadcast in over 35 countries,[3] Staniland has been commissioned by musicians and ensembles such as cellist Frances-Marie Uitti, Duo Concertante (violinist Nancy Dahn and pianist Timothy Steeves), the Gryphon Trio, and Les Percussions de Strasbourg.
There Staniland founded the Memorial ElectroAcoustic Research Lab (MEARL),[1] where he is part of a cross-disciplinary research team that has created the Mune, an electronic music performance instrument that "combines the functionality of a MIDI controller ... with the expressiveness and simplicity of an acoustic instrument.
"[5] Staniland is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre,[3] a member of the Canadian League of Composers,[6] and an inaugural member of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada.
[1] Staniland has been the recipient of many prestigious awards, including a 2018 ECMA Award for Classical Composition of the Year (for The River is Within Us),[7] the 2016 Terra Nova Young Innovator Award,[8] the National Grand Prize of EVOLUTION (presented in 2009 by CBC Radio 2/Espace Musique and The Banff Centre), and the 2004 Karen Keiser Prize in Canadian Music.