Chiyoko Szlavnics is a composer and visual artist living in Berlin. Her two artistic disciplines both inspire, and inform each other – drawings have often served as the basis for compositions, and aspects of sound have influenced several of her drawings series. Szlavnics was born in Toronto in 1967, graduated from the University of Toronto in 1989, and studied composition with James Tenney from 1993-1997. She received a Fellowship Grant from the Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany in 1997, and relocated to Berlin at the conclusion of the residency. Szlavnics  attended Walter Zimmermann's composition seminar at the University of the Arts, and subsequently taught the seminar for one year. Szlavnics was awarded the Joseph S. Stauffer Prize as "Outstanding Composer" in 2010.
Szlavnics' music has been performed by Ensemble Musikfabrik, Klangforum Wien, RSO Stuttgart (SWR), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Quatour Bozzini, Asasello Quartet, Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, Eve Egoyan, among others, and has been presented by Maerzmusik, Donaueschinger Musiktage (2014 & 2017), Tectonics (2013), and Klangspuren (2017).