Born in 1965 in Vancouver, Paul Steenhuisen studied composition with Louis Andriessen at the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague, and later with Keith Hamel at the University of British Colombia, graduating with a Doctorate of Musical Arts. He went on to study privately with Michael Finnissy in Hove, England. In 1990, he was awarded the Governor General of Canada Gold Medal as an outstanding student at UBC. From 1992 to 1994, he received no less than four awards in the Radio Canada National Composition Competition. He has also received prizes from Gaudeamus Music Week, Darmstadt Summer Courses and the Bourges Festival of Electro-acoustic Music. In Canada, he received seven consecutive SOCAN Competition prizes, and a first prize in the Vancouver New Music Competition. His instrumental and electo-acoustic works have been performed throughout the world by Valdine Anderson, Irvine Arditti, Radio-Canada Orchestra , pianist Marc Couroux, Ensemble 2e2m, clarinetist Lori Freedman, harpist Marshal MacGuire, the Dutch Chambre choir directed by Huub Kerstens, Walter Boudreau and Ensemble de la SMCQ, and Owen Underhill, conductor of the Vancouver New Music Ensemble, among others. In 1997, his piece Wonder for soprano, orchestra and tape, commissioned by Radio Canada, was awarded third prize at the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers. His short work Circumnavigating the Sea of Shit was included on a CD distributed on the Empreintes Digitales label.