Devon Packer is a Montréal-based pianist, composer, and percussionist. He began piano studies at the age of five, and at seven made his orchestral solo debut with the Orchestre Symphonique de l’Isle, performing Haydn’s Divertimento in C Major. Since then, he has performed across Canada, the United States, and Europe, including several appearances at New York’s Carnegie Hall.
In 2016 and 2017, Devon was featured at the Just for Laughs Festival, performing both as a soloist and accompanist in the Gala de Ouf/Kids’ Cabaret. In 2017, he also appeared on screen as Ben Stiller’s piano prodigy son in the film Brad’s Status.
As a composer, his first published piece, The Fantastical World of Camelot, was released in 2015. He studied composition online at the Purcell School of Composition (UK) and was a finalist in two international composition competitions in 2020—Canada’s only representative. He received the 2021 Young Adjudicator’s Award from the Commonwealth International Composition Award for Oceania, and won the 2022 Grand Prize for ...reaching.... Oceania also won the Most Promising Emerging Composer - Ensemble 2022 award in the Oscar Bookbinder Composition Competition. In 2022, he was invited to La Grande Première des futures étoiles at Place des Arts, where he performed his setting of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s The Dragon-Fly with mezzo-soprano Myriam Leblanc.
In April 2023, representing Marianopolis College, he placed second in the Concours Cégeps en concert, performing Liszt’s Transcendental Étude No. 10 and Messiaen’s Première communion de la vierge. As a special graduation project, Devon put together a performance of John Cage's rarely seen Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano.
He is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance at McGill University under Professor Ilya Poletaev, with a minor in Early Music (Harpsichord), under Elizaveta Miller. In addition to his keyboard work, he is the principal percussionist with the Orchestre des Jeunes de Mont-Royal (OJMR). In 2025, he was featured as soloist with the OJMR, performing Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major under the baton of Jean MacRae.
