Summer Programs!

Summer is a great time to enjoy making music with others and here are some opportunities you won’t want to miss!

Clarinet Choir

An ensemble for players of instruments in the clarinet family, such as the bass or Eb clarinet. This class will improve your ensemble playing skills, tuning, and playing in general. Music is chosen based on the playing level and interests of the group, and players will have the opportunity to explore multiple genres. Join other players in an encouraging atmosphere and improve your skills along the way! Open to anyone who has been playing clarinet for at least one year. Players should be able to read printed music. You can register here.

Summer Intensive

Middle and high school students will develop their musical skills through small and medium sized ensembles, warm-up, technique, and performance classes, music workshops, and private lessons with our specialized faculty. This program will help you improve your tone and technique and inspire you to take your instrumental playing to the next level. For students with at least one year of experience on their instrument and a love of music!

Participants will rotate through a variety of musical activities, carefully scheduled to balance active playing periods with listening and learning sessions. The ultimate goal is to provide an enriching, exciting, and fun experience for all students of all levels.

Students will have the opportunity to play in small and medium sized ensembles, work one-on-one with a faculty mentor in two private lessons per week, explore the world of solo repertoire in performance classes (solo performance not required) and further their musical development through workshops, warm-up, and technique classes. Our outstanding faculty will perform in concert for the students at the beginning of the week. At the end of the week, students will have the option to perform for their peers in the student solo concert, and will participate as a group in a final celebratory performance for friends and family in the beautiful Alix Goolden Performance Hall.

Please register online, or phone in at 250.386.5311.

If you have questions about the above programs or other summer music activities please don’t hesitate to reach out!

Upcoming February Events

I am excited to share two projects that I am taking part in this February.

Alex Chen, pianist, vocalist, and now composer has created a narrated musical story for classrooms The Adventures of Kelp Creature, for Ocean Wise. In this project musicians, including me and Alexander Richards, recorded excerpts for this musical ensemble. The online release is on February 12, 2024 at 12 PST, get your (free) tickets here!

Another exciting opportunity I’m proud to be a part of is The Big IDEA: Allyship & Unconscious Bias, a project spearheaded by flautist Marsha Elliot-Edwards. On February 18th at 2:30 the first of a series of music concerts focused on Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility will launch at the Victoria Conservatory of Music. Please reserve your free tickets at the link above!

Thank you!

Thank you for a wonderful concert on March 26th, 2023! We had a great time and I hope you did too. Thank you to the Victoria Conservatory of Music for the use of Wood Recital Hall and the staff that helped support the concert. Thank you to the Toronto Arts Council for their support of Patrick’s composition of The Wind which has it’s premiere performance. Thank you to Patrick McGraw for his patience and hard work, the premiere was delayed due to the COVID-19 closures and we are thrilled that we were able to make it happen. Also a big thank you to the Canadian Music Centre BC Region for their support and sponsorship of this concert, with support such as this musicians like us are able to continue to perform and work on the music we love!

New Music Gathering 2023

New Music Gathering is an annual conference/festival hybrid dedicated to the performance, production, promotion, support, and creation of new and forward-thinking music.

On Friday June 23rd I will be giving a performance/talk at the NMG 2023 in Portland Oregon, at Portland State University. The performance will include pieces for solo clarinet by Canadian composers that are appropriate for student performers and how to help make your compositions accessible to students. If you’re gong to be at the NMG and would like to chat let me know!

The Wind: Concert for Clarinet and Percussion

Presented in association with the Canadian Music Centre in BC The Wind by Patrick McGraw is one of the pieces we will perform on March 26th at the Victoria Conservatory of Music Wood Hall. We are so excited to share this music with you for the first time along with other works by Canadian composers. Come back to this website for more details on the programmed works in the upcoming weeks!

Project with the VCM Composition Club

I am happy to share that with the generous support of the Long & McQuade Community Support Fund, in collaboration with colleagues at the Victoria Conservatory of Music, we have a project that allows student composers to write for professional musicians. With the Department Head of the School of Technology and Creativity, Dan Brandes as well as Marco Neri teaching the class we have been able to bring together performers from the Winds Faculty.

Judith Pazder, a flautist, has been with the VCM faculty for over 10 years and also teaches several flute ensembles. Alexander Richards is performing on tenor and alto saxophones, and he has a special interest in performing works for solo saxophone. Melissa is playing clarinet in each of these pieces. All three of the faculty performing have a passion for promoting new music and new composers.

There are three student composers involved with this project and I can say that each of the pieces demonstrates each of their voices wonderfully. We are in the process of working towards a performance very soon so please keep checking back for details. Thank you once again for the support from Long & McQuade, without them this project would not be possible.