Steven Dann’s career has covered a wealth of violistic possibilities.
As principal viola of some of the world’s leading orchestras, as a
veteran of the string quartet and chamber music world, as soloist
and recitalist and as a dedicated teacher, Mr. Dann has left all the
doors open.

Mr. Dann was born in Vancouver, Canada, in 1953. His foremost teacher and mentor was the late Lorand Fenyves. Other influences include William Primrose, Robert Pikler and
Bruno Giuranna and five summers spent studying the string quartet
repertoire with Zoltan Szekely and members of the Hungarian String Quartet.

Upon graduation from university he was named Principal Viola of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada, a position he has subsequently held with the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, the Vancouver Symphony and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He has also been a guest principal of the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle and, in both performance and recordings, with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Paavo Berglund and Pierre Boulez.

Steven Dann has collaborated as a soloist with such Maestri as Sir Andrew Davis, Rudolph Barshai, Jiri Belohlavek, Sir John Elliott Gardiner, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Vladimir Ashkenazy. Since 1990 Mr. Dann has been a member of the Smithsonian Chamber Players in Washington D.C. and was a founding member of the Axelrod String Quartet.

Canadian violinist Marc Destrubé is known for his exceptionally versatility; he appears as soloist, chamber musician, concertmaster or director/conductor of orchestras and divides his time between performances of the standard repertoire on modern instruments, and performing baroque and classical music on period instruments.

He is first violinist with the Axelrod String Quartet, quartet-in-residence at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. where the quartet plays on the museum’s exceptional collection of Stradivari and Amati instruments, and is also a member of the Turning Point Ensemble in Vancouver, specializing in 20th century and new music.

He has appeared as soloist and guest director with orchestras across North America, has been a regular guest with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and led the Belgian ensemble Anima Eterna in acclaimed recordings of the complete Mozart Piano Concertos with Jos van Immerseel. A founding member of the Tafelmusik Orchestra, he has appeared with many of the leading period-instrument orchestras in North America and Europe including as guest concertmaster of the Academy of Ancient Music.

As concertmaster he has played under Sir Simon Rattle, Kent Nagano, Helmuth Rilling, Christopher Hogwood, Philippe Herreweghe, Gustav Leonhardt and Frans Brüggen. He is co-concertmaster of Brüggen’s Orchestra of the 18th Century, with whom he has toured the major concert halls and festivals of Europe, North America, Asia and Australia. He was concertmaster of the CBC Radio Orchestra from 1996 to 2002, and concertmaster of the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra.

Pianist Marc Ryser performs in North America and Europe.  Among the highlights of his solo career are the first performance in Bulgaria of Bela Bartók's 3rd Piano Concerto (with the Vratsa Philharmonic) and concert tours in Switzerland which have included recitals and concerto performances with the Sinfonietta de Lausanne.

Active as a chamber musician, he has performed with distinguished artists, including the cellists Paul Katz and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, violist Marcus Thompson, violinists Ann Elliott-Goldschmid and Peter Salaff, pianist Judith Gordon, and the Lydian, New Zealand, and Borealis String Quartets.  He has appeared as a guest artist at the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, and with the Walden, MIT and Holy Cross Chamber Players.  He is also well known at the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada, where he was senior artist and resident collaborative pianist from 2003-2005.

He holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Stony Brook University, where he studied with the eminent pianist, Gilbert Kalish. His other mentors in piano include György Sebők, Leonard Shure, A. Ramón Rivera, and Boris Berman.

He is currently a member of the piano faculty at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, the Walnut Hill School, and the Rivers School Conservatory, and has taught at Smith College, Pomona College, Drake University, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Musician Phil Dwyer has been a force on the international jazz scene for over two decades. A critically acclaimed composer, arranger, and musical director, as well as gifted, intuitive perfomer on both saxophone and piano, Dwyer has performed with everyone from Aretha Franklin, Ian Tyson, and Gino Vannelli to jazz greats like Red Rodney, Ingrid Jensen, Randy Brecker, Tom Harrell, Jim Hall, Dave Holland, Don Thompson, and many others.

Before returning to his west coast roots on Vancouver Island in 2004, Dwyer spent 15 years as one of Toronto's busiest studio musicians appearing on hundreds of recording sessions, and working as a commercial composer and arranger. He also was a regular performer at Toronto clubs Top O’ The Senator and Montreal Bistro, with Dave Young, Marcus Belgrave, Renee Rosnes, Carol Welsman, Moe Koffman, Randy Brecker and many others.

Doubling on tenor sax and piano, Dwyer was a member of the Hugh Fraser Quintet when they won the Alcan Jazz Competition in 1987 and the Juno Award for Looking Up in 1988. A long-time partnership with bassist Dave Young has produced a pair of recordings including 1993 Juno Award-winner, Fables and Dreams. Phil was also arranger, composer, and conductor on Guido Basso's 2003 Juno Award-winning recording, Lost in the Stars. Dwyer has also made three recordings with Robert Occhipinti and was a featured soloist on the bassist's Juno-nominated Yemaya.

Chris Donnelly represents a new generation of jazz pianists, composers and improvisers dedicated to creating programs that are engaging, entertaining and educating.  He is continually praised for his virtuosic performances, musicality, versatility and ability to captivate audiences.

In September 2008, Chris released his Juno-nominated, debut album with Alma Records called ‘Solo,’ featuring a blend of original material and arrangements of jazz standards.  This also earned him nominations for ‘Best Recording of the Year’ and ‘Best Keyboardist of the Year’ from the 2009 National Jazz Awards.  Other recent highlights include a tour of Western Canada in October 2008, performances at the Calgary and Medicine Hat Jazz Festivals and performances in various concert halls throughout Toronto including Roy Thomson Hall, CBC’s Glenn Gould Studio, MacMillian Theatre, Walter Hall and the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre in the new Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. 

Chris Donnelly holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the University of Toronto where he studied with David Braid, Gary Williamson, Paul Read, Kirk MacDonald Alexander Rapoport and Russell Hartenberger.  Upon completing his Masters of Music in Jazz Performance at the University of Toronto, Chris was awarded The Tecumseh Sherman Rogers Graduating Award for students ‘deemed to have the greatest potential to make an important contribution to the field of music.’

In 2008, the Canada Council for the Arts awarded Chris with a grant to compose new music based on the works of graphic artist M.C Escher.  With its completion, this project, entitled ‘Metamorphosis,’ will act as a follow-up to his debut recording and will be released in 2010.  Chris is grateful for the continuing support from the Canada Council.

Chris is currently a professor at the University of Toronto and has previously worked as a faculty member at the Humber College Community Music School, Prairielands Jazz Camp and the National Music Camp of Canada.

The Umbrella Ensemble is a reed trio founded by emerging Canadian musicians oboist Catherine Lee, clarinetist Louise Campbell and bassoonist Alexandra Eastley.

The ensemble grew from the three members desire to establish a creative ‘umbrella’ under which they could explore mutual artistic interests. The Umbrella Ensembles shared interest in colour and blend results in diverse programs that demonstrate the wind trio in all its possibilities.

The Umbrella Ensemble features guest bassoonist Helena Kopchick Spenser for the Music by the Sea Festival.

A diverse musician, Catherine Lee has performed extensively on the oboe and the English horn as a solo, chamber and orchestral musician. She has performed with many orchestra’s including Oregon Symphony, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, l’orchestre symphonique de longueuil. Catherine has  collaborated with POV Dance to compose and perform the music for the production “Wet?” (Ten Tiny Dances Waterfront Project, 2008) and with composer Emily Doolittle, dancer Camille Renarhd and the Umbrella Ensemble in the creation of reeds a site specific work based in birdsong. (Sound Symposium, 2010). Recently, she has made excursions into the world of indie rock, collaborating with the band Alameda in Portland, OR.

Catherine’s doctoral research in how virtuoso performers in the late eighteenth century used the solo concerto to demonstrate their specific skills and create a resonance with audiences, has lead to a curiosity with the role of improvisation in the development of creativity and voice of a performer. 

She has presented lecture-recitals at The Embodiment of Authority – Perspectives on Performances (Helsinki, Finland), The Performer’s Voice (Singapore), Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium – Improvising Bodies, (Guelph, Canada) and College Music Society (Seattle, WA). Catherine’s doctoral document “The Language of the Oboe Virtuoso in the Late Eighteenth Century” has been published in the IDRS Journal, Double Reed and the ADRS Journal Reeding Matter. Her poetry will be included in a chaper she is co-authoring in the forth-coming book Sounding the body: Improvisation, representation and subjectivity (eds. Ellen Waterman & Gillian Siddall).

Catherine became interested in the study of somatics and the applications for performing artists during her graduate studies at Indiana University, she pursued this interest during her doctoral work at McGill University. In this vein she trained as an Andover Educator, is certified to teach “What Every Musician needs to know about the Body”.  Catherine has presented sessions on Bodymapping at the University of Washington (Pullman, WA), Portland State University and at the Bi-enniel International Conference of the Andover Educators (Montclair, NJ).

Catherine is a founding member of the Umbrella Ensemble, she holds a Doctor of Music in Oboe Performance and a Bachelor of Music from McGill University (Montreal, Quebec), and a Master of Music and a Performer Diploma from Indiana University (Bloomington, Indiana). Her principal influences include Thoedore Baskin, Normand Forget and Bruce Haynes.

Helena Kopchick Spencer joined the faculty of Willamette University in fall 2007 as Instructor of Bassoon.  Her previous teaching appointments include Oregon State University and Lane Community College. 

Ms. Spencer is principal bassoonist of the Oregon Mozart Players and the Salem Chamber Orchestra and second bassoonist of the Eugene Opera Orchestra, and she he has also performed with the Oregon Bach Festival, the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, the Aspen Festival Orchestra, the Oregon Festival of American Music, and the Colorado, Eugene, Corvallis, Portland-Columbia, Rogue Valley, and Canton (OH) Symphony Orchestras. 

As a chamber musician, she is a member of blå, the faculty woodwind quartet at Willamette University, and has appeared regularly on the Oregon Mozart Players' Chamber Music & Chocolate series.  She is also interested in historical performance practice, and has played Baroque bassoon with the Oregon Bach Collegium, in addition to Classical bassoon, dulcian, shawm, and recorder with period instrument ensembles at the University of Oregon and Case Western Reserve University.

Originally from upstate New York, Ms. Spencer holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Bassoon Performance with honors from the Cleveland Institute of Music and a Master of Music degree in Bassoon Performance from the University of Oregon, where she was named Outstanding Performer in Woodwinds and University Outstanding Performer in Music.  Her primary teachers have been Barrick Stees and Steve Vacchi, and she has also studied with Per Hannevold and Steven Dibner at the Aspen Music Festival & School as the recipient of a three-year fellowship in contrabassoon.  Ms. Kopchick Spencer is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Musicology with a supporting area in Bassoon Performance at the University of Oregon, where she has held Graduate Teaching Fellowships in both bassoon and musicology.

Her interest in movement as a creative process has developed through one-on-one training with Valerie Dean in Laban-Bartenieff Movement Fundamentals (1998- ) and workshops with Eryn Dace Trudel in Skinner Releasing Technique with (2005-06) and Denise Clarke in the One Yellow Rabbit Performance Theatre Summer Lab Intensive (1998). Campbell is a certified Zen Shiatsu practitioner (Kinéconcept, 2010).

She has led workshops in movement improvisation for musicians (University of Waterloo Music Therapy grad seminar, ICASP Guelph Speaker Series), Shiatsu for musicians (Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, McGill University Schulich School of Music Musicians’ Health Week, McGill MUSA Musicians’ Health Series, Conservatoire de musique et d’art dramatique de Montréal) and presented at conferences on movement for musicians in Ontario, Newfoundland and Manchester, England. Campbell will be featured as a co-author of a chapter in the forth-coming book Sounding the body: Improvisation, representation and subjectivity (eds. Ellen Waterman & Gillian Siddall).

Campbell is co-founder of the Umbrella Ensemble, Ensemble In Extensio, and Maenad Ensemble and with whom she brings music to diverse audiences through workshops and concerts in schools, seniors’ residences, homeless shelters and other unexpected venues. Campbell holds an MMus with a minor in Jazz from Indiana University and an MA in music education from McGill University and is a member of a board of the Canadian New Music Network. Her primary influences include clarinetist James Campbell, jazz pedagogue and composer David Baker, movement coach Valerie Dean, and the One Yellow Rabbit Theatre Company.

Ross Taggart has been an important part of the Vancouver jazz scene
since 1985.

He has played the piano and tenor saxophone for audiences in
Canada, the United States, Cuba, Columbia, Brazil, Panama, Guatemala,
England, Ireland, Australia, Holland, Denmark, Sweden and China.

Ross spent two years studying in New York City with saxophone legends George Coleman, Clifford Jordan and J.R. Monterose under the assistance
of the Canada Council for the Arts.

He has also studied in Toronto with great Canadian jazz pianists Don Thompson and Bernie Senensky.

Ross has taught and adjudicated extensively for several years and has
been a faculty member in the Jazz Studies Department at Capilano
College since 1998. As well as Capilano College, Ross has worked
extensively at Jazz workshops, festivals and symposiums throughout
Canada and in the United States, Brazil, China and Australia. He has done
several national and regional recordings for both English and French CBC
radio and television.

Ross was nominated in four categories for the National Jazz Awards in
2008 and won in the category of Instrumentalist of the Year.

Enjoying a vibrant and varied international career, Jacob Cordover has appeared on stage throughout Australia, Canada, the USA, Spain, France, Germany, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Italy and the United Kingdom as a soloist and in his chamber ensembles, Zoco Duo (with oboist Laura Karney) and the Australian Guitar Duo (with Rupert Boyd). His solo CD Stélé, recorded in 2004, is regularly featured on Australian radio and was hailed by Classical Guitar Magazine (UK) as “wonderfully sympathetic and highly accomplished... Cordover managing to get to the very soul of this striking and brilliant music.”

Following his performance as soloist with the Orquestra Simfònica de Balears “Ciutat de Palma” conducted by Geoffrey Simon, Mr. Cordover was praised as “an exceptional guitarist” by the music critic for the publication Ultima Hora. Jacob has also appeared as soloist with the Orchestra dell’Accademia l’Ottocento conducted by Carlo Barone performing Mauro Giuliani’s Primier Grand Concerto Op. 30 on a an original Gaetano Guadagnini guitar made in Italy in 1828. His strong interest in the application of appropriate performance practice of 19th-Century music has led to a number of historically informed performances of this repertoire on a variety of period guitars.

Aside from his formative studies at the Australian National University School of Music with renowned performer and pedagogue Timothy Kain, Jacob has undertaken post-graduate studies with Laura Young and Arnaldur Arnarson at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya and the Escola Luthier in Barcelona, Spain and with Carlo Barone at the Academia l’Ottocento in Paris, France. Masterclasses with Pavel Stiedl, Manuel Barrueco, Ricardo Gallen and Sergio Assad (amongst others) have also been influential in his playing. www.jacobcordover.com

Jodi Proznick is an award winning bassist from South Surrey, B.C who has shared the stage with some of the biggest stars in jazz. She was the assist of the Year at the 2008 and 2009 National Jazz Awards and her group, the Jodi Proznick Quartet, was awarded the Acoustic Group of the Year. They recorded their debut CD Foundations on Cellarlive in 2006. It was nominated for
Traditional Jazz Album of the Year at the 2008 Juno Awards and took home the Album of the Year at the 2008 National Jazz Awards. In the fall of 2007 the group completed a 20 date Canadian
tour that took them from Whitehorse to Montreal.

In 1993, Proznick won the General Motors Award of Excellence as one of the top young musicians in Canada. McGill University awarded Jodi a performance scholarship in 1997 as a member of the prestigious McGill Big Band I. In 1998, she won the IAJE "Sisters in Jazz" competition which brought her to New York to perform with trumpet player Ingrid Jensen and a midwest tour of the U.S. to open for pianist Geri Allen. In 2004, her group, The Jodi Proznick Quartet, was awarded the Galaxie Rising Star of the Vancouver International Jazz Festival. In 2007, the quartet was awarded a Canada Council Festival Travel Grant to perform at the Montreal International Jazz Festival as part of the GM Prix De Jazz competition.

Also in 2007, Jodi was inducted into the Performer Hall of Fame at the Envision Jazz Festival in Surrey, B.C. Since moving back to Vancouver from Montreal in 2000, Jodi has become a top call bassist. She has played with international jazz stars such as David Fathead Newman, Ed Thigpen, George Coleman, Jeff Hamilton, Lewis Nash, Herlin Riley, Charles McPherson, Seamus Blake, Sheila Jordan, Mark Murphy, Eric Alexander, Ryan Kaisor, Eddie Henderson, Eddie Daniels, George Colligan, Kitty Margolis, Jim Rotundi, Houston Pearson, Scott Hamilton, George Robert, Ingrid
Jensen, Joe Magnarelli, David Hazeltine, Wycliffe Gordon, and Canadian jazz stars such as Denzal Sinclaire, Brad Turner, Phil Dwyer, P.J. Perry, Don Thompson, Kirk McDonald, Hugh Fraser, Dee Daniels, Oliver Gannon, Greg Clayton, Dave McMurdo, Ian McDougall and many others.

You can find more information about Jodi Proznick at www.jodiproznick.com.

Ken also performs with the legendary jazz guitarist Pat Coleman in his trio, with Juno Award winner Buff Allen on drums

In addition to leading his own Sextet, he has performed with many great musicians including Slide Hampton, Chucho Valdes, Kenny Wheeler, Joshua Redman, Herb Ellis, Charlie Byrd, Rob McConnell, Ian McDougall, P.J. Perry, Sam Noto, Don Thompson, Tommy Banks, Carol Welsman, Kirk MacDonald, Bob McLaren, Jerry Fuller, Lorne Lofsky, Phil Dwyer, Ingrid Jensen, Misha Piatigorsky, Ernie Watts, Steve Turre, Guido Basso and many others.

Canadian violist Ronelle Schaufele is an active solo, chamber, and orchestral musician who performs frequently throughout Western Canada. She recently performed at the 27th annual Euro Festival in Leipzig, Germany as both a soloist and chamber musician and completed an Artist in Residency program at The Banff Centre.

Some of Ms. Schaufele’s upcoming events include a recording of a work written by Canadian Composer Emilie LeBel. As a chamber musician Ms. Schaufele has performed in the Windy Mountain Music Festival with Rivka Golani, James Campbell, Gil Sharon, and Cory Cerovsek, which was recorded and broadcasted by CBC.  In addition, she recently performed as a guest artist with the Red Deer Symphony String Quartet, Alain Trudel in the Millennium Music Foundation Series, and with the Amadeus String Quartet.

She was also a founding member of the Sage String Quartet, which performed throughout Southern Alberta in cooperation with the Alberta Foundation of the Arts. Orchestrally, Ronelle has been invited to substitute with various orchestras including the Nuova Opera Festival Orchestra, Okanogan Symphony, Lethbridge Symphony, Red Deer Symphony Orchestra, Calgary Festival Chorus and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. In addition she has served as principal violist of the University of Calgary Orchestra, concertmaster of the Medicine Hat Academy Orchestra, principal violist of the Urban Village Chamber Orchestra, and is currently assistant principal violist in the Red Deer Symphony Orchestra.

Committed to the education of young musicians, Nigel Boehm is a faculty member at Mount Royal University Academy and Conservatory of Music in Calgary Alberta, where he is an instructor of cello and chamber music. An active orchestral musician, Nigel is the assistant principal cello for the Red Deer Symphony Orchestra as well as a freelance musician with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. 

Aside from his musical endeavors, Mr. Boehm travels throughout North America and Asia as a consultant, dealer and luthier for Wilder & Davis Luthiers, one of Canada’s largest stringed instrument workshops based in Montreal Quebec and Banff Alberta. 

Mr. Boehm holds a Performance Diploma completed at Mount Royal Conservatory, a Bachelor of Music in solo performance with a minor in Musicology and Music History, and a Masters of Music both completed at McGill University. 

Elizabeth Choi is a versatile violinist who enjoys playing in every ensemble imaginable.As a chamber musician, Elizabeth won 1st and 3rd prizes at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.

She has conducted many chamber master classes both nationally and internationally, was invited to participate in the Olympic Music Festival, Dame Myra Hess concert series, Mostly Music chamber series, and the Pianoforte salon series. Elizabeth has performed with great artists including Maxim Vengerov, Rachel Barton, Jean-Michel Fonteneau, Gil Kalish, Ellen Jewett, Seth Knopp, Paul Hersh, and all members of CUBE.

Her orchestral experiences include holding positions as associate concertmistress in the South Bend Symphony Orchestra and concertmistress of the Classical Symphony Orchestra.  She has also played with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, East-West Divan Workshop conducted by Daniel Barenboim, Marin Symphony, Golden Gate Opera, and has been a guest concertmaster for the Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra, Kankakee Valley Symphony Orchestra, and New Millennium Orchestra.

As a native from Chicago, Elizabeth received her undergraduate studies at Depaul University as a violin performance major in the studio of Mark Zinger and her graduate studies as a chamber music major in the studio of Ian Swensen.  She has performed in every major venue in her hometown including Symphony Center’s Orchestra Hall, Lyric Opera House, Ravinia, Pritzker Pavilion, Harris Theater, and live on WFMT.

Currently, Elizabeth is a member of the Advent Chamber Orchestra, New Millenium Orchestra, International Chamber Artists, Accessible Contemporary Music, and is co-founder of the Navitas Ensemble. She is a faculty member at the 1st Conservatory of La Grange and the Chicago Center School of Music.

Juno nominated guitarist-composer-arranger Bill Coon is one of Canada’s most highly respected and sought after musicians as well as winner of the 2009 National Jazz Awards “Guitarist of the Year”.

He has performed with award winning artists such as Jimmy Heath, Eddie Daniels, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Dee Daniels, P.J. Perry and Campbell Ryga.

Some of his more notable collaborations have been with vocalist/pianistDenzal Sinclaire and hip-hop artist K-OS.

In addition to a busy performance and recording schedule, Bill is in high demand as an educator. He teaches arranging, composition and jazz guitar at Capilano University in North Vancouver and is a clinician and adjudicator for music festivals throughout Canada.

Jesse Cahill is known and respected as one of the top drummers on the Canadian jazz scene. He started playing drums at a young age and worked his first professional gigs at 16 in restaurants and clubs in his hometown of Victoria, British Columbia.

In 1993 Jesse moved to Montreal to study music at McGill University, graduating in 1999 with a Bachelors Degree in Jazz Performance. Jesse has worked with jazz legends like David “Fathead” Newman, George Coleman, Red Holloway, Dr. Eddie Henderson and Charles MacPherson and Bobby Shew as well internationally recognized artists such as Eric Alexander, Joe Magerelli, Jim Rotondi, Ryan Kysor and George Colligan.

True North Brass burst onto the scene in 1997, and has since solidified its reputation as one of the world’s finest brass ensembles. TNB’s membership includes two outstanding composer/arrangers who create the ensemble’s fresh and unique programming. Proudly Canadian in focus and expression with a truly international outlook, True North Brass has been welcomed not only in Canada, but in China and throughout North America

True North Brass has released four critically acclaimed CD recordings, been featured on CBC Television’s Opening Night program, is heard frequently on CBC Radio, and has collaborated on other recording projects with the Elmer Iseler Singers, Rick Fox and Lori Cullen.

True North Brass was featured at the International Brass Symposium in Atlanta, Georgia in March 2000, and performed at the 2008 International Trumpet Guild Conference in Banff, Alberta. They accompanied Prime Minister Jean Chrétien’s 1998 trade mission to China, performing recitals in Beijing and Wuhan and directing masterclasses at the Beijing Conservatory.

The quintet has also performed masterclasses and recitals at the Boston and New England Conservatories and toured British Columbia, Ontario, Tennessee, New York, Connecticut, Virginia, Texas, New Hampshire, Idaho, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Alabama, Florida and West Virginia. True North Brass has appeared at the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival on three occasions, most recently in 2008. Recent performances of the quintet include concerts in Birmingham, Michigan, West Liberty, West Virginia, at the Westben Summer Music Festival, and at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto. In 2008-09, True North Brass were Artists in Residence at the University of Western Ontario, and in the summer of 2009 they were in residence at Music by the Sea in Bamfield, British Columbia.

The members of True North Brass are Yamaha Artists associated with Yamaha Music Canada.

Joan Watson is Canada’s foremost horn soloist, principal horn, lecturer and educator. Joan is highly regarded as a consummate musician and skilled virtuoso. Her contributions across the country include presently serving as principal horn of the award-winning Canadian Opera Orchestra and as a founding member of the prestigious True North Brass quintet. She held the position of associate principal horn of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for 14 seasons (having won the job while 8 months pregnant), and was principal horn of the Esprit Orchestra, the Victoria Symphony Orchestra, and the Pacific Opera and Vancouver Opera Orchestras.

Joan is frequently heard on the CBC as a chamber musician and with New Music Concerts. She has been a featured soloist at the International Women’s Brass Conference, the International Horn Symposium in Banff, and the International Brass Quintet Symposium in Atlanta. Joan was a featured soloist and lecturer at the International Horn Symposium in Chicago in 2009. In June, 2010 she will host the International Women’s Brass Conference in Toronto.

As well, you will hear her on numerous commercials, television shows and movie scores. Joan’s solo CD, Songs My Mother Taught Me, is a wonderful collection of favourite soothing tunes. Joan has a 25-year-old relationship with Yamaha Canada as a Yamaha artist and clinician. In 2008, the Yamaha Corporation chose to make a poster of Joan, making her the first woman brass player in the world featured on a Yamaha poster.
A member of the University of Toronto’s faculty of music, Joan teaches horn and lectures on Performance Skills, audition preparation, practice tips, and creating a passionate and fulfilling life of music making. www.joanwatson.com

Alastair Kay, Head of Brass at Humber College, is busy as an arranger, composer, clinician, and as a virtuoso jazz and classical trombonist. His love of beautiful melodies started early in his teens, listening to great trombonists such as Urbie Green, Tommy Dorsey, Rob McConnell, Teddy Roderman, Frank Rosolino, and Ian McDougall.

He has performed around the world with leading artists and entertainers such as Ella Fitzgerald, Rob McConnell, Diana Krall, Tony Bennett, Aretha Franklin, Paul Anka, Buddy Rich, Bill Holman, Nelson Riddle, Lionel Hampton, Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra, and Andrea Bocelli.

Al has appeared with Canada’s leading orchestras, and has toured with the orchestras of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and the National Ballet. He has performed his own arrangements with the Hannaford Street Silver Band, Intrada Brass, the Weston Silver Band, Brassroots, the Orillia Concert Band and many others. In the recording studios, he has played on over a thousand radio and television jingles and soundtracks, and on numerous CD’s, records, and feature film soundtracks.

Al is a regular around Toronto playing with the bands of John MacLeod, Roberto Occhipinti, Hilario Duran, and his own 5 and 10 trombone jazz ensembles. He has been first call for most of the musicals in Toronto for the past 30 years including Dirty Dancing, Lord Of The Rings, The Producers, Lion King, and Chicago. His association with Yamaha led him to Japan, helping design the YSL 697Z trombone, the Al Kay Artist Model mouthpiece, and performing with the Xeno Trombone Quartet.

Al has websites at alkay.ca and torontobones.ca. He is also an avid photographer — you can see his work at www.alkayphotos.com.

Scott Irvine is a Toronto-based tuba player and composer. In 1984, he joined the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, a position he continues to hold today, and he is also a founding member of the renowned True North Brass. Scott played with the Hannaford Street Silver Band for over twenty years, and is principal tuba of the Esprit Orchestra.

In 1978, Scott began composition lessons with Dr. Samuel Dolin at the Royal Conservatory of Music, and since that time has developed a parallel career as a composer and arranger. He has received commissioning grants from the Ontario Arts Council, the Laidlaw Foundation, and the CBC, and is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre and a member of the Canadian League of Composers.

Shawn Spicer is originally from Nova Scotia and now calls London Ontario home.  His early musical life was busy playing with the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra, the Chester Brass Band, the Acadia University Concert Band and a multitude of school ensembles.  His early teachers include Frank Ridgeway, Jeff Thompson, Jeffrey Stern and Gordon McGowan.  Shawn has degrees from McGill and Yale universities and is currently working towards a doctorate at the University of Toronto.  Some of Shawn’s other influential teachers include James Thompson, D. Payson Sturdevant, Alan Dean and Jeffrey Reynolds.

Shawn has worked in musical organizations across much of Canada from Symphony Nova Scotia to the Calgary based Foothills Brass Quintet.  In 1999 Shawn was appointed principal trumpet of Orchestra London Canada.  Shawn also performs regularly as a musician at the Stratford Shakespearian Festival.  As a soloist over the last few years Shawn has played a wide variety of concertos and solo works by Haydn, Hetu, Ligeti, Bennett and Bach.

Shawn loves to play baroque and renaissance music on original instruments.  Performances on baroque trumpet and cornetto have taken him as far away as Japan and Brazil.  He has played with Taffelmusik, Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montreal, the Toronto Consort, the Toronto Masque Theatre, the Sante Fe Early Music Society and the Theatro Municipale do Rio de Janeiro.

Shawn is also active as an educator.  He was trumpet instructor at the Canadian Forces School of Music in Borden Ontario from 1991-1998 and since 2003 Shawn has taught trumpet at the University of Western Ontario.

Shawn has a daughter Abby and son Owen and wife Barbara.  He enjoys cooking, travelling and especially enjoys reading mystery novels.

Shawn is very proud to be a Yamaha artist as well as a Wedge Mouthpiece artist.

One of the Toronto jazz scene's most exciting trumpet players, Brian O’Kane has been a regular member of the stellar Rob McConnell Tentet, Hilario Duran's Latin Jazz Big Band (2007 Juno Award winner), the Bernie Senensky Quintet and Septet, Bruce Cassidy's HotfootOrchestra, the Paul Read Orchestra (PRO), Barry Romberg’s Random Access Large Ensemble (RALE) and John MacLeod's Rex Hotel Jazz Orchestra (2011 Juno Award winner).

Brian has performed with some of Canada's finest bands and ensembles including the Canadian Jazz Quartet, the Don Thompson Septet, the Barry Elmes Quintet, the Dave Young Quintet, as well as the Ron Collier, Vic Vogel, Peter Appleyard, Dave McMurdo, and Joe Sullivan Big Bands. 

He has also worked with a lengthy list of national and international artists and entertainers including Maria Schneider, Bill Holman, Vince Mendoza, Kenny Wheeler, Steve Swallow, Carla Bley, Paquito D’Rivera, Gap Mangione, Denzal Sinclaire, Aretha Franklin, Paul Anka, Diana Krall, Ann Hampton-Calloway, Bill Mays, and Dave Brubeck. Brian O’Kane has also worked with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Canada Pops Orchestra, Kitchener-Waterloo Orchestra, Orchestra London, the Oshawa Symphony, the True North Brass and the Trillium Brass Quintet.  He has been on many television/radio jingles and is also in demand as a pit musician, having played in shows including The Producers, The Boyfriend, The Full Monty, West Side Story, Follies, Chicago, and Swing Step. 

A faculty member at Humber College in Toronto, Brian has been featured as Guest Artist at numerous schools of every level across Canada, has played at major jazz festivals throughout Canada, the United States, and Europe, and has frequently served as an adjudicator/clinician for Musicfest Canada and Kiwanis Music Festivals.  He was recently a featured artist at the 33rd Annual International Trumpet Guild Conference held in Banff, Alberta.

Trombonist and composer IAN McDOUGALL was born in  Calgary, Canada, and grew up in Victoria, leaving there in 1960 to tour in Great Britain with the John Dankworth Band. He returned to Canada in 1962 and began a lengthy career as a freelance player, composer and arranger in Vancouver and in Toronto where, until 1991, he was also the lead and solo trombonist with Rob McConnell's Grammy and JUNO Award winning group, “the Boss Brass”. Two suites composed by Ian have been recorded by that group – The Pellet Suite  and the Blue Serge Suit(e).  Ian was also lead trombone and a frequent composer/arranger for the Brass Connection, who won the JUNO Award for best jazz album in 1982.

Since the early 1980’s McDougall has become even more involved in composition, and his works have been performed by the CBC Vancouver Chamber Orchestra and Choir, the Lafayette String Quartet, the Phoenix Choir, and the Toronto Syphony Orchestra, among others. Important compositions include concerti for Bass Trombone, for Clarinet, and for Saxophone, the 3 Canadian Folk Songs for choir and string orchestra, the Brass Trio, and Bells for Brass Choir.

Ian now resides in Victoria, where he continues to play,   compose, and teach –both in his private studio and also at the University of Victoria, where he is Professor Emeritus. The past decade has included tours as a soloist and with his quartet, to many countries including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Scotland, Denmark, Holland, Germany, Australia, Switzerland, and throughout the United States and Canada. In in the past decade Ian has been the leader on seven CDs. His  double CD entitled “In a Sentimental Mood”, which features the music of Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington with Ian joined by a quartet, was nominated for both a JUNO Award and a Western Candadian Music award in 2006.

Ian released a Big Band CD in August of 2007,  “No Passport Required”.  It is made up entirely of Ian’s compositions, and is performed by a sensational band of mostly Vancouver musicians, including Brad Turner, Phil Dwyer, Cambell Ryga, Oliver Gannon, Neil Swainson, and Ron Johnston. Ian also performed and wrote for the CBC CD project entitled “LIVE! Jazz Legends” , which was nominated for a JUNO award in 2008.
In the fall of 2008, Ian will take his sextet to Europe! The sextet will spend 2 intensive weeks performing and giving workshops in Denmark and Sweden.

Montreal-based musician Christine Jensen has been described as, “an original voice on the international jazz scene… [and] one of Canada’s most compelling composers,” byMark Miller of the Globe and Mail. According to Greg Buium of Downbeat Magazine, “Jensen writes in three dimensions, with a quiet kind of authority that makes the many elements cohere. Wayne Shorter, Maria Schneider and Kenny Wheeler come to mind.” After a performance at the 2006 Montreal International Jazz Festival, Scott Yanow wrote, “She’s rapidly developing into a major force … as a player and as a writer.”

Jensen is equally at home performing in small and large ensemble settings. Her latest opus, Treelines-The Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra on Justin-Time Records, won her the 2011 Juno Award for Contemporary Jazz Album of the Year, along with Quebec’s Opus Award for jazz recording of the year. Downbeat magazine described it as“…a stunning orchestral debut”****1/2 stars…
She recently performed at various jazz festivals across Canada as well as at Dizzy’s Jazz Club-Lincoln Center in New York with this ensemble.
Jensen’s formidable orchestra is the glistening sunlight, the tranquility and force of the ocean, and the majestic trees that her music imagines.”-Jazz Times

Jensen has previously released three small ensemble recordings: Collage (2000), A Shorter Distance(2002), and Look Left(2006), all on the Effendi label. Along with her sister, New York-based trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, and close friend and long-time musical cohort, Swedish pianist, Maggi Olin, she co-leads the group, Nordic Connect. They released their first joint effort  in 2007 entitled Flurry and followed up in 2010 with Spirals. The group has  toured Canada, the US and Scandinavia extensively over the past five years.

As an adjudicator, clinician, and instructor at McGill, she is influencing the next generation of composers and players.  In her travels abroad, she has shared her love of music and invaluable experience with young jazz enthusiasts around the world, from Norway to Peru, Turkey to Montreal, and back home on the West Coast. She has always been active in jazz education, leading clinics and workshops and adjudicating.

Over the years, she has collaborated with a diverse array of musicians, including Geoffrey Keezer, Lenny, Pickett, Brad Turner, Karl Jannuska, François Théberge, Gary Versace, Donny McCaslin, Steve Amirault, Franck Amsallem, in addition to her long-term musical relationships with sister, Ingrid and partner, saxophonist-composer Joel Miller.

"Aurora unveils her musical passions in a voice that is at once expressive, smooth, sultry and powerful."
("Johnny Canuck", Canadian Music Review).

25 year old Aurora Scott had a tough decision to make. At a young age the multi-talented performer already had a range of skills under her belt as a dancer, an actress and singer with an eclectic love of music. Lucky for us she chose to focus on her talent as a Jazz/Blues/R&B vocalist.

Originally from Nova Scotia, however based in Victoria, British Columbia, Aurora graduated from the Jazz Studies program at the Victoria Conservatory of Music. In her spare time she takes every possible opportunity to hone her chops with the city's roster of seasoned professionals.

Her experience includes performing at private parties and music festivals as well as lead roles in professional touring companies in places as diverse as Chang Mai, Thailand; Banff, Alberta and Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia . In 2010 Aurora made the finals in a national talent search by the Canadian military for their cultural program, and also recorded her album "Of The Dawn".

With her ambitious spirit, true love of music and refined talent, there's no telling what she'll do next!

Hannah Addario-Berry grew up in British Columbia, Canada, and fell in love with the cello at age nine.  Now based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Hannah is sought after as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher.  She has been an invited guest performer at music festivals worldwide, including the Other Minds Festival, Switchboard Music Festival, Kneisel Hall, Casalmaggiore Music Festival, Sarasota Music Festival, Domaine Forget Music Academy, Creative Dialogues, and Music by the Sea.
A fierce advocate of the music of today, Hannah has been a core member of contemporary music ensembles in Montreal and San Francisco and has worked with many of the great composers of the 21st century, including Peter Sculthorpe, Per Norgard, Kui Dong, Chou Wen-Chung, Chinary Ung, Pawel Mykietyn, and Chris Jonas.  In March of 2006, she was a featured soloist in the Blueprint New Music series for the American premiere of Brian Cherney’s cello concerto “Apparitions”. 

From 2006 to 2010, Hannah was a member of the renowned Del Sol String Quartet.  During that time, the quartet performed more than 50 premieres, played in such venues as the Library of Congress and National Gallery of Art in Washington, Symphony Space in New York, and the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, created large-scale intermedia collaborations such as GARDEN, Stringwreck, Divide Light, and Ghost Opera, and recorded two highly acclaimed albums, “Ring of Fire- Music from the Pacific Rim” and “First Life- String Quartets of Marc Blitzstein”. 

A passionate and versatile chamber musician, Hannah performs regularly with many of the Bay Area’s ensembles.  Together with violinist Elizabeth Choi, Hannah founded the Navitas Ensemble, which has performed across the US and Canada.  In addition, she has worked with many renowned artists such as Menahem Pressler, Marc Destrubé, Catherine Manson, Jean-Michel Fonteneau, Ian Swensen, Paul Hersh, Jodi Levitz, Marcus Thompson, Joan Jeanrenaud, Stephen Kent, and Wu Man.

Hannah brings her love of music beyond the concert stage, performing at bars and cafes as a member of Classical Revolution, and as the founder and host of Cello Bazaar, a popular and eclectic cello series at her neighborhood café.  She can be found making beautiful and strange sounds during impromptu improvisation sessions.  She also has an active teaching studio for cello and chamber music, and has been a coach for the Chamber Musicians of Northern California and at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

She has a Masters Degree in Chamber Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, a Bachelors Degree in Cello Performance from McGill University, and diplomas in performance and pedagogy from the Victoria Conservatory of Music.

Christopher Donison is a Canadian composer, librettist, conductor, pianist, lecturer, & inventor. A piano student of Winifred Wood and graduate in piano performance from the School of Music, at the University of Victoria at Victoria , British Columbia- he went on to win a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Music Direction in Toronto and to serve as Music Director of the Shaw Festival in Niagara- 0n-the-Lake, Ontario, for ten years 1988-1998 where he conducted over 1,000 performances, created a string quartet residency programme, and wrote more than a dozen scores for plays and orchestrations for many more.

He continued to pursue graduate studies in composition at State University of New York at Buffalo and has composed choral, chamber, and orchestral works.

In 1998 he finished an unfinished Gershwin musical for the Estate of George and Ira Gershwin to mark the centenary of George Gershwin's birth. In January 1999 he appeared as guest conductor with the Kingston Symphony where he premiered his own first symphony: Symphony Erotica. His concert works include Symphony Erotica, 7 Encounters for Soprano and Flute, the award winning Choral Prophecy performed by the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge , England, on their first North American Tour, Theme and Conversations for Orchestra, and The Little Match Girl for Orchestra, Narrator, and Dancer, choreographed adapted and narrated by Veronica Tennant, two string quartets, The Rashomon Quartet, and The Seagull Quartet for string quartet and distant oboe, and Music-by-the-Sea, quintet for clarinet and string quartet.

He is also the inventor of the Donison-Steinbuhler Standard, a smaller 7/8 alternative piano keyboard which is hoped will become universally available for study, competition, and performance within a generation. He is the Founding and Executive Artistic Director of Music by the Sea at Bamfield British Columbia, International Music Festival & School.