Previous Performing Artists

Marc Ryser, piano, Boston
Ann Elliott-Goldschmid, violin, Victoria
Michael Waters, guitar, Victoria
Sean Drabbit, bass, Victoria, BC
Russel Botten, saxaphone, Victoria
Roy Styffe, jazz clarinet, saxophones, Victoria, BC
Nicholas Jacques, concert marimba, Edmonton, Alberta
Ken Lavigne, tenor, Chemainus, BC
Joe Poole, drums, Vancouver, BC
Amy Horvey, trumpet, Toronto
Christopher Donison, piano, Victoria, BC

RUSSELL BOTTEN<top>
Bassist

Russell Botten, a Victoria BC native, played sax, guitar and keyboard in many different musical settings before settling exclusively with the bass. In 1983 he attended The Banff School of Fine Arts to study with Dave Holland and Don Thompson. He also studied in the US with Ray Brown, Gary Peacock and John Clayton.

Since his move to Vancouver in 1990, he toured in Japan and the US with jazz vocalist Ernestine Anderson, did club dates, concerts, and CBC broadcasts with Renee Rosnes, Diana Krall, Herb Ellis, Bud Shank, Red Holloway, Jeff Hamilton, Larry Fuller, Clark Terry, Dee Daniels, Frank Wess, and David “Fathead” Newman. He also recorded two CD’s with Seattle’s Jay Thomas, was on a music TV series for 5 years with pianist Louise Rose, and most recently did a concert with Diana Krall for Bill Clinton and his foundation.

Amy Horvey, trumpeter <top>

Dubbed “heaven’s trumpeter” by the Toronto-based ensemble Arraymusic, 26-year-old Amy Horvey is one of Canada’s most versatile and original emerging young trumpeters.

Amy received her BMus at the University of Victoria with Lou Ranger, where she was the winner of the University's Concerto Competition. After her graduation from the University of Victoria, she studied at the Glenn Gould School with Andrew McCandless. While playing in the National Youth Orchestra in 2000-2002, she studied with Vincent Cichowicz and Larry Knopp.

From 2003-2005 Amy studied with Andre Heuvelman at the Rotterdam Conservatory, graduating with the highest possible honors in 2005. She also studied privately with Dutch trumpeter Marco Blaauw and followed courses in electronic music in Rotterdam. While living in the Netherlands she was the winner of the Jury Prize of the 2004 De Link Competition, premiered Philip Matuczewski’s Concerto for Trumpet, and performed in the Holland Festival’s production of John Taverner’s The Veil of the Temple. Exploring new forms and performance approaches, Amy composed and performed the score to the dance work F’Dom, a collaboration with choreographer Agnija Seiko Sarulienne which toured the Netherlands, France and Lithuania.

Since her return to Canada in 2005, she has worked with wide range of performance projects of the highest caliber, including collaborations with Soundstreams Canada and Arraymusic, with whom she performed at the National Arts Centre’s English Theatre.

In 2006, Amy toured Canada with “The Perspective of Disappearance”, a program of new music for solo trumpet sponsored by the Saskatchewan Arts Board. This program was featured at such venues as Open Space Victoria and the Vancouver International Jazz Festival. At the invitation of jazz trumpeter Dave Douglas, she presented the program as a featured soloist at the 2006 Festival of New Trumpet Music in New York City.

Amy has worked with several major symphony orchestras, including the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Winnipeg Symphony, and holds a permanent position with the Thunder Bay Symphony. She has commissioned works from many composers, including Marc Yeats, Cecilia Arditto, Christopher Butterfield, Isak Goldschneider, Ryan Purchase, and Daisuke Terauchi.

Marc Ryser, Pianist <top>

Pianist Marc Ryser has performed as a recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Canada, Switzerland and Bulgaria. He has collaborated with many distinguished artists including the cellists Paul Katz and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, violist Marcus Thompson, violinists Gwen Hoebig and Peter Salaff, the Lydian and New Zealand String Quartets, among others. He has taught at Pomona College, the San Francisco Conservatory, and Drake University, and given master classes in Edmonton and Lethbridge. From 2004 to 2005 he was a senior artist and resident collaborative pianist at The Banff Centre. He currently resides in Boston Massachusetts.

Ann Elliott-Goldschmid – Violinist <top>

Violinist Ann Elliott-Goldschmid is a founding member of the renowned Lafayette String Quartet, Artists in Residence at the University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia. A native of New Brunswick, Canada, she was greatly influenced by both of her parents, pianist Patricia Grant Lewis and composer and conductor, Carleton Elliott. Early, formative studies were with Pauline Harborn, then later with Victor Yampolsky who remained her mentor until finishing her studies at Boston University.

Ann has been the recipient of many awards and scholarships; in her early years she was the star of the New Brunswick Music Festival and won the Canadian National Music Festival. She was awarded a full scholarship to study at Boston University and was twice awarded the certificate for outstanding performer. She was the winner of the BU Concerto Competition and was active in the concertizing scene of Boston while still a student there. She was the first violinist of the Honors String Quartet, working closely with Eugene Lehner and Endel Kalam. For two summers she was awarded scholarships to study in Zurich, Switzerland with Nathan Milstein and in Ammerland, Germany with Denes Zsigmondy. She was a full-time member of the Emanuel Chamber Players and the Harvard Chamber Orchestra and was in demand as a free-lance musician. In 1984 she accepted the position as assistant concertmaster of the newly formed Renaissance City Chamber Players in Detroit and it was there that she met her colleagues in the Lafayette String Quartet. After leaving the Chamber Orchestra, Ann taught violin and chamber music at the Center for Creative Studies, the Rochester Conservatory of Music and at Oakland University where the members of the Lafayette Quartet were in residence. She gave numerous recitals in the Detroit area primarily collaborating with pianists Flavio Varani and Dati Mehta.

Though working together beforehand, it was in July of 1986 that the Lafayette String Quartet's career was officially launched. That same year the LSQ won the Cleveland Quartet Competition resulting in two years of study with members of the Cleveland Quartet at the Eastman School of Music. Ann studied with Donald Weilerstein both as a soloist and as a chamber musician. Charlie Castleman and Lynn Blakesly were also wonderful influences.

Until his untimely death in December of 1997 however, it was Rostislav Dubinsky, primarius of the Borodin Quartet, who remained the musical father for all of the members of the LSQ. It was his belief in the quartet; his dedication to them as individuals and his constant encouragement that enabled the LSQ to continue working as a foursome for over 20 years, a feat no other all-female quartet has managed.

Active in the music scene of Victoria and abroad, Ann is concertmaster of the Galiano Ensemble, is a regular guest of the Olympic Music Festival and the Eine Kleine Summer Music Festival. A huge advocate for Strings in the public schools, she along with her colleague Pamela Highbaugh Aloni, conceived of and team-teach the Strings Mentoring program at UVic. She has been an instructor for the CYMC, the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, and the Egmont Summer Music Festival. She is in great demand as a violin and chamber music coach, adjudicator and player.

Ann has recorded numerous times for CBC radio both as a soloist and with the Lafayette String Quartet. Along with the many recordings of the LSQ, Ann and her mother have recorded Murray Adaskin's first Sonata for Violin and Piano AdLar, and she has recently finished recording Beethoven string trios arranged for guitar with her UVic colleagues Alex Dunn, guitar, Lanny Pollet, flute and Joanna Hood, viola.

Along with her quartet she has completed their third Beethoven Cycle of String Quartets and the Lafayette String Quartet is now 20 years old and is the longest lasting all female quartet with the same personnel in the world.

An avid, but amateur horsewoman, Ann is also the wife of Robert Goldschmid and the mother of Ella and Abby.
"I really should be practicing"-Gary Graffman

Sean Drabitt <top>

Born in Vancouver and raised in Victoria, Sean Drabitt has earned a reputation as a world class jazz bass player. Spending most of the '90's in the vibrant jazz scenes of New York and New Orleans, he was able to work with many of the top names in jazz, including Mark Turner, Kurt Rosenwinkel, all the Marsalis family, Betty Carter, Mike Stern, Greg Tardy, Aaron Goldberg, Eric Harland and many others. He's also performed on records with Jason Marsalis and Nicholas Payton. Sean's played in over 40 countries and spent a year teaching bass at two colleges in Seoul, Korea. His most recent projects include his Jaco Pastorius tribute band and Vancouver's Hip-hop fusion funksters Namedropper.

“The music I play is not easy to describe, as it has grown as a natural personal expression over 35 years. To young people it is acoustic psychedelic chill, to over 40s it is a classical/world music/flamenco sound... All the indigenous musicians I meet understand it immediately…”

Michael was born and raised in a remote logging and fishing village in the coastal forest of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. There was no road, no phone or television, no churches or restaurants; instead there was ocean, forest and sky, and all the fish, animals and birds in them. This experience is without a doubt the foundation of his music.

He avoided choosing to be a professional musician in order to avoid harnessing the music with earning him a living. He spent his twenties traveling the world, encountering musicians and cultures in Mexico, Algeria, France, Ireland.

The guitarists who influenced him during this time were Leo Kottke, John McLaughlin, John Renbourn and Mike Oldfield. The musicians who gave him a sense of direction were Atahualpa Yupanqui, Mozart and, more recently, Guillermo Arevalo.

In 2004, after thirty years of music, Michael experienced a powerful breakthrough. Following a drought of ten years – during which he just kept playing – Michael met the noted Peruvian curandero Guillermo Arevalo. The Shipibo ceremonies used by Guillermo involve chant and song at its deepest expression. This encounter triggered an outpouring of creativity that lasted a year, resulting in all but one of the compositions Earthgate on Famous in Mongolia.

Roy Styffe Jazz saxophone, clarinet and flute <top>

has performed for the past twenty-five years as a jazz saxophonist, clarinetist and flute player. He has his Bachelor of Music Degree from Humber College in Toronto. While in Toronto, Roy recorded and performed with Don Thompson, Ed Bickert, Keny Wheeler, Pat Labarbara, Bernie Senensky and Ron Collier. Roy has two recordings under his own leadership, has taught privately and with the Toronto District School Board. He has performed at major jazz festivals across the counrtry and is now happy to call Victoria home.

Nicholas Jacques <top>

A remarkably versatile percussionist, Nicholas Jacques performs as soloist, orchestral musician, and chamber musician. His interests include everything from classical to contemporary music, and from African to pop. A native of Edmonton, Alberta, Nicholas’ formal percussion training began at the University of Alberta with Brian Jones, and continued at McGill University with D’Arcy Grey and Aundri Malchenko. Nicholas has recently finished his masters of percussion performance at the University of British Columbia studying with Vern Griffits. Nicholas has performed with ensembles such as the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, the Banff Festival Orchestra, and Tommy Banks Big Band. He has held the position of principal percussion with the University of Alberta Wind Ensemble and Symphony Orchestra for three consecutive seasons as well as the McGill Wind Symphony for one season. Nicholas has studied marimba in New Jersey with Leigh Howard Stevens as well as with She-e Wu.

Along side an aspiring career in contemporary percussion performance Nicholas has appeared on stage throughout Canada with artists such as Jens Lindemann, Alain Trudel, Jeffery Goldberg, Rod Thomas Squance, Aiyun Huang, Michael Burrit and Hugh Fraser. His performances have been broadcasted on CBC Radio One and appear on a compilation CD of Canadian Contemporary music alongside pianist Cheryl Cooney. Nicholas devotes much of his time teaching clinics and giving master classes to youth orchestras and young performers, striving to provide the fundamental music skills to upcoming performers.

Ken Lavigne
Contemporary Classical Singer <top>

An exciting blend of classical tenor sound with modern style, this versatile performer commands ovations at every performance.

Lavigne started his career shortly after leaving the University of Victoria, where he studied music. His focus was purely classical at the time, pursuing Opera roles and Oratorio concerts while honing his craft with frequent study in New York and the U.K. Since then, he has earned credits with symphonies and orchestras across Canada and the U.S. from prize-winning performances in Ireland to the special honour of performing for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in his hometown of Victoria B.C.

Ken’s successful debut record saw him return to the style that got him singing in the first place, musical theatre. “It is a genre with lasting appeal not to mention beautiful melodies.” He is currently recording his second solo album entitled Believe, which he hopes to have available in the summer of 2007. Lavigne describes the CD’s playlist as a beautiful melding of classical tenor technique infused with modern style.

Joe Poole – Drummer <top>

Joe Poole earned his degree in Jazz Performance under the guidance of Oscar Peterson, gaining Jazz Report Magazine’s Best Post-Secondary Jazz Musician award along the way. He has performed in over 25 different countries, from Aruba to Spain, Denmark to St. Martin, and of course, numerous cities throughout North America. Joe has played with a respectable ensemble of musicians and bands, including the Verve recording artist Denzal Sinclaire, tenor sax legends Red Holloway, Lew Tabackin, Phil Dwyer, and Houston Person, baritone saxophone great Nick Brignola, alto sax players Richard Underhill and Bob Mover, Lorne Lofsky of the Oscar Peterson Quartet, Neil Swainson George Shearing, Woody Shaw, Don Thompson of the Jim Hall Trio, and Guido Basso of the Boss Brass. His recent work includes a season of playing in France with Dmitri Shapko of the Wynton Marsalis Septet, and regular engagements with renowned vocalist Ernestine Anderson

Christopher Donison <top>

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, and serves as Trustee on the National Arts Centre of Canada Board of Trustees.