CYMC — Comox Valley Youth Music Centre

Diana Krall was born into a musical family in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada. She began learning the piano at age four. In high school, she started playing in a small jazz group. At the age of fifteen, she started playing regularly in several Nanaimo restaurants. At age seventeen she won a scholarship from the Vancouver International Jazz Festival to study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and completed three terms.

In Nanaimo her playing attracted the attention of famed bass player Ray Brown (ex-husband of the late Ella Fitzgerald, long-time member of the Oscar Peterson Trio and Grammy-winning composer) and drummer Jeff Hamilton. After hearing her play, Brown and Hamilton persuaded Krall to move to Los Angeles, and study with pianist Jimmy Rowles, with whom she began to sing. This also brought her into contact with influential teachers and producers. In 1990, Krall relocated to New York.

Since then she has released a dozen albums and 2 DVDs. She has won Grammy’s and the order of British Columbia. She has earned a place in Jazz history and we are proud to be able to name Diana Krall as a former student of CYMC.

dianakrall.com

Nancy Argenta (b Herbison), born in Nelson, BC, 17 Jan 1957; B MUS (Western Ontario) 1980. She spent most of her childhood in Argenta, a small settlement north of Nelson, where her mother taught piano and her father taught at the (Quaker) Friends’ School. She studied voice in Vancouver with Jacob Hamm and at the University of Western Ontario with Martin Chambers. In 1980 she won the S.C. Eckhardt-Gramatté Competition and received the first of three Canada Council grants to study in Europe, initially in Düsseldorf with Jacqueline Richard (1980-81), then in London (1981-3), where her principal mentor was Vera Rosza. While studying in London she adopted the surname Argenta to avoid being mistaken for another Canadian soprano, Nancy Hermiston.

Argenta’s first major international engagement was at Aix-en-Provence, France, in 1983, in Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie directed by John Eliot Gardiner, with the English Baroque Soloists and the Monteverdi Choir. Since then she concertized, recorded, and broadcast extensively throughout Europe, drawing praise for the clarity, lightness, and agility of her voice. In November 1989 she made her Wigmore Hall recital debut. She also performed in the Middle East and Japan.

Argenta was associated particularly with the period instrument movement, and worked with virtually all of the leading ensembles and conductors in the field. Argenta’s success came largely through her interpretations of baroque repertoire, but she did not consider herself a specialist; she had a substantial 19th- and 20th-century repertoire Although she moved to London, England, in 1981, she continued to perform regularly in Canada with Tafelmusik and also with orchestras, Her US appearances included Lincoln Center, NY (with The English Concert, 1989), Atlanta (with Robert Shaw), St Paul (1989), and a California tour with Tafelmusik (1990), followed by later appearances in Chicago, Ann Arbor, and other cities.

In 1990, Argenta won the Canada Council’s Virginia P. Moore Prize; a 1992 recording with Tafelmusik (Handel, Excerpts from ’Floridante’) won a Juno award. Her 1995 recording of Purcell songs (O Solitude, EMI) received a Classic CD award. She gave master classes at London’s Guildhall School of Music, and regularly at Nelson Summer Song Fest. Urjo Kareda reported (Globe and Mail, 18 Jan 1997) that, “Argenta’s voice possesses a bell-like clarity, but the tone has a natural, unforced lyricism ... Feeling is released with simplicity, and no undue archness or artifice interferes with her appealing directness of manner.”

She has earned a place in music history and we are proud to be able to name Nancy Argenta as a former student of CYMC.

Gwen Hoebig, violinist, born Vancouver 19 Sep 1959; B MUS (Juilliard) 1980, M MUS (Juilliard) 1981. She began musical studies with her father at five. Other teachers were Sydney Humphreys in Victoria, Stephen Staryk and John Loban in Vancouver, and Ivan Galamian and Sally Thomas at the Juilliard School. Hoebig’s orchestral debut was with the Vancouver Youth Orchestra at age seven, and she was a frequent winner of music festivals and competitions in Canada and Europe.

In 1972 she won the string category in the National Competitive Festival of Music (CIBC National Music Festival), and in the same category in 1975 was first in the CBC Talent Festival. In 1975 a piano trio with her cellist brother Desmond Hoebig and pianist Jon Kimura Parker tied for second place in the Concertina Praga. Hoebig won the grand prize in the 1976 Canadian Music Competitions, the International Competition for junior violinists in Glasgow (second, 1977), the S.C. Eckhardt-Gramatté Competition (1977), and second prize (no first awarded) in the 1981 Munich International Violin Competition. Her New York concerto debut was with the Juilliard Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall in 1980.

With her brother Desmond, and her husband, the pianist David Moroz (b Winnipeg 1959; M MUS Juilliard 1981), she formed in 1979 the Hoebig/Moroz Trio, which won first prize in the CBC Radio Talent Competition in 1983 and continued to perform on an occasional basis in 2003. In 1993 she received a Commemorative Medal for the 125th Anniversary of Canadian Confederation for her contribution to the arts. She has earned a place in music history and we are proud to be able to name Gwen Hoebig as a former student of CYMC.

We are proud to be able to name Gwen Hoebig as a former student of CYMC.

Born in Vancouver and raised in Nanaimo, Canada, Ingrid headed east after receiving a number of scholarships to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Since graduating in 1989, her life has contained a whirlwind of musical activities. From her early days playing in the subways of New York, to establishing herself as a leader and soloist in a wide array of musical genres, Ingrid has made her mark. Her three CD’s for the ENJA label won her nominations from the Canadian Juno Awards, including an award in 1995 for Vernal Fields.

Her performances as a leader and as a featured soloist have taken her around the world from Canada to Japan, Australia, South America, the Caribbean and to almost every country in Europe and Scandinavia.

Jensen can be heard with the Maria Schneider Orchestra, the IJQ, Nordic Connect and a number of New York-based bands. She has received rave reviews and a strong reputation among critics and peers. In 2003 she was nominated, for the second time, alongside trumpeter Dave Douglas for a Jazz Journalist Association Award in New York. A recent highlight was being featured on Gil Evans’ Porgy and Bess at the San Francisco Jazz Festival, under the direction of Maria Schneider. She was also a guest in the festival’s “Tribute to Woody Shaw and Freddie Hubbard’, alongside Terence Blanchard, Eddie Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson and Kenny Garrett. Some of the many musicians she has performed and or recorded with include; Steve Wilson, Jeff ’Tain’ Watts, Dr.Lonnie Smith, Marc Copland, Bob Berg, Gary Thomas, Gary Bartz, Jeff Hamilton, Bill Stewart, Terri-Lynn Carrington, Geoffrey Keezer, Billy Hart, George Garzone, Chris Connor, Victor Lewis, Clark Terry, and the DIVA Big Band.

Ingrid has been on staff at the Port Townsend Centrum Jazz Workshop for the past five years and from 1990 until 1992 held the professor of Jazz Trumpet chair at the Bruckner Conservatory of Music. Jensen continues to fill her schedule with an astonishing array of artistic creativity as a performer and educator. In addition to performing, she conducts master classes, clinics, and workshops around the world.

We are proud to be able to name Ingrid Jensen as a former student of CYMC.

ingridjensen.com

Violin player Paule Préfontaine is a member of Thirteen Strings, regularly plays with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, and since 2005 has been a co-founding member of the Lumière String Quartet. She has enjoyed a versatile career as recitalist, soloist, orchestral player and chamber musician. Paule has performed chamber music throughout Canada, Norway, Sweden, Austria and Finland, and in broadcasts on CBC Radio and the Norwegian Radio Kringkasting. As a member of the renowned Tafelmusik, she toured Europe, Canada and the United States, appearing as soloist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

In her orchestral career, she has been concertmaster of the Niagara Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre des Jeunes du Québec, and the MusikBarock Ensemble in Winnipeg. She toured Scandinavia, Europe and Japan as assistant concertmaster of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. She is an active teacher both privately and at the University of Ottawa.

We are proud to be able to name Paule Prefontaine as a former student of CYMC.

chamberfest.com

Daniel Armstrong has been a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since June 1995. Prior to this he served twelve seasons as Assistant Principal Bass in the Milwaukee Symphony.

A native of Canada’s west coast, Dan started playing bass in his third year of studies at the University of British Columbia. With the encouragement of his first teacher, Kenneth Friedman of the Vancouver Symphony, he went on to receive a Masters of Music degree at the Juilliard School, where he studied with Homer Mensch. Dan then performed with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra for four years, and continued study with Eugene Levinson.

Dan was a founding member of both the period instrument ensemble Tafelmusik and the contemporary music ensemble Present Music. He has appeared as bass soloist with the Milwaukee Symphony, including a performance on a program that showcased one of his own compositions. He has also been featured as soloist, composer, and chamber music collaborator on CBC Radio in Canada, and WFMT Chicago.

Dan Armstrong lives in Shorewood, Wisconsin, with his wife Judith Harway, a professor at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, and their two teenagers, Sylvie and Keith.

We are proud to be able to name Dan Armstrong as a former student of CYMC.

cso.org

Katherine Broderick was the winner of the 2007 Kathleen Ferrier Award. She finished her studies at the National Opera Studio in London in 2008, having previously studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she won the Gold Medal, and took the undergraduate course at the Royal Northern College of Music, during which time she spent a year at the Mendelssohn Hochschule in Leipzig. She studies with Susan McCulloch.

Current and future plans include soloist in Mahler Symphony No 4 and Strauss Lieder with The Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Okko Kamu; Beethoven Symphony No 9 with Ivor Bolton and the Mozarteum Orchestra; Brahms Requiem in Cambridge, conducted by Sir Roger Norrington; Bruckner Mass No 3 with the National Orchestra of Spain and Simone Young; Mahler Symphony No 2 with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop at the Royal Festival Hall in London; a performance at Kings Place London of Britten Poet’s Echo with Malcolm Martineau and recitals in London with Eugene Asti.

Recent appearances have included Mozart Requiem with the Madrid Radio Symphony Orchestra and Takuo Yuasa; First Lady Die Zauberflöte for Glyndebourne on Tour; Bruckner Mass in F Minor with the BBCSO and Belohlavek; Woglinde Götterdämmerung with the Halle Orchestra and Mark Elder, the role in which she made her Proms debut with the BBCSO and Donald Runnicles in 2007; the Young Lover Il Tabarro with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Gianandrea Noseda at the 2008 Proms; Mahler Symphony No 2 and Bruckner Te Deum at the Chester Festival with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and David Hill; Britten Les Illuminations with the St George’s Orchestra at LSO St. Luke’s; Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony with the Munich Bach Choir and also with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra; Rossini Stabat Mater with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Beethoven Mass in C Minor with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

Katherine has sung the title role in Puccini Suor Angelica and Agathe in Weber Der Freischütz in Leipzig. In college productions at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama she sang Georgetta in Puccini Il Tabarro; Countess Le Nozze di Figaro and Countess in Strauss Capriccio. For British Youth Opera she has sung Lady Billows, Albert Herring and Tatyana Eugene Onegin, which prompted Hilary Finch in The Times to write “Katherine Broderick - still only in her twenties - now confirms and expands her thrillingly burgeoning vocal skills in her formidable stage presence as a Tatyana of outstanding character and power.”

Katherine regularly gives recitals, most recently at the Aix-en-Provence Festival; at the Aldeburgh Festival with Malcolm Martineau; at Kings Place London with Eugene Asti and in Perth with Simon Lepper.

Katherine was one of the first and youngest recipients of the Susan Chilcott Award in 2005 and the following year won the Maggie Teyte Prize. She has also been awarded successive Maidment Scholarships from the Musicians’ Benevolent Fund, the Claire Francis award from the Ogden Trust, the Sybill Tutton award, and is a Samling scholar.

More information about Katherine Broderick

Surviving as an “environmental” singer for the past twenty five years has not been easy, but coming from pioneering stock and a sea-faring family, always ready to tackle issues that seem insurmountable to others, Holly’s determination to bring the message of environmental sustainability to the world is unwavering. Working in collaboration for many years with her late husband and producer, Stephen Foster, and today with a group of talented musicians and artists, she creates songs of innocence that carry a much deeper relevance. She is always ready to “tilt at a windmill” if it will lead to deeper understanding of the important environmental issues that confront us in our daily lives.

Holly, together with Stephen, created the Artist Response Team (ART) which has developed in-school music programs throughout Canada, working with thousands of children, parents and teachers alike, to help them learn songs about ecological issues, sing them in concerts and record them for CDs and radio shows. ART has now produced provincially recommended and award-winning educational resources in the form of educator’s handbooks (Cycle of Life/Recycle and Salish Sea) that contain music, art and science, and assist schools in teaching about the issues while meeting their prescribed learning outcomes.

During her professional career, Holly has shared the stage with Stan Rogers, Herbie Hancock, Dan Hill, Paul Horn, Bruce Cockburn, Sarah McLachlan, Paul Hyde, Doug Bennett, David Sinclair, Fred Penner, The Arrogant Worms, Ian Tyson and many more. Since the 1980’s Holly has performed at major folk and children’s festivals across Canada, done concert tours in most provinces, taken part in many radio and television productions, and has recorded a vast catalogue of CDs, the latest being Magic On Our Tongues (currently in production).

Holly is committed to share her passion for the natural world so that what she loves will be loved by others. She is living proof that education can make a difference; the students she works with learn incredible amounts about nature, and are prepared to make sound decisions about the environment in ways that will affect their world positively all of their lives. What a great contribution to Canadian culture and the world at large!

We are proud to be able to name Holly Arntzen as a former student of CYMC.

hollyarntzen.ca

John is CYMC alumni of three summers (1978 – 1980). In his own words, ”The experience of meeting and studying with such faculty as Vincent Chicowitz, Gordon Cherry, Dave Robbins, Doug Sparkes and many others is what inspired me to become a professional musician. I greatly value the opportunity to hold the position of the CYMC Classical Music Director in Summer 2009 and therefore hope to have a similarly positive impact on the artistic lives of the current generation of students.”

John was Principal Guest Conductor of the Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra for ten years, and led the orchestra in Stockholm, Helsinki as well as the Philharmonic Strings in the prestigious Prague Spring Festival.

He is Music Director of Orchestra Armonia, www.orchestra-armonia.com a new string ensemble in Vancouver, and for the past two years, Associate Conductor of the UBC Symphony Orchestra and Music Direcctor of the Concert Winds ensemble.

John’s work with young people has included the past 3 years on the faculty of the UBC Summer Music Institute, 17 years as Adjunct Professor of Trombone at the Taipei National University of the Arts, and since 2005, Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Langley BC.

John currently holds the position of Program Coordinator for UBC’s new PRIMA (Pacific Rim Institute for the Musical Arts) program, a new program in development,that plans to provide ESL studies for international music students.

Bassist David Brown has been a member of Vancouver's professional music community for thirty years. He has performed with almost all the musical organizations (Masterpiece Music, Curio, Music in the Morning, Vancouver New Music, Vancouver Children's Festival, Vancouver Chamber Choir, Festival Vancouver, Vancouver Jazz Festival, Cantata Singers, UBC Recital Series, Vetta Chamber Music, Turning Point Ensemble, VSO) in existence during this time. In addition to live performance David has extensive film and commercial recording experience. He has toured with The Three Tenors and the Winnipeg Ballet.

A committed teacher he instructs both privately and has taught at most of the music performance departments (UBC, Capilano College, Kwantlen, VCC) in the lower mainland. During the summers he has performed at the Grand Teton, Sitka, Hornby Is. and Courtenay Music Festivals.

A recipient of two Canada Council Arts Grants, which enabled his studies at the Juilliard School, David has been a member of the Vancouver Symphony since 1978 and Principal Bass of the CBC Radio Orchestra since 2004. David enjoys a wide variety of musical opportunities and has a particular interest in small ensemble settings of a chamber music or improvisational nature.

Russell Bajer has been an instructor of oboe at cymc for the past 7 years. He attended CYMC as a student in 1976,1978,1979, 1981.

"The memories of cymc and the instruction have stayed with me my whole life. The invaluable experiences of youth orchestra and chamber ensembles and the great instruction by Jerry Domer all have molded me into the player I am today. The relationships I developed were long lasting, two of the people in particular are still close friends to this day."

He has been a member of the Victoria Symphony for 14 years,play in the group "Aventa" and teaches at the Victoria Conservatory of music.

Christopher Millard is one of Canada’s best known woodwind artists, He was the principal bassoon for the Vancouver Symphony and the CBC Radio Orchestra for 28 years. In 2004 he re-joined the NAC Orchestra, where he performed as acting principal bassoon for the 1987-1988 seasons while then-principal bassoon Gerald Corey was on leave-of-absence.

A regular guest artist and teacher at the Scotia, Oxford and Ottawa Festivals, the Domaine Forget in Quebec and the Banff Centre, Christopher Millard has also appeared in concert and recordings with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Marlboro Festival, and the World Orchestra for Peace, the Grand Teton Music Festival and the National Arts Centre Orchestra.

NAC Orchestra Music Director Pinchas Zukerman said “he combines exceptional musicality and many years of experience. He’s also a mentor of many young wind players, a supportive colleague of fellow musicians…”

A student of the legendary Sol Schoenbach at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, Mr. Millard also studied with the great French flutist Marcel Moyse. He has become an important teacher himself: He has been a faculty member of the University of British Columbia, and bassoon professor for the National Youth Orchestra where for 20 years he helped to nurture many of the best of the new generation of Canadian wind players.

He has received wide praise for his four solo recordings, which include a disc in the prestigious “Orchestra Pro” series for Summit Records and a recent CBC records disc of Italian concerti with Mario Bernardi and the CBC Radio Orchestra. He is also a member of the acclaimed Caliban Bassoon Quartet. His most recent recordings, both on CBC records, include a new Schubert Octet and the Hétu Bassoon Concerto, the latter of which recently won a 2004 Juno Award. In a recent review of his CD Duos, the peer journal The Double Reed called Mr. Millard “one of the great bassoonists of the 20th century.”

Christopher Millard has a second career as a musical instrument technician and manufacturer. He is a partner with Backun Musical Services, a Vancouver company that specializes in high-end woodwind repairs and is currently developing its own line of clarinets.

He has earned a place in music history and we are proud to be able to name Christopher Miillard as a former student of CYMC.

A native of Victoria, Marc Destrubé is equally at home as a soloist, chamber musician, concertmaster or director/conductor of orchestras and divides his time between performances of the standard repertoire, particularly music of the 20th century, on modern instruments, and performing baroque and classical music on period instruments.

He has appeared as soloist and guest director with symphony orchestras in Victoria, Windsor and Halifax as well as with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and Portland Baroque Orchestra and he led the Belgian ensemble Anima Eterna in acclaimed recordings of the complete Mozart Piano Concerti 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 and of the Hanover Band.

Marc is first violinist with the Axelrod String Quartet and also plays and records regularly with L’Archibudelli (Vera Beths, Jurgen Küssmaul, Anner Bijlsma).

As a 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, Japan and Australia. He was concertmaster of the CBC Radio Orchestra in Vancouver from 1996 to 2002, and is concertmaster of the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra.

He has been director of the Pacific Baroque Orchestra since its founding in 1991 and has been responsible for commissioning works for the orchestra from a number of Vancouver-based composers, as well as instigating other innovative projects such as a program of French baroque and First Nations (aboriginal) dance and music. He has also directed several Modern Baroque Opera productions, including the premiere of Peter Hannan’s 120 Songs for the Marquis de Sade.

Recent highlights include performances of the complete Beethoven string quartet cycle with the Axelrod String Quartet in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, and at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. where the ASQ is quartet-in-residence and plays on the museum’s exceptional collection of Stradivari and Amati instruments; a performance and recording of music by Erwin Schulhoff and Rudolf Komorous with the Turning Point Ensemble; a tour of Italy, Poland and Holland as concertmaster of the Orchestra of the 18th Century in performances of Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes; and a recital of music by Schumann and Brahms on 19th century instruments.

A highly-respected teacher, he gives annual classes at international academies in Mateus (Portugal) and Vancouver. He has also been an invited teacher at the Paris, Moscow and Utrecht Conservatoires and has presented children’s concerts at the Cité de la Musique (Paris).

His recording of Haydn Violin Concertos on the ATMA label has been praised by the Strad Magazine (London) for the “stylish solo playing…, individual yet un-selfconcious” and by Whole Note Magazine (Toronto) for its “bold and daring solo playing”. He has also recorded for Sony, EMI, Teldec, Channel Classics, Hänssler, Globe and CBC Records as well as being broadcast regularly on the CBC.

He has earned a place in music history and we are proud to be able to name Marc Destrube as a former student of CYMC.

David Gaudry is the acting Co-Principal Viola with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. He is a soloist and chamber music recording artist. David graduated from Indiana University and is a former member of Vancouver Symphony. As part of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra David played on S&M, rock band Metallica’s ninth album, recorded live on April 21-22 of 1999.

“My first violin teacher said, ’You’ll study viola because you have big hands—and because I need violas in my orchestra.’” That teacher was Harry Gomez, who conducted the youth orchestra in Vancouver, British Columbia, where David Gaudry was born and raised. He was eight when he began playing the violin, but before he knew it, Gomez’s prophecy was fulfilled and he had switched to viola, an instrument with which he felt much more comfortable. His sister, seven years his senior, was trained as a pianist. “I always felt she was overworked, burned out. I had the sense that I shouldn’t do the same thing. I didn’t. I played in a young people’s orchestra and in quartets, but I can’t say I took music seriously until I was a teenager.” What changed his life was studying with the violist Gerald Stanick, a former member of the Fine Arts Quartet. When Stanick accepted a teaching position at the University of Western Ontario, he took with him three of his students—including David, who by this time was seventeen—arranged scholarships for them, and gave them rooms in his house. “He took over from my parents. I didn’t make my own decision to go into music professionally until I was nineteen or twenty.” When he did decide, he went to Indiana University, where he studied with Georges Janzer, formerly the violist of the Grumieux Trio, and Abraham Skernick, who had been principal violist in George Szell’s Cleveland Orchestra for twenty-one years. From cellist Janos Starker he learned lessons about the principals of physical motion with which a string layer governs the instrument, from Skernick he learned close analysis of the music, and from Janzer he learned a deeper appreciation of its shapes. He played with local orchestras while a student, and after graduation, he was a member of the Vancouver Symphony for two years. In 1982, he joined the San Francisco Symphony. (“Canadians think of orchestras in the United States as the big time.”) His wife, Nancy, is a pianist, and with her he has formed a duo, the repertory for viola and piano being surprisingly rich (Brahms’s transcriptions of his clarinet sonatas, Bloch’s suite, Britten’s Lachrymae, Hindemith sonatas, Schumann’s Marchenbilder…). The characteristics of musicianship in which he was steeped as a student still govern his approach to his art. “I like to find a rational cause for making something beautiful. It’s good to feel things about music, but it helps to understand why you feel those things.

We are proud to be able to name David Gaudry as a former student of CYMC.

Renee Rosnes, pianist, composer, born in Regina 24 Mar 1962. Rosnes grew up in North Vancouver with her adoptive family. While studying piano with Leslie Janos and playing violin in the Vancouver Youth Orchestra, she was introduced to jazz by Bob Rebagliati, the music teacher at Handsworth Secondary School in North Vancouver. After further piano studies 1980-2 with William Aide at the University of Toronto, she turned exclusively to jazz, working initially in Vancouver 1982-5 with Oliver Gannon, Roy Reynolds, and others.

She moved to New York on a Canada Council grant in 1985, and soon emerged as one of the most gifted jazz pianists of her generation, playing under the particular influence of Herbie Hancock. In 1987 she began playing and traveling internationally with the all-female quartet of tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson and became a member of Out Of The Blue. She also toured in bands led by such major US jazzmen as the saxophonist Wayne Shorter (1988), the trombonist J.J. Johnson (1988), and the trumpeter Jon Faddis (1989). Her own groups have performed at Canadian festivals, in New York, and in Japan. Ensembles led by Rosnes have included trio, quartet and quintet formats, frequently with her husband, drummer Billy Drummond.

Her playing on the album Renee Rosnes, which included duets with Shorter and Hancock, drew praise from Fred Bouchard for its ’exquisite balances of delicacy and power, witty and weighted ideas, assertiveness and deference’ (Down Beat, June 1990). A succession of 5 recordings for Blue Note, as leader, drove her reputation higher with each effort.

Rosnes is one of a few Canadian women jazz musicians to have her own ensembles, and to compose. Among her recorded compositions are the titles “The Storyteller,” “I.A. Blues,” “Fleur-de-lis,” “North of the Border,” “For the Moment,” “Malaga Moon,” “Nemesis,” and “Homeward.” She was commissioned to write and arrange for the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band and Winton Marsalis’ Jazz at Lincoln Centre. Robert Farnon arranged her Malaga Moon for orchestra.

She has earned a place in music history and we are proud to be able to name Renee Rosnes as a former student of CYMC.

"I was a camper CYMC for the first 7 years of its existence. I now work as a music educator in Saskatoon having taught high school band in Ontario for 25 years. I am also a keen trumpeter and play in many ensembles amateur and professional, the Saskatoon Brass Band and the Saskatoon Jazz Society Big Band to name a couple."

"At the camp I played trumpet with Peter Audet and Chris Robertson, Holly and Jenny Arntzen were also in the orchestra that I played in, I think I was one of the youngest campers at the first camp in 1967. Just out of interest my Dad, Jack Scott was the president of the Junior Symphony Society at the time and was instrumental in starting the camp."

We are pround to think that David is carrying on the legacy of CYMC and passing it on to his students and to all who enjoy his music

David's email address

North Carolina-born flutist Karen Suzanne Smithson is well-known for her musical activities in Vancouver, British Columbia where she performed and taught for nearly 35 years. She made her performing debut at the age of 15 in Hawaii where she performed a set of 10 short pieces for flute and koto (Japanese harp) written by her father Elliot Weisgarber for the Maui Japanese Cultural Association.

Subsequently she has become a great advocate of her father’s music and has performed, both as soloist and chamber musician, throughout the West from Anchorage to San Diego. She is the author of a major flute teaching method which became EWA’s first publication in 1994. Since then she has composed several more collections of flute duets and flute & piano arrangements all of which are published by EWA. Until her relocation to Kelowna, B.C. in 2006 she played co-principal flute and piccolo with Vancouver’s West Coast Symphony as well as principal flute with North Vancouver’s North Shore Sinfonia. She now devotes her time entirely to her work as a publisher and to the furtherance of her late father’s work.

Sarah, who was Sarah Scott when she attended CYMC has gone on to obtain a Music performance degree from UBC and continues to play flute professionally in Calgary.

Sarah's email address