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The Royal Conservatory of Music and the Glenn Gould School
Fourteen artists connected to the Royal Conservatory of Music, including pianists, string players and singers, as well as a percussionist, are included in the 2020 CBC 30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians Under 30 list. Pianist Stewart Goodyear, an alumnus of the RCM Certificate Program and the Glenn Gould School, has been named as an Honorary Fellow of the RCM during the first-ever online convocation ceremony for the RCM Certificate Program last September. Angela Schwarzkopf, faculty member at the Glenn Gould School (GGS), took home a major prize at the 2020 JUNO Awards, as did two RCM alumni. Ernesto Cervini won Jazz Album of the Year: Group for the Turboprop Abundance album, while Stefan Babcock, also an alumnus and a member of the band PUP, took home the prize for Alternative Album of the Year for Morbid Stuff.
Schulich School of Music, McGill University
The Schulich School of Music welcomes two new faculty members. The American bass Matthew Treviño has started teaching in the voice area; and a newly created position in music pedagogy that ties with the school’s focus on teaching and learning has been given to Andrea Creech. On the research side, there are two new Canada research chairs in the school: musicologist David Brackett and music theorist Edward Klorman. The violin professor Jinjoo Cho is one of the 18 new William Dawson Scholars. The master’s level conducting student Kelly Lin recently won the prestigious Hnatyshyn Foundation Christa and Franz-Paul Decker Fellowship in Conducting.
Orford Musique
As it prepares to celebrate its 70th anniversary in 2021, Orford Musique has entered an important period of strategic analysis. As part of this dynamic renewal process, the organization will begin opening its doors to artists and university students looking for a peaceful setting in which to pursue their creative goals. Artist residencies are planned for the fall, involving cellist Stéphane Tétreault, harpist Valérie Milot, pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin and violinist Andrew Wan.
University of British Columbia
The School of Music welcomed two new full-time faculty this year: music theorist Leigh VanHandel and mezzo-soprano Krisztina Szabó. Professor VanHandel is a leading expert on teaching music theory and the editor of The Routledge Companion to Music Theory Pedagogy (2020). Professor Szabó has performed on some of the biggest stages in North America and Europe. She most recently taught at the University of Toronto.
The School of Music is seeking to fill the position of assistant professor of piano. The ideal candidate has experience beyond classical music but is grounded strongly in that tradition. One of the school’s larger projects this year is a cross-collaboration with the Belkin Gallery, the First Nations House of Learning and the Chan Centre. The project is an installation at the Belkin Gallery called Soundings.
Western University
The Don Wright Faculty of Music is pleased to announce that Mark Ramsay has joined the faculty as coordinator of choral activities. Also, Professor Emerita Victoria Meredith received the Choral Canada Distinguished Service Award. Student Leslie Higgins, BMus (Voice), received the Outstanding Student Essay award with “To Blend or not to Blend: A Solo Singer’s Guide to Singing in Choral Ensembles.”
Université de Montréal
The Université de Montréal music faculty is strengthening its singing sector with the addition of the acclaimed tenor Richard Margison as vocal teacher. Margison, who was already teaching as a visiting professor, was very appreciative of the students. The faculty enhances the diversity of its composition sector by welcoming three young teacher-composers: Myriam Boucher, Jimmie Leblanc and Dominic Thibault. Boucher, a former student of Jean Piché with an audiovisual practice, works on music video with an innovative outlook. Leblanc develops his compositional approach by making connections between the visual arts and the theoretical reflections that are part of the philosophy of perception. Thibault, who is oriented to musical practice and technology, has experience ranging from music production to technical direction.
Concordia
The music department has hired Josh Reger as a full-time professor. This vibrant up-and-coming jazz pianist who graduated from McGill was hired not long after his graduation and will be taking over the jazz area after the long-standing founding member Charles Ellison. Professor Ricardo Dal Farra teaches an intensive course as part of ISEA2020, the world’s largest conference dedicated to art, culture and technology. Moreover, 17 fine-arts students will also be showing their work. Last June, during a special online celebration of the 2020 Juno Awards, Dawn Tyler Watson, BFA 94, won Blues Album of the Year.
Carleton University
Carleton University has a new venue for their students: the Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre, an historic church that has been transformed into an arts, performance and learning space. Individuals such as local cellist Bryan Cheng booked the CDCC to livestream his participation in a national competition, playing Dvořák’s Cello Concerto and winning the $20,000 first prize. The university’s School for Studies in Art and Culture has announced that genre-defying multi-instrumentalist Petr Cancura will be the artist-in-residence in Carleton’s music program for the winter 2021 semester.
Université de Sherbrooke
This fall, the Université de Sherbrooke’s school of music is implementing the second phase of the first professionalizing baccalaureate in music. With this second phase, the school finalizes the project with the addition of teaching tools that are specific to professional practice. Professor Jean-François Desrosby, a guitar specialist, who is interested in optimizing instrumental performance, joins the faculty. New lecturers include: Malika Tirolien, in vocals; Zoé Dumais, in jazz, world and pop violin; Jean Fernand Girard, in jazz piano; Philippe Turcotte, in pop keyboard; Dimitri Lebel-Alexandre, in pop guitar; and Marilène Provencher-Leduc, in flute.
Vanier College celebrating 50 years
Despite the COVID response, which has effectively closed the college to classes and live activities, the Vanier College music department is continuing to stage events celebrating its 50 years through streaming services. These will include the Noon Concert Series, which begins this month with visits from successful alumni and a jazz combo concert on Nov. 25. Nov. 7 sees the 2020 Virtual Open House for Music, which will include online visits with area teachers from Nov. 10 to 12 in the evenings, and virtual workshops on Saturday, Nov. 28. The Vanier College Choir will round out the fall semester with a streamed concert from Église Saint-Laurent during the week of Dec. 7 to 11.
Plans for concerts and other events during the winter semester are on hold pending the outcome of the pandemic and alert levels for the city of Montreal. Major events for Winter 2021 are currently scheduled for March 31 (Annual Noël Spinelli Vocal Scholarships Recital); April 19 (23rd Annual Big Band Benefit) and May 7 (End of Year Choir Concert). The year will end with a gala and dinner/dance on June 19, 2021, with a band that will feature current faculty, students, and alumni on stage for a consummate musical extravaganza.
Oberlin Conservatory of Music
The Oberlin Conservatory of Music has five new interdisciplinary programs, announced last fall and launched this semester. For students interested in the science of how music gets inside our heads, there is the Music and Cognition minor; for those interested in how music has been shaped by the society, there is the Music and Popular Culture minor; to explore performance across the arts, there is the Interdisciplinary Performance minor; for the students with interest in technologies, there is the Arts and Creative Technologies minor; finally, for those interested in the administrative side of music, there is the Arts Administration and Leadership Integrative noncentration. Also, the conservatory announced a new program in Recording Arts and Production that will begin in fall 2021. Designed for students with an undergraduate degree, the program offers training for careers in the recording arts, with a multitude of opportunities for hands-on learning and a distinctive emphasis on engineering and producing classical and jazz music.
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