BC Advisory Council 2022-2023
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Jennifer Butler (b. 1976) is a composer and flutist living in Vancouver, BC.
Her music, described as “beautifully remote” (Vancouver Sun), “intimate” (Globe and Mail), and “disquieting” (Vancouver Observer), has been commissioned, performed, and broadcast across Canada, in the United States, Australia, and Europe. She loves working with quiet and fragile sounds, but will often juxtapose these with loud, forceful outbursts of sound. Silence, organic change, layered textures, and holding and releasing tension are important qualities in many of her compositions.
Jennifer has been commissioned and performed by outstanding artists such as Continuum Contemporary Music (Toronto), The Victoria Symphony, the Western Front (Vancouver), Redshift (Vancouver), the Vancouver Intercultural Orchestra, Bradyworks (Montreal), the Emily Carr String Quartet (Victoria), the Turning Point Ensemble (Vancouver), Nu:BC (Vancouver), and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
Recent projects include: Songs for Klee Wyck, commissioned by Victoria’s Emily Carr String Quartet; Four Horses, a song cycle written with Peter Anderson for Mark McGregor, Dory Hayley and Adrian Verdejo; The Stars Have Closed Their Eyes, commissioned by Bradyworks; held in the hand, commissioned by the Vancouver Inter-cultural Orchestra; Stolen Materials Stolen Time, commissioned by Standing Wave; The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls, commissioned by Vancouver New Music; Under Bleak Skies, commissioned by Redshift for Aventa at the Vancouver Aquatic Centre; and Unvanishing, a collaboration with video artist Terry Billings and the Saskatoon Symphony.
In 2010 Rachel Iwassa released Cosmophony, a large project that brings together the work of eleven Canadian composers writing about the cosmos, including Jennifer’s piece Neptune. In 2009 Mark McGregor released his new recording Different Stones, which features Jennifer’s work Sky and in 2007 Vancouver duo Tiresias recorded For Dreams of Things that Cannot Be on their CD Delicate Fires, which was nominated in 2008 for a West Coast Music Award.
As both a composer and a performer, Jennifer Butler often collaborates with other artists on multi-disciplinary projects. Since 2002 she has been collaborating with CURV, an experimental interdisciplinary ensemble with composer-performers Kristy Farkas and Marci Rabe. In April 2007, CURV was commissioned by Continuum Contemporary Music (Toronto) to create and perform 20 Silent Words, an hour-long piece incorporating sound, text, movement and image. One of her major artistic influences has been her long term participation, as composer and performer, in R. Murray Schafer’s annual interdisciplinary project And Wolf Shall Inherit the Moon.
Jennifer was the President of the council for the Canadian League of Composers from 2011-14 , and currently sits on boards for Vancouver’s Redshift and Standing Wave, and the Canadian New Music Network (CNMN). She is also on the Advisory Council for the Canadian Music Centre, BC region.
Jennifer completed a DMA (2009) in composition and a Master’s degree (2002) at the University of British Columbia. She completed her Bachelor’s degree (1999) in composition at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, ON.
Jennifer Butler (b. 1976) is a composer and flutist living in Vancouver, BC.
Her music, described as “beautifully remote” (Vancouver Sun), “intimate” (Globe and Mail), and “disquieting” (Vancouver Observer), has been commissioned, performed, and broadcast across Canada, in the United States, Australia, and Europe. She loves working with quiet and fragile sounds, but will often juxtapose these with loud, forceful outbursts of sound. Silence, organic change, layered textures, and holding and releasing tension are important qualities in many of her compositions.
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Described as “evocative and kaleidoscopic”, the music of composer Dorothy Chang often embraces an eclectic mix of musical influences, ranging from popular and folk music to elements of traditional Chinese music. Many of her works are inspired by place, time, memory and personal histories. Her music has been featured in concerts and festivals across North America and abroad, with performances by the Albany, Calgary Philharmonic, Indianapolis, Montreal, Pittsburgh, Saint Paul Chamber, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver and Victoria Symphony Orchestras, and chamber ensembles including eighth blackbird, the Smith Quartet, Soundstreams and the Turning Point Ensemble, among others. She has received awards from organizations including ASCAP, the Barlow Endowment, Canada Council for the Arts, Chamber Music America, the Fromm Music Foundation, a 2022 JUNO Award nomination and the 2022 WCMA Classical Composer of the Year Award. Since 2003, Dorothy has served on the faculty of the University of British Columbia, where she is a Professor of Music.
One of Canada’s most prominent composers, Stephen Chatman has received many composition awards, including 2005, 2006, 2010 and 2020 Western Canadian Music Awards, 2010 and 2012 SOCAN Jan V. Matejcek Awards, three BMI Awards and three JUNO nominations. In 2012, Dr. Chatman was appointed to the Order of Canada. His works, published by ECSPublishing, Cypress, Boosey & Hawkes, E. B. Marks, Oxford University Press and earthsongs have sold 500,000 printed copies. His orchestral music has been performed by the BBC Symphony, Berlin Radio Orchestra, Montreal, Sydney, Seoul, San Francisco, Winnipeg, Quebec, St Louis, Detroit, Calgary, Toronto, Edmonton, Dallas and New World symphonies. He is professor emeritus of composition at the University of British Columbia.
Composer, improviser, and vocalist Katerina Gimon’s uniquely dynamic, poignant, and eclectic compositional style is rapidly gaining her a reputation as a distinctive voice in contemporary Canadian composition and beyond. Her music has been described as “sheer radiance” (Campbell River Mirror), “imbued…with human emotion” (San Diego Story), and capable of taking listeners on a “fascinating journey of textural discovery” (Ludwig Van), earning her several honours including two SOCAN Awards (2016, 2021), nomination for Western Canadian Composer of the Year (2021), and a Barbara Pentland Award for Outstanding Composition (2022).
Katerina’s music draws influence from a myriad of places — from Eastern European folk music to indie rock, as well as from her roots as a songwriter. Her compositions have been performed widely across Canada, the United States, and internationally, including at Carnegie Hall, Orpheum Theatre, and the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. Recent commissions include new music for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the University of Montana, the Hamilton Children’s Choir, and the Orpheus Choir of Toronto.
Katerina is also a founding member (composer, vocalist, electronics) of dynamic new music and AR/VR collective Chroma Mixed Media alongside multi-media artists David Storen and Brian Topp. Excited by the ever-evolving landscape of technology today, Chroma endeavours to explore new avenues and intersections for artistic expression by combining various art forms and new technologies to explore new possibilities and challenge audience expectations.
Katerina holds a Master of Music in Composition from the University of British Columbia (’17) and an Honours Bachelor of Music degree in Composition and Improvisation from Wilfrid Laurier University (’15). She has studied composition under Dorothy Chang, Keith Hamel, Stephen Chatman, Linda Catlin Smith, and Glenn Buhr; and voice under Vicki St. Pierre, James Westman, and Brian McIntosh. Katerina serves on the BC Advisory Council for the Canadian Music Centre. Katerina is the composer-in-residence for female vocal ensemble Myriad and is currently based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Dory Hayley, soprano
Soprano Dory Hayley is recognized as a leading voice in Canada’s contemporary and experimental music scene. Praised for her “very personal creative power” (Badener Zeitung) and her “amazing coloratura skills” (Opera Canada), she has been a soloist with the Vancouver Symphony, the Vancouver Island Symphony, the Allegra Chamber Orchestra, the Turning Point Ensemble, and Capriccio Basel, appeared in concert across four continents, and commissioned and premiered an expanding catalogue of new works.
An avid and adventurous collaborator, she has performed in festivals such as Sonic Boom, the Modulus Festival, the Happening Festival, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, Gulangyu Autumn Festival (China), Performer’s Voice Symposium (Singapore), and Festival Atempo (Venezuela), and with organizations like the SMCQ, Chants Libres, CIRMMT, Codes d’accès, Vancouver New Music, the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra, Little Chamber Music, and the Land’s End Ensemble. She is a member of the Erato Ensemble, the Broadwood Duo, and the Hayley-Laufer Duo, and has recorded with Postcommodity, Sun Belt, and the Negative Zed ensemble. She is the Artistic Co-Director of the Blueridge Chamber Music Festival.
A former visiting artist at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute, University at Buffalo’s Creative Arts Initiative, and the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, Dory Hayley was Visiting Assistant Professor of Voice at Mount Allison University in 2021-22. She is currently on faculty at Vancouver Community College.
Born in Toronto, Joanne Harada was Vice President, Artistic Operations & Education at the Vancouver Symphony from 2002 until 2018. She worked closely with Bramwell Tovey, former Music Director of the VSO and current Artistic Director of the Calgary Opera. Among her responsibilities, Joanne’s position included programming concerts; overseeing education programmes, and commissions and residency programmes. She was responsible for planning and implementing VSO tours to Asia in 2007; United States West Coast in 2013; British Columbia in 2017; Canada in 2008 and 2018. Prior to her position at the VSO, she held senior positions with both the Winnipeg Symphony and the Toronto Symphony Orchestras. Joanne is currently working with Joe Trio, a Vancouver-based piano trio, to secure performance opportunities. She is a member of the BC Advisory Committee of the Canadian Music Centre. Joanne is also Artistic Planning Advisor with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra.
Bass trombonist Sharman King (BMus’70) has enjoyed a long and varied career in Western Canada. While attending UBC he was a member of the legendary Cave Theatre Orchestra house band under Fraser MacPherson. After graduating from The University of British Columbia in 1970 Mr. King joined the Buddy Rich Orchestra. While with “Buddy’s Band”, Mr. King toured 34 states and performed at the Newport, Monterey and Concord Jazz Festivals.After a year playing tuba in a sing-along band in the “Your Father’s Mustache” club, Mr. King joined the faculty of The University of Calgary where he taught Music Theory and Stage Band. The U of C Stage Band featured performances with jazz notables Woody Shaw, Oliver Gannon and Ian McDougall and is believed to be the first “for university credit” stage band course in Canada.
Stefan Sunandan Honisch is currently an Honorary Research Associate and Sessional Lecturer in the Department of Theatre and Film at the University of British Columbia, having held a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship in the department from 2019 to 2021. He is Co-Director of the SSHRC Race, Gender and Diversity Initiative grant, “Facilitating Anti-Ableist Remote Music Making,” and Co-Applicant for the SSHRC Partnership Development Grant, “Canadian Accessible Musical Instruments Network.” He has contributed peer-reviewed articles to Journal of Inclusive Education, Journal of Interdisciplinary Voice Studies, and Journal of Teaching Disability Studies, and chapters to The Oxford Handbook of Music and Disability Studies, and The Oxford Handbook of Music and the Body, among other publications. In addition to maintaining an active program of research, teaching, and service, Honisch enjoys being a freelance musician.
A highly skilled musician experienced in conducting a wide variety of repertoire with an innovative audience presentation, Rosemary Thomson is currently in her sixteenth season as Music Director of the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra. Under her leadership, the orchestra has blossomed and OSO audiences have grown to unprecedented levels. She has also led the OSO in creating multiple community engagement programs throughout the valley. In addition to conducting the OSO, she is also Co-conductor with Dennis Colpitts of the OSYO and founded and conducts the current iteration of the Okanagan Symphony Chorus. In 2020, Rosemary was named Artistic Director for Opera Kelowna. She often shares her passion for music throughout the valley as a guest host, instructor, and writer in schools, colleges, service clubs and through various media channels.
A graduate of the University of Toronto and the Banff Centre for the Arts, Ms. Thomson came to the Okanagan from the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, where she was Resident Conductor and Chorus Master. For four seasons she was Assistant Conductor to Richard Bradshaw for the Canadian Opera Company. She also served as Conductor in Residence for the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, where she was mentored by Maestro Bramwell Tovey. For fourteen seasons she conducted Toronto’s new music ensemble Continuum, with whom she toured Canada and Europe and recorded several CDs of music by Canadian composers.
Ms. Thomson serves as a Regional Director for the Canadian Music Centre and is on the National Advocacy team for Orchestras Canada. Her contribution as a leader in the arts has been recognized with the Honour in the Arts Award through the Kelowna Civic and Community recognition program as well as the Okanagan Arts Awards in the Music category. In 2021 she received the Provincial Community Spirit award through the BC Spirit Foundation. Through her work with Opera Kelowna, Rosemary has recently been named as one of two national mentors for the Women in Musical Leadership initiative, a new program run by Tapestry Opera, Pacific Opera Victoria and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
Ms. Thomson is the subject of a documentary film titled Shiny Objects: The Conductor with ADHD, which has been recognized with several awards at film festivals around the world.
Applauded as a composer whose ‘poetic is often very delicate and introspective…’ (Guido Barbieri, Warner Classics), Rita Ueda’s orchestral, operatic, and choral works invite the listener to contemplate, engage, and converse. Winner of the 2022 Azrieli Prize in Canadian music, her works have been premiered by the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Budapest MAV Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Prague Modern, and the SYC Ensemble Singers (Singapore). Ms Ueda holds degrees from Simon Fraser University and the California Institute for the Arts where she studied with Rudolf Komorous, Rodney Sharman, Wadada Leo Smith, and Morton Subotnick. Her latest recordings are I Solisti Della Scalla – Octets (Warner Classics) and Il Viaggio di Dante (Stingray Classica).