Guest Artist-Lectures

  • November 5, 2020  Lecture, “Understanding Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments”, delivered to the University of Toronto Wind Ensemble.
  • March 4, 2017 Guest Artist/Conducting Coach, Ontario Band Association Conducting Workshop, Toronto, ON.
  • January 14-19 2017  Artist in Residence, Western University Don Wright Faculty of Music.
  • May 2012-present  Co-Director, Denis Wick Canadian Wind Orchestra “Young Conductors Program’, offering an intensive conducting internship to undergraduate musicians with a passion to conduct.
  • October 2011  Guest Artist and lecturer, Conducting Workshop, Peel Region Music Teachers.
  • September 2011  Guest Lecture/Rehearsal, “Performance Issues in Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments” University of Toronto.
  • April 2010     Guest Lecture for Teachers, “Conducting Calisthenics”, Atlantic Band Festival.
  • November 2009     Guest Lecture “Tuning Summit” for NS Teachers.

Conducting Workshops

  • July 2018    Guest Artist-Conductor, Music Mentors International workshop for conductors.
  • July 2010     Guest Artist, University of Toronto Summer Conducting Symposium.
  • July 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2013     Founding Director and Lecturer, Acadia University Summer Wind Conducting Symposium.

Other Research

Presentations at Conferences

  • October 20, 2020 Lecture, “Tips for Conductors”, Nova Scotia Music Educators Association Conference.
  • October 27, 2020 Lecture, “Tips for Conductors”, Manitoba Music Educators Association Conference (Refereed).
  • November 6, 2020 Presentation, “Rehearsal Wisdom for Teachers and Conductors”, Ontario Music Educators Association Conference (Refereed).
  • October 27, 2017  “Shaping Creative Flow: SoundPainting the Wind Band”, Nova Scotia Music Educators Conference, Halifax, NS.
  • March 4, 2017   Guest Artist-Conducting Coach, Ontario Band Association Conducting Workshop, Toronto, ON.
  • October 2014  “Kill the Drill”, Nova Scotia Music Educators Association Conference.
  • March 2013  Presentation “Northern Winds: Canadian Wind Repertoire” at the College Band Directors National Association Conference in Greensboro, NC. (refereed).
  • October 2012  “Rehearsing the Wind Ensemble”, Nova Scotia Music Educators Association Conference.
  • November 2009  “Tuning the Wind Band—Techniques, Technology, and Common Sense”, Ontario Music Educators Association Conference.
  • November 2009      “Ensemble Culture”, Ontario Music Educators Association Conference.

Arranger/Editor

  • Collaborated with composer Andrew Balfour to create a wind ensemble arrangement of Balfour’s choral masterpiece Vision Chant. This work was premiered in the Fall of 2021 by the Acadia University Wind Ensemble and is receiving multiple performances with university wind ensembles across Canada.
  • Collaborated with composer John Estacio to transcribe his 20-minute orchestral work I Lost My Talk. Composed for narrator and film, based on the poem by Mi’Kmaq poet Rita Joe, this work seeks to further the cause of reconciliation through music.  It was premiered in February 2019 by the Acadia University Wind Ensemble, and received several performances in Manitoba in May 2019, conducted by Mark Hopkins.
  • Arranged Mein Junges Leiben Habt Ein End by Jan Peterzoon Sweelinck for Wind Ensemble.  Received performances by the Denis Wick Canadian Wind Orchestra and the University of Toronto Wind Ensemble.
  • Arranged and premiered a new wind band version of Tabula Rasa by Don MacDonald. It has been programmed by various bands across Canada and the US.
  • Arranged and premiered Wired and Wound for chamber ensemble and Alto Saxophone, by Derek Charke.  This work has been submitted to the Canadian Music Centre by the Composer for distribution.

Ongoing Research Interests

            (i)  SoundPainting and Improvised Music

Undertaking a new line of research to (a) develop a personal practice within improvised music through SoundPainting technique, and (b) connect this technique to the teaching and preparation of undergraduate and graduate students in the School of Music and the School of Education.

            (ii)  The Life and Music of Donald Coakley

August 2017-Present    Received donation of all manuscripts of Don Coakley’s Wind Band Works into the Archives at Acadia University. Assisting with the organization of this archive for band research on Campus.  Hosted a performance Festival of Coakley’s music plus a week-long residency, February 2019. Working on a long-range writing project (biography) of Coakley.

            (iii)  Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments

Visited (a) the Paul Sacher Institute in Basel, Switzerland, with funds provided by Acadia University and Nova Scotia Tourism and Culture, to examine letters and scores pertaining to the Symphonies, in April 2012; (b) visited the Music Library at Cambridge University, UK, to examine the “Norman Del Mar” Manuscript of Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920), in July 2005. While searching the archives in Basel I found the manuscript for the Chorale from the Symphonies, as arranged by Stravinsky, for the 1947 broadcast by the CBS Symphony Orchestra using the instrumentation of the Symphony of Psalms.  This Chorale, which inspired the revision of the Symphonies into the 1947 format, has not been heard for over 60 years.  I edited and performed this newly-discovered edition in 2018 (the centenary of the inception of the Symphonies) My research is ongoing concerning performance practice, analysis, editions, and reception history, to create a comprehensive overview of its design and performance practice.

            (iv)  “Canadian Wind Repertoire Project” National Annotation, Presentation, and Performance Initiative

Phase I:    Consulted for the Canadian Music Centre Wind Repertoire Project, funded through a Trillium Grant; part of a team that perused 300+ works languishing in the CMC holdings, by Canadian Composers from the 20th and 21st Centuries; culled a shortlist of and wrote annotations for the CMC Website; selected extraordinary works for print publication by the CMC, May to July 2012.

Phase II:     Collaborated in March 2013 with Anne-Marie Page of the Canadian Music Centre, presenting a summary of findings at the College Band Director’s National Association Conference in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Phase III:     Collaboration with Dr. Jason Caslor (Arizona State University), seeking to define a Canadian repertoire based on collecting data of works performed by ensembles across Canada.  Initial findings from this research have been incorporated into a new, recommended list of Canadian wind band repertoire, published August 2015 at the Musicfest Canada website. Organizing a national recording cycle to record the annotated works for distribution through ITunes and the CMC website.

Phase IV:     Collaboration doctoral candidate Dylan Maddix to host and curate this list at the Canadian Band Association website, creating a one-stop resource for Canadian wind band works.  This work is ongoing.

            (v)  Contributions to Education and Pedagogy

2021     Co-Chair, MusicFest Canada Repertoire Equity Committee.  Facilitated a complete examination and overhaul of the recommended works of the MusicFest Canada Concert Band Syllabus, seeking to include music about and by underrepresented communities.

2008-2009     Principal Writer, Nova Scotia Beginning Band Curriculum.  This curriculum is innovative in its emphasis on “sound before sight”, creative improvisation, composition using graphic notation, and exploration of integrated listening. In 2013 the Singapore Department of Education adopted this curriculum for use in schools throughout Singapore.

2006     Educational Website Supporting Rollin’ Down #1, the Second CD by the Lands End Chamber Ensemble. Created materials designed to help young listeners to understand and appreciate important features of the music on this CD. LE has received accolades for its vision in developing this site because it connects young people to new music by Canadian composers.

2007    Tuning the Wind Band:  Yamaha Canada has supported pedagogical enquiry into “best practice” in tuning by underwriting the cost of presentation travel and donating 12 HD-100 Tuning Keyboards (valued at $22,000.)

November 2006     Delivered Keynote Performance of the Ontario Provincial Honour Band.

October 2006     Delivered Keynote Address at the NSMEA Conference, New Glasgow, NS.

            (vi) Ensemble Culture

  • Collaborated with Dr. Greg Pyrcz (Professor Emeritus, Political Science, Acadia University) and Tessa Maclean (PhD Music Education Candidate, McGill University) to examine ensemble culture, comparing historic iterations of professional orchestras with the prevailing political landscape of their day.  The result is a comparison of “ensemble culture” to “epistemic democracy”.  (Philosophical Inquiry in Education, Vol. 24, No. 3: http://journals.sfu.ca/pie)
  • Consulted with author John Ralston Saul regarding music ensemble applications of principles from his book On Equilibrium, November 2004.

            (vii) Contributions to Canadian Winds, the Journal of the Canadian Band Association

  • Fall 2019          “An interview with CW Editor Emeritus Tim Maloney”
  • Spring 2017      “An Interview with Conductor Colleen Richardson”
  • Spring 2017      “An Interview with composer Peter Meechan”
  • Fall 2016           “An Interview with SoundPainter Walter Thompson”
  • Spring 2016       “An Interview with Composer Robert Buckley”
  • Fall 2015           “An Interview with Conductor Marvin Eckroth”
  • Spring 2015       “An Interview with Composer Nancy Telfer”
    “Review: A Guide to Band Masterworks Vol. 3” by David Kish
    “Study Guide for Derek Healey’s Solemn Music” (co-written by Valerie Graham and Mark Hopkins)
  • Fall 2014            “An Interview with Conductor Martin Berinbaum”
  • Spring 2014       “An Interview with Composer John Estacio”
    “Review: Tuning the Wind Band” by Shelley Jagow
  • Fall 2013           “An Interview with Conductor Robert Gibson”
    “Review: Folk Songs in the English Folk Song Suite” by Robert Garofalo
    “Review: Winds of Change II: The New Millennium” by Frank L. Battisti
  • Spring 2013       “An Interview with Composer Alan Gordon Bell”
  • Fall 2012           “An Interview with Conductor Glenn Price”
    “Article: Ten Years of the Denis Wick Canadian Wind Orchestra”
  • Spring 2012       “An Interview with Composer Sydney Hodkinson”
    “Study Guide for Michael Colgrass’s Beethoven Machine”
  • Fall 2011           “An Interview with Conductor Shelley Jagow”
    “Review: Folks Songs in Holst’s Second Suite” by Robert Garofalo
  • Spring 2011       “An Interview with Composer Francois Morel”
    “Study Guide for Michael Colgrass’s Beethoven Machine”
  • Fall 2010           “An Interview with Conductor Stephen Chenette”
    “Review: Adventures of an American Composer” by Michael Colgrass
  • Spring 2010       “An Interview with Composer Gary Kulesha”
  • Fall 2009           “An Interview with Conductor Tania Miller”
    “Review: Folks Songs in Holst’s Second Suite” by Robert Garofalo
  • Spring 2009       “An Interview with Composer Derek Healey”
    “Review: Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Wind Works” by John Ceander Mitchell