I think it is important to continue developing one’s own music profile to successfully teach students. There is no such thing as an end to learning, whether you want to be a professional musician or continue to explore for pure fun. You are always developing, growing.
I have included here a brief list of my performance profile.
Cor Flammae began the summer of 2014 as Vancouver’s new professional queer choral ensemble, made up of the city’s best queer classical vocalists. I was fortunate to be featured this year as the opening soloist, performing Hildegard von Bingen’s O, quam preciosa from the 11th century.
The Carnival Band is a community group which rehearses at the Britannia Community Centre in East Van. We play community and private events all around Vancouver, and at a variety of music festivals throughout the summer and spring seasons. I play the trombone.
VanDeca, “Vancouver’s Freshest Choir” was founded by students who wanted to create and perform the songs they wanted to sing. With the idea of co-ownership as a base principal, this group has a small membership (13 singers, at present) with all members contributing to the mechanics of running a choir, from finding performances opportunities and venues to finding — and writing — music to perform.
The Been Agains is duo Alex “Beaner” Mitchell and I formed to play in coffee shops and at open mic nights. While our current focus is folk-pop covers of popular music and dance tunes from the ’90s to present, we have a few original tunes in the works.