November 22, 2012

The UBC School of Music congratulates conductor, composer, and pianist Bramwell Tovey, Music Director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, on the occasion of his honorary degree from the University of British Columbia!

The ties between the School of Music and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra are numerous and have deep roots.  For decades, many of the exceptional musicians of the VSO have served as performance faculty at UBC, including current orchestra members Dale Barltrop, Roger Cole, Gregory Cox, Vern Griffiths, Cris Inguanti, Benjamin Kinsman, Larry Knopp, Peder MacLellan, Aaron McDonald, Richard Mingus, Neil Misky, Beth Orson, Christie Reside, Janet Steinberg, and Elizabeth Volpe-Bligh.  Over the years, many UBC Music alumni have been members of the VSO, including current full-time VSO players Jeanette Bernal-Singh, Vern Griffiths, Jason Ho, Charles Inkman, Julia Lockhart, Gwen Seaton, Frederik Shipizky and  Vincent Vohradsky.  The UBC Opera Ensemble is invited to perform with the VSO several times each season, giving talented students thrilling opportunities to participate in large-scale works in collaboration with the orchestra and under Maestro Tovey’s musical leadership. UBC Music faculty members often perform as guest artists with VSO, including most recently Sara Davis Buechner, Corey Hamm, and Julia Nolan.  UBC composition faculty Dorothy Chang, Stephen Chatman, and Keith Hamel and composition alumni such as Jocelyn Morlock have had their works performed by the VSO, and many UBC composition students have benefitted from the annual Jean Coulthard reading sessions with the VSO.

In these ways and many others, and over many years, the UBC Music and VSO communities are fundamentally intertwined and deeply collaborative. 

We all celebrate together the many distinguished achievements of Maestro Bramwell Tovey, as a Grammy and Juno award-winning and internationally active conductor, as an accomplished composer in all major genres (including most recently his opera “The Inventor”), as a deft pianist in jazz and classical idioms, and as musical leader who has done so much to promote and sustain a vital musical life in our community.

Congratulations Bramwell!

Richard Kurth, Director
On behalf of the faculty, students, and alumni of the UBC School of Music

About Bramwell Tovey, conductor and composer

For information about Maestro Tovey's impressive career and his many accomplishments as a conductor and composer, please visit his VSO and wikipedia webpages, where you can read about his exciting international conducting activities, his many awards, and his list of major compositions.

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