2024 BCMEA Honour Ensemble Directors
Click on a director's name or photo to find out more!
David Bui
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David Bui is a 1st prize winner of the Ionel Perlea International Conducting Competition 2021 and has been RBC Assistant Conductor of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra since April 2022 under the direction of chief conductor Otto Tausk. In 2022 he finished his postgraduate studies with Prof. Ulrich Windfuhr at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg, which he completed "with distinction.” He did his bachelor's and master's degrees at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin under the guidance of Prof. Christian Ehwald and Prof. Hans-Dieter Baum. As part of his final exams, he made his debut with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin in 2017. In the fall semester of 2019, the ERASMUS exchange program led him to the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, where he studied with Prof. Ole Kristian Ruud and Prof. Sigmund Thorp. In addition to his studies, David Bui has participated in a wide variety of festivals around the world. He has participated in the Bartók Festival in Szombathely, Hungary, the Mendelssohn Festival in Hamburg, Germany, the PRISMA Festival in British Columbia, Canada as assistant conductor, and the Fiskars Festival in Finland, led by Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Esa Pekka Salonen. Additionally, he was invited to participate in the Pärnu Festival in Tallinn, Estonia, where he studied with Paavo, Neeme and Kristjan Järvi and Leonid Grin. For this he received a scholarship from a DAAD-PROMOS-Project-Scholarship. David Bui has also been personally selected by Maestro Riccardo Muti in a live audition to perform at the fifth edition of the Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy in Ravenna, Italy in 2019. David Bui was 2nd prize winner at the 11th Edition International Conducting Competition Jeunesses Musicales Bucharest and was a finalist at the prestigious Conducting Workshop INTERAKTION in Berlin, Germany, where he worked with Maestro Lutz Koehler and Das Kritische Orchester®. In his short career he has already stood at the podiums of the Brandenburger Symphoniker, the Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt, the Neubrandenburgische Philharmonie, the Heidelberger Philharmoniker, the Hamburger Symphoniker, the Moldova Philharmonic Iași, the Sibiu State Philharmonic, the Karlovarský Symfonický Orchestr and the Filharmonia Zielonogórska as a representative of Germany at the music festival "an der Oder" and the Hamburger Camerata, with which he made his debut in the world-famous Elbphilharmonie. Further masterclasses have led him to Prof. Johannes Schlaefli, Donald Runnicles and Marin Alsop. David Bui is supported by the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media within the framework of Reboot Culture (Kultur Neustart) and was a scholarship holder of the Forum Conducting from 2019 to 2021.
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Dr. Steven Capaldo
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Dr. Steven Capaldo has distinguished himself as one of the most respected music educators, wind conductors and conductor educators in Australia, earning academic and musical recognition internationally.
Dr. Capaldo is currently an Associate Professor of Music Education & Conducting and Wind Symphony Conductor at the University of Victoria, Canada. He has previously held positions in Music Education at the University of Wollongong (Australia) and the University of Victoria, and was the Conductor of the Sydney University Wind Orchestra and the UNSW Wind Symphony. An active writer, Dr. Capaldo composes, arranges and transcribes music for wind orchestras, symphony orchestras, festivals and concerts and his works have been performed by groups in Australia, Canada, Japan and the United States, and recorded on Klavier records (US). He has been listed as a composer in the book The Band Down Under, a finalist in several international composition competitions and published with Brolga Music Australia. An Assistant Producer for eight Klavier Records CD, Dr. Capaldo became a full voting member for the US Grammy Awards in 2010 and was Chair of the Australian Jury Panel for the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest. Dr. Capaldo is highly-active and in-demand as a conductor, clinician and adjudicator having worked at local, state/provincial, national and international levels including MusicFest and Chief Conductor of the British Columbia Honor Wind Ensemble. Committed to providing professional learning opportunities for music educators and conductors, Dr. Capaldo has been a conducting clinician at the 2017 Australian National Band and Orchestra Conference, the Chief Conducting Clinician for the 2017 Qld ABODA Conducting Camp and an Associate Instructor for the 2016, 2017 & 2018 NSW ABODA Conducting Camps. In 2018, Dr. Capaldo conducted a Qld State Honours Ensemble and presented at the Australian National Band and Orchestra Conference. |
Jeff Horenstein
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Jeff Horenstein believes in the power of music to foster empathy and bring people together. Jeff is the choir director at Meadowdale High School in Lynnwood, Washington where his choirs and vocal jazz ensembles have received invitations to perform at state and regional conferences, as well as recognition in Downbeat Magazine’s Student Music Awards. Jeff has been recognized as a Country Music Association Music Teacher of Excellence, he is a founding member of the award-winning contemporary vocal group Groove For Thought, and he hosts the annual Vocal Jazz Forum, an educational festival for high school ensembles.
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Brent Taylor
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Brent Taylor received his Bachelor of Music degree from U.B.C and began his music career working as a recording engineer and producer in Sydney, Australia, and also in Vancouver. After returning to Canada, he earned a Bachelor of Education degree and began teaching, while continuing his studies by pursuing and completing an M.A. From 1992 to June 2017 he taught instrumental music at Point Grey Secondary in Vancouver. The ensembles he directed at the school included concert bands, jazz bands and combos. Point Grey currently has the largest jazz education program in the Vancouver School District and the concert bands and jazz groups have won numerous awards at festivals in Canada and abroad. Brent is currently a vice-principal in the Coquitlam school district.
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Carrie Tennant
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Carrie is the founder and artistic director of the Vancouver Youth Choir. For the past 20 years, she has worked primarily with youth, developing leadership and artistry with young singers. Carrie’s choirs have been featured at Chorus America, Podium (Choral Canada), and ACDA National Conferences, and have twice been awarded first place in the National Choral Competition. This past spring VYC was featured as one of 10 international choirs at the World Symposium of Choral Music in Istanbul, and in NYC at a concert conducted by Carrie titled “Canada at Carnegie”. During her time conducting the Coastal Sound Youth Choir, their popular Indiekör shows were recognized with Choral Canada’s National Award for Innovation.
Currently, on top of her work with VYC, Carrie is an Affiliate Conductor with the Vancouver Chamber Choir, and a frequent clinician, adjudicator and guest conductor across North America and around the world. Carrie is the editor and curator for two choral series: the Vancouver Youth Choir Choral Series (Cypress Publishing), which promotes diverse Canadian voices on the international stage; and the brand-new Carrie Tennant Choral Series (Hal Leonard), which features much of the music Carrie and her choirs have performed and loved. Carrie is proud to be the recipient of the 2023 YWCA Women of Distinction Award for Arts and Culture. In a past life (before she had two small and very lovely children) Carrie also toured, performed and recorded with her husband as a member of Vancouver-based indie pop group, The Salteens. |
George Chung
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George was previously the lead accompanist for the Coastal Sound Youth Choir directed by Carrie Tennant. He is also a choral composer, known for Voici mon secret, a choral setting of an excerpt from Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. His choral arrangements of popular music by Coldplay, Dodie and Sleeping At Last have been performed all over North America. When he is not performing or writing, he is a published genomics and molecular biology researcher based at New York University.
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BCMEA Conference - by music educators, for music educators
The BCMEA Conference takes place every October and is organized entirely by a team of volunteer music educators, working in the Province of British Columbia. The purpose of the BCMEA Conference is to provide a world-class, one-stop-shop for professional development for all members of the BCMEA. Any music educator in public, private, independent, and post secondary education (including undergraduate students) in BC is welcome to membership in the BCMEA. Any music educator world-wide is welcome to register and attend the BCMEA Conference.
The British Columbia Music Educators' Association (BCMEA) is a Provincial Specialist Association (PSA) of the British Columbia Teachers' Federation (BCTF). PSAs are channels for members to exchange ideas on research, teaching strategies, curriculum development, and other shared interests.
Additionally, the BCMEA is an official affiliate organization of the Canadian Music Educators' Association/L'Association canadienne des musiciens éducateurs (CMEA/Acme). All members of the BCMEA are members of the CMEA/Acme and entitled to all benefits offered by way of an official signed and notarized Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
Additionally, the BCMEA is an official affiliate organization of the Canadian Music Educators' Association/L'Association canadienne des musiciens éducateurs (CMEA/Acme). All members of the BCMEA are members of the CMEA/Acme and entitled to all benefits offered by way of an official signed and notarized Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
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