Welcome to the School of Music

UVic takes it up an octave

The School of Music offers a professional education to those who wish to make careers in music. Its graduates have gone on to careers in the music industry, received prestigious awards, pursued advanced studies in North America and Europe and entered the teaching profession.

The faculty includes performers of international reputation, along with composers, musicologists, theorists and educators who are actively engaged in the scholarly and creative activity. Enrollment is limited to approximately 200 undergraduate and 35 graduate students, which ensures that every student receives proper guidance and benefits from world-class training in a nurturing learning environment.

News & Updates

News & Events

Feb 23 - Guest Recital: Reveille

Guest Recital: Reveille

Thursday, February 23, 12:00 p.m.
Guest Recital: Reveille
Awakening the Trumpet's Potential
Phillip T. Young Recital Hall
Free Admission

With Timothy Quinlan, Aaron Hodgson,
& Louis Ranger, trumpets

Performing works by Crawley, Lang, Rowson, and Stokes

Reveille is a collective dedicated to exploring new paths for trumpet while connecting performers, composers and audiences in innovative ways. They use commissions and premieres as starting points: opportunities for composers to communicate directly with audiences worldwide, for audiences to interact with artists, and for performers to gain intriguing glimpses into new repertoire.

This concert introduces some of the repertoire commissioned through Reveille as well as some of the tools they have used to draw audiences into these exciting new works. These tools include a competition for emerging composers, video production and online content.

Feb 23 - Faculty Concert: The Suite

Faculty Concert: The Suite

Thursday, February 23, 8:00 p.m.
Faculty Concert Series
The Suite

Featuring Ajtony Csaba, Joanna Hood, Jonathan Goldman, & Daniel Peter Biro

Phillip T. Young Recital Hall
Adults: $17.50 / Students & seniors: $13.50
Ticket Info

Performing transcriptions of traditional and modern dances, from tango and sarabande to sirtaki and dub.

Feb 28-29 - Guest Artist: Chaya Czernowin

Guest Artist: Chaya Czernowin

Chaya Czernowin
Composer, Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music, Harvard University

Tuesday, February 28, 3:00 p.m.
Composer Masterclass
Czernowin will coach School of Music composition students on their works in progress.
MacLaurin Building, Rm. B120

Wednesday, February 29, 4:30 p.m.
Guest Lecture: Chaya Czernowin
Czernowin will talk about her recent work including Zohar Iver (Blind Radiance), which will be performed by the UVic Orchestra and Ensemble Nikel on Friday, March 2.
MacLaurin Building, Rm. A169

Both events are free and open to the public.

Chaya Czernowin is one of the most prominent composers of new music working today. Born in Israel, she has lived in Germany, Japan and the U.S and her teachers have included Dieter Schnebel, Joan Tower, Brian Ferneyhough and Roger Reynolds. Czernowin’s chamber and orchestral music has been played at more than forty festivals all over the world and include commissions by major ensembles, orchestras, and festivals. Characteristic of her work are attempts to find alternative temporalities, changing perspectives and scale, fragmentation, examination, and stretching of identity; all coupled with a strong physical imprint and high emotional intensity. She has been awarded numerous international prizes including: Gaudeamus Composer's Workshop, DAAD Scholarship (Berlin), Stipendium Preis and Kranichsteiner Musikpreis (Darmstadt), Asahi Shimbum Fellowship (Tokyo), NEA Composition Commission Grant, ISCM and IRCAM commissions.

Czernowin is a Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music at Harvard University and a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow.

Mar 2 - UVic Orchestra with Ensemble Nikel

UVic Orchestra with Ensemble Nikel

Friday, March 2, 8:00 p.m.
University of Victoria Orchestra
with guests Ensemble Nikel (Belgium/Switzerland/Israel)
Ajtony Csaba, conductor

University Centre Farquhar Auditorium
Adults: $17.50 / Students & Seniors: $13.50
Ticket Info

Performing:
*World Premiere* of Lovely Monster Reloaded by Bernhard Gander (Austria)
*North American Premiere* of Zohar Iver (Blind Radiance) by Chaya Czernowin (Harvard University)
J.S. Bach – Suite in B-minor BWV 1067
Benjamin Britten – The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra

Innovative, edgy, and at the forefront of new music in Europe and beyond, Ensemble Nikel will join forces with the University of Victoria Orchestra for an extraordinary evening of classical and contemporary music. Under the direction of Ajtony Csaba, the orchestra will present the world premiere of Lovely Monster Reloaded by Bernhard Gander and the North American premiere of Chaya Czernowin’s Zohar Iver (Blind Radiance) – a concerto for Ensemble Nikel (saxophone, electric guitar, piano and percussion) and orchestra. Czernowin, Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music at Harvard University, will be present for the performance and will take part in a pre-performance talk.

This concert is included in the second annual SALT Festival, an exciting and innovative two-day festival of contemporary music that brings together Canadian and international artists. On Saturday, March 3, the festival will feature Tsilumos Ensemble (UVic’s Joanna Hood, Ajtony Csaba and Dániel Péter Biró, as well as Kris Covlin), Ensemble Nikel, celebrated Victoria pianist, Tzenka Dianova, and Olaf Tzschoppe (Germany), member of Les Percussions de Strassburg and one of the greatest percussionists in the world. Starting at 4pm at Open Space (510 Fort Street) and continuing late into the evening, the Tsilumos Ensemble will present world premieres of new works by Chaya Czernowin and Israeli composer Ruben Seroussi. For further details about this event, visit http://www.openspace.ca/SALT.

Mar 5 - Lansdowne Lecture: Maestro Hilario Durán

Lansdowne Lecture: Maestro Hilario Durán

Latin American Studies Program presents
Hilario Durán
Humber College, School of Creative and Performing Arts

Monday, March 5, 2:30 p.m.
Europe + Africa: Cuban Music from the Contradanza to Danzón to Cha-Cha-Cha
Phillip T. Young Recital Hall
Free admission

Maestro Durán is a Cuban-Canadian pianist, composer, arranger, bandleader, and educator. He is one of the world's most innovative composers and performers of Afro-Cuban music and jazz. Durán has received many honours, including several Juno awards and Grammy nominations. His most recent recordings include Encuentro en La Habana, Cuban Rhapsody, with flautist Jane Bunnett, and the prize-winning From the Heart. In his Lecture and Master Class "Europe + Africa," he explores the history of popular Cuban dance music.

Mar 10 - Faculty Chamber Music Series

Faculty Chamber Music Series

Friday, March 10, 8:00 p.m.
Faculty Chamber Music Series

Lafayette String Quartet celebrates 20 years at UVic with their School of Music Colleagues

Program will include:
Saint-Saëns – Septet, Op. 65
Prokofiev – Overture on Hebrew Themes, Op. 34
David Baker – Sonata for Tuba and String Quartet
…and some surprises

Phillip T. Young Recital Hall
Adults: $17.50 / Students & seniors: $13.50
Ticket Info

Job Postings

The University of Victoria is an equity employer and encourages applications from women, persons with disabilities, visible minorities, Aboriginal Peoples, people of all sexual orientations and genders, and others who may contribute to the further diversification of the University.
All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, in accordance with Canadian Immigration requirements, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.