Ivalas Quartet headlines Quartet Fest West

by | Jun 30, 2026 | Faculty, School of Music

We are very excited to have the incredible Ivalas Quartet headlining as mentors & performers at this year’s Quartet Fest West! Don’t miss their by-donation performance at 7:30pm Friday, July 3 in UVic’s Phillip T Young Recital Hall.

Since forming in 2017, the Ivalas Quartet has been changing the face of classical music with their mission to enrich the classical music world by spotlighting past and present BIPOC composers alongside the standard repertory. Based in the US, they’ve been taking the classical world by storm with lauded performances at the likes of Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, New York Philharmonic, Boston’s Gardner Museum — and they just completed a year as the inaugural Fellowship ensemble of NYC’s Kaufman Music Center.

Quartet Fest West is delighted to have Ivalas as this year’s Quartet-in-Residence, offering masterclasses and coaching to a fresh batch of string students. We’re particularly excited to hear their live performance of Deliverance by Grammy-nominated composer Derrick Skye, which they just released an audio/video recording of on the Artistician Inc label.

Deliverance is described as “a transcultural classical string quartet that blends Radif and Maqam based classical melodic systems with rhythmic elements from West and North African music . . . the inspiration behind the title originates from the deep sensation of freedom from fear and anxiety that can be achieved by embracing vulnerability, imperfection, and the unknown.”

Hailed by The Strad magazine for playing with “tremendous heart and beauty,” the Ivalas Quartet have championed the music of Eleanor Alberga, Gabriela Lena Frank, Osvaldo Golijov, Jessie Montgomery, Angélica Negrón, Iván Enrique Rodríguez, Carlos Simon, Alvin Singleton, Derrick Skye, and George Walker. Recent performances include Mondavi Center, a month-long residency for the Bravo! Vail festival, the Peoples’ Symphony and a season as resident ensemble of the Schneider Concerts in New York, and they served as Caramoor’s 2022-23 Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence.

Running through July 10, Quartet Fest West is run by Lafayette String Quartet founding members and School of Music professors Ann Elliott-Goldschmid, Joanna Hood, Pamela Highbaugh Aloni and Sharon Stanis. In addition to concerts, open masterclasses will take place from 3:30-5pm in UVic’s Phillip T Young Recital Hall on June 30, July 1-3 and 7-9.

Writing students mark fatal heat dome anniversary

by | Jun 29, 2026 | climate, donor, Faculty, health, Undergraduate, Writing

To mark the fifth anniversary of BC’s fatal heat dome in 2021, a group of UVic Writing students trained to take climate-survivor testimonials are now seeing their work run in the online news outlet The Tyee in a new five-part series with created in partnership with the Climate Disaster Project. 
“Some of what they share can be difficult to read. But the survivors want you to know what happened to them for a reason,” says CDP founder and Writing professor Sean Holman. “So we can be closer together. So we can feel less alone. So you know what to do when one of the worst days of your life happens, without warning.”

The human cost of BC’s heat dome was catastrophic: over 600 people died between June 25 and July 1 2021, making it the deadliest weather disaster in Canadian history. Over 100 all-time heat records were shattered as temperatures across the province soared 20° above typical summertime averages in a brutal reminder of how warm our world is becoming.

The Tyee series offers the stories of five heat-dome survivors, as told in their own words:

  • a Surrey mother whose newborn was struggling, and so was her ailing cat
  • a Vancouver homeowner who had to find a new home when her condo turned into a greenhouse
  • a Lower Mainland firefighter who answered emergency calls as extreme heat buckled the province’s health-care system
  • a retired school principal who was forced to evacuate when that heat turned to flame in Lytton
  • and a Kamloops councillor who could do little but watch as fire scorched one of the city’s outer neighbourhoods.
“These stories aren’t just an account of the harm caused by an environment we have harmed and are still harming,” says Holman, explaining how the CDP’s climate-survivor testimonies differ from traditional news stories. “They are early warning systems and emergency preparedness plans. Because the survivors of past climate disasters carry with them knowledge and wisdom needed to help us confront the extreme events that have now become seasonal. Reading their testimonies now isn’t just about memorialization. It’s about preparation. An opportunity to change what will happen today and tomorrow.”
The Climate Disaster Project was established in 2022 by Sean Holman — UVic’s donor-funded Wayne Crookes Professor of Environmental & Climate Journalism — and has since grown into an award-winning international teaching newsroom with partners in multiple countries around the world, tackling projects ranging from journalism and documentaries to a theatrical play, museum exhibit and a pending literary anthology. It also gives our students the chance to see their work appear in professional media like The Guardian UK & The Tyee, among many others.

Music student launches Canadian Doctors Orchestra

by | Jun 25, 2026 | Alumni, Faculty, health, School of Music

The newly formed Canadian Doctors Orchestra, a non-profit symphony orchestra founded by UBC and UVic students, will make its debut in Victoria this December, showcasing healthcare professionals bridging medicine and musical performance.

Founded by UBC student Andrew Loe, a longtime classical viola player,  the emerging national ensemble — a first in Canada — is holding video auditions for musicians until July 1: healthcare professionals are invited to submit digital auditions on their website. The  project-based ensemble is open to any healthcare professionals, including (but not limited to) physicians, residents, nurses and medical students from across Canada.

Currently a student in UBC’s Island Medical Program, which is based at UVic, Loe is also taking classes in our School of Music. “When I got into medical school, I was excited to meet people who were also pursuing a dual music and medicine path,” he says. “I want to create a space where people with both passions can give back to their community and indulge their love for music.”

The link between music and wellness is well-founded, as proven by countless music therapy programs, but Loe also hopes the new orchestra will promote physician wellness, as well as encourage national healthcare collaboration.

Led by acclaimed composer, conductor and School of Music professor Ajtony Csaba, the ensemble will bring together over 60 medical students, physicians and healthcare professionals from across Canada for an intensive weekend of rehearsals on December 18 and 19, followed by a matinee performance on December 20 at UVic’s Farquhar Auditorium. Proceeds from the concert will be donated directly to Canadian health initiatives.

It was during Loe’s UVic music studies that his viola professor, Joanna Hood, introduced him to the World Doctor’s Orchestra, which features 100 physicians from several countries who perform series of charity concerts after several days of intensive rehearsals. Founded in 2008, the WDO began with 60 physician musicians from 12 countries and now boasts membership by 2,000-plus doctors from 60 countries; they’ve since performed 48 concerts globally, and raised more than 2 million Euros.

“When I did my undergrad, I did a minor in music,” Loe tells the music blog Ludwig Van Toronto, noting that he’s still taking UVic music classes during his medical training. He says Hood is “super supportive” of both his combined studies and this new initiative. “She’s a great mentor and teacher.”

Hood also connected Loe with other musical doctors, including violinist and Victoria Symphony concertmaster Terry Tam, a graduate of the Glenn Gould School and an ER physician with Saanich Peninsula Hospital.

Another notable School of Music alumni who fuses her performance and health care practices is Victoria-based Dr. Jill Wiwcharuk — best known as “Street Doctor Jill” for her Street Medicine 101 social media videos — who graduated with a Bachelor of Music in violin performance before going on to earn her medical degree.

Loe says he already has over 150 people interested in joining but is eager to hear from more. “[Auditions are] by video, but if people only have audio recordings, or group recordings [that’s okay too]. It’s for us to get a sense of where the collective orchestra is at.”

Aaron Richmond named new JRSP resident artist

by | Jun 15, 2026 | Art History & Visual Studies, Award, donor, Research, Visual Arts

The Jefferey Rubinoff Foundation and the Faculty of Fine Arts are pleased to announce that Canadian artist, scholar and curator Aaron Richmond has been selected as the 2026 Recipient of the UVic/Jeffrey Rubinoff Sculpture Artist-Scholar Residency.

Aaron’s practice situates in the intersection of visual art, architecture and performance studies. With a PhD in Art & Architectural History from McGill University, a Masters in Intellectual History from Cambridge University and a Masters in Painting from Maryland Institute College of Art, Richmond holds an extensive record of awards and residencies. He is currently an affiliated assistant professor with Concordia University’s Faculty of Fine Arts.

Aaron Richmond

During his July 5-26 residency at Hornby Island’s JRSP, Richmond will develop a body of work that moves, like a relay, from landscape-architectural drawings to the creation of lightweight temporary sculptures. With this work, Richmond hopes to engage the park’s sculptural environment as a living archive, while also treating it as a prompt for the continued exploration of material practices, ideas and gestures. He is interested in art’s continued relevance as a space for experimentation and its dynamic interplay between graphic, formal, textual and performative modes of attention, and about the kinds of fleeting scenography suited to this moment of social and environmental uncertainty.

While at the JRSP, Richmond will share his working process with visitors at the sculpture park and offer limited select guided attentional walks: an embodied on-site demonstration of the relays, prompts and curiosities that animate it. Then, from November 17-20, he will visit UVic’s campus, where he will offer guest lectures, artist talks, a workshop and studio visits for Fine Arts students, staff and faculty members. An exhibition of the works he  creates at the JRSP will also be on display and open to the public in November (venue TBA).

Following his JRSP residency, Richmond will be the 2026-2027 Leonard A. Lauder Fellow in Modern Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he will be working on Cotyledons: A Catalogue of Exchanges between the graphic and performing arts. This project asks: when does the mapping of a situation — whether in the form of an architectural projection, a conceptual schema, or a choreographic score — become an experimental prompt for bodies in motion? And what kinds of artworks or artifacts give evidence of this dynamic interplay between graphic form and performative play?

We are very much looking forward to welcoming Aaron this July for his three-week residency at the Jeffrey Rubinoff Sculpture Park on Hornby Island. Stay tuned to follow his body of work develop as he responds to the interplay between continued exploration and the Park’s sculptural environment.

Established in 2025, the annual UVic/JRSP Artist-Scholar Residency was created as a competitive inter-institutional partnership based around an unwavering belief in cultivating the arts. Find out more about this partnership.

This residency is for artists and scholars seeking space to focus on creating a work for exhibition or publication that is in some way informed by their investigation of Jeffrey Rubinoff’s work and their experience working at the sculpture park.

The successful applicant enjoys a 2-5 week  residency at the Jeffrey Rubinoff Sculpture Park with an additional week at UVic to engage with Fine Arts faculty and students.

Roy Henry Vickers awarded Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts

by | Jun 9, 2026 | Art History & Visual Studies, Award, indigenous, Visual Arts

Roy Henry Vickers is a celebrated Indigenous artist, author, printmaker and storyteller of Tsimshian, Haida, Heiltsuk, Wuikinuxv and English descent. He is a Member of the Order of Canada, the Order of BC and a recipient of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal. In 2019, he was even nominated for a Grammy Award for his design work on a Grateful Dead CD box set.

Now, he is the recipient of an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts, presented as part of the Fine Arts convocation ceremony on June 10, Vickers studied at UVic before joining the Saanich Fire Department, he then left to study and graduate from the Gitanmaax School of Northwest Coast Indian Art. As noted in this Sooke News Mirror story, his former Oak Bay High teacher — and early UVic Theatre department designer — Bill West encouraged him to “paint what you see”. Vickers remembers the teacher saying, “Your colour blindness is an advantage because you simplify all the colours out there and paint what you see.”

Clearly, West was on to something, as Vickers’ internationally acclaimed artwork reflects the landscapes, wildlife and people of British Columbia. Characterized by clean lines and vivid colours, his distinctive artistic style blends his Indigenous heritage with a contemporary design, creating timeless and evocative pieces. Vickers’ influence is felt throughout the province — from founding his Eagle Aerie Gallery in Tofino to designing the Salmon Totem Pole for the 1994 Commonwealth Games. He also played a pivotal role in shaping the artistic direction of Vancouver International Airport’s new terminal, where his work remains prominently displayed.

With a career spanning more than 50 years, Vickers continues to leave a lasting legacy through his art and storytelling — sharing powerful messages of Indigenous self-determination, resilience and healing.