Three REACH Award winners in Fine Arts

by | Mar 24, 2025 | Award, Faculty, School of Music, Visual Arts, Writing

Congratulations go out to three Fine Arts professors who have been named recipients of UVic’s annual REACH Awards, which recognize outstanding achievement by teachers and researchers who are leading the way in dynamic learning and making a vital impact on campus, in the classroom and beyond.

Excellence in Creativity & Artistic Expression Award

This award recognizes a significant project or body of work that furthers knowledge and awareness through creative or artistic expression. Nominations are encouraged from the creative, visual and performing arts, scholarship on the arts, and research on all aspects of arts and culture.

Department of Visual Arts professor Kelly Richardson creates video installations of rich and complex landscapes that have been manipulated using CGI, animation and sound. Taking cues from 19th-century paintings, 20th-century cinema, and 21st-century planetary research, Kelly crafts artwork that offers imaginative glimpses of the future that prompt careful consideration of the present. She is a core member of the Awi’nakola Foundation—an Indigenous-led, cross-cultural group of knowledge keepers, scientists and artists working together to find effective responses to the climate crisis and educate others through the process. Kelly’s most recent work was featured in Metallica’s 72 Seasons music video.

Harry Hickman Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching & Educational Leadership

This award bears the name of a distinguished scholar, teacher and principal of Victoria College. He was acting president of UVic and head of the Modern Languages and French departments. This award recognizes faculty members who have demonstrated excellence in teaching and educational leadership.

For two decades, Department of Writing professor David Leach has been a pedagogical innovator, inside and outside the classroom. He has integrated emerging forms of interactive digital media (from iClickers to virtual reality) with student-driven interdisciplinary projects and community-engaged partnerships, publications and productions. As an academic leader, he has shared his knowledge and experience with colleagues in committees at every level of the university and through scholarship and hands-on demonstrations in workshops, lectures, podcasts, papers and public events to celebrate the power and potential of student-centered, project-based forms of collaborative discovery and interactive learning.

Provost’s Advocacy & Activism Awards

The Provost’s Advocacy and Activism Awards in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion recognize the achievements of individuals or groups in the university community (current students, faculty, staff and alumni) who demonstrate dedication to the advancement of social equity through advocacy and/or activism. These awards also celebrate individuals or groups who go beyond the expectations of one’s job, position or responsibility to advance the rights of others.

Associate Professor Kirk McNally’s work within the School of Music embodies the spirit of diversity, equity and inclusion. His efforts to host a diverse range of musicians has fostered a vibrant learning environment for aspiring sound engineers and producers. Kirk has also collaborated with Carey Newman, the Impact Chair in Indigenous Art Practices, on the public art installation Earth Drums, and the Virtual Reality Witness Blanket project. In 2021, Kirk hosted a four-day hybrid workshop which engaged in critical dialogue about representation within the field of music production. These engagements are a snapshot of the unique activism that Kirk brings to his field and his classroom.

Congratulations to all! Read more about the REACH Awards here. 

Distinguished Alumni Award: Crystal Clark

by | Mar 24, 2025 | Alumni, Award, donor, News, Visual Arts

Indigenous Community Alumni Award recipient Crystal Clark is a Cree/Dene and Métis mother, an artist and an Indigenous education specialist who has worked within First Nations and public schools. She holds a Master of Educational Technology, Bachelor of Education, Bachelor of Fine Arts, New Media Diploma and a Native Creative Writing and Visual Arts Diploma. Her teaching experience includes working with the Tsimshian Nation in Lax Kw’alaams, BC, O’Chiese First Nation and Sunchild First Nation, AB. 

“I had a unique experience with the University of Victoria back in the 1990s,” she recalls of her time in the Department of Visual Arts, where she received her BFA in 2002. “UVic has a relationship with Penticton First Nations’ En’owkin Centre, founded by [Fine Arts alumna] Jeannette Armstrong… It allowed me a creative way to enter the field of post-secondary, but in a kind way for an Indigenous person to connect with other Indigenous scholars and artists… Fine Arts became a tool to express who I am and how I was feeling in relation to my identity as an Indigenous person trying to navigate society.”

Along with teaching, Clark has gained experience as a vice principal and First Nations Student Success Program coordinator as well as an Indigenous Education Consultant with the Alberta Teachers Association, College of Alberta School Superintendents, Canada Sports Hall of Fame: Indigenous Sports Heroes, National Film Board of Canada and Pearson Education. 

She has received a Prime Minister’s Teaching Achievement Award, Esquao Award for Education Service with the Institute for Advancement of Aboriginal Women and is a two-time Peace Hills Trust Art Award Recipient. Her public has been displayed in downtown Vancouver, Red Deer, Edmonton and Calgary. Her most recent work can be seen at Red Deer Polytechnic’s Indigenous Student Centre.

A bigger world

Born in Treaty 8 Territory in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Clark is currently living in Treaty 6 Territory in Rocky Mountain House, Alberta. 

“It was particularly challenging, the high schools that I went to, moving a lot and not feeling a sense of belonging as an Indigenous person, also going through a lot of family trauma,” she recalls of her early years. “I learned that post-secondary education in a university setting, if designed to nurture and celebrate Indigeneity, was meant for me. I felt like I belonged and was able to connect with Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples from across Canada and around the world. I felt a sense of belonging. It was an opening to a bigger world that’s out there and that I could make my way in. I felt comfortable.”

One thing that’s helped her over the year’s is what she describes as having a “smudge mindset.” “That’s a term I made up . . . it’s like smudging with sage or sweet grass and what I’m thinking and feeling when I smudge. I can’t always take smudge into every situation I’m in to help me in ways like calming down or being grounded, but I can think those thoughts, like ‘Please help me be patient and kind in this situation, help me see the world in a good way and with kindness and walk in a good way.’ We live in a reactionary society these days, and sometimes it’s important to remind myself to not always jump the gun and to have that sense of patience and gratitude.”

What I’ve learned with age

“Aging has taught me not worrying and not to be as anxious as much about the little things. So, stopping being so hard and critical of myself, and not always worrying about what other people might think. As one of my cousins says comparison can be the killer of joy. I have come to know that I’m valued and needed, and as an Indigenous person that I do belong.”

With aging, however, also comes perspective. “We’re all lifelong learners,” she says. “School can be a beautiful place to expand our minds, practice and learn, but after that it’s the work that you get into where you really start to put what you’ve learned into practice. And that’s where I think you grow the most is learning that you don’t stop learning once you graduate. That’s just the beginning.” 

All my relations

“When I went to En’owkin, the satellite of the UVic campus, I learned a concept from my Anishinaabe friend and poet Vera Wabegijig called ‘all my relations,’ which I’ve always carried with me. In Cree, the concept is called Wahkohtowin. Rather than saying goodbye, you can say ‘all my relations.’ It’s essentially saying that everybody in this world, we’re all connected to each other… not only to each other as humans, but we’re related to the land, the natural world, the sun, the moon, the stars, the water, the air, the trees, the animals and plants. We all need each other to exist. It’s not so much advice, but more of a worldview that’s helped me maintain good relationships with people and the land that I’ve encountered and work with, and in my everyday life to know that we need to all love and respect each other.”

 

Speed round!

Something that brings me joy:

“Nature. I love being out on the land. And art.” 

If I had an extra hour of free time: 

“I always need time to do more art. I think most artists would say that.”

A concert I attended recently:

“The Looney Tunes Symphony in Edmonton.”

 Secret talent: 

“Aging gracefully. Some call it great genes, others call it a mystery—I just call it my secret superpower!”

 One skill I wish I possessed: 

“Being part of a community with so many great examples of living with the land has shown me the beauty of self-sufficiency—something I wish had been part of my upbringing. There’s something deeply fulfilling about knowing how to grow your own food, raise animals, identify indigenous plants and medicines and sustain your way of life. I often find myself longing for that connection, not just to the land but also to my roots—especially the ability to speak one of my Indigenous languages.”

 My go-to karaoke song: 

“Proud Mary” by Tina Turner. I would bring the house down with that song.”

 Read more about UVic’s 2025 Alumni Awards here

 

Distinguished Alumni Awards: Cassandra Miller

by | Mar 16, 2025 | Alumni, Award, donor, Graduate, News, Theatre, Visual Arts

We are thrilled that Cassandra Miller is the recipient of one of the 2025 Presidents’ Alumni Awards. Born in Victoria, Cassandra received her Bachelor of Music in Composition and Theory from UVic in 2005; her brother, the award-winning graphic designer Emrys Damon Miller, is also a Fine Arts alumni (Visual Arts). 

An acclaimed Canadian-British composer who has been living in London, England, since 2018, Cassandra’s composition methods incorporate a unique practice of meditation-based uncontrolled singing to learn about melody and repetition. She uses these vocal exercises together with creative transcription processes to transform pre-existing musical sources (from both within and outside the classical tradition) to magnify their expressive, personal, or fragile qualities.

“Music this uncalculatedly beautiful leaves you almost desperate with gratitude,” wrote Alex Ross of her work in The New Yorker, while The Guardian hailed her “Duet for Cello and Orchestra” as among the top 20 “Best Classical Music Works of the 21st Century.” Over the past year, her works have appeared internationally at the BBC Proms, GöteborgsOperans Danskompani and on tour with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. She has twice received the Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music, Canada’s highest honour for composition, and in 2025 she will be a visiting scholar for three months as lecturer at Stanford University.

Endless possibility

“I originally went to UVic to study my instrument—the harp,” Cassandra recalls. “On the first day of classes I took a composition elective and then realized, ‘Oh gosh, this is what I do now.’ It was life changing.” 

She recalls the School of Music as the kind of place where, as far as creativity goes, “anything was possible… You were taught that to be an artist was to be a bit of a weirdo. It was so freeing and so important. I learned about myself… how to be that kind of creative, how to be free and playful by being myself… At the time I just thought that was good education, but afterwards I realized that it was also artistically incredibly unique and important. It was a very special place.”

Over the years, she has been invited as a visiting teacher and lecturer at many institutions including Stanford, Columbia, CalArts, London’s Royal Academy of Music, Birmingham Conservatoire, McGill University, the University of Manitoba and the Orkest de Ereprijs Young Composers Meeting. From 2010 to 2013, she held the post of Artistic and General Director of Innovations en concert, Montreal, and from 2018 to 2020, Miller was Associate Head of Composition at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, leading the undergraduate program.

Cassandra Miller with the BBC Philharmonic at the 2023 Aldeburgh Festival (BPA/The Guardian)

Collaboration and listening

Cassandra says she finds the art and practice of composing “extremely collaborative. On the surface, it looks like I’m sitting at home staring at my computer, but because I’m writing music for other people to play, even the least collaborative project is extremely collaborative. And then there’s the idea of making space for another person, and it’s a skill that I’m continuously learning. Every opportunity to interact with somebody is an opportunity to learn how to listen better. And the other side of that is listening to oneself and making the space to listen to what’s going on inside and what needs to happen and how to make space.”

What I’ve learned

“I’ve learned how to gather around me the support that I need. This was something I learned late in life… I have pretty strong ADHD, and I need to hire an assistant. I need to hire a personal trainer. I need to have a therapist at all times. I also need to keep my family and friends close, and I always need to live with somebody. There’s a lot of things I need that I’m getting better at asking for and putting into place.”

“A friend of mine used the mantra ‘Try less hard,’ and I took it on… It’s about making that space for listening. Often when you’re trying too hard for something, you’re not making the space to listen to what’s really going on. Often the solution is to change a situation or try something a bit differently. But if you’re already trying hard, trying harder usually isn’t the thing that’s going to make it work.”

Speed round!

Something that brings me joy: 

“Bird song… London has parakeets, which are a huge part of the soundscape of the city. They’re an invasive species, but they have this wonderful chatter and they’re very loud at sunrise and sunset. It’s a way to mark the time in the city, and they fly around in these huge flocks and they’re bright green. They’re lovely.” 

One food I can’t resist: 

“My family makes these traditional Lebanese Christmas cookies.  We call them Sticky Fingers because they’re roughly the shape of a finger and they’re dipped in honey, filled with almonds and orange blossom water. And they have little bits of aniseed in the dough.”

Something great I’ve watched recently: 

“A movie called The Cassandra Cat. It’s this absurd, surreal movie from the Czech Republic in the early ’60s. I sort of recommend it, but you have to be in the right mood.”

A cool thing about where I live: 

“London has so many trees in it that it’s classified as a forest.”

Secret talent:

“I am incredibly patient, and I don’t mind waiting, and it’s very extreme. If a friend is three hours late to meet me, no problem. I just love waiting around.”

A talent I wish I possessed: 

“I wish I could dance better. I think it’s an important thing in life. I think life is probably about eating, sleeping, singing and dancing.”

 Read more about UVic’s 2025 Alumni Awards here

Supporting the next generation of writers in the 2SLGBTQIA+ community

by | Mar 6, 2025 | Alumni, Award, donor, News, Theatre

Thanks to the Candis Graham Writing Scholarship, an award created by the Lambda Foundation alongside friends and family of the renowned lesbian-feminist writer and teacher, UVic student Zoe Bechtold is able to explore her diverse interests in writing and performance arts.

From stage acting and puppet theatre to writing interactive fiction, Zoe has a passion for exploring innovative and creative ways to tell stories—with a particular focus on queer characters and other underrepresented voices.

 

As a dedicated author with a growing portfolio of short stories, plays, and fan fiction, Zoe is currently pursuing a BFA in Theatre and Writing here at UVic. She was recently awarded the 2024 Candis Graham Writing Scholarship for her exceptional academic performance and compelling application essay. (The 2023 Candis Graham Scholarship went to fellow Writing student Elena Stalwick.)

“It’s motivating to feel that my writing is being recognized,” she says of the scholarship, which was established by the Lambda Scholarship Foundation Canada in collaboration with the family and friends of feminist writer Candis Graham for students in the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and allies.

“I’m so glad this award exists to support the queer and trans community. I know so many talented queer writers and it’s meaningful to know that people and organizations are actively providing financial resources.”

Zoe (left) & her twin brother Link in Peter Pan at Calgary Young People’s Theatre (Rob Galbraith)

Leaving Calgary’s theatre scene to find community in Victoria

Growing up in Calgary, Zoe came to UVic with years of experience writing and acting, honed with support from the city’s theatre community. A major milestone in her acting journey included a serendipitous twist: her debut role at Calgary Young People’s Theatre was as one of the Lost Boys twins in Peter Pan—played alongside her own twin brother.

Encouraged by mentors who recognized her potential, Zoe chose to attend UVic, drawn to its reputation for creativity, supportive community, and stunning natural setting.

“It was partly the location—Victoria is really beautiful—and partly knowing older, accomplished actors I admired who have also studied here,” Zoe shares.

Since arriving in Victoria, Zoe has immersed herself in a rich tapestry of perspectives and opportunities that have nurtured her talents. At UVic’s Phoenix Theatre, she has contributed to productions every year of her studies, including Dead Man’s Cell Phone (2021), Spring Awakening (2022), The Importance of Being Earnest (2023), and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (2024).

“There’s a big theatre community here in Victoria—people I can ask for advice, like those at the Phoenix or graduates who are producing their own work. It’s really inspiring.”

Zoe practices her skills in a Green Fools puppetry workshop (Keith Cartmell) 

Candis Graham’s legacy of creativity and advocacy

Zoe’s journey reflects the creative spirit embodied by Candis Graham. Like Zoe, she also came from outside BC and found a home in Victoria’s artistic community. Born in Ontario in 1949, she was a writer and editor of short fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, essays, and novels, unabashedly open about her lesbian and feminist identity, despite encountering discrimination. After moving to Victoria in 2001, she spent her final years writing, teaching, and running a greeting card company that combined word collages and verse—leaving behind a legacy of creativity and advocacy.

For Zoe, receiving the Candis Graham Writing Scholarship has eased the financial challenges of university life and allowed her to focus on her studies and creative pursuits.

“I’ve enjoyed using my time at UVic to explore and develop my expertise in theatre and writing. I am happy with the growth I have noticed in myself as a writer that has resulted from my classes and coursework,” she says.

Fascinated by unconventional storytelling that meshes the visual with the written word, Zoe is interested in studying puppet theatre and hopes to one day write and illustrate a graphic novel.

Looking ahead, she also envisions cultivating opportunities for both her and others by founding a creation company with her twin brother and a close friend.

“My professors are always telling us, ‘You’ve got to produce your own work,’ and that’s what I hope to do,” she says.

 

Learn more about giving to UVic. 

Indigenous research and community springs from arts lab

by | Feb 27, 2025 | Art History & Visual Studies, Award, climate, Faculty, Graduate, indigenous, News, Research, Visual Arts

From left: Heather Igloliorte with Taqsiqtuut Research-Creation Lab staff Chris Mockford & Natalie Rollins

There’s a new Indigenous arts research space at the University of Victoria (UVic) that is looking up—way up—to the arts of the circumpolar region, as well as all along the Pacific shoreline and from Alaska to New Zealand, with Victoria at the center of it all.

The Taqsiqtuut Research-Creation Lab is the latest project by Heather Igloliorte, UVic’s inaugural Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Decolonial and Transformational Indigenous Art Practices, based in the Faculty of Fine Arts. Igloliorte’s prestigious eight-year, $8-million position is advancing reconciliation through the transformative power of art and innovative exhibition practices, and is supporting a new generation of students, researchers, educators, curators and artists to drive change through artistic practice.

“Indigenous people don’t necessarily have access to the same cutting-edge technologies that others do, just like they lack access to museums and galleries in the North,” says Igloliorte.

The development of digital and media-arts skills is one main area that will help remove these barriers by putting innovative tools—like augmented and extended reality—into the hands of students and artists alike. “They can experiment and see if they’re interested in bringing their current practices into a media art space … The potential is there for people to grow in exciting new directions.”

As such, the Taqsiqtuut Research Creation lab is addressing the key pillars of Igloliorte’s CERC: not only these practical digital skills but also the creation of exhibitions, the training and mentoring of students and youth, and the development of new policies and best practices for institutions that engage with Indigenous art and artists.

See the lineup & RSVP for the Feb 28 launch event here, including a 1pm welcome and panel discussion, a 3pm film screening and the 5-7pm installation walk-through and demonstration.

Listen to this interview with Heather Igloliorte on CBC Radio’s All Points West on February 27.

The “qiaqsutuq” installation on view at the opening of the Taqsiqtuut Research-Creation Lab,
curated by Heather Igloliorte, Alysa Procida & Carla Taunton

Designing new collaborations

Open to students and Indigenous members of the artistic community, as well as visiting artists and artistic residencies (plus other community members by invitation), the Taqsiqtuut lab is named after the Inuktitut word for patterns and designs, which suits Igloliorte’s intention of providing a training and mentorship space at the intersection of both customary and digital practices.

“In the past, I’ve worked with artists who’ve learned how to take their beadwork practice and turn it into stop-motion animation, for example, or to take their work on the land and then translate that into a VR or an augmented reality film or project,” explains Igloliorte. “But it can also go the other way: we work with artists with a lot of training in digital or media practices who are now thinking about translating their work into a land-based practice, or an intangible heritage project.”

Currently run by a diverse mix of five (including faculty and staff, plus post-doctorate, graduate and undergraduate students), the lab is in the process of building up a technological library of project-based digital tools.

“We’ll keep building as we go,” says Igloliorte. “For a stop-motion project, we’ll invest in stop-motion technology, and when we work with seamstresses on an Indigenous customary clothing pattern-making workshop, then we’ll purchase a pattern-imaging device. “We also have a high-end video and media arts editing suite and a digital media arts technician who’s here to help students and community members realize their own far-ranging projects.”

Carey Newman demonstrates his Witness Blanket VR project to a visitor
during the launch of the Taqsiqtuut Research-Creation Lab on Feb 28 

Championing research creation

Officially opened on Feb. 28 with an afternoon of panel discussions, art installations, project demonstrations and a film screening, the lab showcased dynamic emerging digital media projects. The Witness Blanket VR by UVic’s Impact Chair in Indigenous Art Practices and Visual Arts professor Carey Newman—which transitions a Winnipeg-based, reconciliation-focused sculptural installation into a virtual reality program accessible by anyone with a virtual reality rig—was also featured.

The Taqsiqtuut lab launch will also mark the conclusion of one of Igloliorte’s research projects centering on promoting and protecting Indigenous arts, culminating in a panel discussion with a local focus on the appreciation and appropriation of Northwest coast arts.

Previously a Tier 1 University Research Chair at Concordia University, where she co-led the Indigenous Futures Research Centre in the Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture and Technology, Igloliorte is now excited to be creating an Indigenous research-creation lab here at UVic.

“This space is unique in many ways because of the areas we’re approaching with the CERC and the work that we’re doing,” she explains. “I’ve seen a lot of amazing arts-based technological labs, and I’m excited to partner with other institutions.”

One of these partnership projects is Qiaqsutuq, a multimedia sculptural installation which offers an Inuit perspective on climate change, as told Greek-chorus style from the perspectives of five gigantic Arctic animals or beings. It was produced with the Centre for Inter-media Arts and Decolonial Expression at Halifax’s NSCAD University—which is co-led by Leah Decter and Tahltan artist Peter Morin (who collaborated on UVic’s Big Button Blanket project back in 2014)—and which will engage another of her CERC partners, Western University’s Center for Sustainable Curating.

Igloliorte feels UVic—and Victoria specifically—is an ideal location for the Taqsiqtuut lab.

“Victoria is nestled at the center of both the Pacific and the North, from the west coast of North America on up to Alaska, then across the Arctic and around the circumpolar world, but also over to Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand and Samoa,” she says. “I have a large network of colleagues and artists I’ve been working with for a long time—partners who are working and thinking across Indigenous cultures, and learning from each other in order to move towards this place of transformation and decolonization.”

Curating the future

In addition to maintaining her international partnerships and establishing the Taqsiqtuut lab, Igloliorte also carries a teaching load with the Visual Arts department and supports various community projects, such as jurying the Salt Spring National Art Prize and the Yukon Art Prize, and curating Newfoundland’s international Bonavista Biennale—all of which is part of her robust CERC position.

She will also host a UVic conference in May 2025 for all the stakeholders who contributed to her CERC application. “It will be a big international gathering of Indigenous scholars and museum directors, plus curators, artists and community members,” she says. “We’re coming together to make plans for publications, exhibitions, mentorships, public engagements and policy documents.”

Heather Igloliorte’s multifaceted and interdisciplinary work aligns with UVic’s commitment to ʔetal nəwəl | ÁTOL,NEUEL, as well as commitments to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals focused on quality education, decent work, economic growth, reduced inequalities and peace and justice.

The “qiaqsutuq” installation was created by Jamesie Fournier (Nunavummiut/Yellowknife), Erin Ggaadimits Ivalu Gingrich (Koyukon Denaa & Inupiaq/Anchorage), Colo Lyne (Kalaaleq Greenlandic/Denmark), Malayah Maloney (Nunavummiut/Vancouver) and Taqralk Partridge (Nunavummiut/Ottawa), and curated by Heather Igloliorte (Nunatsiavummiut/Victoria), Alysa Procida (Settler/Toronto) & Carla Taunton (Settler/Halifax)

Sounds for Soldiers: Emily Armour’s Music for Veterans Project connects young musicians with military vets

by | Jan 15, 2025 | Alumni, Award, Graduate, School of Music, Undergraduate

Music alum Emily Armour with Pipe Major Roger McGuire of the Canadian Scottish Regiment
(Princess Mary’s) at 2024’s 80th anniversary of D-Day event at Victoria’s Bay Street Armoury 

When it comes to honouring veterans, many people wear a poppy on November 11 and then literally call it a day. Emily Armour created the Music for Veterans Project as a cross-generational way to honour soldiers year-round. Armour’s program involves sharing profiles of a member of the Canadian military with a young musician. The youth then creates an original musical composition to honour that person.

“It’s wonderful that we all unite and honour veterans in November, but it’s important to have other moments throughout the year to make them feel special as well,” Armour says.

Now in its fourth year, the Music for Veterans Project (MVP) provides meaningful connections between Armour’s students and Canadian veterans. Over 100 pieces have been written by students ranging in age from 18 to just five years old. These works honour both deceased and living veterans, including those who still are on active duty or have served as reservists.

“What makes this project unique is that every piece is inspired by and dedicated to an individual person,” she says.

Honouring the past

The program started as a Remembrance Day event but has since grown in scope. “There are a lot of activities out there for youth around Remembrance Day, but there isn’t always an opportunity to do something focused on an individual,” says Armour. “Like many of us, some of my students may have had relatives who served, but do they know a veteran who’s alive? Have they ever spoken to one? Have they ever heard a veteran talk about anything — even just about themselves? Through this project, the students are suddenly realizing just how different veterans are.”

Armour is a professional piano teacher who received both her Bachelor’s (2012) and Master’s (2017) from UVic’s School of Music, where she primarily studied with famed professor Bruce Vogt. Her family’s strong ties to the Canadian Armed Forces inspired the project.

“Not only was my husband in the military, but my grandmother served overseas during World War II: she was a physiotherapist in England and Germany between 1944 and 1945. I’ve seen how important and valuable it is for veterans and people in the Canadian Forces to have these moments of acknowledgment and positive recognition— but it’s just so amazing when it’s coming from youth.”

Composing from memory

Averaging between one and four minutes in length, each simple but evocative composition is inspired by an information package compiled by Armour. Veterans are chosen through a mix of word-of-mouth and organizational outreach. The creative lens is strictly focused on the soldier as a person: no additional historical information is added to the profile the student receives.

“There’s a lot of love, thought and care that goes into the process,” she says. “It’s emotional for everybody, because it’s so personal: even the titles of some compositions are drawn right from the material. It’s a very personal acknowledgment, as opposed to giving a drawing of a poppy to a veteran . . . which may be fantastic, but it lacks the personal acknowledgment music has.”

The compositions are always instrumentals with the idea of allowing the listener to conjure their own thoughts and feelings from the piece. She feels the greatest value is not actually the music itself: it’s why the music is written.

“As artists, it’s always kind of about us—what can this do for me and my career and my voice—but this is decidedly not about them; it’s for the person who gave their life in France during WWII, or whenever. It taps into something deeper because they’re doing it for somebody else.”

Emily Armour presents Commanding Officer Lt Col Slade Lerch with one of two plaques crafted on oak by a local veteran to commemorate the eight-piece collection created for the anniversary of D-Day

Memory beyond life

The age range of the veterans honoured reflects Canada’s involvement with international conflicts, from World War I to today’s peacekeepers. The program has honoured two living centenarians and a 35-year-old Afghanistan veteran—with a century’s worth of soldiers in-between.

Armour says it’s been a positive experience for her students. They receive a certificate signed by the veteran or partner organization and often get to professionally record the music. The veterans receive a copy of the music.

Many pieces are quietly reflective, with titles like “Beyond the Fray”, “Remembering a Hero” or “The Sacrifice for Freedom” (all of which can be heard at musicforveteransproject.com, many paired with a photo of the veteran). But Armour highlights one light-hearted piece called “Ballad for Seanmhair” (Gaelic for “grandmother”), which was composed for the 2024 80th anniversary of D-Day.

“The title seems very strange for a commemorative piece about a soldier, but his next-of-kin was his grandmother: that was the person who would have been informed of his death. I was so proud of my student for thinking about the impact of their service. It shows how this project can help heal and unite people from such different worlds, both historically and emotionally.”

Looking to the future, Armour has now established MVP as a federal not-for-profit and is opening participation to other piano teachers; they’ve also started working on projects that are both larger and more national in scope.

“Last year we did an event at the Royal Oak Burial Park in Saanich: it was our first public event and we had a ceremony at the war graves plot featuring a procession with Vice Regal Piper Ken Wilson, a group of active Air Force members and WWII pilot George Brewster as a guest speaker,” she recalls. “My students announced the names of the veterans and the title of their pieces; then, as we played professional recordings of the music, they lay the sheet music on the graves.”

Armour and four of her students were also thrilled to attend a 2023 event at the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, where audience included Indigenous elders, ambassadors and other dignitaries. “That was a life-altering experience,” she says about watching her student play pieces honouring three Indigenous veterans, as well as former Senator Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire.“

Music students Kai, Keira, Luke, Maya, Théo & teacher Emily Armour with
former Chief of the Defence Staff General Wayne Eyre during a trip to Ottawa 2023

Growing commemoration

Currently, the Music for Veterans Project is involved in two new efforts: the Honouring Garden, created in collaboration with Nova Scotia’s Veteran Farm Project Society to commemorate women veterans, and Oaks of Remembrance, a unique living memorial marking the 110th anniversary of World War I’s Battle of Kitcheners’ Wood.

Part digital and part environmental, Oaks of Remembrance will see new Garry oak trees planted at Saanich’s Royal Oak Burial Park, where current trees will also be designated as memorials for individual veterans; the public will then be able to go online to hear the musical compositions and learn about both the veteran and the student.

“Oaks of Remembrance will commemorate members of the Canadian Scottish Regiment, Vancouver Island’s only infantry unit, who wear an oak leaf battle honour on their uniform representing this 1915 battle in Belgium — they’re one of the few units in the whole Commonwealth who actually wear a battle honour on their uniform,” Armour explains. “And since Royal Oak Burial Park already has a connection with the Commonwealth War Grave Commission, it’s going to be a beautiful fusion of nature and music that will stand forever as a fully embodied remembrance.”

The sound of history

 When asked if she has a favourite moment over the last four years, Armour hesitates. “I don’t know if there could be just one, there have been so many: seeing tears in the eyes of a veteran as they listen to the music, talking to a family member about somebody who recently passed away . . . it all reminds me of how important this project is.”

As a veteran told Armour after hearing the piece composed for him, “You and your students have no idea how much this piece of music means to me, and I will use this gift to get me through some of the tougher days ahead.”