Winter update

Posted on by S.Robb

Welcome to 2025

It has been a busy time as we head to spring break. 

Student Achievments
Congrats to Ivan C – RCM level 8 clarinet – First Class Honours
Congrats to Emily – RCM level 8 saxophone
Congrats to Cole –  starting to recieve university acceptances for Music Composition for next year, we will see what he decides to do.

Busy now preparing for our big upcoming Spring concert with the RDYO Symphony,  Beethoven 5, Schubert Spring Symphony, and a rther ambitious choice for us,  Night, herself by local composer Jocelyn Morlock (2017). A beautiful but conceptually difficult piece for our young musicians. Looking forward to this performance on April 13 at Equinox Theatre in South Delta.

Spring Break Camp this year for the Jazz Workshop coming up at the end of the month (details here) and of courser our summer camp will be back. 

I recorded an EP last month with Emmett Martin Hatlelid, will be coming out some time soon, here is a sneek peek

The cliip on the side is a little rehearsal band that i have started playing keys with, local musicians from here in Delta.  We will see where it goes.

 

“Take 5 Delta .” – livei in concert

 

 

Fall update 2024

Posted on by S.Robb

Autumn is here!

After a busy summer of travel to Clarinet Fest in Ireland and our own South Delta Jazz Festival, I am back with a busy Fall schedule. 

Various performances with Emmett Hatlelid – last Friday of the month at Petras for the fall
– October, November and December. 

A group pic from our youth orchestra camp in October at Camp Stillwood with RDYO. An ammzing two days of working with about 120 students and 6 faculty.

November 7 is the reprise of the Vancouver InterArts Collective (VIC). Under Brad’s leadership once again we will present a provocative sixty-minute structured improvisation that combines music, dance, soundscape, sung and spoken word, real-time visual art, and creative lighting. Featuring Brad Muirhead (project lead, trombone), Jay Hirabayashi and Barbara Bourget (dance/movement), DB Boyko (voice), Isaac Rosen-Purcell (clarinet/electronics), Stephen Robb (clarinet/ EWI), Nick Apivor and Gary Wideman (percussion).

So is it “art as language”?  Are we having a real conversation?  Yes, but purely in terms of our various art forms.  

I will be performing on clarinet with electronics processing, and EWI (electronic wind instrument) The project is the brainchild of Brad Muirhead, who has been the artist-in-residence at Moberly Arts Centre this past spring.

On November 17 I have the good fortune to perform with Van Django again, this time with RDYO in f fundraising concert for the Vancouver Centennial Rotary Club.   Looking forward to this rare opportunity to perform with Van Django, I will be playing some jazz clarinet too..

 

 

 

Spring update 2024

Posted on by S.Robb

It is hard to believe it is May already…

This Sunday, May 5 I will be performing at Ladner United Church in their “Sunday at 3 pm Series” with the Galiano Trio. I am playing Bass clarinet this time, we are presenting a wonderful selection of classical repertoire re-imagined for Wind Trio.   
Sunday, May 5 – 3 pm – Ladner United Church, 4960 48th St. Delta  – $10 at the Door

Works by French composers Rameau, Poulenc, Bizet, and Claude Bolling.  The Brits are represented by Ralph Vaughn Williams, Butterworth, and more. The program is rounded out with some Resphigi, Gershwin, Joplin, and Canadian works by Bill Douglas and Anita Sleeman.
link to Delta Optimist article

It has been a busy term working with students and my youth orchestra. 

Last week I had the privilege of working with many clarinet students participating in this year’s Cantendo Band Festival at Whistler BC.  I conducted a day of clarinet masterclasses for this year’s festival. Thanks to Denis Prime and Greg Hurst for all your support.

April 13 was our WInds and Symphony Concert with RDYO. We presented William Walton’s Viola Concerto, Florence Prices’s Symphony No 1 in E minor, and Marquez Danzon No. 2. I am very proud of what the orchestra has achieved in the past few months.

I also conducted our combined winds through Holst’s Jupiter from the Planets. This was quite challenging for this group, but a great learning experience for them and they gave a really good performance of the work in the end.  Our Junior winds conductor William Broverman conducted two other pieces as well to round out the program.

Student Achievements – Spring 2024

VAYA festival – Cole C. – Composition Class award – Bronze Award 

National Youth Band – Congratulations to Frank for winning acceptance 2 years in a row.

Congratulations to Ivan C. for achieving First-class honors on his RCM Level 7 clarinet exam!

 

 

winter update

Posted on by S.Robb

Fall 2023

Another Busy Fall!

RDYO held several outreach concerns for the first time since COVID-19 shut everything down. It was fun and felt good to have the orchestra back performing for the general public again in a festive setting. 

It is always great to perform with the students as well, and share the stage with these fine young performers!   

Thanks to everyone who came to our Winter concerts with RDYO and DCMS.

H

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer update

Posted on by S.Robb

Urban Bandscape in Performance
Heart of the City Festival – October 2022

Summer Performances 2023

After a slow spring things are heating up.  Summer Gigs.

July 14 – Performing with Emmett Hatlied at L”Aromas in Tsawwassen – 6 – 8 pm

July 23  –  Performing keys and tenor with Urban Bandscape – Fort Langley Jazz Festival – 2 pm

August 12 – Jazz at Southlands – South Delta Jazz Festival – 5 – 8 pm

August 19 – Jazz at Southlands – with Urban Bandcape – 2 pm

August 27 – House Concert – Kris Jay Quartet

Student Achieivements

Congratulations to my students for all their achievements.

Frank X – Vancouver Kiwanis Festival – Charlton & Helen Young Scholarship – clarinet, recommended to participate in BC Provincial finals  (May 2023)

Spencer L – Premier of Cloudburst for Wind Ensemble with RDYO WInds – May 2023

Frank X – Participant in the  2023 National Youth Band of Canada. (May 2023)

Frank X – appointed principal clarinet Vancouver Kiwanis Festival WInds (June 2023)

Emily D – RCM Grade 7 exam alto sax – honours (June 2023)

Anka S – DCMS scholarship award ( June 2023)

Frank X – DCMS scholarship award (June 2023)

Dabhim Y – DCMS scholarship award (June 2023)

 

New Creative project

Posted on by S.Robb

Vancouver Inter-arts collective

It has been a number of years since I have entered into the world of free improv.  This is not a free concert, but a performance where the text and context of what we will perform are not predetermined. The music is created spontaneously. 

“Conversations” will be the interaction of various sounds scapes created by musicians interacting and conversing with other art mediums, the photo shows some of the artwork that has been created during our “rehearsals” as interpretive dance, interpretive painting, and interpretive music make up the whole of this “conversation”.   So we have a spontaneous composition. Some very interesting moments are created in this process.  

So is it “art as language”?  Are we having a real conversation?  Yes, but purely in terms of our various art forms.  

I will be performing on clarinet with electronics processing, and EWI (electronic wind instrument) The project is the brainchild of Brad Muirhead, who has been the artist-in-residence at Moberly Arts Centre this past spring.

The performance is at Moberly Arts Centre – Friday, June 9th at 7 pm.  Information is on the events page.

 

A New Year

Posted on by S.Robb

heading into 2023

As we wind our way into 2023, past Christmas and Chinese New Year, it is time to reflect on the recent months.

Congratulations to RDYO for the two wonderful Concerts on December 10th at Genesis Theatre in Ladner.  Many wonderful performances, some of which you will find on our YouTube channel.

This past weekend RDYO held our Winter Workshop for the first time in three years. Thanks to our sectional coaches and Infinitus for coming out to make a wonderful day for our students.  We also returned to Camp Stillwood in October 2022 for the first time since 2019.

Congratulations to Frank X. for successfully auditioning for the 2023 National Youth Band of Canada. Well Done.

Congratulations to Anka S. for being invited to perform the Mozart Clarinet Concerto with Richmond Orchestra and Chorus this February.

“RDYO Symphony at Genesis Theatre, December 10th. .”

 

2022 South Delta Jazz Festival

Posted on by S.Robb

Our 2022 edition of the South Delta Jazz Festival has drawn to a close. 

We started with a short Online section which I taught this year. This was followed by week 2 with four groups in the workshop this year,  capped off with a beautiful concert on Saturday, August 13 with hundreds of people in attendance, and our student combo concert on Sunday, August 14.

Our first Vocal Jazz workshop followed the next week.  Nine students took part in our first year of offering the program with Jennifer Scott and Laura Harrison from Capilano University. This event was capped off by our faculty and student concert on the final day of the three-week Festival and Workshop.

Thanks to our board at Delta Community Music School, our wonderful jazz faculty, and the wonderful folks at Southlands for making this all possible. 

Looking forward to planning for next year…

 

 

Congratulations to RDYO

Posted on by S.Robb

Fiftieth Anniversary Season for RDYO!

September 11, 1971, was the date of the very first rehearsal of the Delta Youth Orchestra, at the Ladner Community Centre in Ladner Village, Delta BC.  i am proud to have been working with the group now for more than thirty years and to be the one to lead us through our 50th anniversary season and a return to live performances after two years of the pandemic.  2021 – 2022 is actually our 51st season if you do the math, but we have not been able to plan anything for two years because of the pandemic. Hence, we celebrated this year with a special concert at the Chan Centre of the Performing Arts in Vancouver featuring all of our divisions.

We capped the year off with a special performance again with all divisions for the VSO Day of Music, June 4th, 2022 at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Vancouver. What a special day and wonderful feeling to lead our combined orchestras through a performance of local Vancouver composer Christopher Tyler Nickel’s Horizons with some eighty of our students on stage.

Bravo to our orchestra and all the parents and volunteers who have kept our organization alive through the past two years of this pandemic. Looking forward a staying around for a few more years of music-making with this organization.