UVic School of Music

🎻 Calling all professional string quartets!

The UVic School of Music is seeking an existing professional string quartet to join our faculty as four tenure-track Assistant Teaching Professors—one appointment each in Violin I, Violin II, Viola, and Cello.

This is a unique opportunity to combine an active professional quartet career with teaching, mentorship, chamber music coaching, student recruitment, creative activity, and community engagement in beautiful Victoria, BC.

The successful quartet will:
🎶 Teach applied lessons and coach chamber music
🎓 Mentor undergraduate and graduate students
🌎 Maintain an active national/international professional profile
🎼 Contribute to the School’s curriculum and artistic community
🤝 Engage with the university and greater Victoria community through concerts and outreach

Start date: July 1, 2027
Application deadline: October 1, 2026

Applications are accepted only from existing string quartets applying collectively for all four appointments.

Know a quartet that might be a great fit? Please share this opportunity!

👉 View the full position and application details
https://www.uvic.ca/faculty-staff/careers/faculty-and-librarian-postings/current/musi_230-087.php

🎶 From Parking Garage to Live Album 🎶

Check out how jazz duo The Meating — Marc Micu (BMus ’21) and BA student Ryan Keating — have turned an unlikely venue into a musical experience. After discovering the unique acoustics of UVic’s P0 parkade, the pair began using the concrete space as a creative “third instrument” for their ambient, improvisational jazz. A recent concert in the parkade drew about 150 people, transforming the parking structure into a one-of-a-kind performance venue. The show was recorded and will be released as a live album, The Meating: Live in P0 – Volume 1, on August 13.

It goes to show how inspiration can emerge from the most unexpected places.

Concrete concert: Victoria jazz duo record live album at UVic parkade Beneath the concrete ceilings and slate-grey walls of the parkade, the Victoria musicians have found an unexpected performance space.

Bravo to everyone who made Quartet Fest West 2026 such a success! 👏

Over two inspiring weeks, talented young musicians immersed themselves in chamber music through concerts, masterclasses, workshops, daily coachings, and countless hours of rehearsal. A special thank you to this year's Quartet-in-Residence, the Ivalas Quartet, for their performance, mentorship, and inspiring work with students.

Thank you to UVic School of Music professors and former Lafayette String Quartet members Ann Elliott-Goldschmid, Sharon Stanis, Joanna Hood, and Pamela Highbaugh Aloni for leading another outstanding festival. Congratulations to all participants on your dedication, artistry, and growth—we can't wait to see where your musical journeys take you next! 🎻

🎹 We're hiring! Join the UVic School of Music

The University of Victoria School of Music invites applications for a full-time, tenure-track Assistant Teaching Professor in Piano.

We're looking for an outstanding pianist and dedicated educator who is passionate about teaching, performance, collaboration, and mentoring the next generation of musicians. The successful candidate will teach undergraduate and graduate piano students while contributing to our vibrant and collaborative academic community.

As Canada's only All-Steinway School, the UVic School of Music is home to exceptional faculty, talented students, and innovative programs spanning performance, composition, music technology, music education, musicology, and sound studies.

📍 Location: Victoria, BC
🗓️ Application deadline: September 6, 2026
🎼 Start date: January 1, 2027 (or as negotiated)

Learn more and apply: https://www.uvic.ca/faculty-staff/careers/faculty-and-librarian-postings/current/musi_230_086.php

Please share this opportunity with pianists and educators in your network!

So excited to have the incredible Ivalas Quartet headlining as mentors and performers at this year's Quartet Fest West! Don't miss their by-donation performance at 7:30pm Friday, July 3 at our Phillip T Young Recital Hall.

https://events.uvic.ca/music/event/108849-quartet-fest-west-concert-ivalas-quartet

Since they were formed 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 them perform live “Deliverance” by Grammy-nominated composer Derrick Skye, which they just released an audio/video recording of on the Artistician Inc label.

“Deliverance is 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.”

Running through July 10, Quartet Fest West is run by Lafayette String Quartet members & UVic School of Music professors Ann Elliott-Goldschmid, Joanna Hood, Pamela Highbaugh Aloni & Sharon Stanis. In addition to concerts, open masterclasses will take place from 3:30-5PM in the PTY on June 30, July 1-3 + 7-9.

What a fantastic initiative! 🎻🩺 While pursuing medical school through UBC's Island Medical Program, Andrew Loe has continued his music studies at UVic—an experience that helped spark the creation of the Canadian Doctors Orchestra, bringing together healthcare professionals from across the country to make music together.

Andrew credits UVic's viola instructor, Joanna Hood, with encouraging both his musical and scientific ambitions, introducing him to the World Doctors Orchestra, and showing him that he didn't have to choose between the two paths. The orchestra's inaugural concert will also be led by our own Ajtony Csaba, Associate Professor of Conducting.

For Andrew, music is more than a hobby—it's a vital source of renewal, connection, and community for people working in healthcare. His vision is to create a space where musicians in medicine can perform at a high level while supporting one another.

🎼 Healthcare professionals and students who play orchestral instruments are invited to audition by July 1.
Inaugural concert is scheduled for Dec. 20 in Victoria!

Read Andrew's story:

INTERVIEW | Andrew Loe Talks About The Canadian Doctor’s Orchestra — Auditions Open To July 1 Andrew Loe, a student in UBC’s Island Medical Program based in Victoria, is putting together the Canadian Doctors Orchestra in what seems to be a first for this country.

🎓 Congratulations to the School of Music Class of 2026—you did it!

After years of practice, performances, rehearsals, studying, lessons, late nights, and remarkable growth, today we celebrate your achievement. Thank you for your music, creativity, dedication, and strong sense of community you have brought to our school. We are so proud of you and excited to see where your next journey leads.

Bravo, graduates! 🎶✨

🎓 Convocation Q&A ✨ UVic School of Music's Nadia Lurie

Based on your experiences and training, how do you feel the arts can best benefit society?
💬 "The arts are essential! We need empathetic, curious and creative citizens, and arts education provides this. I know this from my own experience as an artist and performer, but I also see it in the children that I teach. Arts education is the way to a better future."

During the five years of her Bachelor of Music study, award-winning performance major Nadia Lurie was busy both on-stage and off — locally, nationally and internationally. In addition to her required classes, recitals and performances, Lurie took private voice lessons, participated in local mentorship programs, taught children’s musical theatre downtown and was accepted into a series of summer opera intensives in Salzburg, Sicily, Quebec and Edmonton.

Read the story here: https://news.uvic.ca/2026/music-grad-finds-confidence-and-success-through-voice-study/

The UVic School of Music is thrilled to be a sponsor of the 2026 Podium Conference & Festival! 🎶

We’re especially proud of the incredible UVic community members helping bring this national choral celebration to life:

✨ Faculty member Adam Con is serving as Festival Co-Chair
✨ 4th year student Sadie Karlsson is Volunteer Coordinator
✨ Music students are supporting events as volunteers and with tech support throughout the festival
✨ Alum Carrie Tennant is directing the Vancouver Youth Choir concert — fresh off their historic win at the prestigious CORK International Choral Festival, where they received the highest marks in the festival’s 71-year history
✨ Two UVic students are performing with the National Youth Choir of Canada

And don’t miss the UVic Vocal Jazz ensemble in a special pop-up concert this Sunday at 12:30pm in the MacLaurin A-Wing!

We can’t wait to celebrate music, collaboration, and community at Podium 2026. 🎤

We were honoured to attend the ceremony & recital marking the 5th anniversary of the Music for Veterans Project at Government House on April 28, where double Music UVic Alumni Emily Armour honoured the latest group of piano students who have composed original pieces in recognition of Canadian military veterans past & present — a story which was also covered in the Times Colonist. It was delightful that Emily was able to have a moment to reconnect with mentor & retired Music professor Bruce Vogt as well!

Find out more about Emily's acclaimed project here:
https://finearts.uvic.ca/research/blog/2025/01/15/sounds-for-soldiers/