The Faculty of Music is frequently host to guest artists, lecturers, and performers. There are many opportunities to participate or observe these talented guests!

Upcoming Guests and Masterclasses:

September 26, 2013, 3:30 - 6:30

Hank Knox has performed on harpsichord in concert halls, churches, museums, galleries and private homes around the globe. He is a founding member of the Ensemble Arion , with whom he has toured Canada, the United States, Europe, Japan, South America and Mexico. He has performed, recorded and toured with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and le Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal. Hank plays regularly with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and with Arion Baroque Orchestra.
Hank Knox directs the Early Music program at McGill University, where he teaches harpsichord and figured bass accompaniment, coaches chamber music ensembles, and conducts the McGill Baroque Orchestra. He has been a William Dawson Scholar in recognition of his work in Early Music since 2003, and was awarded the Thomas Binkley prize for an outstanding university collegium director by Early Music America in 2008. Hank Knox studied harpsichord with John Grew at McGill University in Montreal and with Kenneth Gilbert in Paris.

September 28, 2013, 11am, Faculty of Music Annex

Julliard Jazz Faculty member, recording artist and pianist Xavier Davis (big brother of U of M Jazz Faculty member, Quincy Davis) has worked with Betty Carter and Tom Harrell, and performed and/or recorded with Freddie Hubbard, Jimmy Greene, Regina Carter, Sonny Fortune, Abbey Lincoln, Joe Lovano, Donald Byrd, Nnenna Freelon, Steve Turre, and Russell Malone, among others. In 2005, became the first person to receive the New Works grant twice from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation under the auspices of Chamber Music America.  He played keyboard for the Cosby television series and was musical director, Boys Choir of Harlem, 1999-2000.  

Septmber 30, 2013, 1:30 - 4:00

Jonathan Chan plays a 1715 Dominicus Montagnana violin.  He began playing the violin and piano at the age of 4. By age 8 he had made his first appearance with an orchestra and has since performed throughout Europe, China, South Africa and North America. In 2003, he was invited to perform at a concert at Toronto’s Air Canada Center to mark the retirement of former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, sharing the stage with renowned artists Oliver Jones, Paul Anka and the late Oscar Peterson.

While studying in London, England’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, he performed at the Barbican Centre, Wigmore Hall, the City of London Festival, and at Trafalgar Square as part of St. George’s Day celebrations. He is a three-time Grand Prize winner of the Canadian Music Competition, and two-time recipient of the Sylva Gelber Music Foundation Award, an award given to the most gifted musicians in Canada under the age of 30.

Jonathan Chan is a native of Burnaby, B.C. and is now based in London, England.

- See more here.

October 17, 2013, 3:30 - 5:00

Conductor Robert Tweten has been described as leading with “verve and precision,” as well as having “flawless” pacing, and having “musicality and near-symbiotic accord with singers which always impresses.” The 2012-2013 found Mo. Tweten conducting Trovatore at Utah Opera, Otello with Calgary Opera, and Pearl Fishers at Sarasota Opera. After conducting the New Mexico Philharmonic’s season opening concert in 2011, Mo. Tweten returns to conduct two programs in 2013, including playing and conducting Mozart’s K488 piano concerto. In the 2011-2012 season Maestro Tweten returned to Canada to conduct Fidelio with the Edmonton Opera, Il barbiere di Siviglia with Vancouver Opera, Gianni Schicchi and Pagliacci with Calgary Opera and Utah Opera for Verdi’s Rigoletto. Engagements for 2013-2014 include his return to Utah Opera for La Traviata, Calgary Opera for L’Italiana in Algeri, and Edmonton Opera for Madama Butterfly.

October 22 and 24, 2013, 3:30 - 6:00

The founder and director of the Franz-Schubert–Institut, Deen Larsen, was born in Richfield, Utah, U.S.A. in 1943 and has lived in Austria since 1973. Larsen studied literature and philosophy at Reed College in Portland, Oregon (B.A.), at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut (M.Phil.), and at the University of Vienna (Mag.Phil., Dr.Phil.). His main scholarly interests are German poetry from the age of Goethe, the philosophy of symbolic forms, the writings of James Joyce, and American social history. Larsen has taught poetry of the Lied at the Yale School of Music and the Vienna Academy of Music, opera history at Stanford in Austria, and is currently Adjunct Professor of Music at the University of Alberta. He has been awarded the Kaiser-Friedrich-Medaille in Bronze and the Kulturpreis für Musik of the City of Baden, as well as the Gold Medal of Honour of the Province of Lower Austria in recognition of the international significance of the Franz-Schubert-Institut.

 November 18, 2013, 3 - 4:30pm, Faculty of Music Annex

Omer Avital, hailed by the LA Times as “a pioneer in combining jazz with myriad world music elements,” is a composer, a virtuosic bassist, an oud player and an active force on the world music scene for well over a decade. The New York Times wrote: “Mr. Avital and his group are producing some of the most original music being heard in New York.” Born and raised in Israel, Avital was surrounded from early age by the diverse musical and cultural landscape of his native land; Israeli folk songs, Yemenite Jewish liturgical music, Arabic and Mediterranean popular music from Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, Greece, north Africa etc… the various Jewish traditions of songs and prayers, European Art music, Western popular music and American Jazz and Blues. In 2002, Avital moved back to Israel for 3 years to study classical composition, Arabic musical theory, Oud (Arabic Lute) and traditional Israeli music. Since returning to New York in 2005, Avital has been creating works for and working with the core group of musicians of his Ensemble.

March 10, 2014, 1:00 - 4:30

Taras Gabora enjoys a worldwide reputation as a violinist and teacher of great distinction. As soloist and chamber musician throughout his career, Taras Gabora performed in major cities in Canada, USA, Italy, France, England, Germany, Netherlands, Austria, Greece, Japan and China. He is the founder and former music director of “Casalmaggiore International Music Festival, Summer Music in Italy”. He was also founding member “Trio Tre Musici” (Milan), Chamber Music Chicago, Le Groupe Baroque de Montréal, Vienna Academy String Quartet and the Gabora String Quartet. He was professor of violin (emeritus) at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, McGill University (Montreal), Conservatoire de Montréal, St. Louis Conservatory of Music, University of British Columbia and the Vancouver Academy of Music. He gives master classes in major music institutions around the world.

Taras Gabora frequently represents USA and Canada on juries of national and international competitions.