The Arts Connection boasts a strong faculty of teachers, many of whom
are active performers throughout the lower mainland. Although many of
our teachers hold advanced degrees from universities throughout North
America, perform as soloists and orchestral musicians with major
symphony orchestras and act as examiners for the Royal Conservatory of
Music, we believe that the most important quality they need to possess
is the ability to motivate their students to reach for their own goals
and to do this by laying a strong foundation in fundamentals.
Learning music can be compared to mathematics. If a child does not have
a strong foundation in addition and subtraction facts then they will
never be able to handle the challenges of multiplication and division.
Everything that they learn in the higher levels is built upon those
basic skills of addition and subtraction. The same can be said of
music---if a student is not given the skills to read music fluently and
their ear is not trained, then music will always be a struggle. This is
why many young students start out with enthusiasm but eventually quit,
feeling discouraged or having lost interest.
Our teachers recognize the importance of teaching these fundamentals
and pursuing the students' goals-whether those be playing strictly for
pleasure or perhaps pursuing a more formal training through
examinations and competitions. We also provide opportunities throughout
the season for recitals and performances where students are able to
share what they have learned with their friends and family.
Drums & Guitar
Chris Albanese Guitar
Chris has played the guitar since the age of eleven, having written and recorded several independent records. He composed and performed the music featured on the soundtrack for the feature film Sex, Drugs, Love, Marx and many of his songs have been broadcast on CBC Radio's Brave New Waves.
Chris studied with Michael Strutt, completed Grade 10 through the Royal Conservatory of Music and is currently studying with Hahn Nguyen to complete his ARCT diploma.
Chris is a board member with the Vancouver New Music, and an active member of the Vancouver Classic Guitar Society. Christ is currently writing and performing with the band French For Sled Dogs.
Raul Velasco Piano
Dr. Velasco earned his DM ADB, MM and BM performance degrees from Indiana
University. He has studied with the distinguished South American
pianist Teresa Quesada, Zadel Skolovsky, Leonard Hokanson, and Herbert
Seidel from Hockschule fur Musik in Frankfurt. Raul's performances
include orchestral engagements and solo recitals in South America and
the USA. In addition to his private studio, he has been a piano
instructor at Indiana University and has judged American National Music
Teachers' Federation, Vancouver Music Festival and Carillon Music
Festival competitions. In addition to his teaching, Mr. Velasco
conducts regular workshops for intermediate and advanced level
students. He has taught for The Arts Connection for more than nine
years now and has a heavily booked teaching schedule.
Mr. Hoy, a native of Vancouver,
includes as his mentors in the study of piano, Dale Reubart and Robert
Silverman of Canada, and Reginald Stewart and John Perry of the United
States. A former professor of piano at the University of Calgary, Mr.
Hoy has performed extensively throughout Western Canada in radio
broadcasts and solo recitals, and has appeared as guest soloist with
several orchestras across Canada, including the Vancouver Symphony
Orchestra. Currently, a barrister and solicitor by vocation, Mr. Hoy
divides his time between his law practice and teaching piano students
at various institutions throughout Vancouver.
Nikolai Maloff Theory
Nikolai is a graduate of the
Moscow Conservatory and the University of British Columbia, where he
earned a D.M.A. in piano. His mentors include Jane Coop, Gleb Axelrod,
Dale Reubart, Robert Rogers and Kum Sing Lee. As a performer, Nikolai
was the winner of major piano competitions such as the Virginia Waring,
Franz Liszt (Italy), Eckhardt-Gramatte and Canadian Music Competitions,
and has appeared as recitalist, guest soloist and chamber musician
throughout the Americas and Europe.
Aside from his piano teaching commitments, Dr. Maloff teaches music
theory at UBC, and is in his fourth season of theory teaching at the
Arts Connection.
Violin and Viola
Angela Cavadas Violin
Angela won First Prize
in the CBC Young Performers Competition in 1973. Prior to that she was
the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships, including prizes in
the Vancouver and Montreal Symphony Competitions and several B.C.
Cultural Fund Grants.
Her advanced studies were with the renowned Canadian violinist Steven
Staryk and she has also been coached by Yuri Mazurkevich, Joseph
Gingold and Ruggiero Ricci, twice participating in Ricci's Masterclass
in Kitzbuhel, Austria and performing in the final concerts.
She has played as soloist on CBC Television and Radio with the
Vancouver Symphony, the Abbotsford Symphony and a number of community
orchestras.
She plays regularly with Westcoast Chamber Music, the Lyre of Langley
Trio, and the Vancouver String Trio, and has also performed in chamber
music concerts with Steven Staryk, Ray Still, Nicholas Fiore, Jaroslav
Karlovsky, and Quarteto Beethoven di Roma.
Angela has for many years been a member of the CBC Radio and Vancouver
Opera Orchestras and has perfomed as a freelance player with the
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. She is an associate concertmaster of the
Vancouver Opera Orchestra and has been a guest concertmaster of the CBC
Radio Orchestra and the Saskatoon Symphony and most recently for a
production of Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty. For several years she was
Concertmaster of the Abbotsford Symphony, a group comprised of
freelance Vancouver Musicians.
A respected teacher, she is associated with Douglas College, Vancouver
Academy, and The Arts Connection.
Donna Griblin Violin and Viola
Donna has her B.A.
and Teacher's Certificate from UBC and is a member of the Registered
Music Teacher's Association. Donna studied violin in Calgary,
Vancouver, Los Angeles and Toronto. She studied viola with Rivka Golani
at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and participated in
master classes given by Karen Tuttle and William Primrose.
She played viola with the Hamilton Philharmonic and The
Vancouver Symphony and currently plays with the Vancouver Opera
Orchestra. She has taught privately for 19 years and with The Arts
Connection for over nine years. Donna enjoys working with students of
all ages.
Voice
Beth Buono Voice and Piano
From the small town of Gibsons on the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia, soprano Beth Buono began her pursuit of music at the age of five with piano. This soon led to lead roles in school and community musicals, winning awards with instrumental and vocal categories in music festivals, singing in community choirs, playing trumpet in elementary and high school bands, playing cello, and her second love - the violin - as concertmaster in the community youth orchestra, and later studies at the Vancouver Academy of Music with violinist Angela Cavadas through out her teens.
It seemed a natural progression that she decided to pursue music in her post-secondary studies. Starting in Arts, majoring in Linguistics with a minor in German; spending a summer at the University of Udine, Italy, and studying Italian Beth quenched her thirst for travel and her love of language.
A 2008 graduate from the UBC School of Music, majoring in Voice with Piano as her secondary instrument, she studied alongside fellow Vancouver Chamber Choir sopranos Kathleen Allan and Madeline Lucy Smith. Under the tutelage of Heather Thompson-Price, the conducting prowess of Bruce Pullan , and the coaching of Nancy Hermiston in the UBC Opera, Beth combined her passion for music with travel which lead to multiple singing tours in Scotland, England, Beijing and Chengdu in China.
She was also engaged in singing in such masterpieces as Edward Elgar's Dream of Gerontius with Ben Heppner and the Vancouver Symphony under Bramwell Tovey, Handel’s Messiah with University Singers and the Vancouver Bach Choir, and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G minor as the soprano soloist.
Following graduation, Beth continued as an active recitalist, entertaining her versatility with a wide variety of genres ranging from early music and opera, to the greats of jazz and musical theatre. Further endeavors included being awarded in Vancouver’s Sonic Boom Music Festival, singing the national anthem before 30,000 BC Lions football fans, and continuing with Bruce Pullan in his final season of the youth division of the Vancouver Bach Choir: Sarabande. This included Beth’s second singing tour to the United Kingdom, in which one of the concerts was so enjoyed by composer Eric Whitacre that he extended a personal invitation to selected members to perform in his commissioned opera Paradise Lost. Beth then traveled to New York to sing at Carnegie Hall.
Since 2010, she has been a soprano section leader and soloist at Christ Church Cathedral, under the direction of Canadian composer and conductor Rupert Lang.
She was soprano soloist for Mozart’s Alleluia from Exsultate Jubilate at St. Ann’s Academy in Victoria, BC. Beth is currently on staff at Steveston’s Arts Connection teaching voice, piano and violin.