Halifax Community Band Festival
Guest Conductors/Performers/Clinicians
We’re very excited to welcome our talented guests to the Halifax Band Festival. The roster of guests will continue to evolve as the event approaches and we receive confirmation that they are able to attend. This page will be used to keep participants informed of any changes in personnel.
Our Guest Conductors for 2025
Dr. Denise Grant (confirmed for 2025)
Denise Grant has earned respect and praise as a conductor and educator of great musical depth and artistic sensitivity. She has held conducting positions at Memorial University of Newfoundland, University of Toronto, and University of Regina. She earned her Ph.D. (conducting and music education) from the University of Minnesota and also holds degrees from Dalhousie University (M.Ed.) and Acadia University (B.Mus.Ed.).
During her tenure, she founded the University of Toronto and University of Regina conducting symposiums, served as co-founding editor of the Canadian Band Association journal, Canadian Winds, and premiered many new works for wind ensemble. She advocates for the creation and performance of new music by Canadian and women composers, in particular. She recently premiered composer Sandy Moore’s song cycle, Vox Humana, at the Open Waters new music festival in Halifax and recorded the soundtrack for John Walker’s award-winning documentary film, Arctic Defenders.
As an educator, Denise has served on music association boards across Canada and guest conducted provincial honour bands both nationally and internationally, reflecting a commitment to music education and the deep seeded belief that the act of making music together creates connection and develops compassionate, critically thinking humans.
Dr. Dale Sorensen (confirmed for 2025)
University of Prince Edward Island
Dale Sorensen is a versatile musician, educator and conductor with extensive experience in classical, popular, and musical theatre genres. Currently in his fourth year as director of the UPEI Wind Symphony, Dale has conducted everything from junior high school honour bands to professional ensembles. Highlights include three seasons as music director of the Strathgartney Chamber Orchestra in PEI, and most recently as conductor for a fully-stage production of The Nutcracker with the PEI Symphony Orchestra and the Confederation Centre of the Arts’ Dance Umbrella.
A frequent trombone soloist and enthusiastic promoter of Canadian music, Dale has premiered more than 25 solo trombone pieces and dozens of chamber works, and recorded an all-Canadian album of music for trombone. He is also the founder and artistic director of PEI’s contemporary music ensemble eklektikos. Dale is a proud Yamaha Artist and plays Yamaha instruments exclusively.
Dale performs regularly with the PEISO, the Charlottetown Festival Orchestra, Symphony Nova Scotia, and the Maritime Brass Quintet, has held positions with the Windsor Symphony and Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, and has freelanced with groups such as the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Winnipeg Symphony, National Ballet of Canada, and Opera Atelier in a 3-week, 8-city tour of Japan.
A dedicated educator, Dale has taught at five Canadian universities (UPEI, Dalhousie, MUN, Mount Allison, and the University of Toronto), and serves as an adjudicator and clinician at music festivals and workshops throughout the Maritimes and Ontario. He is currently the Chair of the Department of Music and Assistant Professor of Brass at UPEI. In 2022, he was selected by the UPEI Faculty Association to receive the Hessian Merit Award for Excellence in Teaching.
For more information, visit his website at www.islandtrombone.com.
Ken Henderson (confirmed for 2025)
Truro Concert Band, Nova Scotia
Ken started his band journey as a junior high student when he joined the Truro Concert Band, learning clarinet from Charlotte MacQuarrie, a band member. He has had the good fortune of having experience under a range of gifted conductors, each of whom passed on valuable insights into their art. These include Chalmers Doane—conductor of the Truro Concert Band when he became a member, Ron MacKay, conductor of the fledgling Truro Schools Bands and provider of guided teaching experience, Jack Sirulnikoff and Dr. John Hansen at the Nova Scotia Teachers College, Capt. Ken Elloway at the NS Summer School for Teachers, and Wilf Harvey, senior music teacher at Middleton High School. Less formal learning opportunities came with various workshop contacts with James Hargreaves, Howard Cable, Dr. Jim Gayfor, Dr. Karem Simon, Gaetan Bouchard, Dr. Gillian MacKay and others.
Ken is long-time musical director of the Truro Concert Band which observes its 150th anniversary in 2025. Ken is a strong believer in the importance of community in a community band—finding a place in the band for everyone, and a place for the band in the wider community.
Our Guest Performers for 2025
Chebucto Community Orchestra (confirmed for 2025)
Halifax, Nova Scotia
The Chebucto Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra dedicated to its work as a charitable organization. Under the direction of Melissa Doiron, it provides opportunities for amateur musicians to perform the great symphonic works and to bring classical music to a broad range of local and provincial audiences. It is a true community orchestra whose members come from all walks of life. The musicians range from high school and university students to mid-career professionals to retired community members.
Our Guest Instrumental Clinicians for 2025
Flute – TBA
Clarinet – TBA
Double Reeds – Hamish Gordon
(confirmed for 2025)
PO2 Hamish Gordon (retired), served the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) as a musician for twenty years.
His journey as an oboe player began at age 13, when his grade 8 band played Haydn’s “Surprise Symphony.” This piece features a prominent oboe solo, and when his teacher asked the class who wanted to play the oboe, Hamish volunteered. He continued to play oboe throughout secondary school and beyond, completing four years in music performance at the University of Toronto, and then taking part in the Royal Conservatory of Music Orchestral Training Program after university. In the years following his formal education he played in a variety of ensembles, large and small, some of which took him on tours across North America.
In 2003, he decided to audition for a position within the Canadian Armed Forces. He was inspired to enroll by his brother, Sandy, who had been a military musician for many years and encouraged him to join. Military service is a family tradition for the Gordons, as their father was also a military member and served as the 2IC of the Queen’s Own Rifles in Calgary. In 2004, Hamish won a position and was posted to the Central Band in Ottawa, where he served for just under two years. In 2006 he was transferred to Halifax with the Stadacona Band.
He was grateful for the many opportunities for international travel thanks to overseas deployments with the band. Two of the most memorable trips were the Aboriginal Spiritual Journey in 2006, where Canadian Indigenous spiritual leaders were brought to Europe to repatriate the spirits of fallen Indigenous soldiers from the First and Second World Wars, and the 100th anniversary of the Armistice in Mons, Belgium, in 2018. Other highlights of his career include playing with the woodwind quintet, the many local concerts, and the Stadacona Band’s annual Christmas tour (which he will partake in one last time this year!). He enjoys playing for East Coast audiences and seeing locals engage with the music!
In his retirement, Hamish continues to play with Nova Sinfonia, one of Halifax’s community orchestras.
Saxophone – Dr. Tristan deBorba
(confirmed for 2025)
Tristan De Borba is a classical and contemporary saxophonist and conductor and is quickly gaining a reputation as an innovative and engaging musician. He is Assistant Professor at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia where he teaches saxophone, conducts the Acadia University Symphonic Band and String Orchestra, and teaches musicianship.
Tristan has a strong interest in the music of our time. He is a member of the Alkali Collective, a Halifax-based new music ensemble dedicated to the creation, performance, documentation, and educational outreach of 21st century music. Tristan also performs with the Strum-De Borba duo with fellow saxophonist Nicole Strum. Tristan is a founding member of the Brogue Saxophone Quartet which has performed extensively throughout the maritime provinces since 2013. As a soloist, Tristan’s recording of Derek Charke’s Wired and Wound with pianist Simon Docking can be found on the ECMA nominated recording “Live Wired” (Centrediscs, 2015). He also appears as saxophone soloist on “In the Wide Awe of Wisdom” featuring the choral music of Paul Halley (Pelagos, 2017). In 2021, Alongside pianist Mary Castello, Tristan released a video recording of Fernande Decruck’s Sonata and William Grant Still’s Romance. As a conductor and educator, Tristan is increasingly in demand as a clinician and adjudicator of bands and orchestras.
Dr. Tristan De Borba earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Toronto and a Master of Music degree from the University of British Columbia. When taking a break from a busy performing and teaching career, Tristan can be found alongside his wife Sara and their dogs Lua and Sasi exploring beautiful Nova Scotia.
Trumpet – David Garson
(confirmed for 2025)
David holds both Bachelor and Masters of Music Performance degrees. He has performed with a variety of orchestras and ensembles across Canada and beyond. His teaching experience includes teaching trumpet at the Atlantic Band Festival and Vic Lewis Band Festival.
He has given masterclasses across Canada and was a faculty member at Memorial University of Newfoundland and trumpet instructor at Upper Canada College. David has also recorded for CBC Radio & Television, BBC Radio and Video Arts International. Currently, David teaches brass in Fredericton and is the Technical Services Manager at the Fredericton Playhouse.
French Horn – Mary Lee
(confirmed for 2025)
Hornist Mary Lee trained at the University of Toronto, in the city where she was born and raised. Her principal teachers there were Wayne Jeffrey and Eugene Rittich, but special mention must go to her grade 7 music teacher, Mr. Barnes, who, upon first handing Mary her instrument, insisted that she not attempt to make a sound on it until AFTER hearing Denis Brain’s recording of the Mozart horn concertos. He set the bar high, and Mary credits the Toronto public school music programs for giving her a strong start.
Along the way, she was fortunate to spend two summers at the Banff Centre, participating in the brass and wind masterclass programs, as well as summer masterclasses in Freiburg, Germany. After completing her undergraduate degree, Mary packed up her horn and moved to the Netherlands where she spent a year at the Utrecht Conservatory furthering her horn and orchestral studies. Shortly afterwards she played a season with the Israel Sinfonietta and then joined the Symphony Nova Scotia horn section in 1989, where she has played ever since.
In addition to performing, Mary greatly enjoys working with horn students of all ages and is on the faculty at Acadia University and the Maritime Conservatory. She coaches the NSYO horn section, and has given workshops and adjudicated at schools, festivals and music camps throughout Nova Scotia.
Mary is also a founding member of the woodwind quintet Fifth Wind, and playing with this group has led to many wonderful and diverse adventures in chamber music.
Low Brass – Steve Hartlen
(confirmed for 2025)
Stephen Hartlen studied trombone at Acadia University graduating with a Bachelors degree in Music Education in 1990 and a Masters degree in Curriculum Studies (Music Education Focus) in 2014. He has also studied at the Banff Centre in Banff, Alberta.
Steve taught in the Nova Scotia public schools system for 33 years directing bands at Parrsboro Regional High, Hants East Rural High & New Glasgow Junior High School and retiring from teaching while at New Glasgow Academy in June 2023.
Steve is past president of the Nova Scotia Band Association, has served as a member of the Canadian Band Association executive and is the chair of the Nova Scotia Music Education Council. He is a former assistant conductor of the Nova Scotia Youth Wind Ensemble and he has been a longtime member of the Acadia University Summer Music Faculty. He has also recently taken over operations of the Atlantic Festival of Music on behalf of the Nova Scotia Band Association.
As a trombonist and a vocalist Steve has performed with a variety of ensembles including the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra, Symphony Nova Scotia, the Halifax Camerata Singers, Incantatus Chamber Choir and the Helios Vocal Ensemble. Stephen currently performs with the Nova Brass Quintet as well as the Hubtown Big Band. He lives in Truro with his wife Holly and is the proud father of three musicians; Noah, Claire and Owen.
Percussion – TBA
Orchestral Strings – TBA