Kevin Park
Artistic Director
DATE
PROGRAM
Guitar Quintet No. 4 in D major "Fandango", G.448
Luigi Boccherini
Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night), Op. 4, for string sextet
Arnold Schoenberg
ABOUT
SIMON MACDONALD
Violinist Simon MacDonald commenced his violin studies at the age of seven in Victoria, British Columbia. He subsequently obtained his AVCM Teacher and Performance Diploma from the Victoria Conservatory of Music, a Bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory in Boston, and a Master’s degree from the Schulich School of Music (University of McGill) in Montreal. Following his graduation from McGill in 1998, MacDonald joined the Louisiana Philharmonic in New Orleans. Subsequently, he relocated to the Canadian Prairies, where he served as the first violin sectionist of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Principal Second violin of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, and ultimately became Concertmaster of the Regina Symphony Orchestra in 2015. From 2017 to 2025, MacDonald held the position of Artistic Director of the Young Artists Collegium and Strings Department Head at the Victoria Conservatory of Music. Currently, MacDonald is in demand as a freelance artist, engaging in various performance projects throughout Vancouver Island and British Columbia, while maintaining a private studio in Fairfield, Victoria.
Simon also appreciates a departure from the classical genre. He has served as concertmaster for numerous theatrical productions, including The King and I, the Broadway touring production of Chicago, and a memorable performance while tethered to a rooftop on stage for the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre’s production of Fiddler on the Roof. Additionally, he acted as roadie and fiddle player for the touring blues group BluesWater on Islay, Scotland, during the Festival of Music and Malt in 2014.
DOMAGOJ IVANOVIC
Domagoj Ivanovic moved to Canada in 2007, after graduating with a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Violin Performance at the University of Miami, where he held the post of a Teaching Assistant, as well as served as an Assistant Concertmaster for the Miami Symphony Orchestra.
Since then, he has quickly established himself as a violinist and an educator in the greater Vancouver area. As a performer he has shared the stage with some of the top ensembles in Vancouver, such as the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Opera Orchestra, and Turning Point Ensemble. He also adjudicated a number of festivals and competitions, such as the North Shore Music Festival, Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, Surrey Youth Symphony Concerto Competition, and University of British Columbia Concerto Competition, to name a few.
Originally from Zagreb, Croatia, he began studying violin at the age of seven. During his studies he was the recipient of numerous prizes and awards in violin competitions at the national and international level, the most important being First Prize in the National Violin competition and First Prize in the National Chamber Music competition.
As a soloist he appeared with several orchestras, most notably with the Zagreb Philharmonic orchestra, and the Miami Symphony orchestra. Described as a player with “clear technique and great sensitivity” he has performed all over Europe and North America, as well as China, Taiwan and Singapore.
TAWNYA POPOFF
Canadian violist Tawnya Popoff enjoys an exciting and versatile international career. In addition to being principal violist with the Vancouver Opera (BC), she is a member of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra (TX), the Walden School Players (NH) and a founding member of Microcosmos string quartet/Kessler Academy (BC). Ms. Popoff is in demand as a chamber music collaborator, has given solo and chamber music recitals throughout North America and Europe. She was a prizewinner in the 2000 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and a recipient of two consecutive Canada Council Individual Grants. Valuing education immensely, she has served on the faculties of the Perlman Music Program, University of Pennsylvania, Syracuse University, SUNY Buffalo, Brandeis and Dobbs Ferry High Schools, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, The Walden School, and Artes no Camiño (Spain) and in her private studio.
Ms. Popoff has a keen interest in inter-disciplinary projects and has worked and toured internationally with Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet and Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance in New York City, Marta Marta in Vancouver, BC and the trans-media New York group Vision Into Art. She is passionately devoted to developing and performing music by living composers especially those under 18yrs at The Walden School. She has recorded for the Koch, Albany, Nonsuch, CRI, SHSK’H (web label), Columbia Composers and other independent labels as has been heard on air on WNYC, CBC, WGBH (Boston) and KUHF (Houston). She studied with Gerald Stanick (Fine Arts Quartet) in Vancouver, BC and Martha Katz (Cleveland Quartet) at Rice University in Houston, TX and was based out of NYC before relocating to Vancouver in 2014.
Aside from musical pursuits, Ms. Popoff had a cycling tour company in NYC, designs handmade games and toys for her little friends, volunteers regularly and passionately enjoys the great outdoors in all seasons by foot, ski, sail and bicycle!
ISABELLE ROLAND
Isabelle is a native of Canada, but was raised dividing her time between Paris and Vancouver. Isabelle received a Bachelor of Music from the University of Victoria studying with Jaroslav Karlovsky and obtained a Masters in Performance at the Cleveland Institute where she was a student of Heidi Castleman, Lynn Ramsey Irvine, and Robert Vernon.
From 1990-2001, Ms. Roland was Assistant Principal viola of the Victoria Symphony, where she appeared many times as a soloist including a performance under the baton of Sir Yehudi Menuhin. Isabelle was the founding member of the Savitri Quartet with whom she performed for CBC radio broadcasts, as well as a collaboration with mezzo soprano, Susan Platts. From 1996-1998, Ms. Roland served as Assistant Principal viola with the Colorado Festival in Boulder, Colorado.
Since settling permanently in Vancouver in 2002, Isabelle has appeared as a soloist with the Sinfonia of the North Shore and the West Coast Symphony. Currently, she is Principal viola with Sinfonia of the North Shore, a member of the Vancouver Opera, and performs regularly with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and the National Broadcasting Orchestra. Ms. Roland also enjoys a busy chamber music career performing with Trio Accord, Music In The Morning, West Coast Chamber Music, and is a member of the Tantalus String Quartet. In addition to her busy performing career, Isabelle joins her love of music and children teaching viola and violin at VAM, and by joyfully caring for her two young sons, Nicholas and Kai, with husband, Steve Mason.
JOSEPH ELWORTHY
President & CEO of the Vancouver Academy of Music, Joseph Elworthy has been a featured soloist, recitalist, and chamber music performer on such stages as Alice Tully Hall, Suntory Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress, and Sejong Hall. Mr. Elworthy has been named a Fellow of The Royal Conservatory of Music for his extraordinary contribution to Canadian Arts and Culture, an honor he shares with such cultural icons as Oscar Peterson, Robertson Davies, Adrienne Clarkson and Leon Fleisher. His recordings can be heard on EMI, Sony, Archtype, Naxos and Bose record labels. In addition to receiving the Sylva Gelber Award of $15,000, Joseph has been the recipient of multiple Canada Council career grants exceeding $50,000. Mr. Elworthy is a graduate of the Juilliard School and Yale University where he was the recipient of the Aldo Parisot – Yo-Yo Ma Prize – the highest honour issued by Yale University to a graduating cellist.
Mr. Elworthy has been a visiting artist at the Beijing Conservatory, Harvard University, Royal Northern College of Music, Glenn Gould School, and the Royal Conservatory of Music. Joseph Elworthy co-founded the Koerner Piano Trio, the first chamber ensemble in residence at the Vancouver Academy of Music. In 2013, Mr. Elworthy was appointed as Western Music Advisor for the newly established Haw Par Music Foundation – a collaborative educational initiative linking Vancouver and Hong Kong. Joseph Elworthy was a member of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra for 12 years before retiring from the orchestra in 2014. Joseph plays on a rare Ferdinando Gagliano circa 1760 that once belonged to the legendary German cellist, Hugo Becker.
JONATHAN LO
Canadian cellist Jonathan Lo has performed in venues such as Alice Tully Hall and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre at the Canadian Opera Company, Koerner Hall at the Royal Conservatory of Music, and the Paleis Het Loo. He has appeared as soloist with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Northwest, and the Burnaby Symphony. His chamber music collaborators have included Geoff Nuttall, Robert Levin, Louis Schwizgebel, and the late Lynn Harrell; additionally he has worked closely with composers such as Oliver Knussen, Shulamit Ran, and Osvaldo Golijov.
From 2013 to 2020, he was the founding cellist of the Rolston String Quartet, winners of the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Cleveland Quartet Award. Praised for their “maturity and cohesion rivaling the best string quartets in the world” (Musical Toronto), they performed throughout North America, Europe, and Israel, in such concert halls as Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Koerner Hall, Wigmore Hall, and Esterhazy Palace.
Jonathan has given masterclasses at the University of Toronto, University of Calgary, Mount Royal University, and La Jolla SummerFest. He holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, The Juilliard School, and the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, as well as fellowships from the Glenn Gould School and the Yale School of Music. His major teachers include Norman Fischer, Desmond Hoebig, Andrés Díaz, Joel Krosnick, Steven Doane, and Audrey Nodwell.
ALEC PEARSON
Alec Pearson enjoys a career based in Vancouver where he currently serves as a sessional instructor of guitar at the University of British Columbia. Alec has performed both solo and in ensemble across Canada, Spain, Colombia, Greece and the U.S. He currently serves as president of the “Vancouver Classic Guitar Society” where he works to organize many concerts, lectures masterclasses and social events. Outside of Vancouver, Alec is the director of the annual “Okanagan Guitar Festival” which takes place in the beautiful Okanagan Valley every summer.
Alec holds the degree “Máster en Interpretación de Guitarra Clasica” from the Universitat d’Alacant in Alicante, Spain, where he studied with an array of the best guitarists in the world, including; David Russell, Pepe Romero, Manuel Barrueco, Roberto Aussel, Paul Galbraith and Fabio Zanon to list a few.
Prior to studying abroad, Alec earned a Masters’s degree from the University of British Columbia where he studied with internationally renowned Canadian guitarist and his longtime mentor Daniel Bolshoy. In 2012 he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Montreal. He was born and raised in Calgary where he first received exposure to the guitar under the tutelage of Jose Fermin. During his youth, he was an active member and performer in the Classical Guitar Society of Calgary and began his own teaching career at the age of 17.
ASLAN ASLANOV
Aslan Aslanov is an energetic performer, who is forever seeking to grow, evolve, and expand his vibrant creativity across his personal and professional life. Born into a snowy Siberian village, Aslan Aslanov, whose Azeri parents moved to Russia in 1991, discovered a keen passion for music when he took his first piano lesson at the age of 6. Three years after this musical origination, Aslan became the 3rd prize winner in a provincial competition in Tyumen. When his parents decided to return to Azerbaijan, Aslan, determined to further develop his artistic talent, was accepted into the “Special Music School” for talented kids in Baku under the instruction of Dilara Mirzakuliyeva. Baku provided Aslan a wealth of musical opportunities, whether that be making his orchestral debut in 2009 with the Academic Symphonic Orchestra of Azerbaijan, winning 2nd prize for the national music competition of Azerbaijan in 2010, or successfully performing in festivals all over the country. In 2011, Aslan began his undergraduate studies in Baku, expanding his competitive education internationally in music festivals across Ukraine, Poland, Italy, Finland, Greece, and Russia. Being infected with a passion to learn and grow as a musician, Aslan was accepted with a scholarship into the Vancouver Academy of Music, successfully completing the Artist Diploma Program under the direction of Amanda Chan. In 2019, aside from winning provincial and local competitions, where he was granted the honour to represent BC in the Canadian National Music Competition, winning 2nd place respectively, Aslan made his debut in Carnegie Hall where he performed with the winners of the “Pacific Rim” International Pianists competition. Aslan continues to study with Amanda Chan as he completed his master’s degree at the UBC school of Music under a scholarship in 2022. With the ultimate artistic objective to connect others, whether that be through live performance or teaching, to the transcendent power of music, Aslan continues to seek creative spaces to explore his artistry and share his craft professionally.
