Maestra Paula DeWit has developed a reputation for excellence with her artistic music direction and leadership both of choirs and orchestras in the Fraser Valley and metro Vancouver region. She has founded several orchestras and choirs both professional and amateur status. She has proven exceptional leadership in the governance of orchestra, assisting the executive boards in strategic decisions, artistic development of musicians, vitality and viability of programs.

​She has an authoritative knowledge in historically informed baroque orchestral performance, specializes in “a cappella” polyphonic work as well as directing full symphonic and concerto works working with soloists, groups of musicians, and full orchestras and choirs.

With a lifelong passion for her art, she brings energy and vitality to all she works with. Core to her belief is that learning is a two way street, and that musicians thrive by working collaboratively whatever their background is.

​After obtaining her conducting credentials at Capilano University, maestra DeWit continues her conducting studies at international workshops in Canada and the United States. With an enterprising drive she has worked tirelessly to create many new opportunities for musicians.

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Paula was recently nominated for the prestigious Canadian Heinz Unger Conductor Award as well as the Orchestras Canada Betty Webster Award. Paula is a proud Rotarian and is an Honorary Paul Harris fellow.

Magnetic, easy-going, and delightfully articulate, Canadian pianist/conductor Ian Parker captivates audiences wherever he goes. As a pianist, he has appeared with top Canadian orchestras including the symphonies of Toronto, Quebec, Vancouver, Victoria, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Orchestre Métropolitain, Chilliwack Symphony Orchestra and the Calgary Philharmonic. In the U.S., orchestral highlights include the San Francisco, Cincinnati, National, Santa Barbara, Richmond, and Honolulu symphonies as well as the Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom, to name just a few. During the 2019/20 season, Mr. Parker will make his debuts with the Savannah and Bakersfield symphonies, and will return to the Pensacola and Okanagan symphonies, among others.

In addition to his work at the keyboard, Ian Parker is currently in his second season as music director and principal conductor of the VAM Symphony Orchestra at the Vancouver Academy of Music. Working with some of Canada’s most promising young orchestral players, Mr. Parker programs and conducts four concerts per season in Vancouver’s historic Orpheum Theatre.  He is also artistic director of the Resonate chamber music series at the Kay Meek Centre in North Vancouver.

An enthusiastic recitalist, Mr. Parker has performed across the United States, Europe, Israel, and throughout Canada on tours with Debut Atlantic, Jeunesses Musicales du Canada, and Piano Six. Recital highlights include the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, UCLA, the University of British Columbia, and collaborative performances at the Hawaii International Music Festival and the Morgan Library in New York City.

Mr. Parker’s recordings include a CD with the London Symphony conducted by Michael Francis featuring three piano concertos: Ravel Concerto in G, Stravinsky Capriccio, and Gershwin Concerto in F, released by ATMA Classique, and an all-fantasy solo CD including fantasies of Chopin, Schumann, and Beethoven on Azica Records. Additionally, CBC Records released a recording of three Mozart concertos for one piano (K. 467), two pianos (K. 365), and three pianos (K. 242) featuring Mr. Parker and his two cousins, Jon Kimura Parker and Jamie Parker, with the CBC Radio Orchestra and Mario Bernardi on the podium.

First Prize winner at the 2001 CBC National Radio Competition, Ian Parker has also won the Grand Prize at the Canadian National Music Festival, the Corpus Christie International Competition and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra Competition. At The Juilliard School, he received the 2002 William Petschek Piano Debut Award and, on two occasions, was the winner of the Gina Bachauer Piano Scholarship Competition. Heard regularly on CBC Radio, he has also performed live on WQXR (hosted by Robert Sherman) in New York.

Born in Vancouver to a family of pianists, Mr. Parker began his piano studies at age three with his father, Edward Parker. He holds both the Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School, where he was a student of Yoheved Kaplinsky. While at Juilliard, he was awarded the Sylva Gelber Career Grant by the Canada Council for the Arts, presented annually to the “most talented Canadian artist.”

Renowned Canadian concert pianist Clinton Giovanni Denoni has performed throughout North America and Europe in the world’s most prestigious concert halls. “Mr. Denoni is intensely musical,” notes Vovka Ashkenazy. Internationally acclaimed pianist Shoko Inoue remarks, “Clinton has a limitless ability to strive for the hidden beauty found within each piece of music. Clinton’s complete dedication to his art, no matter the cost, is inspiring. He has a mastery of technique and control on the piano that few have. Clinton pours characteristics of life and profound depth, which comes directly from his genuine heart, into every piece of music he touches.”

After receiving his Bachelor of Music degree in 2012 from the Glenn Gould School of Music and the University of Victoria, Mr. Denoni graduated with his Master of Music degree in Piano Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2014. During this time, he collaborated with renowned musicians, including Daniil Trifonov, in performance masterclasses. Mr. Denoni’s most recent solo orchestral engagements include The Chilliwack Symphony Orchestra, Thompson Valley Orchestra and Orchestra Philomusica performing Grieg’s A Minor Concerto, Beethoven’s Concerto No. 1 and Mozart’s Concerto No. 21, respectively. In the summer of 2018, Mr. Denoni was a guest artist and clinician at The Eckhardt-Gramatté Conservatory of Music at Brandon University. He performed with his wife, Erica Denoni, teaching performance masterclasses and lectured on Dalcroze Eurhythmics. Mr. Denoni has had the pleasure of representing Canada in two international piano competitions, first in July 2019 in Colorado at the International Keyboard Odyssiad Competition and again in October 2023 in Spain at the Classical Barcelona International Piano Competition.

Mr. Denoni’s students have been top prize winners in competitions throughout Canada, including the Canadian Music Competition, Crescendo International Music Competition, Steinway International Competition, Performing Arts BC, the Vancouver Kiwanis Festival, the BCCM Music Festival, and the Chilliwack Lions Club Music and Dance Festival. Mr. Denoni’s students have performed in many distinguished concert halls worldwide, including the Chan Centre in Vancouver, B.C. and Carnegie Hall in New York City, New York. Additionally, his students have been featured soloists with the White Rock City Orchestra, the Vancouver Chamber Orchestra, the West Coast Symphony Orchestra, and the Chilliwack Symphony Orchestra. Many of Mr. Denoni’s students have attended North America’s premier post-secondary schools, including McGill, Harvard and U.B.C. Dedicated to supporting young musicians and helping strengthen the arts communities where he grew up and worldwide, Mr. Denoni helped organize and perform in two benefit concerts in 2019 that raised $5,500.00 for the Hope Secondary School music department, Hope and District Arts Council and Seeds of Hope Children’s Ministry. In the summer of 2022, Mr. Denoni performed in another benefit concert, this time in Whistler, raising thousands of dollars for an African refugee family emigrating to Canada.

Most recently, Clinton Giovanni Denoni directed, produced and recorded a cinematic narrative featuring one of Chopin’s most significant works, “The Ocean Etude.” This film, which was released on World Ocean’s Day of 2022 with the help of the Royal Conservatory of Music, The Cleveland Institute of Music, The University of Victora, Nature United, The Marine Megafauna Foundation, Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada and The Wickaninnish Inn in Tofino, portrays the triumph of light over darkness and the sublime connection between music and its mirrored image in nature. Since its release, this film has garnered hundreds of thousands of views via social media while promoting stewardship of our oceans. Mr. Denoni is teaching privately and on faculty at Mastery School of Music in Vancouver, British Columbia, and adjudicating, recording and performing abroad.