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Musical Friends – Sunday, December 4th at 2pm

The West Coast Chamber Players were founded by Lauren and Jim Stubbs, whose distinguished musical careers included principal roles with the Met Opera, the National Ballet of Canada, and the Opers Orchestra of New York. The West Coast Chamber Players are: Lauren Stubbs, bassoon; Jim Stubbs, trumpet; Karen Hough, horn; Anne McDougall, violin; and Bruce Vogt, piano.

Programme

Biographies

Lauren Stubbs (Bassoon)

Lauren Stubbs has had a long and distinguished career performing in New York City as Principal Bassoonist with the American Composers’ Orchestra, the Opera Orchestra of New York, PDQ Bach, the New Jersey Symphony, the Joffrey Ballet, Westchester Symphony, Paul Taylor Dance Company, and American Ballet Theatre. She also performed as Principal Bassoonist with the National Ballet of Canada for several years and has performed frequently with the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic.

Lauren received both the Bachelor and Master of Music Degrees from the Juilliard School. She has recorded on Columbia Records, CRI, Leonarda Productions, and RCA. She is a member of the Palm Court Light Orchestra Victoria.  Lauren has performed with New York chamber music groups such as Orpheus, Parnassus, St. Luke’s, Speculum Musicae, the Group for Contemporary Music, and the Solstice Ensemble. She has been much sought after as a chamber music coach and has been a chamber music coach at the Chamber Music Conference since 1982. Lauren is also the Assistant Music Director at Chamber Music Conference and a founding member of the New York Bassoon Quartet and has recorded numerous times with the Quartet.

Lauren, together with her husband Jim, is the co-founder of the West Coast Chamber Players. The WCCP performs throughout Victoria and Vancouver, British Columbia as well as various venues in the Northwest.

James Stubbs (Trumpet)

Jim Stubbs was principal trumpet with American Ballet Theatre, the American Symphony Orchestra, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, American Composers Orchestra, Joffrey Ballet, Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, the Opera Orchestra of New York, and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. He was an associate member of the Metropolitan Opera for 25 years and has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Lal Scala and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. Jim can be heard on the Columbia, RCA, Vox, CRI, Kultur, and BMG labels. He has also appeared as soloist on PBS Gala of Stars with Jessye Norman and Kiri Te Kanawa with James Levine conducting. During his career he performed with conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan, Karl Böhm, Valery Gergiev, John Lanchberry, Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, and Dennis Russell Davies. He performed as soloist in Quiet City with Aaron Copland conducting at Carnegie Hall and has performed the Brandenburg Concerto #2 with the Victoria Symphony, and the Haydn Trumpet Concerto with the Sooke Philharmonic Orchestra.

Jim  has conducted the Salt Spring Chamber Orchestra and Choir in British Columbia in a wide range of works by composers including Bach, Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Handel, Barber, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Salieri, Poulenc, and Vivaldi. Jim has also conducted at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, the Chautauqua Institute, and the Solstice Ensemble in New Jersey. Jim and his wife, Laurie, founded the West Coast Chamber Players in 2015 performing chamber music in Vancouver, Victoria and the Northwest area.

Jim was a Professor at The College of New Jersey and at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and holds a Bachelor of Music and a Master’s Degree from the Manhattan School of Music. He studied trumpet under William Vacchiano/New York Philharmonic, Gil Johnson/Philadelphia Orchestra and Irving Sarin, Principal,Pittsburg Symphony.

Karen Hough (Horn)

Karen earned her BMus from UVic and went on to study at the Royal Conservatory of Toronto. She received her MMus from Yale University and was the first horn player to receive Yales’s prestigious Artist Diploma.  She spent a year as Artist in Residence at Banff. Summer festivals have included Aspen, Blossom Festival and the LA Philharmonic Institute.  After a career as an orchestral and chamber musician in Toronto, Karen returned to the West Coast at the turn of the century.  Recently retired from the Naden Band of the Royal Canadian Navy, she is a member of the Vancouver Island Symphony and the Victoria Jazz Orchestra.  She is also an avid chamber musician and can be found in the pit orchestra of many shows for the VOS and the Gilbert and Sullivan Society.

Anne McDougall (Violin)

Anne studied at the University of Alberta, where she studied with Norman Nelson and received her Master’s Degree in music, all the while raising two children.  She has many years’ experience playing with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and after relocating to Sooke, Anne quickly connected with the Sooke Philharmonic Orchestra and performed as Concertmaster for seven years.  In addition to teaching violin privately, she has become involved with the strings program at Sooke’s journey Middle School and is a founder and lead teacher for “Harmony Project Sooke”.  Anne is working at full capacity sharing with her students her love of music and the discipline and commitment it requires.  She recognizes that music is the perfecrt venue for children to learn life skills while they enjoy performing and learning.

Bruce Vogt (Piano)

Bruce is a unique and dynamic performer who appears regularly in concert within Canada, but has also inspired audiences in Japan, China, England, the USA, Germany, France, Italy, Norway, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria.  Born in Southern Ontario, Bruce completed his initial musical studies with Damjana Bratuz and Anton Kuerti. Later he studied in the USA, England, Switzerland and Italy, working with a number of celebrated musicians including Gyorgy Sebok, Louis Kentner, Fou Ts’Ong, and Dario de Rosa.  

Bruce’s repertoire is extremely diverse, encompassing music from the sixteenth century to the present. He has consistently championed the music of contemporary composers and has commissioned and premiered a number of new works by such Canadian luminaries as Murray Adaskin and Alfred Fisher. He is also an enthusiastic and dedicated performer on period instruments; one of his recordings (2003) features music of Robert Schumann performed on a restored 1864 Erard. His other recordings include two volumes of the music of Franz Liszt, which have established for him an enviable reputation as a Liszt interpreter.   In addition to his career as a piano soloist, chamber musician and recording artist, Bruce Vogt is also Professor at the University of Victoria.  Because he sees teaching and working with young pianists and with piano teachers as an important commitment, he makes himself available as often as possible for master classes, workshops, festival adjudications, and lectures.