Masterclasses and Workshops
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All events are FREE and open to the public.
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Proud to be part of Nova Scotia's vibrant arts community, the Fountain School prioritizes connecting its students with local and international guest artists. You'll learn from a wide variety of performing artists, technical theatre professionals, designers and cinema and media theorists.
Special thanks to Debut Atlantic, Cecilia Concerts, Neptune Theatre, Scotia Festival of Music, Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance (LAMP), the Prismatic Festival, and Symphony Nova Scotia for their ongoing partnerships.
Check back often to get inspired and see what our season of learning opportunities has to offer.
| Jazz Guitar Masterclass withĚýGreg Amirault | |
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| Oct. 31 | 4:30-6:30pm | Ěý |
| Dal Arts Centre, Room 111 | |
| free and open to the public | Ěý |
Solo Jazz Guitar and Improv Masterclass with Greg Amirault.
Come learn how to apply basic harmony and counterpoint to jazz standard song melodies to improve your solo guitar playing.
In this masterclass, Greg Amirault will perform and analyse his solo guitar arrangement of In a Sentimental Mood. The material will be presented in and informal setting where students will have the opportunity to apply some of the material immediately and ask questions.Ěý
Learn basic improvisation techniques to immediately start improvising on a familiar jazz standard.
Greg Amirault is originally from Nova Scotia has been living in Montreal since 1987, where he is an active member of the local jazz scene. He has a Diploma in Jazz Studies from St. Francis Xavier University, as well as a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Jazz from McGill University. He has been teaching jazz guitar at Concordia and McGill universities for over twenty-five years.
His album East of the Sun was nominated for an EMCA Award for Jazz Album of the Year in 2015. He has recorded four albums as a leader, Acadian Folk Song, East of the Sun, News Blues and A Change of Pace.
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| Piano Masterclass withĚýHeather Taves | |
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| Nov. 7 | 11:30am - 1:30pm | Ěý |
| Dal Arts Centre, Room 406 | |
| free and open to the public | Ěý |
Heather Taves is one of Canada’s most acclaimed and beloved pianists, a career she melds with those of composer, improviser, and writer. Her performances are described as “radiantly beautiful...commanding and authoritative” (The Guardian), and her compositions “brilliant in her conjuring of diverse worlds of sounds and texture...superlative music for our time and beyond” (Stephen Preece, The Record). Her openness, warmth and humor connect with people as she communicates her expertise in an enormous range of diverse music.
Heather Taves has toured internationally in North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, in such venues as the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, Place Des Arts in Montreal, Merkin Hall in New York City, Radio Zurich, and the Madras Philharmonic Society. She has performed collaboratively with the Penderecki String Quartet, pianist Jamie Parker, The Elora Festival Players, NUMUS, Jaap Schröder, and many others. She has premiered works including the Triple Concerto by Glenn Buhr performed with the CBC Vancouver Orchestra, and performed a myriad of piano music by diverse living composers, including Israeli composer Oded Zehavi, Palestinian-Canadian composer John Kameel Farah, Turkish composer Can Kazaz, British jazz pianist Julian Joseph, and many more.
For CBC Halifax, she presented a four-part series performing and discussing 20th century piano music. Internationally known as an innovative educator, until her retirement in 2022 she was an Associate Professor at Wilfrid Laurier University where her research centered on creative improvisation.