Piano
Ronald Morgan
Dr. Ronald Morgan is an accomplished musician and educator with great passion for music and the piano. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance and Literature, a Master of Music in Piano Performance, and a Master of Arts in Musicology —all from the prestigious Eastman School of Music. His principal teachers include Douglas Humpherys (Eastman) and Patricia Parr (University of Toronto), both distinguished figures in the world of classical piano. Dr. Morgan’s performance experience spans solo and collaborative recitals in Canada and the U.S., as well as international appearances in Great Britain, Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. He brings a wealth of experience to his work as a respected festival and competition adjudicator and senior examiner for the Royal Conservatory of Music in both Canada and the U.S. Prior to settling in British Columbia, Dr. Morgan served as Assistant Professor of Piano at the University of Hawaii, where he also taught a range of subjects from piano pedagogy to music history. Recently relocating from Vancouver to Courtenay, B.C., he continues to channel his love of teaching into his private piano studio and online instruction. His impact on the next generation of musicians is evident: his students regularly shine in competitions and festivals, earning numerous awards, including provincial and national gold medals from the Royal Conservatory and top honours at the Performing Arts BC provincial competition. Several of his students reached the Canadian Music Competition finals, with a 2021 first-place win in the 13-year-old category among other significant placements. With decades of dedication to excellence in piano education, Dr. Morgan continues to inspire, challenge, and elevate young musicians, helping them strive towards their full artistic potential.
Ellen Silverman
Ellen Silverman, pianist, has concertized often in Vancouver as soloist and chamber player and has been heard on the CBC in both capacities. She has appeared with her husband, Robert Silverman, performing the four hand and two piano literature throughout British Columbia and in the Far East as well as the Northeastern Philharmonic Orchestra in Pennsylvania. She has also performed in such cities as New York, Pittsburgh, Rochester, Syracuse and Milwaukee. She also is a frequent collaborator of French flutist Isabelle Chapuis.
A graduate of the renowned Eastman School of Music, Ellen Silverman holds a Master’s degree from Syracuse University. Her teachers have included Leonard Shure, Eugene List and Frank Glazer. She was the Coordinator of the Piano Department at Douglas College in New Westminster, B.C. for 32 years. She has served on the summer faculty of the University of British Columbia and for many years chaired the piano faculty of the Courtenay Youth Music Centre. She also maintains an active private studio in Vancouver. She has adjudicated festivals in Calgary and Toronto and nearly every music festival in British Columbia. She also released a CD with Ed Lewis, Contemporary Music for Trumpet and Piano.
Wayne Weng
Pianist Wayne Weng’s playing has been described as “vibrant and immensely musical,” with “delicacy amounting to almost reverence […] through gossamer touch” (Wiltshire Gazette & Herald). His “ability to modulate the piano’s sound […] coupled with his great ear easily gave him an edge” (Sioux City Journal) to win first prize at the 2013 Iowa International Piano Competition. He was also a prizewinner at the Washington International Competition for Piano, where his performance in the final round “raised the excitement level of the afternoon several notches” (The Washington Post).
As a soloist and collaborator, Wayne Weng has performed in Canada, the United States, England, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Serbia, Egypt, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. His performances have taken place at prestigious venues including the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Chicago Cultural Center, Bösendorfer Hall at the Mozarthaus in Vienna, St. Peter’s Basilica, Sala dei Notari and Teatro Pavone in Perugia, the Palace of Fontainebleau, the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge University, Bargemusic in New York, the National Music Museum in South Dakota, the 92nd St. Y, Steinway Hall in New York, the Brooklyn Public Library, the 100 Club in London, the Brahms Museum in Mürzzuschlag, the Polish Consulate in New York, the Bulgarian Consulate in New York, the Cairo Opera House, Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office in New York, the Chan Centre and Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver, and the British Columbia Governor’s House.
He has performed concerti with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Sioux City Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra, Cascade Symphony Orchestra, Yonkers Philharmonic Orchestra, West Coast Symphony, Philharmonic Orchestra of University of Alicante, Victoria Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Seattle, and the Avanti Orchestra.
His performances have been featured on radio stations such as WFMT Chicago, WQXR New York, CBC Radio, and Seattle’s King FM. As a member of the Phoenix Ensemble, his first commercial recording was released in 2017 to critical acclaim.
Wayne Weng’s musical interests and skills extend beyond classical music. An avid improviser, he enjoys drawing connections between classical and non-classical genres, thematically incorporating music from the American Songbook, the Beatles, and Radiohead into his recital programs.
In addition to performing, he devotes much of his time to nurturing the next generation of musicians. He serves on the piano faculty at the University of British Columbia, where he teaches piano and chamber music. His highly sought-after private studio in Vancouver was named a Steinway Select School in 2021. His pupils have been accepted to top-tier conservatories such as The Juilliard School, won international and national competitions including the Canadian Music Competition, received Gold Medals from the Royal Conservatory of Music, and performed at venues such as Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall. He has served as Chair of the Piano Department at the Lindeblad School of Music in New Jersey and has also taught at Music Fest Perugia. He has adjudicated at the IPPA Conero International Piano Competition, Festival on the Lake and North Shore Music Festival in British Columbia, the International Chopin Youth Competition in Houston, the Leschetizky Association Concerto Competition, and the Connecticut State Music Teachers Association Competition.
In 2023, Wayne Weng co-founded the Vancouver Piano Sessions, an international summer festival in Vancouver, where he also serves as the Director of the Truth and Reconciliation program. During the 2024 festival, he performed his own arrangement of the traditional Indigenous song “The Gathering of Eagles” with the Eagle Song Dancers from the Squamish Nation.
Wayne Weng studied with Donna Fishwick and Sasha Starcevich during his pre-college years. He earned his Bachelor of Music degree and the coveted Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music in 2006, studying with Natalya Antonova. He holds two master’s degrees: one from Mannes College of Music, where he studied with Pavlina Dokovska, and another from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he studied with Joan Havill and graduated with distinction. He later earned an Artist Diploma from Yale University under the guidance of Peter Frankl and received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the City University of New York’s Graduate Center, studying with Ursula Oppens. His doctoral dissertation, The Mutability of the Score: An Examination of the Value of Score Alteration in Virtuosic Piano Repertoire, was nominated for the Barry S. Brook dissertation prize. He has been awarded grants from The Solti Foundation and the British Columbia Arts Council.
Wayne Weng is a Steinway Artist.
Strings
David Lakirovich
David Lakirovich was born in Brisbane, Australia, and started his violin studies at the age of three with his father, Jacob Lakirovich. David has taken part in various master classes with renowned violinists such as Felix Andrievsky, Nelly Shkolnikova, Jose-Louis Garcia, Pinchas Zukerman, Victor Tretyakov, Mauricio Fuks, Haim Taub, Pavel Vernikov, and Michael Frischenschlager. His teachers have included David Zafer in Toronto, Arkadij Winokurow and Boris Kuschnir in Vienna, Vadim Gluzman and Shmuel Ashkenasi in Chicago, and William Preucil in Cleveland.
David has performed in many recitals and concerts in Australia, USA, Canada, Israel and Europe, including solo performances in Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall, Bronfman Auditorium in Tel Aviv, Stradivari Museum in Cremona, Italy, along with solo performances with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, West Coast Symphony Orchestra, Scarborough Symphony, York Symphony, and Chicago College of Performing Arts Symphony Orchestra. He also performed in the “Young Stars of the Young Century” concert in George Weston Recital Hall for the Vladimir Spivakov International Charity Foundation. He performed in a Stradivari Society concert in Chicago, playing on the 1692 ‘Lord Falmouth’ Stradivari. He has also performed solo on Chicago WFMT 98.7 Classical Radio on numerous occasions. A passionate chamber musician, he has collaborated with Peter Salaff, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Ilya Kaler, Mark Kosower, Atar Arad, William Wolfram, Alina Ibragimova and Vadim Gluzman. He has also collaborated and performed with ensembles that include the Pacifica Quartet, Cavani Quartet, and the Vermeer Quartet, and has performed in the Jupiter Chamber Players in New York and the North Shore Chamber Music Festival in Chicago. In 2014, his quartet at the Cleveland Institute of Music won “Quartet of the Year” in the Hvide Sande Festival in Copenhagen, Denmark. He has also performed at the Quadra Island Festival of Chamber Music, Sea-to-Sky Chamberfest, Instrumental Society of Calgary, and frequently performs as part of the Vancouver Chamber Music Society, Vancouver Academy Chamber Players and the VSO Chamber players. He was a participant at the Keshet Eilon International Violin Mastercourse in Israel for two summers, as well as the Pinchas Zukerman Young Artist Program in Ottawa.
Equally passionate in pedagogy, David Lakirovich was a faculty member of the Rochetta Ligure Masterclass in Palazzo Spinola, Italy, and has been on faculty at the Cremona International Music Academy since 2013. In 2017-18, he served on the faculty of the Mount Royal Conservatory in Calgary, and has given numerous masterclasses and seminars in their Advanced Performance Program. He also taught at the University of Calgary the same year. He is currently Professor of Violin at the Vancouver Academy of Music and is on the faculty of the VSO School of Music. He is the Program and Operations Director of the Vancouver Island Music Academy, which he co-founded in 2021. David completed his Undergraduate Degree at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University in 2013 with Shmuel Ashkenasi and Vadim Gluzman, and his Master’s Degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2015 with William Preucil. He previously served as the Associate Concertmaster of the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra in Columbus, Ohio for 3 seasons, and was a member of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra as a 1st section violin and the Acting Assistant Concertmaster. He was also invited to perform as guest Associate Concertmaster with the Jalisco Philharmonic during the entire summer of 2015 in Guadalajara, Mexico, as well as Guest Concertmaster of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra in April and November 2019. David is currently the Assistant Concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
Guitar
Bill Coon
Bill Coon was the recipient of the 2009 National Jazz Awards, Guitarist of the Year. He leads several of his own groups including the BC Double Quartet with Brad Turner on trumpet and violinist Cameron Wilson. Bill is featured on several Western Canadian Music Award winning recordings, most recently the recording Jasmine Jazz, winner of the Best Instrumental Recording of 2023. He has performed with Jimmy Heath, Peter Bernstein, Eddie Daniels, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Lewis Nash, Peter Washington, Lorne Lofsky, Sheila Jordan, Jiggs Whigham, Hugh Fraser, P.J. Perry, Grant Stewart, Pat Bianchi, and Rebecca Kilgore.
As a guitarist, Coon is well-known for his many collaborations, most recently recordings with vocalist Sienna Dahlen Balladextrous (Cellar Live), Laura Crema, and Bill Coon StringSongs, featuring Peggy Lee and Jon Bentley. He performs regularly with Triology (Miles Black and Jodi Proznick), Oliver Gannon, Campbell Ryga, Steve Kaldestad, Cory Weeds, Dave Robbins, Tom Keenlyside, Sharon Minemoto and many more.
He has written for numerous large ensembles, including Jill Townsend Jazz Orchestra, Cory Weeds 11-piece ensemble, The National Arts Centre Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (with Trumpeter-vocalist Bria Skonberg). Coon has collaborated with jazz vocalist Denzal Sinclaire on the Juno nominated, I Found Love, with hip-hop artist K-os on the Juno award-winning Joyful Rebellion. Among his many grants and commissions, Coon has received Canada Council Arts Awards to study with guitarists Jim Hall, Dr. Louis Stewart, and arranger-composers Neil Chotem, Rick Wilkins. As well as an instructor for the VSO School of Music, he is a faculty member of the Jazz Studies department at Capilano University in North Vancouver, teaching jazz guitar, composition, large ensemble arranging, small ensemble performance, and jazz history.
RECENT MEDIA
https://www.straight.com/music/guitarist-bill-coon-isnt-just-lazin-around-during-jazz-fest
https://www.capilanou.ca/about-capu/get-to-know-us/capsule-stories/articles/a-man-and-his-music/
https://jazzguitartoday.com/2023/02/guitarist-bill-coon-jazz-guitar-on-canadas-west-coast/