The Edmonton connection

The Banff Centre has a longstanding connection with the Edmonton community. Founded in 1933 by the University of Alberta’s Department of Extension, The Banff Centre has welcomed thousands of Edmonton participants to its programs over the past 70 years. Our alumni are leaders in the Edmonton community and in communities around the world. Today, hundreds of Edmonton artists come to the Centre every year to pursue their creative and professional development.

A profound impact on the Edmonton art scene

Over 50 per cent of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra (ESO) are Banff Centre alumni.

• Banff Centre alumna, Petar Dundjerski will be Assistant Conductor in Residence of the ESO, beginning with the start of the 2006/07 season.
• Additional orchestra alumni include principal second violinist Dianne New, principal violist Stefan Jungkind, principal cellist Colin Ryan, principal double bassist Jan Urke, principal oboe Lidia Khaner, principal French horn Allene Hackleman, principal trumpet Alvin Lowrey, principal trombonist John McPherson, and principal harpist Nora Bumanis.
• Former composer-in-residence for the ESO, John Estacio has a longstanding connection with The Banff Centre, most notably as composer of Filumena and Frobisher (2007), co-commissioned and co-produced by The Banff Centre and Calgary Opera.

Edmonton Opera features a number of Banff Centre alumni.

• Edmonton Opera artistic director, Brian Deedrick has attended The Banff Centre as both a participant and faculty.
• The cast for the 2006/2007 Edmonton Opera season includes alumni Gregory Dahl (Giovanni) and Wendy Nielsen (Elvira) in Don Giovanni, John Tessier (Count Almaviva) and Thomas Goerz (Basilio) in The Barber of Seville, and David Pomeroy (Macduff) in Macbeth.

Banff Centre alumni are directly connected to Citadel Theatre productions.

• Citadel Theatre artistic director, Bob Baker, has been a participant and faculty at the Centre.
• Playwright-in-residence at the Citadel, Marty Chan, is alumnus of the Centre including a recent production residency for The Forbidden Phoenix.
• Alumni performing in Citadel Theatre 2006/07 season productions include Fiona Reid (The Constant Wife) and Peter Anderson (The Overcoat).

Over 75 per cent of Alberta Ballet are Banff Centre alumni.

• Banff Centre alumni include artistic director Jean Grand-Maitre, music director Peter Dala, ballet master Edmund Stripe, and ballet mistress Mercedes Bernardez.

Some of our distinguished Edmonton alumni and faculty include:

In opera, theatre, and dance

• Brian Webb, choreographer, founder of the Brian Webb Dance Company, and recipient of a 2003 Banff Centre Fleck Fellowship.
• Bobbi Westman, dancer, choreographer, and administrator, executive director of Alberta Dance Alliance.
• Morris Panych, winner of the 2004 Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama, raised in Edmonton, developed three award-winning plays at the Banff playRites Colony, including The Ends of the Earth (1992), Vigil (1995), and Lawrence and Holloman (1997).
• Fort McMurray native, soprano Laura Whalen (the title role in Filumena).
• Mieko Ouchi, Edmonton based actor, writer and director, The Blue Light and The Red Priest (Eight Ways to Say Goodbye).
• Thomas Peacocke, award-winning actor, recipient of the Order of Canada, professor emeritus, University of Alberta.
• Dancer and choreographer, Tanya Alvarado.

In music

• Edmonton native, Jens Lindemann, former lead trumpet of the world-renowned Canadian Brass, critically acclaimed as an international trumpet virtuoso performing over 100 performances a year in the world’s greatest concert halls.
• Lesley Robertson, viola, and Grammy nominee Marina Hoover, cello, both Edmonton natives and founding members of the St. Lawrence String Quartet.
• Michael Massey, pianist and conductor, Edmonton Youth Orchestra music director, frequent soloist and former orchestral pianist with the ESO.
• Violinists Judy Kang and Juliette Kang. Both are now pursuing performance careers in the United States.
• Saxophonist, jazz musician, educator, composer-arranger, Kent Sangster.
• Senator Tommy Banks, pianist, conductor, composer, actor, Juno Award-winning musician (1979), and Officer of the Order of Canada (1991).

In visual and media arts

• Catherine Crowston, deputy director and chief curator of the Art Gallery of Alberta.
• The Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art 2005 was co-curated by The Banff Centre’s Walter Phillips Gallery and the Art Gallery of Alberta.

In literary arts

• Greg Hollingshead, author of The Roaring Girl (1995 Governor General’s Award for Fiction), The Healer (shortlisted for the 1998 Giller Prize, won the 1999 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize), and Bedlam (Globe 100 Book of the Year for 2004), professor emeritus at the University of Alberta.
• Curtis Gillespie, author of Playing Through and Someone Like That, winner of numerous National Magazine Awards, as well as several awards from the Writers Union of Canada and Writers Guild of Alberta.

Published: Summer 2007.