Brent Straughan is a storyteller.

A conversation with Brent is rich in details and vibrant pictures. He recalls how his father’s LP of Jascha Heifetz playing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto helped shape his love of music. Brent's passion for opera rejuvenates as he describes his time in Puccini's home town, where children still lay flowers outside the gate of the composer's home.

Brent Straughan the composer is a storyteller too. His musical scores are replete with details that he says come urgently and unannounced, surprisingly complete with melodic themes and orchestration — even costumes, staging and lighting. “They won’t stop bubbling up and they need to be told. It’s an extraordinary inconvenience,” he smiles.

His stories aren’t always easy to hear, often involving themes of injustice, tragedy and senseless loss. He shows us a war-torn Sarajevo as sniper fire takes the lives of a Serbian boy and his Muslim girlfriend. He directs our gaze to the gallows, where two Hesquiaht men are unjustly sacrificed to curry favour with colonial forces. He paints idyllic scenes of Japanese gardens on Mayne Island, then implores us to keep watching as the homes are raided, the farmers taken away to internment camps. 

“Music, in its own way,” Brent says, “can right wrongs. It can be a great force of reconciliation.”

The musical realization of his visions has been aided by renowned singers and musicians from around the world. Searching for chamber music soon after his arrival in Sooke, Brent took a chair in the violin section of the then-new Sooke Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Norman Nelson.

Brent continues to contribute to the Sooke Philharmonic and to the broader musical community by helping to educate and encourage young string musicians. “They’re wonderful,” he says. “It’s in them. We will have beautiful, powerful music if we simply believe in ourselves.”