The Conductors

Yariv Aloni

Yariv Aloni is the Music Director of the Sooke Philharmonic.  He is also the music director of the Victoria Chamber Orchestra and the Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra and principal guest conductor of the West Coast Symphony Orchestra in Vancouver.

Former violist of both the Penderecki string quartet and the Aviv piano quartet, he has performed in many European and North American concert halls, including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Centre in New York, the Louvre in Paris, and Tonhalle in Zurich. He has recorded for the United, Marquise, Tritonus and CBC and independent labels. He regularly performs with the Victoria Piano Quartet and the Omega String Trio in numerous chamber-music concerts, festivals and recital series. 

Yariv was a finalist at the François Shapira competition in Tel Aviv. He earned the Israel Broadcasting Authority award for chamber-music performance and numerous awards and scholarships from the American-Israel Cultural Foundation.

Born on a kibbutz in Israel, Yariv began studying the violin and subsequently turned to the viola, which he studied with David Chen at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem; Daniel Benyamini, principal violist of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra; and Michael Tree, violist of Guarneri Quartet.

With an emphasis on chamber music, Yariv studied at the Jerusalem Music Centre with distinguished visiting faculty from around the world, including Isaac Stern, and the Amadeus and Guarneri String Quartets. His conducting teacher and mentor was the Hungarian conductor János Sándor, former music director of the Budapest State Opera and the Györ Philharmonic Orchestra.

Nicholas Fairbank

Nicholas Fairbank has been Director of the Sooke Philharmonic Chorus since 2015. After early studies in B.C., he pursued further musical training in London, England and Paris, France. He holds Masters degrees from the Université de Paris (musicology and French literature), the University of California at Santa Barbara (French language and pedagogy), and the University of Victoria (music composition), as well as Associateship diplomas from the Royal Conservatory of Music (gold medal winner for pipe organ, 1981) and the Royal Canadian College of Organists (Willan and Barker prizes 1998), of which he was the National President from 2012-2014.

In a career spanning 45 years, and based in Victoria since 1995, he has kept busy as a teacher, adjudicator, examiner, performer on keyboard instruments, as well as a conductor, and in this capacity has worked with many Victoria-area choirs and orchestras, including the Linden Singers, the Victoria Choral Society, Via Choralis, various church choirs, and the Civic Orchestra. 

As a teacher, he has taught piano, organ and harpsichord and all levels of music theory, most recently at the Victoria Conservatory of Music where he was on the keyboard and theory faculties for 18 years. As a concert organist he has performed across North America, in Mexico, and in Europe.

Now enjoying semi-retirement, he still teaches a few students and spends much time in his garden learning to grow his own fruit and vegetables.

Mr. Fairbank is an established composer whose catalogue of compositions includes more than 100 works for organ and piano solo, voice, and various choral and instrumental ensembles. More information about his music can be found at www.fairbankmusic.ca.

David Stewart

David Stewart decided early on in his professional career to experience all facets of musical endeavors as a musician and violinist. In addition to his primary roles as a violin and viola professor (20 years, University of Manitoba, and University of Ottawa) and concertmaster (30 years, Bergen Philharmonic/Norway, and Manitoba Chamber Orchestra) he has been a conductor and coach of university-level orchestras around the world.

Performances have taken him around the world, from major capitals in North America and Europe, to unusual places like the Galapagos Islands and 14 tours of mainland China. He has had the privilege to have played in many of the most important classical music venues in the world, from Carnegie Hall in NYC to London’s Royal Albert Hall and from Vienna’s Musikverein to Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.

Now retired on Vancouver Island, Mr. Stewart is a board member and fundraiser for Harmony Project Sooke, an organization which provides stringed instrumentsd private lessons to school children in the region.

For the 2024/25 season, Mr Stewart will be a Guest Professor at McGill University in Montreal.

Michael Klazek

Michael Klazek, Staff Conductor and a founding member of the Sooke Philharmonic, has played viola professionally and conducted community ensembles for five decades. Educated at University of Alberta and University of Calgary, he studied conducting with Kenneth L. Nielsen, composition with Violet Archer, violin and viola with Thomas Rolston, as well as piano and music education. 

For 35 years, he taught acclaimed choirs, bands, orchestras and musical theatre ensembles in secondary schools and universities at Edmonton, Calgary and Victoria.  He has taught conducting at UofC and the Victoria Conservatory, and co-founded the UVic Strings Mentorship course. Mike has served on boards of the Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra, the Victoria Chamber Orchestra, the Greater Victoria Performing Arts Festival and the Galiano Ensemble. 

He continues to work as clinician and mentor with Music Education projects, and plays orchestral and chamber music at home and abroad. Michael has now retired from his role conducting the Fling!