Yariv Aloni has received praise for conducting “impassioned, inspiring” and “magnificently right” interpretations of major orchestral and choral repertoire. Reviewers also describe him as “a musician of considerable insight and impeccable taste”.

He is currently the music director of the Galiano Ensemble of Victoria, the Victoria Chamber Orchestra and the Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra, and his guest appearances include the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra, the West Coast Symphony in Vancouver, the Civic Orchestra of Victoria, the Victoria Choral Society and PRIMA Youth Choir.

Also a violist, Yariv Aloni is acclaimed by critics for his “impeccable technical accomplishments, exquisite phrasing and superb viola playing”, and as having “a huge singing tone and a rare depth and nobility of feeling”. He was a finalist at the François Shapira competition in Tel-Aviv. His awards included the Israel Broadcasting Authority award for chamber music performance and numerous awards and annual scholarships from the American-Israel Cultural foundation. As the violist of both the Aviv and the Penderecki string quartets, he has performed in many concert halls around the world including Lincoln Centre in New York, the Louvre in Paris, Tonhalle in Zurich, and numerous concert halls in Canada, the United States, Germany, Italy, Holland, Mexico, France, Poland and many more. In 1985 he was invited to join Isaac Stern and Pinchas Zukerman to play a gala concert at Carnegie Hall in New York.

Mr. Aloni recorded for the United, Marquise, Tritonus and CBC labels as well as independent CD labels. He appears regularly with the Vetta Ensemble in Vancouver and performs in numerous chamber music festivals and recitals series.

An avid and dedicated teacher he is teaching chamber music at the University of Victoria, British Columbia and the Victoria Conservatory of Music. He is a former faculty member of Sir Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario and has given master classes at the University of British Columbia, Brandon University, University of Alberta in Edmonton and Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. In 1994 he became a faculty member and subsequently, from 1999 to 2007 the artistic director and conductor of the Courtenay Youth Music Centre in the Comox Valley, BC.

Born on a kibbutz in Israel, Yariv Aloni began studying the violin at the age of eight and turned to the viola when he was sixteen. He studied viola with David Chen at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem, Daniel Benyamini, principal violist of the Israel Philharmonic and Michael Tree and the Guarneri String Quartet. With an emphasis on chamber music he also studied at the

Jerusalem Music Centre with distinguished visiting faculty from around the world including the Isaac Stern, the Amadeus and the Guarneri String Quartets, and many others. He studied conducting under the tutelage of the Hungarian conductor János Sándor, former music director of the Budapest State Opera, the Györ Philharmonic Orchestra and Opera Pecs.

Praised for her “meltingly beautiful solos” (The Detroit News) and performances of “depth and insight” (Times Colonist), Pamela Highbaugh-Aloni is a co-founding member of the prize–winning Lafayette String Quartet.

Since 1991, Pamela along with her quartet colleagues has been an Artist in Residence at UVic, where she teaches cello, chamber music and co-supervises the strings mentoring course in collaboration with School District 61. She and the LSQ maintain their leadership in one of the strongest university string programs in Canada. The Lafayette quartet celebrated 25 years of musical life together in 2011. Highlights of these years include a celebration of the millennium performing all sixteen of Beethoven’s string quartets, tours in North America and Europe, and the initiation of the Lafayette Health Awareness Forum. Recordings include a recent title “Tre Vecchi Amici” featuring works written for the quartet. Their CBC recording “Death and the Maiden” was awarded “Outstanding Classical Recording of the Year” by the Western Canada Music Awards.

A native of California, Pamela served as principal cellist with the Detroit’s Renaissance City Chamber Players. She was a Ford Motor Company Artist in Residence at the Center for Creative Studies Institute of Music and Dance and a faculty member at Oakland University. She earned her BMus and MMus degrees from California State University, Northridge and Indiana University. Her principal teachers include Peter Rejto, Janos Starker and Paul Katz.

An enthusiast teacher, Ms. Highbaugh Aloni served for ten years on the faculty at the Courtenay Youth Music School and Festival and for the past six years has been the coach for the Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra cello section. She has performed both as a soloist and recitalist and has been a guest artist with the Sooke Philharmonic, Vetta Ensemble of Vancouver, Victoria Summer Festival, Eine Kleine Summer Music, Chamber Music San Juan, and the Victoria Symphony’s Summer Cathedral Series, and has served as principal cellist with the Galiano EnPersonal webpagesemble since its inaugural season in 2000. Pamela plays on a George Craske cello made in England, 1850.

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Acclaimed as "the world's leading solo bassist" (Time Magazine) Gary Karr is, in fact, the first solo double-bassist in history to make that pursuit a full-time career.

His major teachers include Herman Reinshagen and Stuart Sankey, with whom he studied at the Aspen Music Festival and the Julliard School. Since his debut with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, he has performed as soloist on 6 continents with orchestra and, since 1971, in recital with pianist organist harpsichordist, Harmon Lewis. He has recorded well over 50 discs with various orchestras worldwide.

He has premiered new works written for him by Vittorio Giannini (Psalm CXX), Alec Wilder (Sonata for Double Bass and Piano and Suite for Double Bass and Guitar). Robert Xavier Rodriguez (Ursa, Four Seasons for Double Bass and Orchestra), and the concertos for double bass and orchestra by Gunther Schuller, Hans Werner Henze, John Downey and Ketil Hvoslef. He has recorded the Serge Koussevitsky concerto with Oslo Philharmonic.

He has taught double bass on the faculties of the Julliard School, New England Conservatory of Music, The Hartt School, Yale University, Indiana University, University of North Carolina School of the Arts and the Halifax (Nova Scotia) Schools Music Program and has published a number of instructional books for the double bass. He focuses on finding one's unique sound on the double bass and approaching playing with the lyrical emphasis of a singer.

One of Karr's proudest achievements is the Bronze Medal he received from the Rosa Poinselle Foundation, which recognizes him as an outstanding lyrical musician. He also has been awarded the Artist-Teacher Award from the American String Teachers Association and a Distinguished Achievement Award from the international Society of Bassists, an organization Karr founded 50 years ago. In 2005, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the University of Victoria.

Marc Destrubé enjoys a varied international career on historical and modern violins, performing as soloist, chamber musician, concertmaster or director/conductor. He was until recently co-concertmaster of the Orchestra of the 18th Century (Amsterdam) with whom he toured to major festivals and concert halls around the world for the past four decades, performs with the Axelrod String Quartet (quartet-in-residence at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC) and the Vancouver quartet Microcosmos, and is a regular guest director and soloist with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, the Australian Haydn Ensemble and Lyra Baroque Orchestra. With Microcosmos he established the Kessler Academy, a multi-generational mentorship string orchestra project held every summer in Vancouver.

He performs regularly for Early Music Vancouver, is Artistic Director of the Pacific Baroque Festival (Victoria), a member of the Turning Point Ensemble, and concertmaster of the Oregon Bach Festival Baroque Orchestra.

His recording of Haydn violin concertos (ATMA) has been critically acclaimed, and he has commissioned and premiered numerous works by Canadian composers.

A much-loved teacher, he has been a visiting artist at the Paris, Utrecht and Moscow Conservatories, the Banff Centre, University of Indiana, Case Western University, Sydney Conservatorium, Australian National University, and various music schools in Canada. He is on the faculty of the Berwick Academy at the University of Oregon and at the Valley of the Moon Music Festival (Sonoma), and teaches privately at his home in Vancouver.