Spotlight on alumni

Images — Phoenix Theatre: 50th Anniversary Alumni Festival

Chamber-folk band West My Friend (Eden Oliver, Jeff Poynter and Alex Rempel)

Creating a better world

In Fine Arts, we believe our alumni are some of our greatest assets. Who better than our own 8,000-plus graduates to exemplify the kind of creative difference we can make in the world?

With that in mind, both the Department of Theatre and the School of Music host alumni showcases each year, bringing recent graduates back to campus to showcase where their studies have taken them and share those experiences with current students.

Phoenix Theatre

Since 2002, Theatre has presented a diverse and exciting annual , offering performances by some of their top graduates.

, , - 2016-17 50th Anniversary Season
with Kate Braidwood’s The Wonderheads
with Kaitlin Williams & Mack Gordon
featuring Ingrid Hansen & Kathleen Greenfield
with Peter Carlone & Chris Wilson
with Clayton Jevne, Cam Culham & Marina Lagacé
with Itsazoo Productions (Sebastien Archibald & Chelsea Haberlin)
with Meg Braem
with Celine Stubel, Amitai Marmorstein & Britt Small
with Janet Munsil & Paul Terry
with Charles Ross
with The Old Trout Puppet Workshop
with Amiel Gldstone
with Meg Roe
with TJ Dawe

School of Music

The School of Music offers both an Alumni Series and the series, allowing graduates in various stages of their careers the opportunity to present a mainstage concert. For emerging artists, not only does this allow practical experience in developing, mounting, and promoting a concert at a fraction of the price it would normally cost, but it also offers current students a glimpse into that nebulous “what happens next?” aspect of their careers.

Alumni Series

Emily Carr String Quartet (featuring violist Mieka Michaux & cellist Alasdair Money)
Duo526 (violinist Kerry DuWors & pianist Futaba Niekawa)
Country roots duo (Carli & Julie Kennedy)
Victoria Guitar Trio (Adrian Verdejo, Michael Dias & Bradford Werner)

Emerging Artists Alumni Series

Violist Sarah Tradewell
Composer Justin Boechler (performed by Alexei Paish, Kimberley Shepherd & Anna Shill plus the Proteus Saxophone Quartet)
Chamber-folk band West My Friend (Eden Oliver, Jeff Poynter & Alex Rempel)
Fiddler duo (Rachel Capon & Eli Bender)
Trio Dolce (Laine Longton, Clare Yuan & Shawn Earle)

Guest speakers

Alumni are also actively engaged as visiting lecturers and guest speakers in our departments of Writing, Visual Arts, and Art History & Visual Studies, where long-running showcases like Open Word: Readings & Ideas, the Visiting Artist series, and symposiums like Visual Impetus offer students a chance to connect with and benefit from the lived experience of some of our top graduates.

You’ll even find a number of award-winning alumni on faculty here, like painter Robert Youds (Visual Arts), playwright Joan MacLeod (Writing), composer Christopher Butterfield (Music), art historian Dennine Dudley (Art History & Visual Studies), and director Peter McGuire (Theatre).

Stay involved

As a member of our extended Fine Arts community, there are a number of ways you can stay involved with us and help the next generation of artists and scholars succeed:

Organize or get involved with an alumni chapter in your
Attend our performances and exhibitions
Provide mentorship for current students
Engage with our social networks
Create in your workplace
Support a student award, student research, or our programs with a