Faculty Profiles
BOWMAN, Robert | rbowman@yorku.ca | WebsiteAssociate Professor
Professor Bowman has pioneered popular music studies at York at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. He regularly authors or advises on major documentary and compact disc reissue projects for record companies in Europe and North America and is a frequent contributor to a variety of publications.
CANTON, Lisette | lcanton@yorku.ca | WebsiteAssociate Professor
Dr. Canton is a choral and orchestral conductor, vocal coach and early music specialist. She is the Founder and
Artistic Director of the internationally acclaimed Ottawa Bach Choir and has also taught at Carleton University, the University of Ottawa, McGill University and the University of Illinois. She has recorded for CBC Radio and
Television and Radio-Canada, and been the guest conductor of numerous ensembles in Canada and the United States.
CHAMBERS, Mark | chamber1@yorku.ca | WebsiteAssistant Professor
Dr. Chambers is a conductor, cellist and early music specialist. Prior to his appointment at York University,
Professor Chambers was the Director of Orchestral Activities and Cello/Bass Instructor for nine years at Eastern
Kentucky University. He has authored several articles for the American String Teachers Journal and is a contributor to the 2001 New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. He is also very active as a clinician and adjudicator.
COGHLAN, Michael | mcoghlan@yorku.ca | WebsiteAssociate Professor
Michael Coghlan is a composer, pianist,and digital instrumentalist who works in a wide variety of styles. His research interests include music and computers, jazz and popular music structures, tuning systems, Schenkerian analysis, and recording/production theory and practice. He has numerous internationally distributed publications (Thompson, Leslie, Federick Harris, Warner, Alfred) and has received a large number of commissions, recordings, performances, and broadcasts.
At York University, he served for eight years as Chair of the Department of Music and is currently engaged in his second term as Director of the Graduate Program in Music.
de VAL, Dorothy | ddeval@yorku.ca | WebsiteAssociate Professor
Professor de Val is a musicologist and pianist whose research interests include Scots Gaelic song, the first English folk revival, pianos and pianism, and Haydn reception in England. Her book, In Search of Song: The Life and Times of Lucy Broadwood, was published last summer by Ashgate, and her present research engages with Scots Gaelic song and collectors in the early 20th century. She has also published on Percy Grainger and Muzio Clementi, while more recent articles include work on the pianist Fanny Davies and her circle. She is also interested in Dance history, particularly social dance, and plays regularly for English country dances in Toronto with her group Playford's Pleasure. She is a member of the Dalcroze Society of Canada.
ELMES, Barry | belmes@yorku.ca | WebsiteAssociate Professor
Professor Elmes is a jazz percussionist, composer and bandleader. A mainstay of the Canadian jazz scene since the early 1980's, his work is documented on over sixty CD recordings. He has toured internationally with his own quintet and co-led groups such as Time Warp and jazz trio D.E.W. East. As a side-musician, he has performed or recorded with a who’s who of the jazz world, including Charlie Haden, Dizzy Gillespie, Diana Krall, Tommy Flanagan, John Abercrombie, Joe Henderson, Ray Bryant, to name only a few.
HENDERSON, Alan | alanh@yorku.ca | WebsiteAssistant Professor
Prof. Henderson is a jazz composer/arranger/acoustic bassist and bandleader. Over sixty of his compositions appear on recordings by a number of groups. He is co-leader of the group Time Warp and leader of the
Al Henderson Quintet. As a side-musician, he has performed with many acclaimed jazz artists including Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Sonny Fortune, Jane Bunnett, Diana Krall, Slim Gaillard and Jimmy Knepper.
ISRAELIEVITCH, Jacques | jacquesi@yorku.ca | WebsiteAssociate Professor
Internationally renowned violinist Jacques Israelievitch is one of the most distinguished performing artists in North America and abroad. After making his debut on French National Radio at the age of eleven, Mr. Israelievitch went on to graduate from the Paris Conservatory at sixteen and was subsequently prizewinner at the International Paganini Competition. His teachers include Henryk Szeryng, Janos Starker, William Primrose, and Josef Gingold.
As a soloist, Mr. Israelievitch has collaborated with Solti, Giulini, Slatkin, Davis, and Frühbeck de Burgos, appearing with many of the world's major orchestras. As a distinguished chamber musician, he has performed with Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, and Yo-Yo Ma, and is violinist for the twice Naumburg Award recipient New Arts Trio.
Mr. Israelievitch served as Concertmaster of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for a record-setting twenty years, and was formerly Assistant Concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for six years and Concertmaster of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra for ten years. He is currently chair of strings at the Chautauqua Institution.
MARCUZZI, Michael | marcuzzi@yorku.ca | WebsiteAssociate Professor
Professor Marcuzzi is a trumpeter, arranger, and percussionist. Before coming to York, he studied classical and jazz trumpet, as well as, bata drumming in Cuba. His interests include Cuban music, jazz arranging and Afro-Cuban jazz. His research interests include organology, African retentions in the Diaspora, and comparative religion.
MARTIN, Stephanie | stmartin@yorku.ca | WebsiteAssociate Professor
Professor Martin has extensive credits as a conductor, organist and harpsichordist. She is particularly active as a choral conductor but also regularly conducts works with full orchestra. She is a member of the Recordare Early Music Ensemble.
MOTT, David | dmott@yorku.ca | WebsiteProfessor
Professor Mott is a composer and performer in the western art music and jazz tradition. Before coming to York, he was on the composition faculty of the Yale School of Music where he was also the director of the Yale jazz ensemble. His music is an acculturation of the musical materials and compositional procedures of both traditions and reflects a strong interest in such musics as Tibetan, Chinese and Korean as well.
PETROWSKA QUILICO, Christina | cquilico@yorku.ca | WebsiteProfessor
Professor Quilico is a pianist, artist and author. She has performed with the Toronto Symphony, Taiwan Philharmonic, Winnipeg Symphony, the National Arts Orchestra, etc. Her seventeen CDs include solo, chamber and orchestral works and she has worked with leading composers such as Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Gyorgy Ligeti and Luis de Pablo. Among numerous awards, she was the recipient of a Canada Council doctoral fellowship and French Goverment Grant for doctoral studies at the Sorbonne, Paris, France. She has premiered numerous new works by Canadian composers.
RAHN, Jay | jayrahn@yorku.ca | WebsiteProfessor
Professor Rahn’s teaching and research interests span a wide range of topics in music theory, musicology, ethnomusicology and music cognition. His publications include numerous articles and two books: A Family Heritage: The Story and Songs of LaRena Clark, co-authored with Edith Fowke (University of Calgary Press 1994) and A Theory for All Music: Problems and Solutions in the Analysis of Non-Western Forms (University of Toronto Press, 1983). A former editor of the Canadian Journal for Traditional Music, Dr. Rahn currently serves on the Editorial Board of Analytical Approaches to World Music and as Contributing Editor to The Open Space Magazine.
ROBBIN, Catherine | crobbin@yorku.ca | WebsiteAssistant Professor
Professor Robbin is a mezzo‑soprano with an international performing and recording career in oratorio, opera and recital repertoire. An award winner of three international voice competitions, she has also won a Juno award, a Grand Prix du Disque, a Grammy nomination and a Gramophone Record of the Year. She is also very active as an adjudicator and clinician.
SANKARAN, Trichy | tsank@yorku.ca | WebsiteProfessor
Professor Sankaran is a world-renowned a percussionist specializing in the South Indian mrdangam and kanjira. In addition to his traditional setting, he performs with jazz, electronic and African music ensembles and has concertized on four continents with Nexus and World Drums. As a composer, he has written works for contemporary gamelan, jazz, and world music ensembles. He is the author of a textbook on South Indian classical drumming and winner of OCUFA (Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations) teaching award.
SIMMS, Rob | robsimms@yorku.ca | WebsiteAssociate Professor
Professor Simms is a multi-instrumentalist who plays kora, setar, oud, guitar, and ney. His main research areas are contemporary maqam cultures (of the Middle East and Central Asia), Manding music of West Africa; and integral studies.
SOKOL, Casey | kcsokol@yorku.ca | WebsiteAssociate Professor
Professor Sokol is a pianist and specialist in contemporary improvisation. He has performed as a soloist, in chamber groups, and has toured Europe, North America and Japan. He is a founding member of Toronto's Music Gallery and the CCMC (Canadian Contemporary Music Collective). He was awarded the 2002 OCUFA (Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations) Teaching Award, presented to professors who inspire and inform through their teaching, course development and research.
VISWANATHAN, Sundar | sundarv@yorku.ca | WebsiteAssociate Professor
Professor Viswanathan is a jazz woodwind performer and vocalist who has appeared on stage with acclaimed jazz artists such as Jim McNeely and Billy Hart, and in venues like the Lincoln Center and the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City. His scholarly research interests include the music of tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson and his composition is informed by Brasilian and Indian musical styles.
WESTRAY, Ron | rwestray@yorku.ca | WebsiteAssistant Professor
Jazz musician and composer Ron Westray is best
known for his work as lead trombonist with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra
directed by Wynton Marsalis and his collaborations with Wycliffe Gordon. He is
a standing member of the Mingus Big Band and has appeared on BET and Live
from Lincoln Centre. He joined York University's Music Department in 2009 as
the Oscar Peterson Chair In Jazz Performance, a position endowed by the
Government of Ontario to commemorate legendary Canadian jazz artist Oscar
Peterson.
WRAZEN, Louise | lwrazen@yorku.ca | WebsiteAssociate Professor
Professor Wrazen’s research interest include music of diasporic communities, gender issues in music, and folk usic traditions of southern Poland and the Balkans. She has conducted fieldwork in Toronto, Chicago and Poland, and has taught in Toronto’s public school system, Queen’s University, University of Toronto, and the Ontario College of Art and Design.
