News

Every two years, orchestra@uwaterloo holds a Concerto and Aria Competition that is open to University of Waterloo students and recent graduates, and is judged by a panel of professional musicians. Winners perform as soloists with the orchestra in a public concert.

2020 Concerto and Aria Competition: February 1, 2020.

Deadline for application: October 25, 2019.  See orchestra website for entry forms.

Competition sponsored by Professor David Taylor

Music builds community! In an effort to strengthen relationships and connections between individuals and groups in academic and local settings, Conrad Grebel University College at the University of Waterloo is privileged to welcome an extraordinary musician as the 2019 Rodney and Lorna Sawatsky Visiting Scholar. Ysaÿe M. Barnwell, Ph.D.

Is music an essential part of your life?  Join one of our three choral ensembles or four instrumental ensembles in Winter 2019.  Auditions start January 7, but you can sign up for an audition slot now.  See audition details. 

Twenty years ago, a gay university student in Laramie, Wyoming, was driven to the outskirts of town. He was beaten, robbed, tied to a fence, and left to die. For 18 hours, Matthew Shepard hung bleeding, in near-freezing temperatures. The passing cyclist who found him thought at first that he was a scarecrow. He spent several days in a coma in hospital before dying.

The University of Waterloo Department of Music at Conrad Grebel University College invites all students, faculty, staff, and community members to join most of the eight ensembles that it sponsors and organizes.

Instrumental: Instrumental Chamber Ensemble; Jazz Ensemble; Orchestra; World Music Ensemble (Balinese Gamelan)

Choral:  Chapel Choir; Chamber Choir; University Choir; Vocal Techniques. 

See webpage for details. 

Professor of Music at Conrad Grebel & University of Waterloo and Artistic Director of the Grand Philharmonic Choir, Mark Vuorinen has been appointed the new Artistic Director for the Elora Festival and the Elora Festival Singers, Inc.

Congratulations Mark! 

The first in a distinguished legacy of long-serving musical visionaries, Helen Martens was hired as a music professor at Grebel in 1965. Illustrating the College’s interdisciplinary focus from the beginning, the initial classes Helen taught were Music and the Fine Arts, as well as Music and Literature.

Pursuing Music’s Healing Effects

The Music program at Grebel and the University of Waterloo consistently appeals to students who are looking for a balanced and broad music education. When searching for a program that fit him best, student Tyler Reidy immediately felt comfortable when he arrived at Grebel for his pre-enrolment studio audition. “The faculty was incredibly welcoming, the students were encouraging and excited to get to know me during my audition process, and Grebel was small enough that I was immediately drawn to the community.” Tyler maintained a strong link to the department through all four years of his university career, and he is now set to graduate this spring with a Major in Music and an Intensive Music Specialization.

When Grebel was founded in 1963, no one could have anticipated the growth of the Music program and the central role Music would play in giving voice to the College’s mission in the ensuing 55 years.  

The Music Department wishes to express profound gratitude to two ensemble directors for their extraordinary work with Grebel choirs: Catherine Robertson (pictured at piano), who has directed the Chapel Choir since 2015, and Gerard Yun (pictured below), director of the University Choir since 2009. Gerard is beginning a full-time position in Community Music at Wilfrid Laurier University.