Voice and Speech Arts
TBA
Dennis Colpitts -Instrumental
Dennis Colpitts is a graduate from the Department of Music, University of British Columbia, 1976. He has taught music in the Lower Mainland and Okanagan at all levels of the school system.
Mr. Colpitts has been second chair in the horn section of the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra for 23 years and plays regularly with the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra. He also plays trumpet in the Fish On Five Brass Quintet and the Okanagan Jazz Festival Big Band.
Dennis retired in 2011 after 34 years of teaching, but keeps busy by volunteering in the schools and working with the Okanagan Symphony Youth Orchestra.
Dance
TBA
Paul Dykstra - Piano
Paul Dykstra has been a performing artist in North America for over 35 years. Musically nurtured and trained in Canada, in Edmonton and at the University of Alberta with Helmut Brauss; his subsequent ventures took him to Northern BC and Alberta, and then to the US, where he lived for 20 years. American performance credits include recording with clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, performances of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with Abendmusik Philharmonic in 2016, and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto #1 with the Great Bay Philharmonic in 2018. Further concerto collaborations have included Beethoven’s Fourth Concerto with the Prince George Symphony, and Mozart’s Concerto for two pianos with the Granite State Symphony in New Hampshire. Paul has frequently participated in chamber music collaborations with renowned New England artists, and in many solo concerts in Canada and the United States.
Paul was a finalist in the American Prize Concerto Competition 2017. He has toured with NYC Living Arts Company in performances of Gershwin’s “ Porgy and Bess “ in the US and Trinidad, and played keyboards for the disco band Tavares’ reunion in Atlantic City. Other endeavours of note include his engagement as Musical Director for the opera “Grace” by Roger Rudenstein in Boston. After relocating to his native Canada in 2020, he now resides in Kelowna and continues an active musical career, including performing, mentoring, teaching, arranging, and musical collaborations of all kinds. Paul is on the Faculty of the Kelowna Community Music School, and is a member of the College of Examiners of the Royal Conservatory. He has been, and continues to be, active as a Festival Adjudicator throughout North America.
