Instructors

Samuel Arnold
BSC with Major in Education, Western Connecticut State University, 1975. Taught instrumental music in Saint John, Woodstock and Hartland, NB. Now retired, he composes and arranges music and is the conductor of the Fredericton Youth Orchestra. He plays bassoon in the Fredericton Chamber Orchestra and Jigsaw Winds.

Christian Bérubé
Born in Edmonton in 1979, Christian Bérubé graduated in 2005 with a Bachelor of Music from the University of Alberta, where he studied piano, voice, and composition. In 2008, he completed a Master in Music in instrumental composition under the supervision of Denis Gougeon at the Université de Montréal. He has composed the music for several plays, and has performed professionally as a choral singer and rock pianist. In 2009, his large-scale choral work Goats on the Left won a SOCAN Award for Young Composers. Bérubé now lives in Fredericton, where in addition to composing he teaches piano and theory.

Jason Flores
Jason Flores graduated from the University of Idaho where he attended the Lionel Hampton School of Music as a Hampton Scholar. He has toured the world playing bass onboard luxurious cruise ships for Celebrity Cruise Lines where he had the opportunity to play with musical greats like Shoshana Bean and Debbie Gibson. He has also opened for Kenny Baron at the Boise State University Jazz Festival. Born and raised in the state of Idaho, Jason has played and recorded with many bands in the capital region of Boise.

Jason currently resides in Fredericton, NB where he is studying psychology at the University of New Brunswick. His future plans are to work in the field of music therapy.

Nadia Francavilla
Violinist Nadia Francavilla is both an accomplished recitalist and outstanding chamber musician. She was a member of both Quatuor Arthur-LeBlanc and Quatuor Bozzini with which she made frequent tours in Canada, the United States, Europe and Japan. A graduate of McGill University, she received solid musical training under the direction of Mauricio Fuks, Raphael Druian and Joseph Silverstein.

Diversified, the journey of this artist reflects her commitment towards many different forms of musical creativity. Her participation in different contemporary music ensembles also demonstrates her great interest towards music of our time. She is currently musician in residence at the University of New Brunswick where she has worked on solo projects, given masterclasses and lectures and integrated herself into the Fredericton music scene. Mrs. Francavilla is also a violin teacher at the Université de Moncton.

Yvonne Kershaw
American-born bassoonist Yvonne Kershaw has a wide range of performance experience in both Canada and the U.S. She played with the Cascade Symphony in Washington and has participated in the Sandpoint, Idaho, and Bayview , Michigan music festivals. Her extensive teaching experience includes instructing instrumental music in Seattle area music schools and working as a graduate instructor of bassoon at Indiana University. Yvonne now resides in Fredericton, where she adjudicates music festivals and teaches bassoon, flute and oboe at the UNB Centre for Musical Arts.  She teaches courses in music theory and music appreciation at UNB as well. She is a regular faculty member of UNB’s Summer music Camp. She performs regularly with Symphony New Brunswick. She recently released a CD of bassoon and guitar music with guitarist Stephen Peacock which was nominated for  ECMA Classical Recording of the Year in 2005. Yvonne performed at the International Double Reed Society’s 2006 Convention in Muncie, Indiana. She annually attends the Glickman Popkin Bassoon Camp in North Carolina. Yvonne lives with her husband John and children Hannah and Jacob.

Ron MacDonald
Ron MacDonald was for many years a member of UNB's Philosophy Department specializing in the Aesthetics of Music.  His early violin studies were in Halifax with Jean Fraser, a pupil of Leopold Auer.  Subsequently he studied with Kenneth Piper of the Royal College, London and with Joseph Pach, Paul Campbell and most recently, Nadia Francavilla.  He has also participated in a Master Class with Joseph Szigeti and has had lessons with Alfredo Campoli and David Yang.  He was a member of the viola section of Symphony New Brunswick and has been concertmaster of the Fredericton Chamber Orchestra since its inception.  He was the founder of the String Program in the Fredericton Public Schools.

Charles MacKinnon
Charles MacKinnon, trumpet, is a native of Kentville, Nova Scotia.  While still a teenager, he toured Europe as a member of Canada’s National Youth Orchestra. Upon receiving a Canada Council grant, he moved to New York to study with Mel Broiles, (Metropolitan Opera Orchestra), Ray Crisara (NBC Symphony), and Vince Penzarella (New York Philharmonic).  Also while in New York, Charles played in broadway shows and toured the American east coast with the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra. Charles left New York for Toronto, where he was a founding member of the Canadian Brass Quintet, and played with the National Ballet and Canadian Opera Company Orchestras. He also worked with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Hamilton Philharmonic, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra.  In the late 1990s Charles spent several years in Scotland, performing with the Royal Scottish Opera Orchestra.

Here in the Maritimes, Charles has been a member of the Atlantic Symphony, and has performed with Symphony Nova Scotia and the Charlottetown Festival Orchestra throughout his professional career.

He has been a regular teacher and performer with the UNB Summer Music Camp since 2008, and is currently on Faculty at the Fredericton Conservatory of Music.

Cesar Morales
Cesar Morales came to Canada in 1991. Since his arrival, he has performed in many diverse musical venues. He studied music at the National Center of Art in San Salvador (1983-1986), the capital of El Salvador, where he performed Andean music with two lead groups Xolotl and Amayulutl. During those years he also played the transversal flute with the Latin Jazz Ensemble and the National Youth Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed cumbia, salsa, and meringue as lead singer with popular music groups such as Yuca, Siembra and Salsa 86. After several years of teaching music at the City Hall’s Cultural Center, he moved to New Brunswick due to the political instability in El Salvador.

Here in New Brunswick, Cesar has performed on bass and flute with several theatrical companies in plays such as “You Are A Good Man, Charlie Brown” and “Jesus Christ Superstar”. While living in Woodstock, Cesar, John Thompson and three musicians from Maine created the group “Border Crossing”. In 1998, Cesar started his own Latin Band, Sabor Latino. After several years of hard work and dedication, they won the New Rising Galaxy Award at the Fredericton Jazz and Blues Festival in 2004. Most recently Cesar has been working on a solo CD entitled Monologue on which he performs all instruments and vocals for his own compositions.

Björn Runefors
The Swedish conductor, flutist and singer Björn Runefors relocated to New Brunswick in 2003. 

Björn has in a short time become actively involved in the Fredericton music life as a teacher, singer, flutist and conductor.

Björn is currently conducting the UNB Chorale and the UNB Concert Band, as well as the Fredericton Youth Orchestra at the UNB Conservatory of Music. He is teaching Music
Theory at UNB and Choral Singing at St. Thomas University. He is playing the flute with the Fredericton Chamber Orchestra. Björn is also involved in developing the newly formed UNB Conservatory of Music.

Björn is the Music Director of the Fredericton Choral Society. Their first performance under his baton was Brahms Requiem in May 2006. Since his appointment the choir also has performed Handel’s Messiah in November 2006, Bach’s St John Passion in April 2007 and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in May 2007.

Björn is a multi-faceted musician. He has performed in professional orchestras and choirs both in Sweden and in Canada. He has written music for and
performed as an actor at theatres in Sweden. 
As a teacher, Björn has been on faculty at music colleges in Sweden and in Stockholm he was the founder and director of a youth
orchestra that toured extensively across Europe.

Björn completed his undergraduate studies at Lund University in Sweden and went on to earn a Master of Music degree from McGill in Flute Performance.


During the late 80’s and the 90’s in Stockholm, Sweden and London, England, Björn also had a career as localizer of computer programs, subtitler of movies and manager of translation projects.

E-mail: runefors@unb.ca


Evan Shaw
Evan Shaw has been performing, composing and teaching music for over 20 years and holds a Master of Music degree from The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. His extensive work as a saxophonist has taken him across the globe, where he has performed with such artists as Kenny Wheeler, Anthony Braxton and Malcolm Goldstein.  He has also recorded on many critically acclaimed projects with Jean Martin, the AIMToronto Orchestra, Ken Aldcroft, Joel LeBlanc and Geordie Haley, among others. Performances include appearances at the Guelph International Jazz Festival, the International Association of Jazz Educators, the Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival, L’Off Festival de Jazz (Montreal), and the Banff International Jazz Workshop.

Evan spent several years residing in Toronto, where he became an active member of the city’s burgeoning improvised music community. While living there he performed with Evan Parker, Wilbert de Joode, Nicole Mitchell, Jean Derome, Lori Freedman, Michael Snow, John Oswald, Dave Clark and many others. He was a regular fixture at some of Toronto’s longest running creative music series, such as Wavelength, Leftover Daylight, AIMToronto’s Interface series, the Music Gallery’s X Avant Festival and the 416 Creative Improvisers Festival.

As well as teaching the saxophone privately, he has also taught master classes, courses and workshops on Improvisation, Jazz Theory and Popular Music in Society at Trent University, St. Francis Xavier University, The University of New Brunswick as well as several public schools throughout the Maritimes.

Aida Tisler
Aida Tisler obtained her bachelor degree in violin teaching and performance with distinction from Music Academy of the University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1980. She accepted a violin teaching position at “Mladen Posaic” elementary music school in 1978 and held it until 1983, when she took a position of a violinist with the Sarajevo’s Symphony Orchestra. In addition to performing and recording music with the Symphony Orchestra, Aida performed regularly with the Sarajevo’s Philharmonic Orchestra and Sarajevo’s Chamber Orchestra until her departure for Canada in 1994.
After 18 month of language schools, violin teaching and one university course in Toronto, Aida arrived to Fredericton with her husband Hrvoje and 2-year old daughter Sabina. Since then, Aida has obtained B.Ed with distinction from UNB, has taught violin to close to one hundred private students and has coached chamber groups and student orchestras at UNB Music Camp, New Brunswick Conservatory and several elementary schools. Since becoming a member in 1997, Aida performed over 150 concerts with the Symphony New Brunswick. In addition, Aida performs regularly with Fredericton Chamber Players and Atlantic Sinfonia.