Three award winning students will present An Afternoon of Classical Music Benefit Concert to support the Rotary Adventures in Music program and Campbell River Friends of Music.
The performers, Kevin Ngo, Derrick Stanyer and Tyson Doknjas, are university students. Ngo and Doknjas became friends in 1997 at Ecole des Deux Mondes and continued through French Immersion graduating from CARIHI in June 2006.
The two met Stanyer, who was raised in Langley, at the University of Victoria. The three students are dedicated to achieving high standards and have won awards on their respective instruments.
Ngo studied piano locally with Frances Keen, Kay Wilson and Cindy Taylor, theory with Sandy Havelaar as well as piano with Linda Stobbe in Victoria. Currently studying with May Ling Kwok in Victoria, Ngo won a 2009 Johann Strauss Foundation Scholarship for Advanced Study in Austria, the 2009 Madeline Till Scholarship and a Victoria Music Festival 2010 Adjudicator’s Award. Ngo is also the 2009 recipient of the Rotary International Paul Harris Fellowship Award for furtherance of better understanding and friendly relations among peoples of the world. Ngo completed his Bachleor of Music degree in 2010.
Doknjas was a member of St. Patrick’s Church Choir, String Beans Orchestra and was lead guitarist for a CARIHI student band. His violin teachers have included Mary Hill (Royston), Marlin Wolfe (Maestro of the Vancouver Island Symphony, Nanaimo), Paul Kantor (Aspen, Colorado), Kathryn Ranger (Victoria) and Sharon Stanis (Victoria) whom he currently studies with. He has also studied classical guitar with Helga Hagen and piano with Kay Wilson, both of Campbell River. Doknjas is currently studying with Gwen Thompson. He is a member of the Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra and Victoria’s Galiano String Ensemble as well as the University of Victoria Orchestra.
Ngo and Doknjas are bringing their friend Derek Stanyer of Langley to perform in the concert. Stanyer is currently studying with Stéphane Lemelin at the University of Ottawa and has also studied piano with Bruce Vogt at University of Victoria. He began to play piano at the age of 8 with his mother as teacher. Doknjas enjoyed learning to play piano a great deal and was enrolled with Barbara Zielinski at the age of 10. Stanyer is a two-time winner for the Senior Piano category of both the Langley and South Surrey Music Festivals for 2005 and 2006. Stanyer was also selected to represent Langley in the Provincial Festival of Performing Arts in 2005 and is the 2010 Johann Strauss Foundation Scholarship for Advanced Study in Austria.
The program will include guest appearances by University of Victoria violinists Hannah Burton and Deirdre Carr.
The Benefit will take place at Trinity Presbyterian Church, Saturday August 27 at 2:30 p.m. Admission is by donation with proceeds going to support Rotary and Friends of Music bursary and scholarship programmes for local music students.