Joy Yeh, harp
& Academy Chamber Choir

Tuesday, February 16, 2016 | 7:30 PM | James Hall

Admission $20 - Students 18 & under free with student ticket voucher

Tickets are available:

Ms. Joy Yeh is the co-head of the Harp Department at the Vancouver Academy of Music.  She is currently a fourth year doctoral student at Indiana University, and she obtained a master degree from Yale University and bachelor degree from UBC.  She began her harp training at the age of 4 and later joined the pre-college program at the Vancouver Academy of Music.  She has been a pupil of Susann McDonald, June Han, Rita Costanzi, Elizabeth Volpe, Li-Qin Chan, and Jessica Lee.

A recipient of many scholarships and awards, Ms. Yeh was just awarded this year the Canada Arts Council Grant for professional musician.  She was also awarded twice by the British Columbia Arts Council and the Grand Prize winner of the Vancouver Women’s Musical Society Scholarship Competition, the UBC Concerto Competition, and First Place of the Burnaby Clef Concerto Competition, in which was the only time a harpist was chosen as 1st Prize Winner in the Burnaby Clef Society’s 25 year history.  She has been featured numerous times as a soloist with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the UBC Symphony Orchestra and has performed solo and ensemble work in prestigious music concert halls such as the Carnegie Hall in New York, Konzerthaus Berlin, the Orpheum and the Chan Center for Performance Arts in Vancouver.  She has been invited to play in the prestigious Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Orchestra in Germany, and has performed solo and ensemble work under the baton of Bramwell Tovey, Christoph Eschenbach, Heinrich Schiff, Mikhai Pletnev, Herbert Blomstedt, Peter Oundjian, and Ken Hsieh.  Her new formed chamber ensemble, the Formosa Trio, advanced to the semi-final stage in the prestigious Fischoff National Chamber Competition in 2012.

Her recent achievements include solo appearance in the World Harp Congress in Canada and personal interviews from the several local television shows, radio programs and magazine in Vancouver.  As an avid artist for Canadian music, Ms. Yeh has recorded and performed pieces by the renowned Canadian composers such as Stephen Chatman, Murray Schafer, Rodney Sharman, and Larry Nickel, and her recording has been broadcasted over CBC.

Academy Chamber Choir
Walter Martella, conductor

The Academy Chamber Choir consists of thirty - six singers from a wide variety of backgrounds and professions. This amateur choir, since its inception in 1994, has developed into one of Canada’s dynamic chamber choirs.

The choir specializes in a cappella music from the Middle Ages to the 20th century and regularly commissions new works by Canadian composers. They frequently collaborate with soloists, instrumentalist and other choirs in the performance of major choral works such as Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, Francis Poulenc’s Gloria and Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah and have toured in Venezuela, the Czech Republic, Canada, Mexico, Spain and France.

Walter Martella, conductor and music director of the Powell River Academy of Music, is a pianist, trumpeter, and accordionist. Walter has taken the stage with many world class musicians and conductors. He has recorded 5 cds. Performing is a significant part of Walter’s career but just as important to him is his involvement with the Academy of Music. He is a strong believer in the power of music as part of community. Walter is currently the conductor of Chor Musica, Academy Chamber Choir, and the Powell River Chorus and has a full private teaching schedule. He is a graduate of Banff School, Vancouver Island University, UVIC, and the BCCF conducting program. He is a charter member of the Powell River Boys Choir.