Brief History
Now in its 38th season, Symphony New Brunswick has evolved from a strong community desire for classical music to a fully professional quality orchestra.
The orchestra roots go back to 1950, with the latest iteration founded in 1983. The first “Series Concerts” were presented in Saint John in the season of 1985-1986. In the autumn of 1987, the orchestra began its transformation and obtained the status of a regional professional orchestra under the direction of Nurhan Armin. At this time also, the orchestra members chose to join the AFof M and the Saint John String Quartet was hired as principal strings in the orchestra and as the basis of the popular Virtuoso Series.
In 1990, the organization changed its name to Symphony New Brunswick to better represent its mission to serve the whole province. As the only fully professional orchestra in the province, SNB serves Moncton, Fredericton and Saint John equally in both official languages. After an extensive search, Michael Newnham became the Music Director for 8 years until 2018 and led the orchestra through a period of strong artistic improvement. Since this time, SNB has had a season of guest conductors and a major conductor search and hopes to see a new SNB Music for the 2020-2021 season.
The eight core musicians of the orchestra offer chamber music concerts in Moncton, Fredericton, Saint John, Sussex and surrounding areas. In various groups, the core also presents at least 40 free school and community outreach concerts each season, reaching close to 12,000 students. As individual groups, our musicians have musically traversed Canada, the US, Europe, China and South America.
Symphony New Brunswick consists of professional musicians, with a limited number of auditioned apprentice positions.
There are 40 members under a CBA between the NB local of the Canadian Federation of Musicians ( aka AFM) and SNB.
The average concert also uses from 5 to 15 extra musicians who are, as much as possible, drawn from within the province. A few musicians join the orchestra with regularity from PEI and Nova Scotia.
The Forty contracted Members of the Orchestra as defined in the 2015-2018 Collective Agreement between Local 815 and Symphony New Brunswick:
Core Members
Concertmaster:David Adams
Second Chair First Violin:
Dr Tom Condon Memorial Chair
Principal Second Violin:Danielle Sametz
Miles and Eunice Kierstead Memorial Chair
Second Chair Second Violin
Li-Hong Xu Memorial Chair
Principal Viola:Christopher Buckley
The Margaret and Wallace McCain Family Chair
Second Chair Viola:
The Reid & Jacqueline Parker Endowed Chair
Principal Cello:Sonja Adams
BMO Financial Group Endowed Chair
Acting Principal Oboe:Christie Goodwin
Principal Bassoon:Patrick Bolduc
Pannell Family Endowed Chair
Principal Bass: Andrew Reed Miller
Principal Timpani:Joël Cormier
Philip W. Oland Memorial Chair
Per-Service Members
Section Violins (5 positions)
- Ali Leonard
- Hrvoje Tisler
- Aaron McFarlane
- Nadia Francavilla
- Sara Liptay
- Aida Tisler
- Katherine Moller
Section Viola (2 positions)
1.Eric Ring
2.Robin Streb
Reid and Jacqueline Parker Endowed Chair
Section Cello (3 positions)
- Ellen Buckley
- Katharine Bestvater
- John Buckley
Principal Double Bass
Core Position
Section Double Bass (1 position) vacant
Second Oboe: Vacant
Principal Clarinet: Vacant
Second Clarinet: Jennifer Shea
Second Bassoon: Yvonne Kershaw
Principal Horn: Ulises Aragon
Second Horn: (Acting): Jonathan Fisher
Third Horn: Vacant
Fourth Horn: Vacant
Principal Trumpet: Rob Dutton
Wallace, Norma and John MacMurray Memorial Chair
Second Trumpet: Vacant
Principal Trombone: Vacant
Second Trombone: Ernest Brown
Bass Trombone: Richard Kidd
Principal Percussion: George Garrett
Regular Extras:
Jonathan Fisher, horn
Danielle Girard, violin
Dmitry Myzdrikov, violin
Hok Kwan, violin
Karen Graves, violin
Timi Levy, violin
Andrew George, clarinet
James Kalyn, clarinet
Jeffery Bazett-Jones, viola
Stephen Mott, viola
