Saturday, April 12, 2025 at 7:00 PM

Maritime Brass Quintet

The Maritime Brass Quintet brings the highest calibre chamber music to concert halls,churches, festivals and schools across the Maritimes. The group is comprised of five of Canada’s finest brass players: Curtis Dietz and Richard Simoneau (trumpet), Gina Patterson (horn), Dale Sorensen (trombone) and Bob Nicholson (tuba & bass trombone). Since forming in the spring of 2011, the Maritime Brass Quintet have maintained a busy concert schedule and have been featured guests at many of the regions’ well-known concert series and performance venues including the Scotia Festival of Music, the Music Room, Acadia University, University of Prince Edward Island, Université de Moncton, and First Baptist Church, Halifax. They frequently collaborate with some of the region’s finest musicians including Paul Halley and the King’s College Choir, Nick Halley and Capella Regalis, Jeff Joudrey and the Halifax Camerata Singers, and in recital with Mark Duggan at the Scotia Festival of Music.

Curtis Dietz, trumpet

A long-time member of Symphony Nova Scotia, trumpeter Curtis Dietz is a native of Hanover, Ontario. He is a graduate of the University of Montreal and also studied at the University of Toronto, the Royal Conservatory of Music, and the Banff Centre. Before coming to Symphony Nova Scotia, Curtis was a freelance musician in Montreal performing with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, I Musici de Montreal and L'Orchestre Metropolitain. In the summer of2002, Curtis joined the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra for their performances at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland. In 2005 he was featured as lead trumpet in Neptune Theatres production of Chicago. For several years, Curtis was on the faculty at Acadia University's School of Music. His mother thinks he is very good.

Last but not least, Curtis is the proud father of two wonderful daughters, Greta and Kate, and son Peter, with his wife Gina Patterson.

Richard Simoneau, trumpet

Richard was born in 1970 in Quebec City and began playing trumpet at age thirteen in high school. He pursued his studies at the Quebec and then Montreal Conservatories, graduating in May 1994. That summer, he auditioned with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and won a one-year contract to play third and assistant principal trumpet. The next year he played principal trumpet with the Hamilton Philharmonic and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, before moving to his current position of principal trumpet with Symphony Nova Scotiain September 1996.

Since moving to Halifax, Richard has been heard on many occasions as soloist with Symphony Nova Scotia. Many of those performances have been recorded and broadcast nationally by the CBC. His other musical activities include performing brass concerts with the Maritime Brass Quintet. Richard has been on faculties of such Universities as Acadia University in Wolfville and Université de Moncton. He also acts as artist in residence at the Scotia Festival of Music in Halifax.

When Richard is not performing on the trumpet, he enjoys spending time outdoors, mostly hiking and camping.

Gina Patterson, horn

Gina returned to Nova Scotia after seven years with Canada's renowned Canadian Opera Company Orchestra. During her tenure there she performed with the orchestra in its award-winning production of Oedipus Rex and Bluebeard's Castle at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland, recorded for Rhombus Films, Bravo Television, CBC Records, and CBC's Saturday Afternoon at the Opera as well as performing on the many acclaimed COC recordings with Richard Bradshaw.

An experienced chamber musician, Gina has rehearsed with the Canadian Brass and performed on the live national broadcast of the Schubertian Celebration at the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto. She has played with I Musici de Montreal, performed at the New Brunswick and Indian River Chamber Music Festivals, and was a finalist at the CIBC National Music Festival.

Gina has performed with orchestras across Canada, including Symphony Nova Scotia, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, Newfoundland Symphony, and the Charlottetown Festival Orchestra.

Dale Sorensen, trombone

Dale Sorensen is a versatile trombonist with extensive experience in classical, popular, and musical theatre genres. An enthusiastic promoter of Canadian music, Dale has premiered more than 25 solo trombone pieces and dozens of chamber works, and recorded an all- Canadian CD of music for trombone. In addition to his frequent solo recitals, Dale has performed as soloist with the PEI Symphony Orchestra, Windsor Symphony, Nova Sinfonia, and the Acadia University, UPEI, and University of Toronto Wind Ensembles. He is a proud Yamaha Artist and plays Yamaha instruments exclusively.

As an orchestral musician, Dale performs regularly with the Charlottetown Festival Orchestra, Symphony Nova Scotia and the PEI Symphony, has held positions with the Windsor Symphony (ON) and Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, and has free lanced with groups such as the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Orchestra London, Winnipeg Symphony, National Ballet of Canada, and Opera Atelier in a 3-week, 8-city tour of Japan.

A dedicated educator, Dale is currently Assistant Professor of Brass and Chair of the Department of Music at UPEI. He regularly serves as an adjudicator, clinician and conductor at music festivals and workshops throughout the Maritimes and Ontario. For more information, please visit islandtrombone.com.

Bob Nicholson, tuba and bass trombone

Winner of 2 East Coast Music Awards with the Jive Kings, Bob play stuba with Maritime Brass Quintet and the PEI Symphony as well as bass trombone with Symphony Nova Scotia, The Back Alley Big Band and Halifax Trombone Summit. Bob performed for five years with The Phantom of the Opera in Toronto, three years as tubaist with Calgary based Foothills Brass Quintet, and for 14 summers in the pit orchestra of Anne of Green Gables at the Charlottetown Festival. Other theatre work "in the pit" includes Toronto productions of Beauty and the Beast, Showboat, Crazy for You, Miss Saigon, Les Miserables, A Year with Frog and Toad at Neptune Theatre and numerous productions at the Charlottetown Festival. As an orchestral musician Bob has performed with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic, Hamilton Philharmonic, Quebec Symphony, CBC Toronto Jazz Orchestra and the National Ballet Orchestra among others.

Bob studied at the University of Prince Edward Island, the Orchestral Training Program at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, the University of Toronto, the Banff Centre of the Arts and two beautiful summers at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California. He is also an avid runner who has qualified for and run the Boston Marathon twice and the PEI Marathon three times.

Besides performing, Bob is a Brass Specialist for the Halifax Regional Centre of Education and previously taught at Acadia University, UPEI, Nova Scotia Community College, and Humber College.

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