THE BATTLEFORDS — The Battlefords Music Festival committee is once again offering “booster programs” for teachers in the area. A local music instructor applies to the festival committee to bring in a clinician/teacher to boost learning for students. All that is asked in return for this support is entering the students or group in the 2024 music festival.
This year, Chinley Hinacay is organizing a booster program workshop for local instrumentalists. Hinacay, an accomplished young conductor and saxophonist, is currently the band director and general manager of the North Battleford City Kinsmen Band as well as the artistic director for the Calgary Youth Wind Ensemble. Hinacay hopes to enhance music education in the Battlefords by bringing in an established clinician to work for two days with the North Battleford Kinsmen Band, John Paul II Collegiate Band and the North Battleford Comprehensive High School bands. The goal of this is to supplement each group's preparation for the upcoming festival. The clinician being brought to the Battlefords for this project is Dr. Glen Gillis.
Gillis is a professor of music at the University of Saskatchewan. He conducts the concert band and several saxophone ensembles. He teaches saxophone, conducting and music education courses. He supports graduate students in music education and performance streams at the University of Saskatchewan. As an educator and scholar, he has written many articles that appear in the Canadian Music Educator and Canadian Winds about conducting, woodwind pedagogy and music education.
Gillis has presented clinics at several international and national music conferences such as the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles Conference, both regional and national college band directors national conferences, the Texas Music Educators Association Convention, the Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities and the U of S Fine Arts Research Lecture Series.
Gillis is active as a clinician and adjudicator for solo/ensemble festivals and workshops as well as guest conducting provincial honour bands, the Saskatoon Youth Orchestra, and the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra.
Gillis is also a respected saxophonist. As a member of the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada, his diverse performance career and musical experience have spanned over three decades in the realms of classical and jazz, with many published compositions for saxophone and band. He continues to maintain an active schedule in saxophone performance. He has performed at numerous international music conferences (World Saxophone Congresses and North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial and Regional Conferences) and has appeared as a guest soloist with orchestras and wind ensembles in Canada. In 2020 he co-released an album with didgeridooist Dr. James Cunningham on DGC Sonic Eclipse through Hoot/Wisdom Recordings (Boca, Raton, Florida).
In 2012, he toured China and performed at five city/university venues that included: Beijing, Tianjin, Xi’an, Kunming and Shanghai. Gillis has served as an artist-in-residence at the Banff Centre in Alberta on five occasions. As an original member of the Saskatoon Saxophone Quartet, he leads the ensemble that performs special functions in and around Saskatoon.
For local folks wanting to show support for the festival, there are a variety of options. Businesses or individuals may wish to sponsor a session or award. Volunteer opportunities come in all sizes. Please don’t hesitate to reach out and see where your time, skills, or resources might be of most help. Correspondence can be directed by email to the Committee secretary Amy Francais amy.francais@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1301, North Battleford, SK, S9A 3L8.
“My songs emerge from my life, or wherever they do, unbidden and unplanned and completely on a schedule of their own.” - David Crosby, an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist who found fame as a member of the Byrds and was later part of the supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash, 1941-2023
