Music Faculty

Douglas College's high ratio of faculty to students allows you plenty of one-on-one instruction. Our faculty members are active as performers and clinicians locally, nationally and internationally. They are committed to providing you with a learning experience that is both challenging and supportive.

Regular Faculty

Barrie Barrington

Piano, Class Piano

Barrie headshot

Email: barringtonb@douglascollege.ca

Dr. Barrington has taught in the music department at Douglas College in New Westminster since 1984. His teaching duties include private studio lessons, class piano and chamber music. He is currently the head of the keyboard division.

Barrie earned both his MMus and DMA from UBC and studied with the renowned pianist, Robert Silverman. 

Mark D'Angelo

Instrumental Ensemble, Trumpet

Photo of Mark D'Angelo with his trumpet with field of green grass in the background

Email: dangelom1@douglascollege.ca

Mark D'Angelo, a native of North Vancouver, holds a Master of Music Degree from the University of McGill in Montreal.  Mark is currently Principal Trumpet with the Kamloops Symphony, and Second Trumpet with the Vancouver Island Symphony.  He has also performed with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver New Music, Victoria Symphony, Turning Point Ensemble, CBC Radio Orchestra, Thunder Bay Symphony, and the American Brass Quintet as an Aspen Music Festival Fellowship recipient. Mark has performed with Ben Hepner, Grammy winner Lila Downs, Lara St. John, and Tony Award winner Idena Menzel.  In 2017 Mark performed the British Columbia premiere of John Estacio's Concerto for Trumpet with the Kamloops Symphony.  Mark currently holds the position of director of instrumental ensembles at Douglas College, trumpet instructor at Capilano University, Trinity Western University, and is a Stomvi Performing Artist.

Igor Efimov

Music Technology

Email: efimovi@douglascollege.ca

Ruth Enns

Music History

Photo of Ruth Enns with white brick wall in the background

Email: ennsm@douglascollege.ca

Ruth Enns has taught music history and vocal repertoire classes at the University of British Columbia, the University of Manitoba and the Vancouver Academy of Music.  She was the Registrar for VAM’s college programs from 2012 to 2023.  Dr. Enns holds a Ph.D. (musicology) from the University of British Columbia., a Master of Music (accompanying and coaching) from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ, as a student of Martin Katz, and a Bachelor of Music (piano major) from the University of Manitoba as a student of Marek Jablonski.  Other interests have included editing Musick, the journal of the Vancouver Early Music Society, writing program notes for the Vancouver Chopin Society, and acting as Chair of the Abendmusik concert series.

Hazel Fairbairn

Music Technology Coordinator

Photograph of Hazel Fairbairn playing the violin in studio

Email: fairbairnh@douglascollege.ca

Education: PhD Ethnomusicology University of Cambridge; BSc, Honours Music The City University; PGCE, Music Pedagogy Institute of Education, University of London.

Hazel moved to BC in 2012 following a 25-year career as a musician and educator in the UK. Working with producer Mark Russell, their fusion project Horace X appeared live at festivals and venues worldwide, and toured Canada annually between 2002 and 2006. They recorded six CDs and had record deals in North America and mainland Europe.

Hazel came into education via Musical Futures, an informal learning initiative which employed musicians to work alongside teachers in the classroom, she approaches teaching as a facilitator, and is committed to experiential, project-based learning.

Alongside teaching at Douglas College, Hazel continues to collaborate with Mark Russell on fusion beat-combo music, and works with poet Kim Trainor, creating string based electronic soundscapes and scores for Kim’s poetry films.

 

Eric Hannan

Choral Ensembles, Voice

Eric Headshot

Email: hannane@douglascollege.ca

Eric Hannan has been on the music faculty at Douglas College since 1993, where he is the head of Voice and Choir divisions, teaching voice majors at all levels, and conducting the choirs in the Music Diploma Program.  Through his activities at Douglas, Eric strives to foster developing singers and ensemble musicians, nourishing a passionate commitment to vocal and choral excellence.

As artistic director of the Vancouver Cantata Singers from 2002 to 2012, Eric led collaborations with numerous national and international performers.  Under his direction, the Vancouver Cantata Singers were awarded the coveted Canada Council for the Arts Healey Willan Grand Prize in the biennial Canadian National Choral Competition in 2008 and 2011. 

Eric is active locally as a choral clinician, and singing and conducting teacher, and pays frequent visits to Greater Vancouver’s community and high school choirs to help foster our next generation of singers.  He has been an instructor for the, Alberta Choral Federation, Victoria Conservatory of Music, the British Columbia Choral Federation and the Nelson Summer Songfest.  

Prior to taking the helm of Cantata Singers, Eric founded and conducted numerous vocal ensembles engaging many of Vancouver’s best professional singers.  Prior to coming to Douglas, Eric was an instructor at UBC’s School of Music, where he directed the University Singers, Choral Union and Collegium Vocal Ensemble, and taught conducting.

Heather Harty Scott 

Aural Skills, Class Piano, Music Theory

Heather headshot

BMus, MMus (British Columbia)

Email: hartyscotth@douglascollege.ca 

Heather Harty Scott began teaching at Douglas College in 2011, and currently teaches class piano, theory, and aural skills courses in the Basic Musicianship program.  She served as the Music Department Coordinator from 2014-2017.  During this time, she worked alongside her colleagues to significantly revise the Music Diploma program and design the Foundation for Music Therapy Studies program. 

Heather holds a Master's degree in Composition from the University of British Columbia.  Her compositions and arrangements have been performed by ensembles including the Phoenix Chamber Choir, Ensemble Resonance, and UBC Contemporary Players at concert events in Western Canada and Japan.

Joy Ollen

Music Theory, Aural Skills

Joy headshot

BMus, MA (British Columbia), PhD (Ohio State)

Email: ollenj@douglascollege.ca

Dr. Joy Ollen is a music theorist and classically trained pianist.  She began teaching at Douglas College after completing a Masters degree with research focused on music theory pedagogy.  Her ongoing interest in helping students develop their aural skills led to doctoral work in the field of music perception and cognition, with a minor in research methodology.  She created the Ollen Musical Sophistication Index (OMSI), a tool for music researchers to classify their research participants.  Joy has also published and presented on topics including musical form and connections between speech and music.       

Jim Palmer

Music Department Coordinator, Music Theory, Aural Skills

Jim headshot

BMus, MA (McGill), PhD (British Columbia)

Email: palmerj@douglascollege.ca

Dr. Jim Palmer is a music theorist whose primary research focuses on music pedagogy, instrumental music in the galant style, performance analysis, and metric disruptions from Haydn to Brahms to Punch Brothers (a progressive bluegrass group). His most recent publications appear in Music Theory Online and the Online Journal of the Haydn Society of North America, where he discusses musical topics, formal functions, and linguistic theories to describe how Classical composers created humor. Jim has presented his research at regional and national meetings of the Society for Music Theory and the Canadian University Music Society.

Jim is an award-winning teacher who has also taught music theory and aural skills at the University of British Columbia, McGill University, and St. Olaf College in the U.S.

 

Ian Putz

Music Technology

Ian Headshot

Email: putzi@douglascollege.ca

Ian Putz is an internationally respected composer and arranger whose numerous credits include two Hollywood feature films ( "LAPD-To Serve and Protect" starring Michael Madsen and Dennis Hopper; and "Totally Blonde" featuring Michael Buble in his first starring role), and many television series on CBC, CTV, HBO, A & E, and The History Channel. He composed "Bullets Over Broadway" for Paul Sorvino and Hugh Hefner and is presently composing for several American networks. He has over 30 years of musical experience paying saxophone and recording working with such diverse ensembles as Aerosmith, Motley Crue, Rita McNeil, David Foster, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Ensembles, and Jazz Big Bands. 

Kayvon Sarfehjooy

Music Technology

Email: sarfehjooyk@douglascollege.ca

Doug Smith

Composition, Music Theory, Listening in Context

Doug headshot

Jazz Diploma (Capilano College), BMus (British Columbia), MMus (British Columbia)

Email: smithdo@douglascollege.ca

Douglas Gwynn Smith was born and raised in Vancouver and has been professionally active in the Vancouver music community for more than 40 years as composer, performer, arranger and teacher.

While spending years as a performer in the jazz/pop field as a bassist, guitarist, keyboardist, he always returned to his first love of composition. He has received numerous commissions and awards from various societies and groups: National Arts Centre Orchestra; CBC Radio; the Canadian Music Centre; the Douglas College Music Department; among others.

Doug began teaching at Douglas College in 1994 in New Westminster where he has taught Theory and Analysis, Composition, Orchestration, and Sight-Singing and Ear-Training, Score Production and History. He is the head of the Composition Division and is very active in the burgeoning field of popular music theory and analysis.

 

Part-Time/ Contract Faculty

Antoniou, Marina

Trombone

Beaty, Mark

Electric and Double Bass

Chernoff, Marea

Oboe, Recorder

Fedoruk, Brenda

Flute

Fulton, Adam

Music Technology

Graham, Aaron

Percussion, Percussion Ensemble

Hesketh, Camille

Voice, Beginning Choral Ensemble

Koch, Leanne

Voice

Krantz, Lani

Harp

MacDonald, Colin

Saxophone, Professional Score Production

Martone, Dave

Guitar

Peng, Bo

Cello

Ramsbottom, Gene

Clarinet

Sochor, Michael

Pop Guitar & Voice

Stiles, Allen

Piano, Aural Skills

Stuart, Conor

Violin

Verdejo, Adrian

Classical Guitar, Guitar Ensemble

Zhang, Ray

French Horn

 

 

Classical Guitar, Guitar Ensemble

 

 

Faculty Emeritus

Barrington-Foote, Kevin

ARCT (Piano Teacher); BMus; MMus (Musicology) Music History, Music Theory

Email: barringtonk@douglascollege.ca 

 

 

If you have a general question about Douglas College or want information about one of our programs, please contact us.