Music Faculty

Morteza Abedinifard 

Music History (2021-22)

Naomi Barrettara

Music History

Email: barrettaran@douglascollege.ca

Barrie Barrington

Piano, Class Piano

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. 

Bob Caldwell

Percussion

BMus (Victoria)

Email: caldwellr@douglascollege.ca

Robert Caldwell graduated from the University of Victoria with Music Degree in Percussion. He went on to study Indonesian Gamelan music at Simon Fraser University and world drumming from several African and North American teachers. Robert has performed with the Victoria and Vancouver symphonies, various jazz and contemporary ensembles and has founded three touring educational groups that perform in schools across Canada: Current Figures, Percussionworks and Digital Guise. Over the years Robert has developed a special interest in electronic and world music, all of which have enabled him to fuse a wide variety of musical styles and traditions. Robert has been commissioned by several dance companies in Vancouver to create scores for numerous dance productions. Robert currently teaches percussion and coaches several ensembles as a faculty member at Douglas College.

Igor Efimov

Music Technology Coordinator

Email: efimovi@douglascollege.ca

Eric Hannan

Choral Ensembles, Voice

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Beaty, Mark

Electric and Double Bass

Dansereau, Sophie

Bassoon

Chernoff, Marea

Oboe, Recorder

Fairbairn, Hazel

Music Technology

Fedoruk, Brenda

Fulton, Adam

Music Technology

Hesketh, Camille

MacDonald, Colin

Saxophone

Mai, Vince

Music Composition for Film & Video 

Mangas, Roger

Viola

Martone, Dave

Ramsbottom, Gene

Clarinet

Round, Sue

Cello

Shier, Robin

Trumpet

Sochor, Michael

Stiles, Allen

Piano

Stuart, Conor

Violin

Townsend, Jill

Jazz Ensemble

Verdejo, Adrian

Witvoet, Marguerite

Beginner Choral Ensemble

Barrington-Foote, Kevin

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

Email: barringtonk@douglascollege.ca