Jon Washburn is the Conductor and Artistic Director of
Canada's outstanding professional vocal ensemble, the Vancouver
Chamber Choir. Well known internationally for his mastery
of choral technique and interpretation, Washburn travels
widely as guest conductor, lecturer, clinician, and master
teacher. In addition to Canada and the United States, he
has performed in Russia, Finland, Estonia, Ukraine, Latvia,
Lithuania, Poland, France, Germany, the Czech Republic,
China, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Mexico, and Brazil.
Washburn's early musical experience was wide-ranging and eclectic. As a teenager, he was a jazz bass player and band leader. At university, he became heavily involved in musical theatre, specifically acting, singing, conducting, and stage directing. He earned a choral conducting degree at the University of Illinois and proceeded to pursue musicological studies at Northwestern and the University of British Columbia.
Washburn quickly became involved in Baroque and Renaissance
music as a busy professional viola da gamba and violone
player with ensembles such as Hortulani Musicae, the Cecilian
Ensemble, L'Age d'Or Baroque Orchestra, and the Spokane
Bach Festival Orchestra. He was one of the founders of the
Vancouver Society for Early Music (now Early Music Vancouver)
and a long-time member of its management committee. As a
conductor of Baroque repertory, he has led over 300 performances
of more than 80 large works by composers such as Bach, Buxtehude,
Carissimi, Charpentier, Handel, Monteverdi, Pachelbel, Pergolesi,
Purcell, Scarlatti, Schutz, Telemann, and Vivaldi, as well
as numerous smaller works.
He has taught at the secondary, college, and university
levels, including a temporary post as Artist-in-Residence
at Simon Fraser University. Even his part-time jobs have
been musical in orientation. He has hosted "Choral Concert"
on the CBC Stereo network and has been employed as a music
engraver and music librarian. For half a decade, he shared
the artistic direction of Masterpiece Chamber Music with
his wife, pianist Linda Lee Thomas.
Most of Jon Washburn's achievements, however, have been
in the field of choral music. Foremost is the founding of
the Vancouver Chamber Choir in 1971, for which, since its
inception, he has provided its conducting and artistic direction.
He was also artistic director for six years of the Phoenix
Bach Choir, an American professional ensemble, and associated
with several amateur ensembles, including Vancouver's Bach
Choir and Willan Choir, Victoria's Amity Singers, and the
early Jon Washburn Singers.
With his many choirs, Jon Washburn has consistently championed
new choral repertoire: he has commissioned and premiered
nearly 200 new works by Canadian, American, and European
composers during his career. Washburn has conducted over
2,300 performances of 306 pieces by 105 Canadian composers
with the Vancouver Chamber Choir alone, for which he received
the Friends of Canadian Music Award from the Canadian League
of Composers and the Canadian Music Centre. As an active
composer, arranger, and editor, he has had many compositions
published, performed, and recorded around the world, including
Rise! Shine!, a Grouse Records CD of his choral
works sung by the Vancouver Chamber Choir.
He has recorded with the Vancouver Chamber Choir, Phoenix
Bach Choir, and various other ensembles for several labels,
including EMI/Virgin Classics, Grouse Records, CBC (Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation), Naxos, and Centrediscs (Canadian
Music Centre).
Each year Jon Washburn conducts approximately 50 concerts,
broadcasts, and CD performances of twenty separate repertoires,
in addition to many workshops for choral conductors, composers,
students, and singers. He has appeared as guest conductor
with groups such as the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the
Santa Fe Desert Chorale, and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber
Choir (Tallinn), and prepared choruses for the Royal Swedish
Chamber Orchestra, the Seoul Philharmonic, and the Boston
Pops Orchestra.
He has worked with the CBC Vancouver Orchestra in over 75
concerts, broadcasts, and recordings, as well as with other
ensembles such as the Baroque Strings of Vancouver, the
Phoenix Chamber Orchestra, the Calgary, Edmonton, Nova Scotia,
Phoenix, and Vancouver Symphony Orchestras.
In 2001, Mr. Washburn was named a Member of the Order of
Canada (the nation's highest civilian honour) and, in 2002,
he received Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee Medal in recognition
of his lifetime contribution to Canadian choral art. He
received a Distinguished Service Award from the Association
of Canadian Choral Conductors in the spring of 1996 and
the Louis Botto Award from Chorus America in June 2000.
The latter award was presented to Mr. Washburn in recognition
of his innovative and entrepreneurial spirit in the development
"of a professional choral ensemble of exceptional quality."
In June 1998, he and the VCC were awarded the Margaret Hillis
Award for Choral Excellence. Most recently, Mr. Washburn
was awarded the Friends of Canadian Music Award (2000) by
the Canadian Music Centre and the Canadian League of Composers
in recognition of his outstanding contribution to Canadian
composers' music.