Principals

Alastair Kay, a founding member of True North Brass is busy as an arranger,composer, clinician, and as a virtuosic jazz and classical trombonist. He also enjoys teaching and chairs the Brass Department at Humber College. His love of beautiful melodies started early in his teens, listening to great trombonists such as Urbie Green, Tommy Dorsey, Rob McConnell, Teddy Roderman, Frank Rosolino, and Ian McDougall. Al was lead trombone for 25 years with Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass and has performed with the best, including Ella Fitzgerald, Diana Krall, Tony Bennett, Aretha Franklin, Paul Anka, Buddy Rich, Maria Schneider, Bill Holman, Nelson Riddle, Lionel Hampton, Peggy Lee, and Frank Sinatra.

Al has appeared as a soloist with Canada’s leading orchestras, and has toured with the orchestras of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and the National Ballet. He has performed and recorded his own arrangements with the Hannaford Street Silver Band, Intrada Brass and many other brass and concert bands. In the recording studios, he has played on over a thousand radio and television jingles and soundtracks, and on numerous CD’s, records, and feature film soundtracks.

Al is a regular around Toronto playing with the bands of John MacLeod, Roberto Occhipinti, Hilario Duran, and his own 5 and 10 trombone jazz ensembles. He has been first call for most of the musicals in Toronto for the past 30 years including Mary Poppins, Young Frankenstein, Dirty Dancing, Lord Of The Rings, The Producers, and Lion King. His association with Yamaha led him to Japan, helping design the YSL 697Z trombone, the Al Kay Artist Model mouthpiece, and performing with the Xeno Trombone Quartet. Al has websites at alkay.ca and a photo site at alkayphotos.com.

Joan Watson Canada’s foremost horn soloist, principal horn, lecturer and educator. Joan is highly regarded as a consummate musician and skilled virtuoso. Her contributions across the country include presently serving as principal horn of the award-winning Canadian Opera Company Orchestra and as a founding member of the prestigious True North Brass quintet. She held the position of associate principal horn of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for 14 seasons (having won the job while 8 months pregnant), and was principal horn of the Esprit Orchestra, the Victoria Symphony Orchestra, and the Pacific Opera and Vancouver Opera Orchestras.
Joan is frequently heard on the CBC as a chamber musician and with New Music Concerts. She has been a featured soloist at the International Women’s Brass Conference, the International Horn Symposium in Banff, and the International Brass Quintet Symposium in Atlanta. Joan was a featured soloist and lecturer at the International Horn Symposium in Chicago in 2009. In June, 2010 she will host the International Women’s Brass Conference in Toronto.

As well, you will hear her on numerous commercials, television shows and movie scores. Joan’s solo CD, Songs My Mother Taught Me, is a wonderful collection of favourite soothing tunes. Joan has a 25-year-old relationship with Yamaha Canada as a Yamaha artist and clinician. In 2008, the Yamaha Corporation chose to make a poster of Joan, making her the first woman brass player in the world featured on a Yamaha poster.
A member of the University of Toronto’s faculty of music, Joan teaches horn and lectures on Performance Skills, audition preparation, practice tips, and creating a passionate and fulfilling life of music making.

Raymond Tizzard, True North’s Managing Director, is a performer, administrator and arts activist. He received his B.Mus. (Education) and M.M. (Literature and Performance) from the University of Western Ontario, followed by studies at the Banff School of Fine Arts. He is currently the Assistant Orchestra Personnel Manager for the National Ballet of Canada with whom he performed from 1978 until 2010. From 1980 until 2007 he was a member of the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra. Ray is a founding member of True North Brass with whom he is a Yamaha Artist and is a Faculty Member of the Interprovincial Music Camp.

In 1983 Ray was the driving force behind the formation of the Hannaford Street Silver Band. He first served in the capacity of Artistic Co-ordinator and throughout the 1990’s served as Artistic Director. From 2000 until 2010 Ray was the HSSB’s Executive Director and on July 1st, 2011 was appointed its General Director. Under his skilled leadership the HSSB has achieved an enviable reputation for innovation and creativity. Notable achievements include the production of 10 commercially available recordings, the commissioning of over 50 works by Canada’s finest composers, an annual Toronto Concert Series at the St. Lawrence Centre for the arts, www.stlc.com and numerous guest appearances. The HSSB has been twice awarded the Lieutenant Governor’s Award by the Province of Ontario.

Scott Irvine A Toronto-based tuba player and composer. In 1984, he joined the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, a position he continues to hold today, and he is also a founding member of the renowned True North Brass. Scott played with the Hannaford Street Silver Band for over twenty years, and is principal tuba of the Esprit Orchestra.

In 1978, Scott began composition lessons with Dr. Samuel Dolin at the Royal Conservatory of Music, and since that time has developed a parallel career as a composer and arranger. He has received commissioning grants from the Ontario Arts Council, the Laidlaw Foundation, and the CBC, and is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre and a member of the Canadian League of Composers. Many of his works and arrangements have been recorded for commercial release on a variety of record labels and have been performed by a number of artists, including True North Brass, the Hannaford Street Silver Band, Joan Watson, Jack Grunsky, the Canadian Chamber Ensemble, and chamber groups from the renowned Berlin Philharmonic.