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Artistic direction
Stewart Grant - Artistic Director
 Known and respected across Canada as a composer,
conductor, oboist and pedagogue, Stewart Grant has been
at the helm of WIYSO since 1999.
Stewart Grant grew up in Pointe-Claire and graduated from
the McGill University Faculty of Music and the Conservatoire de musique du Québec, where he was
awarded a Premier Prix in oboe in the class of Melvin
Berman. His training also included private studies in
composition with Gordon Delamont and summers at
Tanglewood – where he attended conducting classes by
Leonard Bernstein, Gustav Meier and Seiji Ozawa – at the
Aspen Music Festival and as a member of the National
Youth Orchestra of Canada, where he studied with Ray
Still, the principal oboist of the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra.
Mr. Grant began his conducting career at age eighteen, organizing and directing an orchestra
made up of students from both the McGill Faculty of Music and the Conservatoire de musique du
Québec. In 1978, he was named Music Director of the Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra in
Alberta, a position which he held for sixteen years. In recognition of his many accomplishments
in Lethbridge, he was presented with the Heinz Unger Award at the 1988 national conference of
the Association of Canadian Orchestras. As a guest conductor, he has also performed with
organizations such as the Edmonton, Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivières and Regina Symphony
Orchestras, at the McGill University Faculty of Music and on the National Arts Centre
Orchestra’s chamber series at the National Gallery. In July 2009 he was named Conductor of
the Lakeshore Chamber Orchestra.
A former member of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Mr. Grant has performed as an oboist
with orchestras such as the Montreal, Toronto and Edmonton Symphony Orchestras under the
direction of some of the world's most renowned conductors, including Zubin Mehta, Charles
Dutoit, Andrew Davis, Joseph Krips, Carlo Maria Giulini and Sir Neville Marriner.
Stewart Grant’s music has been performed by many of Canada's foremost solo artists and
ensembles, including the Montreal, Vancouver, Edmonton and Quebec Symphony Orchestras, I
Musici de Montréal, the National Youth Orchestra, the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand
Montréal, Les Violons du Roy, pianists Stéphane Lemelin and Paul Stewart, violinists Martin
Beaver and Richard Roberts, organists André Laberge and Patrick Wedd, Le Quatuor Claudel and contralto Maureen Forrester. His music is frequently broadcast on CBC Radio and SRC and
has been performed in the United States, South America, Europe and India.
Jean-Ai Patrascu - Junior Strings Orchestra
Conductor
A native of Singapore, Jean-Ai Patrascu left her homeland
at age 16 under full scholarship to study at the Royal
Academy of Music in London, England.
At the Royal Academy, she studied the violin with Lionel
Bentley and Clarence Myerscough, chamber music with
Jean Harvey and orchestra training under Maurice
Handford, obtaining her Licentiate and Professional
Certificate of the Royal Academy of Music. She was
invited to perform as a guest violinist for a Gala Concert at
St. Martin-in-the-Fields.
Ms. Patrascu went on to study in Paris with Bernard
Mathern at the École Normale de Musique, where she
obtained her Diplôme supérieur d’exécution. Upon her
return to Singapore, she joined the Singapore Symphony
Orchestra, touring Asia and Europe.
Jean-Ai Patrascu has played with the Jeunes Virtuoses de Montréal, the Orchestre
symphonique de Trois-Rivières, the McGill Chamber Orchestra, and the Ensemble
contemporain de Montréal. She is currently a member of the Orchestre symphonique de
Laval, the Orchestre des Grands Ballets Canadiens and the Montreal Chamber Orchestra.
She also plays regularly with the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal.
Having taught in many schools in Singapore and in Montreal, Ms. Patrascu now teaches
violin privately at home. In 2008-2009 she conducted two string ensembles at the Lambda
School of Music and Fine Arts, one for children and one for adults. In the summer of 2009,
she had the opportunity to work under the direction of Kent Nagano in an orchestra specially
selected for the Knowlton Music Festival. In April 2006 Ms. Patrascu performed the Bach
Double Concerto with Richard Roberts, concertmaster of the Montreal Symphony
Orchestra, for WIYSO’s 20th Anniversary Concert. She has been the conductor of the
WIYSO Junior String Orchestra since 1995.
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