Wayne Toews was
born in Winnipeg, MB, Canada
where he began to study the
violin at the age of 4. His
early musical experience
included singing with the
Westmount Boys Choir and serving
as concertmaster of the
Saskatoon Youth Orchestra. He
was active on the school student
council, in Scouting and in
DeMolay. He studied violin and
composition with Dr. Murray
Adaskin at the University of
Saskatchewan where he received
B.A. and B.Ed. degrees. He
played for nine seasons in the
Saskatoon Symphony, first on
violin and later on viola. He
performed on double bass and
percussion in the U of S Wind
Orchestra under Dwaine Nelson.
He was a member of the
Saskatchewan Jubilee Orchestra
under Arthur Fiedler and played
in the orchestras for the
touring shows of Tom Jones,
Englebert Humperdinck, Ray Price
and André Gagnon.
Mr. Toews
taught music in Saskatoon
schools from 1969. He started
the band program at City Park
Collegiate and neighbourhood
schools and in 1976 began a
twenty-five year career at Aden
Bowman Collegiate where he
taught band, orchestra, choir,
general music and jazz band.
Groups under his direction
earned more than 50 first place
awards. On two occasions his
jazz groups won first place
awards at national festivals. He
has served as president and
board member of several
professional organizations. He
helped to found and was board
member of the Saskatchewan
Orchestral Association for 35
years.
From 1983
until 2009 he was director of
the Saskatoon Youth Orchestra
in association with George
Charpentier. The orchestra
represented Saskatchewan at
two conventions of the
Canadian Music Educators
Association. He led the
orchestra in the 1988, 1990
and 1992 Canadian Festivals of
Youth Orchestras, the 1996 and
1998 Banff International
Festival of Youth Orchestras
and the 1999 and 2001
festivals of Quebec Youth
Orchestras (AOJQ). The
orchestra under his direction
was awarded the Christopher
Gledhill national orchestra
performance award by the
Canadian Music Educators'
Association award six
successive times in 1993,
1995, 1997, 1999, 2002 and
2003.
He organized
the Jack Johnson Memorial
Music Fund through the
Saskatoon Community Foundation
to provide annual grants in
support of young Saskatoon
orchestral musicians.
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Mr. Toews
began to study the Saito
Conducting method in 1974 at
the Courtenay Youth Music Camp
with Professor Morihiro Okabe
and Maestro Kazuyoshi Akiyama.
In 1983 he continued his
studies with Prof. Okabe at
the Toho Gakuen School of
Music, Tokyo. He prepared the
English edition of the Saito
Conducting Method
text that was completed with
the assistance of Fumihiko
Torigai, Morihiro Okabe and
Kazuyoshi Akiyama and
published in Tokyo in 1988.
His articles about the method
have been published in the
NSOA Bulletin, the Instrumentalist,
the BCMEA Newsletter,
The Music Scene and
SMEA's Cadenza. He
organized four international
conducting workshops with
Prof. Okabe at Canadian
universities. He has been
guest presenter at Conductors
Guild convention in New York,
at the 1994 Midwest
International Band and
Orchestra clinic, at McGill
and Northwestern Universities,
at the Canadian Festivals of
Youth Orchestras in Banff, and
at conventions of the Alberta,
British Columbia, Ontario,
Saskatchewan and Canadian
Music Educators Associations.
He
gave workshops for NEOJIBA in
Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, at
Rivers Conservatory in Boston,
McGill University in Montreal,
PQ and at the Universities of
Memphis, TN and Alaska in
Fairbanks. Since 2006 he
has been the organizer and
principal instructor of the
International Saito Conducting
Workshop in Saskatoon. Since
2010 the workshop has been a
project of the Saskatchewan
Orchestral Association.
Among his
published works are an
elementary music theory
booklet, a clarinet resource
book, a bass guitar book and
several curriculum guides. He
has created several computer
programs including Subjective
Tones and An
Introduction to the Saito
Conducting Method.
Mr. Toews
served as guest conductor of
honour groups and professional
orchestras and has conducted
the premieres of contemporary
works by Canadian composers
Jack Johnson, David Kaplan,
Monte Keene Pishny-Floyd,
Susan Bond Hurka, Piotr
Grella-Mozejko, Linda Purves,
Gareth Cook and David Scott as
well as his own works.
In the fall
of 2004 he became founding
director of the University of
Saskatchewan Chamber
Orchestra.
He received
the "Outstanding Achievement
Award" from the Saskatchewan
Music Educators' Association
in 1987, the 1990 " Golden
Wheel Award for Excellence in
Arts and Education" from the
Rotary Clubs of Saskatoon, the
2001 Orchestral Development
award from the Saskatchewan
Orchestral Association, the
2009 Distinguished Band
Director award from the
Saskatchewan Band Association
and the "Honourary Life
Membership Award" from the
Saskatchewan Music Educators'
Association in 2013. He is a
Life Member of the Canadian
Federation of Musicians, Local
#553.
From 2008 to
2018 he was Orchestra division
chair for MusicFest
Canada. In that role he
created the Canadian String
Orchestra, an auditioned group
of young Canadian string
players. It became known
as the Thomastik-Infeld
Canadian String Orchestra
after that organization became
sponsor and the orchestra grew
and thrived.
Mr. Toews
holds a Masters in Music
Education degree and a
certificate in educational
technology from Northwestern
University where he developed
a multimedia computer program
to demonstrate the Saito
conducting method.
He retired
from teaching for the
Saskatoon Public Board of
Education in June 2001. He
remains active as a composer,
arranger, adjudicator,
clinician and guest conductor.
Wayne Toews
1610 Morgan
Avenue,
Saskatoon,
SK.,
Canada, S7H
2S1
Telephone:
(306) 373-6408
Click
HERE to E-mail
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