{"id":49,"date":"2022-09-23T16:15:44","date_gmt":"2022-09-23T16:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.drso.ca\/?page_id=49"},"modified":"2026-08-31T18:49:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T18:49:04","slug":"the-artists","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.drso.ca\/index.php\/the-artists\/","title":{"rendered":"The Artists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Royce Richart<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Royce Richart is establishing himself as one of Canada\u2019s budding up-and-coming concert artists. In July of 2021, he was listed as one of CBC Music\u2019s \u201cTop 30 Under 30 Hot Canadian Musicians\u201d for the release of his self-produced debut studio album of violin show pieces entitled Short Stories. As a recitalist and chamber musician, Royce has collaborated with concert series across the provinces of British Columbia and Ontario. As an avid performer for community outreach events, Royce has enjoyed curating recitals and public speaking engagements across both British Columbia and Ontario for retirement homes, hospice residences and public schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Orchestral playing is one of Royce\u2019s first loves. During the 2023\/2024 season, Royce was invited to assume the position of Principal Second Violin of the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra in Ontario. Additionally, Royce has performed with numerous orchestras across Canada including the Victoria Symphony, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Canadian Opera Company, Brott Music Festival Orchestra, Kingston Symphony Orchestra and the Windsor Symphony Orchestra. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Royce completed his formal post-secondary classical music training under the tutelage of renowned Russian pedagogue Victor Danchenko at The Glenn Gould School of The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto where he obtained his Bachelor of Music Degree. He also completed one full year in the conservatory\u2019s Artist Diploma Program as a full-scholarship recipient of The Jack Whiteside Scholarship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from performing, recording and teaching music, Royce loves swimming, cycling, running, hiking, listening to Retrowave and Dreamwave music, and hosting dinner parties for his friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With sincere thanks to a private Canadian benefactor, Royce enjoys performing on a fine handmade violin, with thanks to Parnassus Violins, on a lifetime loan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Juan Olivaras<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Puerto Rican-Canadian clarinetist Juan Gabriel Olivares is an accomplished soloist, chamber musician, orchestral player, and music educator. He is Co-Artistic Director of Collines-en-musique, and has performed extensively with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, National Ballet of Canada Orchestra, and the Canadian Opera Company. An active performer of contemporary music, Juan has toured Canada with Thin Edge New Music Collective, the U.S. with the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Germany and Austria with the Klangspuren Festival hosted by Ensemble Modern, and France with the Ulysses Ensemble of the Institute for Research and Coordination of Acoustics\/Music. From 2018-2020, Juan was a Civic Fellow for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He was nominated for a 2018 Juno Award for his work in AYRE live<\/em>, and was nominated for the 2025 Dora Awards for his work in Contes pour le fin du temps<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Andy Chen<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Andy Chen is a Grade 12 student at Mackenzie Community School in Deep River, Ontario. He has been learning the oboe under Susan Butler since 2018 and also plays the piano. Andy has performed at local music performances, the Kiwanis Music Festival, the Kiwanis Music Festival, the Ontario Music Festivals Association Provincials, and with the Deep River Symphony Orchestra. Outside of music, he enjoys sports, cooking, and reading.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Chace Merali<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Chace Merali\u00a0has studied bassoon for the past five years under the instruction of Susan Butler. He began his musical journey with piano lessons at the age of six and attended Deep River’s SummerMusic Camp for six years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chace was a member of the Deep River Youth Orchestra for four years and performed with the Deep River Symphony Orchestra (DRSO) in two concerts during its 2024\u201325 season. He joined the orchestra as a full-time member for the 2025\u201326 season. Music has long been a family tradition for Chace\u2014he is the great-grandson of Dori Knowles, a former DRSO violinist, and Bill Stevens, a former DRSO trumpeter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among his musical highlights are performing Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King<\/em> and portraying the Grandfather in last season’s performance of Peter and the Wolf<\/em>. In 2026, Chace received both the Murphy Funeral Home Trophy and the Pembroke Symphony Orchestra Trophy for achieving the highest mark in the Intermediate Woodwind Solo category at the Kiwanis Music Festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chace attends grade 11 at Mackenzie High School. Outside of music, he works part-time and enjoys playing soccer, skiing, cooking,<\/p>\n<\/div>

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Royce Richart Royce Richart is establishing himself as one of Canada\u2019s budding up-and-coming concert artists. In July of 2021, he was listed as one of CBC Music\u2019s \u201cTop 30 Under 30 Hot Canadian Musicians\u201d for the release of his self-produced debut studio album of violin show pieces entitled Short Stories. As a recitalist and chamber […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-49","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drso.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/49","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drso.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drso.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drso.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drso.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.drso.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/49\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":393,"href":"https:\/\/www.drso.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/49\/revisions\/393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drso.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}