“Expect the Unexpected!” 

Chamber Music Kelowna Concert at Metro Hub, 

Friday June 3rd, 7.30pm. (doors open 7.00pm)

Join us for a lively and eclectic concert of music for cello, piano, and clarinet. Nicola Everton (clarinet), Nicholas Denton Protsack (cello), and Patricia Tao (piano) will entertain with a mix of chamber music that includes classical, jazz-influenced, and post-modern compositions. All are welcome to this informal and fun evening, and all proceeds will go to support Metro’s programs to support those experiencing homelessness. 

Metro Community Hub, 1265 Ellis Street (corner of Coronation Avenue)

Tickets $15, supporting the Metro Community Church outreach programs

Patricia Tao

Pianist Patricia Tao leads an active life as performer, teacher and concert organizer. As pianist of the Guild Trio for ten years, she performed throughout the United States and Europe and was awarded the position of Trio-in-Residence at the Tanglewood Music Center. The Trio also commissioned and premiered numerous works, recorded on the CRI label (reissued on New World Records) and served as Trio-in-Residence at the University of Virginia for two years, where she performed and taught chamber music and contemporary ensemble. She also performed with Trio Voce (Jasmine Lin, violin, Marina Hoover, cello) for ten years, with whom she has recorded the Chopin and Strauss cello and piano sonatas on the Centaur label and two compact discs on the Con Brio label. 

As soloist, Patricia has toured the United States for Columbia Artist’s Community Concerts series and as an “Artistic Ambassador” for the USIA, and has performed in Italy, Portugal, Spain, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, China and Hong Kong. She has recorded a solo compact disc on the Arktos label, featuring works of Schubert, Liszt, and Corigliano.

As concert organizer, Dr. Tao has served as Artistic Director of the Edmonton Chamber Music Society’s Summer Solstice Music Festival for the past twelve years. The series has welcomed chamber musicians from across North America with imaginative programming. Since 2002, she has also organized the Hear’s to Your Health Concerts at the University of Alberta medical school, with free late afternoon concerts accessible to the University and local community. 

Dr. Tao holds degrees from Harvard University Indiana University and the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She has given masterclasses in Europe, China, the United States and Canada. She taught at Western Washington University and the University of Virginia, and since 2002, has taught piano and chamber music at the University of Alberta, where she is Professor of Music.

Nicholas Denton Protsack

Nicholas Denton Protsack is an emerging composer and concert cellist, originally from Kelowna, BC. His creative work often explores connections between music and the natural world. Nicholas’ compositions have been receiving increasing recognition over the past few years. Most recently, he was the recipient of two 1st place prizes from the 2021 SOCAN Foundation Awards for Young Composers (large ensemble and solo/duet categories), and was one of six international recipients of the 2021 BMI Foundation Student Composer Awards. Nicholas was also commissioned by the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra to write a new work for their 60th anniversary concert season in 2020.

Nicholas is currently undertaking a PhD in music at the Victoria University of Wellington, studying with composers Michael Norris and Dugal McKinnon. He also recently completed a master’s degree in both composition and cello at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music—where he studied under David Garner (composition), Jean-Michel Fonteneau (cello), and Jennifer Culp (cello).

As a cellist, Nicholas is an active freelance performer and advocate of new music—often performing works by his colleagues, as well as his own. He has also appeared as a soloist with the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra and the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra.

Nicola Everton 

Clarinetist Nicola Everton has made the Kootenays home after a career spanning over twenty years as a member of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Her post secondary music studies began with a full scholarship to Arizona State University followed by a Bachelor of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. As an avid chamber musician and concert presenter, Nicola has been involved with the Kootenay Gallery concert series, is a founding member of Selkirk Pro-Musica in Nelson and is the coordinator for the Kootenay Chapter of the Health Arts Society, a professional concert series for seniors in care. Currently, Nicola is a member  of the Okanagan Symphony and Nelson’s Klezmeridian ensemble. She has served on the faculty of the Vancouver Academy of Music and has performed and taught at summer festivals in Sun Valley Idaho, at the University of British Columbia, in the Slocan Valley, at the Valhalla School of Fine Arts and in Smithers, at Orchestra North.