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Artistic Team
Kathryn Whitney, Music Director
Kathryn Whitney is a singer, choral conductor, artistic director, voice teacher, and arts entrepreneur based on unceded Coast Salish territory on Southern Vancouver Island. She has been music director of the Newcombe Singers since September 2022. Kathryn is the founding Artistic Director and conductor of the SING THE NORTH global family of choirs. Kathryn is also the founding Artistic Director of the One World Baroque Virtual Orchestra & Chorus, which she created in 2020 with Music Director, Daniel Taylor, the Pacific Song Collective (Victoria) and the SongArt Performance Research Group (London).
Raised in Victoria, she trained at Oxford (DPhil in music aesthetics), the Guildhall School of Music (PGDip Early Music Performance) and the University of Toronto (BA in Music & German). Artist in Residence at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama (Walton Fellow), King’s College, London (Visiting Performance Fellow), and Wolfson College, Oxford (Creative Arts Fellow), she has performed across Canada, the UK, and Europe.
Experience as a chorister and soloist includes concerts with Budapest Chamber Opera under Pál Németh, the Monteverdi Choir & English Baroque Soloists under Sir John Eliot Gardiner, the Munich Bach Choir under Hans-Joerg Albrecht, the Whitstable Choral Society under Canterbury Cathedral Director of Music, David Flood, plus 10 years of weekly singing in Oxford Chapel Choirs. Locally, Kathryn has sung as a soloist with the Sooke Philharmonic, Victoria Choral Society, Victoria Philharmonic Choir, Palm Court Orchestra, and Victoria Baroque, and as a chorister with many choirs around the city.
As a choral clinician for the BC Choral Federation, she has worked with dozens of amateur and semi-professional choirs across the province. She has prepared symphonic choruses for Steven Devine, Daniel Taylor, Howard Dyck, and Laurence Cummings, including for broadcasts of the London Handel Festival. A champion of new music, Kathryn has performed more than 60 world premieres, the majority of pieces written for her voice. Commissions she has instigated include both solo and choral works now published internationally with Cypress Choral Music, Boosey & Hawkes, and Novello & Co.
Prior to moving over to performance work, Kathryn was a college lecturer in music history & aesthetics at Oxford University for 12 years, with concurrent appointments at Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Above all, Kathryn loves working with amateur singers, whether as a conductor, a maker of musical projects, or as a voice coach in her private studio. She hopes you enjoy singing with us or attending our concerts, and she wishes you well in your music-making.
Kristina Stevens, Assistant Conductor
Kristina Stevens is a Victoria choral conductor and instrumentalist. She studied conducting with Lars Kario at Capilano College, has conducted the Monterey Chorus, and has been the Choral Section Head for the Greater Victoria Performing Arts Festival since 2019. She is a member of the High Notes Flute Choir in Victoria, and principle contrabass with the Hampton Concert Orchestra.
Kristina has been the Assistant Conductor of the Newcombe Singers for many years and has led the choir in numerous concerts, both in concert venues at our community concerts, and on Remembrance Day at the BC Legislature.
Kristina enjoys facilitating and taking part in ensembles that explore the depth and breadth of musical experience and strive to present quality performances to their audiences. The process of making music with others enriches our lives!
Robert Jan Dukarm, pianist
Robert Jan Dukarm, a native of Victoria, BC, Canada, is a pianist, organist, violinist, and composer and arranger. He has accompanied the Newcombe Singers since 2014, and has been the organist for Cathedral Church of St. John the Evangelist in Victoria since 2009.
In addition to organ recitals, he has performed with the Capriccio Choir for several Remembrance Day concerts at Victoria’s Christ Church Cathedral, including performances of Faure’s Requiem and Vierne’s Messe Solennelle.
As a pianist, Robert has accompanied singers in recital and in voice lessons. He and soprano Monica Orso won first prize in the 2009 Senior Lieder Competition at the Victoria Conservatory. Robert also plays both classical and jazz violin, performing at various venues including Victoria JazzFest and local watering holes.
Robert and Peter Dent, former choral director of the Newcombe Singers, are Son de Victoria – a jazz violin and keyboard duo that plays latin and swing jazz hits.
To hear samples of Robert’s playing, visit his website, see an interview with Son de Victoria, or see him in concert with trumpet player David Barss and soprano Nancy Washeim at Christ Church Cathedral.
