2023 Festival Artists
Jocelyn Alhf
Jocelyn is a writer, singer, actor and educator. She wrote and performed comedy songs for CBC Radio’s comedy program The Irrelevant Show and has written and starred in numerous live theatre events throughout Alberta. Recent appearances include: Fun Home and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Plain Jane Theatre), and I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (Mayfield Dinner Theatre).She co-wrote the libretto to Everybody Goes to Mitzi’s, now playing at the Varscona Theatre, and teaches humanities and drama at A. Blair McPherson School in southeast Edmonton. Music. andreahouse.com
Aiyana Anderson Howatt violin
Aiyana Anderson Howatt is a graduate of the University of British Columbia, where she received a Masters in Music degree. After a period of freelancing in Vancouver, Aiyana took up the position of Assistant Principal Second Violin with Symphony Nova Scotia. Two years later, she returned to her hometown to join the first violin section of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. In addition to orchestral playing, Aiyana also enjoys teaching and playing chamber music. She is a founding member of the Onyx String Quartet and has played with various other ensembles in Edmonton, including Alberta Baroque Ensemble, New Music Edmonton, and WindRose Trio.
In June of 2020 Aiyana performed a duet with her (pandemic cohort-safe) husband, bassoonist Matthew Howatt, for the C’mon Festival’s documentary film Chamber. The footage was shot in Edmonton’s lush river valley, accompanied by lots of mosquitoes! As much as she is passionate about music, Aiyana also loves silence, and she is at her happiest on backpacking or cross-country ski adventures in the wilderness. An avid bicycle commuter, Aiyana is proud to live a car-free life.
Hilda Cowie Bass
Double bassist Hilda Cowie has been active in the Canadian music scene for over two decades. Born and raised in Halifax NS, she grew up in the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium hanging out with the stage managers while her parents were in rehearsal with Symphony Nova Scotia.
Hilda began studying the bass with her mother as a teenager and went on to the University of Toronto and the RCM Glenn Gould School as a student of the great Joel Quarrington. After only three years in an undergrad program she won her first position in the National Arts Center Orchestra in Ottawa, where she has spent most of her career. Along the way she has held principal positions with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, and the Kingston Symphony Orchestra. In 2022 Hilda began her tenure as principal bass of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.
Hilda and her partner Alex live in a world of monster trucks, thanks to their four year old, Fraser.
Matthew Howatt bassoon
Matthew Howatt has been part of the C’mon Festival since its inception in 2013. That year, he famously impersonated Elvis in Michael Daugherty’s “Dead Elvis”; and there is photographic evidence! Matthew grew up in Sherwood Park, studying the bassoon with Diane Persson before heading off to the University of British Columbia, where he worked with Jesse Read. Matthew was Acting Principal Bassoon of the Edmonton Symphony for several seasons. He stepped into that role at the last minute when the ESO played at Carnegie Hall in 2012. Matthew is currently Principal Bassoon of the Red Deer Symphony.
Matthew appeared in the C’mon Festival production of The Soldier’s Tale at the 2018 Edmonton International Fringe Festival, and was featured in the 2020 documentary “Chamber”, a co-production of the C’mon Festival and Sticks & Stones. As a founding member of the reed ensemble, the WindRose Trio, Matthew has appeared in concerts across western Canada, in New York, China and Japan. The group was honored with an award for “Best Classical Recording” by the 2009 Western Canadian Music Awards in recognition of its CD “Path of Contact.”
Kathryn Macintosh trombone
Trombonist Kathryn Macintosh joined the Edmonton Symphony (ESO) in 1983 as Assistant Principal Trombone. Active as a producer, Kathryn started the C’mon (Chamber music old & new) Festival in 2013 to share the richness of classical music with a more diverse audience. One of her proudest accomplishments was producing an acclaimed fully-staged version of Stravinsky’s “The Soldier’s Tale” for the 2018 Edmonton International Fringe Festival. Since 2017 Kathryn has been a sessional trombone instructor in the music department of the University of Alberta. She participates in a variety of community engagement projects with the ESO/Winspear, including mentoring young musicians as an ESO ambassador for YONA (Youth Orchestra of Northern Alberta) – the Winspear Centre’s program modelled after El Sistema, a Venezuelan program that uses music to promote positive social change. Year-round, she can be seen riding her bicycle around town with a trombone on her back.
Frédéric Payant trumpet
Frédéric Payant, trumpet
Originally from Mont-Tremblant, QC, Frédéric Payant started playing trumpet at the age of 12. Following high school, he entered the Conservatoire de Musique du Québec à Montréal to study with Manon Lafrance. Frédéric completed his Concours with the “Prix avec Grande Distinction à L’Unanimité”. After his studies in Montréal, Frédéric spent a year at the Royal Academy of Music in London, UK, in the class of Professor James Watson, and began working on the Baroque trumpet with Robert Farley. Frédéric furthered his studies with Vincent Cichowicz, Eric Aubier, Reinhold Friedrich, David Krauss and Susan Williams. He freelanced with ensembles in Laval, Drummondville, Sherbrooke, Longueuil, and the Grand Ballets Canadiens and played for one season with the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra. Since September 2014, Frédéric has been the Assistant Principal Trumpet of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. In winter you will most likely see him cross country skiing while singing or making Donald Duck sounds.
Mark Segger percussion
After many adventures further afield, Mark Segger recently moved back to his hometown, Edmonton, where he is active on many fronts. Mark makes frequent appearances with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and New Music Edmonton, leads the Experimental Improvisation Ensemble (XImE) at U of A and teaches Tonal Harmony at King’s University. He is a Killam Scholar at the University of Alberta (U of A), with a Doctor of Music degree in composition forthcoming.
Mark received a Master of Music degree from the University of Toronto, and studied drum set with Canadian jazz legend Terry Clarke. He furthered his musical development at SIM (School for Improvised Music) in Brooklyn, and at the Banff Centre Jazz Workshop. Mark has performed with many improvisers, including Lina Allemano, Jane Bunnett, Dave Burrell, and Steve Swell; and he toured the world with West Side Story. He has released two critically acclaimed recordings with the Toronto-based Mark Segger Sextet, The Beginning (2011) and Lift Off (2020). Mark recently composed ASMR (2022) for Saxophone Quartet, commissioned by the Proteus Saxophone Quartet. A composer he is particularly into at the moment is Peter Ablinger. Mark has his picture on the wall at Sama Curry in Hong Kong for finishing a bowl at spice level 30.
Robert Spady clarinet
Robert Spady started playing clarinet as a boy in Edmonton. After studying at the University of Toronto and completing his Doctor of Music at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in 2011, he was thrilled to find himself back in Edmonton, as a full-time member of the Royal Canadian Artillery Band. The RCA Band has taken him to Buckingham Palace, Normandy, and many a small-town parade in Alberta.
Robert loves to play chamber music. While working on his doctoral thesis, he participated in the Carnegie Hall Workshops as a member of the Kolot New Music Ensemble, playing klezmer-influenced classical music. More recently, he has performed with New Music Edmonton, the C’mon Festival, and the Edmonton Recital Society. Robert is also a member of the WindRose Trio, a group that is dedicated to performing local new music and has commissioned more than a dozen works by Canadian composers. Robert is an avid banjo player, he loves taking his pup for long morning walks, and plays the occasional open mic with his wife Kim.