The Conductors

Yariv Aloni

Yariv Aloni is the Music Director of the Sooke Philharmonic.  He is also the music director of the Victoria Chamber Orchestra and the Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra, as well as being a principal guest conductor of the West Coast Symphony Orchestra in Vancouver and a frequent guest conductor with Civic Orchestra of Victoria. He was the founder and music director of the Galiano Ensemble of Victoria.

Former violist of both the Penderecki string quartet and the Aviv piano quartet, he has performed in many concert halls in Europe, Canada and the United States, including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Centre in New York, the Louvre in Paris, and Tonhalle in Zurich. He has recorded for the United, Marquise, Tritonus and CBC labels as well as independent CD labels. He performs in numerous chamber music concerts, festivals and recital series. 

Yariv was a finalist at the François Shapira competition in Tel Aviv. He earned the Israel Broadcasting Authority award for chamber music performance and numerous awards and scholarships from the American-Israel Cultural Foundation.

Born on a kibbutz in Israel, Yariv began studying the violin at the age of eight and turned to the viola when he was sixteen. He studied viola with Michael Tree, violist of the Guarneri Quartet, Daniel Benyamini, principal violist of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and David Chen at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem. 

With an emphasis on chamber music, Yariv also studied at the Jerusalem Music Centre with distinguished visiting faculty from around the world, including Isaac Stern, the Amadeus and the Guarneri String Quartets, and many others. He studied conducting under the tutelage of the Hungarian conductor János Sándor, former music director of the Budapest State Opera and the Györ Philharmonic Orchestra.

Nicholas Fairbank

Nicholas Fairbank is Choral Director of the Sooke Philharmonic Choir. After early studies in B.C., Nicholas Fairbank pursued further musical training in London, England and Paris, France. He holds Masters degrees from the Université de Paris (musicology and French literature), the University of California at Santa Barbara (French language and pedagogy), and the University of Victoria (music composition), as well as Associateship diplomas from the Royal Conservatory of Music (gold medal winner for pipe organ, 1981) and the Royal Canadian College of Organists (Willan and Barker prizes 1998), of which he was the National President from 2012-2014.

Established in Victoria since 1995, he keeps busy as a conductor, and in this capacity has worked with many Victoria-area choirs and orchestras, including the Linden Singers, the Victoria Choral Society, and the Civic Orchestra. He is currently Artistic Director of the Via Choralis Chamber Choir and Director of Music at First Unitarian Church of Victoria.

In a career spanning 40 years, he has taught piano, organ and harpsichord, most recently at the Victoria Conservatory of Music where he was on the keyboard and theory faculties for 18 years, and has performed across North America and in Europe.

Mr. Fairbank is an established composer whose catalogue of compositions includes more than 80 works for organ and piano solo, voice, and various choral and instrumental ensembles.

Michael Klazek

Michael Klazek, our Staff Conductor, a founding member of the Sooke Philharmonic, has played viola professionally and conducted community ensembles for five decades. Educated at University of Alberta and University of Calgary, he studied conducting with Kenneth L. Nielsen, composition with Violet Archer, violin and viola with Thomas Rolston, as well as piano and music education. 

For 35 years, he taught acclaimed choirs, bands, orchestras and musical theatre ensembles in secondary schools and universities at Edmonton, Calgary and Victoria.  He has taught conducting at UofC and the Victoria Conservatory, and co-founded the UVic Strings Mentorship course. Mike has served on boards of the Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra, the Victoria Chamber Orchestra, the Greater Victoria Performing Arts Festival and the Galiano Ensemble. 

He continues to work as clinician and mentor with Music Education projects, and plays orchestral and chamber music at home and abroad.