Don Ross

Instructor, Clarinet
BMus (University of Alberta), Artist Diploma (University of Toronto), M.Mus (Northwestern University)

Clarinetist Don Ross regularly plays classical music with Saint Crispin's Chamber Ensemble, jazz with Billie Zizi and the Gypsy Jive, world music with the Gadjo Collevtive and experimental music with Mile Zero Dance, the Boreal Electroacoustic Society and New Music Edmonton, as well as some 100 other freelance performances per year. He has extensive orchestral experience with groups such as the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Citadel Theatre, Opera Nuova and the Alberta Symphony Orchestra.

Recent compositions include the score for the Nina Haggerty Sessions, a dance performance by artists with developmental disabilities and the film soundtracks for Robert Moberg's The Plateau and John Osborne's Patternicity and Lines for Clarinet, which won second prize at the Punta y Raya Festival in Portugal and was chosen for Prairie Tales 14. His works have been performed in Canada, the US, Belgium and Poland and appear on four CDs, most recently the electroacoustic anthology Unsound 2.

Don teaches at the University of Alberta, Alberta College Conservatory, MusiCamp Alberta and The King's University College and he is much in demand as a clinician, adjudicator, conductor and composer. He holds music degrees from the Universities of Alberta and Toronto, as well as a Master's from Northwestern University in Chicago.

Representative Works

Gadjo Collective Balkan band, Opera Nuova, Crescendo Orchestra, McDade Orchestra, ESO, Billie Zizi and the Gypsy Jive, New Music Edmonton, Boreal Electroacoustic Music Society, Mile Zero Dance. Collaborations with animator John Osborne and dancer Amber Borostsik. Adjudicated 20 music festivals, including nationals in 2014.

Career Highlights and Achievements

Dozens of performances, commissions, grants and recordings as artistic director of Saint Crispin's Chamber Ensemble.