The Four Jays

Monday, August 25, 2025 at 2:00 pm

$40 per ticket

The 33rd concert in the York Place Musical Salon.

About the Event

Stellar musicians Julia Nolan (saxophone), Jane Hayes (piano), Joan Blackman (violin) and Jodi Proznick (double bass) are each talented and experienced in multiple genres embracing traditional classical repertoire, contemporary music and jazz. This concert has something for everyone... the best of The Four Jays’ repertoire in a “menu du jour” of Impressionist, 20th Century, Jazz and Tango.

Program...

Claude Debussy: Rhapsodie for Alto Saxophone and Piano (1862-1918)

Jean-Luc Defontaine: Couleurs d'un Rêve

Charles Koechlin: Epitaphe de Jean Harlow

Nikola Resanovic: Trio for alto sax, violin and piano

Astor Piazzolla: Primavera Porteña

Astor Piazzolla: Concert d'aujourd'hui (arr. by Fred Stride)

Jodi Proznick: Sun Song Suite

Elaine Padgett: Resilience

Jimuel Dave Dagta: Objects in the Mirror

Tickets will be available on Sunday, June 22, 2025 at 9:00 am.

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We gratefully acknowledge a generous donation from an anonymous patron who has sponsored the York Place Musical Salon since 2024. This support helps further our goal of presenting performances of the highest caliber. Thank you.

About the Musicians

An active performer, saxophonist Julia Nolan has commissioned numerous works by Canadian composers. In 2020, she will be the featured soloist with Sinfonia, conducted by Clyde Mitchell performing Stefan Hintersteininger’s Saxophone Concerto. In 2019, she performed this concerto with the West Coast Orchestra on a tour of Balkan countries. In 2018, Julia released a CD with violinist Joan Blackman and pianist Jane Hayes and a CD of Canadian works with the Saxophilia Saxophone Quartet. In 2016, Julia gave the U.S. premiere of Jeffrey Ryan’s concerto Brazen with the Lubbock Symphony and premiered the concerto Cool Cut by John Oliver with Vancouver’s Turning Point Ensemble. She recorded new works for organ and saxophone by Denis Bedard (2014) and is the featured soloist with the Naden Band of the Royal Canadian Navy (2015) performing Robert Buckley’sPrestidigitation.

Julia has performed and recorded with the Alan Matheson’s jazz groups and played with the Dal Richards jazz orchestra.Julia Nolan has served as a clinician and international judge in Belgium, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the United States and is currently the Director of Scholarly Publications for the North American Saxophone Alliance. Dr. Nolan teaches saxophone at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and the University of British Columbia and the Vancouver Symphony School of Music.

She is also an Artist-Clinician for Yamaha, Canada Ltd and Rousseau Musical Products.

Since her debut with the Toronto Symphony, Jane Hayes' concerts have taken her across Canada, the United States, Europe and Mexico. An active recording artist, she has over 20 CDs available on the Fanfare, EMI, Centrediscs, ATMA, Artifact, CBC-Musica Viva and CBC SM5000 labels. Jane moved to BC in 1993 to become a faculty member in the newly opened Music Department of Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Langley. Her passion for teaching was recognized when she received the 2015 Distinguished Teaching Award in the Faculty of Arts.  Jane enjoyed a year-long sabbatical in 2017-2018 when she devoted her energy to two main projects:  researching possibilities for long-distance music education in northern BC; and giving a series of recitals and master classes at universities and private music schools in the Henan and Guangdong provinces in China to foster professional development among Chinese piano professors.  As a result of her work in China, she was appointed Guest Professor at Henan Polytechnic University. After 27 years, Jane has officially left Kwantlen to focus on her performing and mentoring passions.

In recent years she has appeared regularly on concert stages in every combination from duo through large ensemble, as soloist with orchestra to chamber collaborator. She has been a partner of such esteemed artists as cellist Harvey Shapiro, violinist Robert Davidovici, and flutists Julius Baker and Bonita Boyd among others.  She is a founding member of Vancouver’s Turning Point Ensemble, the Yarilo Ensemble and Sea and Sky (violinist Joan Blackman; clarinetist François Houle; saxophonist Julia Nolan). This season’s highlights will include presentations of the complete Beethoven Cello Sonata Cycle with Pamela Highbaugh Aloni of the LaFayette Quartet along with several livestream and video performances around the province.

Joan Blackman, violinist and former Associate Concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony, is the Artistic Director of Vancouver’s Vetta Chamber Music Society. With a mission to showcase how music enriches our lives, she also supports emerging talent through Vetta's mentorship program and fosters cross-cultural connections with the “Seasons of the Sea” collaboration, bridging Western and Indigenous cultures.

In addition to curating and performing in the Vetta Chamber Music series, Joan contributes her expertise to the Pender Harbour Concert Society, where she curates their summer festival. She performs regularly with the Vancouver Symphony, Vancouver Opera, Turning Point Ensemble, and various other musical ensembles across British Columbia.

Joan has graced the stage as a soloist with the Vancouver Symphony, Victoria Symphony, CBC Radio Orchestra, Turning Point Ensemble, and Banff Festival Orchestra. She is also a member of the eclectic group “Four Jays,” which performs throughout the province.

Her distinguished career includes appearances on series such as Music in the Morning, Music Fest Vancouver, Jeffrey Concerts in London, Ontario, and the American String Project. Joan has also participated in summer festivals including the Hornby Island Festival, Pender Harbour Chamber Music Festival, Kaimerata, and Victoria Summer Music Festival.

Critics have lauded her performances with praise such as “a ravishing tone,” “shapelier phrases and sweeter tone,” and “playing with lyricism, precision, and evident joy.” Joan Blackman’s artistry continues to captivate audiences, with reviews highlighting her as a “first-rate soloist” and noting her “flawless performance” and “meltingly exchanged lines.”

www.joanblackmanviolin.com

Three time Juno-nominated bassist, composer, producer and educator Jodi Proznick has earned a reputation as one of Canada’s finest jazz artists. She has won numerous National Jazz Awards, including Bassist of the Year in ’08 and ’09. Her group, the Jodi Proznick Quartet, was awarded the Acoustic Group of the Year and Album of the Year in ‘08 and the Galaxie Rising Star at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival in ‘04. Most recently, Jodi was awarded the Jazz Artist of the Year at the Western Canadian Music Awards and the Platinum Jubilee Art and Music Award from the Lieutenant Governer of British Columbia.

Jodi has performed with many of Canada’s top musicians, including P.J. Perry, Don Thompson, Kirk MacDonald, Guido Basso, Oliver Gannon, Dee Daniels, Phil Dwyer, Mark Fewer, Bill Henderson and Laila Biali as well as international jazz legends such as David 'Fathead' Newman, Sheila Jordan, George Coleman, Seamus Blake, Lewis Nash, Peter Bernstein, Tootie Heath, Bucky Pizzarelli, Russell Malone, Harold Mabern, Eddie Daniels and Ed Thigpen. In addition to recording her own Juno-nominated CDs as a leader, Jodi has been featured on over 50 recordings as a sidewoman and is co-leader of Triology (f. Miles Black and Bill Coon), the Ostara Project and others.