Dear valued members of the Victoria Conservatory community,
With mixed emotions and tremendous pride in his many achievements with the Victoria Conservatory of Music, I write to announce that Dean and Chief Artistic Officer, Stephen Green, will soon return to his roots as a musician, conductor, composer, and artist, living primarily in Europe where he previously worked as a pianist and conductor of opera, choral and orchestral music for more than ten years.
Stephen and his wife Brigitta, who is a familiar face at performances and events around the South Island, have shared that they look forward to reconnecting with relatives, friends and colleagues there, and also that they intend to return to Canada periodically, holding on to their home in North Cowichan. An international search for Victoria Conservatory’s next Dean will commence in early December, led by Martin Bragg & Associates. Stephen is expected to remain through at least March 2025.
Stephen now joins the ranks of great Canadian performing arts leaders, whose love of both craft and country have guided them to set aside their artistic practice for a substantial period of their freelance careers, and help build our nation’s creative institutions. A number of Stephen’s personal projects with colleagues have been on the back-burner for many years, such as preparing music programs for performance tours and recordings, including with Stephen’s son, a professional cellist, in the Netherlands, Austria, and Ireland.
In 2012, the Conservatory made one of the best decisions over its 60-year history, welcoming Stephen Green from his previous post as head of the Royal Conservatory of Music’s community school, now known as the Oscar Peterson School of Music. Stephen was given a mandate to expand our organization’s programming focus, leading to the founding of the Chwyl Family School of Contemporary Music, which celebrating its tenth anniversary this winter.
In another major expansion, the School of Music Technology and Creativity was also established under Stephen’s leadership, and is now responsible for delivering programs as wide-ranging as early childhood music, hip-hop workshops, a composition club for teenaged creators, and music tech outreach in middle schools, with major sponsor support. At the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic, this technological capacity served the organization as it moved quickly to provide continuity amid government restrictions on public assembly. During this period, the Conservatory briefly became the largest not-for-profit arts and culture organization of any kind on Vancouver Island.
In 2023, the Conservatory welcomed its first Guest Faculty in Music and Reconciliation, Ry Moran, and in 2024 Stephen played a key role in the Conservatory’s new strategic plan, Music Lives Here, which places inclusion and community access to music at the heart of its future plans. This coming winter will include the announcement of a new name and visual identity for the department of music therapy, now Canada’s largest.
Having experienced the transformation of lives and organizations in real time, through creative and innovative thinking and action, Stephen Green will return to his profession as an artist and creator with broad and colourful perspectives to draw from.
I want to personally congratulate Stephen for his impact on young artists and on the whole community, as public participation in Victoria Conservatory’s programs is currently at an all-time high. I thank him too for his deep loyalty to the organization, and commitment to seeing us through the pandemic, the retirement of our former CEO, Jane Butler McGregor, and the publication of our new strategic plan.
Three cheers for Stephen and Brigitta!
Nathan Medd, CEO
