Board of Directors
Kasra Hajari, PAST President. I am resident of Brockville for over 20 years, most of the people in the community remember me from my time as the Seafood manager in the Superstore. I graduated from the Agriculture and Natural Resources school and had variety of positions in farming and retail industries. I am passionate about art, nature, and our community. On my free time I enjoy reading books, cooking for my family, and hiking in the forest. To me it is a great honour to be a part of outstanding group in Brockville Concert Association as Governance and Grant committee to serve Brockville and other surrounding communities.”
Samia O’Day, PAST President of the Brockville Concert Association and recipient of the Brockville Business Person of the Year award, has dedicated herself to supporting music and the community in Brockville. As co-founder of the Canada Music Academy, which celebrates its 30th anniversary next year, she has helped make over one million music lessons possible across Canada through a team of 300 certified, dedicated teachers. Samia’s work reflects her deep belief in the power of music to connect and uplift, creating meaningful opportunities for local youth and contributing to a vibrant musical culture in the community she values deeply.
Laurel Burnham-Greene grew up in Brockville and was a regular Brockville Concert Association subscriber. After completing her studies at UofT, Dalhousie and York she embarked on a 25 year career that began in Montreal where she honed her expertise in event production, logistics and strategy.
Laurel returned to Brockville and had “the best time of her life” volunteering and later working for the St. Lawrence Stage Company.
“My deep appreciation for the power of music happened when I was in grade 13 in Miss Bourne’s History of Music class. That learning opportunity still stands out as one of the most impactful learning experiences I ever had……and I have had many. To this day the only thing that brings me more joy is horses.”
“I also want to take a moment to thank my friend and mentor Cathy McHugh who above all else, taught me that bold ideas requires bold leadership”.
Hugh Gardiner is a Brockville native who besides working as an Engineering Technologist at a local industry is an amateur musician, artist, and thespian. Hugh plays saxophone with the Brockville Concert Band, and local Jazz/Blues group Sue Baker and The Rhythm Makers. He is also on the board of the Brockville Theatre Guild, a member of the Brockville Operatic Society, and a member of the organizing committee for the Brockville Downtown Churchs New Year’s Eve Concerts.
Caroline Bates is the Treasurer of the Board and has been engaged with the Brockville Concert Association since early 2024. Her professional life as a Geological Engineer in waste management for mining has allowed her to work in culturally and geologically fascinating places across Canada and internationally. In her spare time, she enjoys working with her two dogs on various obedience, agility, and scent detection tasks, and is slowly developing a garden that is much too large to manage. She has a background in classical piano, violin, and oboe, and relishes choral music.
Crystal Taylor grew up surrounded by music, and joined her high school’s band and choir. She graduated from the Computer Support Technician program in college. She has many interests including music, comics, and art. She joined the Brockville Concert Association to make sure that the music would be kept alive. She loves being creative and in her spare time, she spends time with her family and friends, and works on her diamond art business.
Chuck Quick, I grew up in Brockville and worked here for good part of my life.
I am a long time member of the Brockville Public Library Board, and have also served on the board of the Brockville Museum.
I am retired and spend a lot of my time playing music, on various instruments and in several different genres. I play Irish pipes, Irish flute, tin whistle, baroque flute, alto sax and recorders. I participate in several groups, including Fiddlers Plus, Hoolies, Brockville Concert Band and the Recorder Group at St Lawrence Church.
My musical interests are quite varied and I want to actively participate in the Brockville Concert Association, to try to support both travelling and local musicians.
Lydia Workman (Secretary) is interest in music grew when she attended Toronto School of Art in the late 1990s. A job at Second Vinyl, a used jazz/classical record store, opened her ears to music. There she developed skills determining what sophisticated listeners want in their record collections and mastered the art of purchasing albums for resale. This knowledge led into sales and fundraising work for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. This employment coincided with a revolutionary time in the TSO’s history. Roy Thomson Hall underwent massive renovations at that time to improve the acoustics. Additionally, the TSO was under financial hardship. Musicians took a pay cut to keep the orchestra going. Our fundraising campaign required meeting a hefty goal in order to meet the requirements of a government matching program.
Mission
The mission of the Brockville Concert Association is to offer a variety of quality musical experiences for all ages and to expand community participation and appreciation of musical excellence.
Diversity Statement
Diversity is a core value of the Brockville Concert Association. We believe in an inclusive and equitable organization where all volunteers, musicians and audience members whatever their gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, age, sexual orientation or identity, education or ability, feel valued and respected. We value and celebrate diverse life experiences. The Brockville Concert Association is committed to modeling diversity and inclusion and to maintaining an inclusive environment with equitable treatment for all.
Traditional Land Acknowledgement Statement
The Brockville Concert Association would like to acknowledge the land on which we are based. For thousands of years it has been the traditional land of the Anishinaabe, the Haudenosaunee, and the Huron-Wendat. Today this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous people, and we are grateful to have the opportunity to live and work on this land. We are committed to reflecting, learning, and changing on the path to reconciliation.
About Us
We are a registered charity; tax receipts are provided.
Charitable registration #118819622RR0001.
Although the Brockville Concert Association is called an “association”, it’s not a private club of any kind; it is made up of a small group of music enthusiast volunteers who do what is needed behind the scenes to make a series of concerts happen in Brockville every year. Community members join the board at the annual general meeting in January, agree to take on roles according to their skills and interests, attend planning meetings throughout the year, invite performers to be part of the upcoming slate of concerts and build networks in the music community. Please consider volunteering with us, either by joining the board in January or at any time in the year by contacting us. If you have ideas for concert performances, work with our concert team to make them happen. If you are a people person, maybe you would like to meet and greet performers backstage to make sure they have everything they need. If you are a terrific researcher, you could help us find anything from additional sources of funding to the best prices for accommodation for artists. Know the community in and around Brockville? Help us promote our concerts in the best ways possible.
We learned a lot while presenting concerts online during COVID-19 and we’re now eager to enjoy music in person with you again. We presented an in-person youth concert as part of Culture Days in Fall 2022 and are working on a series of performances for 2023 as we celebrate the Concert Association’s 75th Anniversary of providing concerts in Brockville.
Getting the message out about the BCA’s concerts is one of the Association’s most important ongoing tasks. Often we have received generous funding from the Ontario Arts Council and from our local sponsors to pay artists and create materials to advertise the concerts. Culture Days are growing into a bigger Fall presence in Ontario communities and a BCA concert was again part of the lineup in 2022.
We rely on well-connected local media reporters with the Brockville Recorder and Times, Snap’d and the Mural to interview us for the newspapers, chat with us on Brockville’s community TV channel and take photographs of the performers. Local politicians are enthusiastic about sharing messages from the BCA. Brockville businesspeople happily put up our flyers and posters in their establishments.
The Brockville Concert Association’s mandate has always included a music education component, carried out in a variety of formats. In 2022 Culture Days once again provided a great opportunity for a group of extremely talented and enthusiastic local youth musicians to return to Brockville to perform classical music and jazz as they begin their careers. The Association encourages youth to attend concerts with free or reduced ticket prices.
“Music brings a warm glow to my vision, thawing mind and muscle from their endless wintering.” – Haruki Murakami
