Youth Jazz Canada

Honour Combo B

Honour Combo B Musicians Announced

Virginia Frigault-MacDonald - clarinet
David Diao - flute
Mark Kazakevich - piano
Nick Tateishi - guitar
Jon Chapman - bass
Davide Corazza - drums

Honour Combo B was announced in mid-January after a highly competitive process that saw applications submitted from across the GTA. Directed by renowned Canadian guitarist Ted Qiunlan, the group will rehearse and perform at various locations and events throughout the summer including The Beaches Jazz Festival, The Markham Jazz Festival, The Rex, Chalkers Pub, Dominion on Queen and Trane Studio.

Virginia Frigault-MacDonald, clarinet

Virginia is a sixteen year-old clarinet player, currently attending Etobicoke School of the Arts. Virginia was born in Toronto in 1994 and began attending Humber College Community Music School at an early age, where she picked up the clarinet for the first time.

Over the past several years, Virginia has had the chance to study with several accomplished musicians such as Brian Dickinson, Jim Vivian & Jane Fair. She has also studied classical clarinet for the past four years. Virginia is currently under the direction of Jim Vivian's combo at Humber College, and would like to continue to study music in the future.

David Diao, flute

Originally from Beijing, China, David Diao is a sax and flute player currently attending Etobicoke School of the Arts, studying instrumental musicianship and classical music theory and harmony. David also participates in the Humber Community Music program, where he has received Honour and Improvisation awards.

David has had the chance to study under the guidance of piano master Brian Dickinson, as ensemble leader and has taken private saxophone lessons with Luiz Deniz, Kristjan Bergey, and Shawn Nykwist at Humber College.

Mark Kazakevich, piano

Mark has been playing piano for as long as he can remember, hitting the ivory keys and ‘improvising’ since he was three years old. His formal lessons began when he moved to Canada from Israel, starting at the age of five. He was classically trained for 11 years by Svetlana Goltz, a teacher whom he has always admired and attributes to his personal success in music. Following the completion of his Grade 10 RCM in piano, Mark took up lessons with another very admired teacher, Laura Pashanov, who introduced Mark to jazz through her mixture of Baroque and modern music. Mark was introduced to Humber College’s music program in 2010 through their Summer Jazz Workshop, where he played with a jazz combo for the first time. Since then, Mark has been playing in many ensembles, including the JazzFM.91 Youth Big Band. He is currently taking part in the Community Music School at Humber, where he has been mentored by musicians such as Kirk MacDonald, Kieran Overs, Brian Dickinson, and Jim Vivian. Mark is influenced by musicians such as Oscar Peterson, Thelonius Monk, Chick Corea, Bill Evans, John Lewis, and Dave Brubeck. He has also enjoyed playing his secondary instrument, the drums, for seven years. Mark is currently in his senior year at Stephen Lewis Secondary School in Vaughan, Ontario, where he makes an effort to contribute to his school’s music program. Next year, Mark plans to go to university for life science and computer science, but will continue playing music and making it a very important part of his life.

Nick Tateishi, guitar

Nick was born and raised in downtown Toronto. He is graduating from Rosedale Heights School of the Arts in June 2011 where he specializes in music. During high school, he was an integral part of the school jazz combo, senior band, pit band and chamber orchestra. Nick’s main instrument is guitar, which he started when he was nine years old. He also plays mandolin and recently began studying violin. Nick has received instruction from Steve Briggs, Kim Ratcliffe, Lorne Lofsky, Geoff Young and Nichol Robertson.

He performs with various musicians around the city. For the last 2 years he has been part of the Humber College Community Jazz program. Nick was recently selected to be part of the Yamaha All-Star Band at 2011 Musicfest Canada. Nick will be pursuing a Bachelor of Music in September.

Jon Chapman, bass

Jon is a 17 year old bassist residing in Waterloo, Ontario, and is currently in grade 11 at Waterloo Collegiate Institute. It is at this school where he holds the bass chair in the successful WCI Senior Strings Orchestra. Jon has been playing double bass for 3.5 years, studying under Toronto bassist Mike Milligan. In July 2010, Jon took the stage at the Uptown Waterloo Jazz Festival, twice. One performance was with a selected ensemble of young musicians (The Uptown Waterloo Young Musicians). The other performance was with Macondo, a Latin jazz ensemble, with whom he is a Neruda Productions Artist. In September, Jon made his recording debut with the release of Macondo’s “Ignited”. In the fall, he was accepted into the Jazz Fm.91 Youth Big Band, which performs frequently in Toronto. In spring 2011, Jon was selected as the bassist for the 2011 Yamaha All Star Big Band to perform in Vancouver, BC. He currently attends Humber College’s Community Music Program, where he studies double bass under Dan Fortin.

Davide Corazza, drums

Davide is 17 yrs old, has been playing drums for over 10 years and currently attends Cardinal Carter Academiy of the Arts in Toronto. A keen student of jazz, Davide has studied drums and percussion at the Humber College Community Music School with Steve Mancuso and Ethan Ardelli and currently studies piano with Brian Rudolf. Davide has performed at numerous regional and national festivals including the Next Generation Festival, Musicfest Nationals and the Ontario Band Association. He enjoys playing in jazz bands, jazz combos and his school’s Wind Symphony. Davide plans to attend Humber College in the Music Degree Program next year on his way to a career in the performing arts.

Please contact:

Christina Takaoka
Program Assistant, Music Department