Wayne Toews was born in Winnipeg, MB, Canada where he began to study the violin at the age of 4. His early musical experience included singing with the Westmount Boys Choir and serving as concertmaster of the Saskatoon Youth Orchestra. He was active on the school student council, in Scouting and in DeMolay. He studied violin and composition with Dr. Murray Adaskin at the University of Saskatchewan where he received B.A. and B.Ed. degrees. He played for nine seasons in the Saskatoon Symphony, first on violin and later on viola. He performed on double bass and percussion in the U of S Wind Orchestra under Dwaine Nelson. He was a member of the Saskatchewan Jubilee Orchestra under Arthur Fiedler and played in the orchestras for the touring shows of Tom Jones, Englebert Humperdinck, Ray Price and André Gagnon.
Mr. Toews taught music in Saskatoon schools from 1969. He started the band program at City Park Collegiate and neighbourhood schools and in 1976 began a twenty-five year career at Aden Bowman Collegiate where he taught band, orchestra, choir, general music and jazz band. Groups under his direction earned more than 50 first place awards. On two occasions his jazz groups won first place awards at national festivals. He has served as president and board member of several professional organizations.
Since 1983 he has been director of the Saskatoon
Youth Orchestra in association with George Charpentier.
The orchestra has represented Saskatchewan at two
conventions of the Canadian Music Educators Association.
He led the orchestra in the 1988, 1990 and 1992 Canadian
Festivals of Youth Orchestras, the 1996 and 1998 Banff
International Festival of Youth Orchestras and the
1998 and 2000 festivals of Quebec Youth Orchestras
(AOJQ). The orchestra under his direction was awarded
the Christopher Gledhill national orchestra performance
award by the Canadian Music Educators' Association
award six successive times in 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999,
2002 and 2003.
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Mr. Toews began to study the Saito Conducting method in 1974 at the Courtenay Youth Music Camp with Professor Morihiro Okabe and Maestro Kazuyoshi Akiyama. He continued his studies with Prof. Okabe at the Toho Gakuen School of Music in 1983. He prepared the English edition of the Saito Conducting Method text which was completed with the assistance of Fumihiko Torigai, Morihiro Okabe and Kazuyoshi Akiyama and published in Tokyo in 1988. His articles about the method have been published in the NSOA Bulletin, the Instrumentalist and SMEA's Cadenza. He organized several international conducting workshops with Prof. Okabe at Canadian universities. He has been guest presenter at Conductors Guild convention in New York, at the 1994 Midwest International Band and Orchestra clinic, at McGill and Northwestern Universities, at the Canadian Festivals of Youth Orchestras in Banff, and at conventions of the Saskatchewan and Canadian Music Educators Associations.
Among his published works are an elementary music theory booklet, a clarinet resource book, a bass guitar book and several curriculum guides. He has created several computer programs including Subjective Tones and the Saito Conducting Method.
Mr. Toews served as guest conductor of honour groups and professional orchestras and has conducted the premieres of contemporary works by Canadian composers Jack Johnson, David Kaplan, Monte Keene Pishny-Floyd, Susan Bond Hurka, Piotr Grella-Mozejko, Linda Purves, Gareth Cook and David Scott.
In the fall of 2004 he became founding director of the University of Saskatchewan Chamber Orchestra.
He received the "Outstanding Achievement Award" from Saskatchewan Music Educators Association in 1987,the 1990 " Golden Wheel Award for Excellence in Arts and Education" from the Rotary Clubs of Saskatoon and the 2001 Orchestral Development award from the Saskatchewan Orchestral Association.
Mr. Toews holds a Masters in Music Education degree and a certificate in educational technology from Northwestern University where he developed a multimedia computer program to demonstrate the Saito conducting method.
He retired from teaching for the Saskatoon Public Board of Education in June 2001. He remains active as a clinician, guest conductor and instructional designer.
Wayne Toews
1610 Morgan Avenue,
Saskatoon, SK.,
Canada, S7H 2S1
Telephone: (306) 373-6408
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