Peter Dent Jazz Pianist, Composer, Choral Arranger, Choir Conductor

PETER DENT – STILL SINGING, CONDUCTING AND PLAYING AFTER ALL THESE YEARS.

Peter Dent is planning to wind down his cultural singing tours to Cuba and Central Europe in 2024. He began a collaboration with Club Tours Agentur of Prague in 1998 which has, to date, resulted in 17 trips to 15 countries. Participants have enjoyed making music and visiting historical sites in Czechia (Czech Republic), Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Lithuania and Poland to name a few. Since 2007, Dent has arranged music for folk and pop singing trips to Cuba. The Cuban venue is held in Jibacoa, a regional resort area between Havana and Veradero. It features a collaboration with a very fine regional Cuban Band.

Both undertakings assemble singers from many regions of Canada at the beginning of the tours to form a non-auditioned choir in the host country where singers rehearse for 5 to 7 days, and then give performances. Please consult this website to learn of posted dates. Similar information can be found through Martina Peladeau. (mpeladeau@dt.com)

Peter Dent retired from regular choral conducting in December of 2022. After a 2-year Covid-induced hiatus he was briefly the Music Director of the Allegra Singers. Previous positions in South Vancouver Island included the Newcombe Singers of Victoria (12 years), the Ekoos Vocal Ensemble of Sooke (5 years) and 7 years with the Arion Male Voice Choir of Victoria.

Over the past 25 years he managed to achieve much as a choral conductor. While living on Galiano Island, Peter started Coro Galiano which continues to thrive today. He was the manager and co-conductor of Vivaldi Chamber Choir of Vancouver during the choir’s two tours of Mexico and one of Central Europe. In an International choral competition in 2002, the Pacific Singers, which he founded in 1999, received the highest mark awarded in the Adult Mixed Voice Choir category in the annual Prague Folk Music Festival. Dent was a guest juror in international choral competitions in that city in both 2004 and 2007. Prior to taking up conducting he h Peter Dent
conducting ad a lengthy career in the labour movement.

During a 50 year period he continued to write original material primarily for himself. However as he approaches his 80's he wanted to record and preserve some of these pieces. They appear at the end of this article.

Peter Dent has a BA from York University and a Master of Education degree from the University of British Columbia where he studied choral conducting with James Fankhauser and arranging with Fred Stride. He is the composer of two major choral works: A Jazz Mass – 1993 (Click here to listen to a recording) and A Canadian Requiem – 2003.

Peter Dent is also a jazz pianist and choral arranger. His music is played regularly on the CBC. He is comfortable conducting a variety of musical genres and has led vocal workshops in Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia.

Peter spent the academic year of 2007-2008 teaching jazz piano and conducting the University Choir at the Edna Manley School for the Performing Arts in Kingston, Jamaica. Since moving to Victoria, he has played in diverse venues. Dent continues to play and record with Violinist Robert Dukarm. For some musical variety, he plays guitar and sings with Kevin Ramsay as the “Never Be Brothers” who is featured on some of these recordings.

Peter became a life member of Victoria Local 247, Canadian Federation of Musicians in April of 2015. He and his wife are members of the Union Club of Victoria.

Recordings:

Most of these recordings were done in two sessions in June of 2023 at Miles Black's studio in Surrey, BC. I was honoured to have Miles play bass. Miles is a superb pianist and instrumentalist. A smaller number of the tracks were done in 1982 and one was recorded live in 2009 at Hermann's Jazz Club in Victoria.

They were not intended to be polished performances but rather to reflect my creative life and experiences over a 45 year period. Please enjoy them.

Click on the Album Cover to enjoy the music.

This audio recording of a gig I did with the late Sibel Thrasher at Hermann’s Jazz Club in Victoria on November 25, 2009. It is being posted as a tribute to her memory. The recording is unmixed, unmastered, and unedited except for the order of the tunes.

Musicians on the date were myself on piano, Alex Olson on Bass and Mike Griner on drums.

I spoke with Sibel less than a week before she died. It is sad that she passed at the relatively young age of 67. But, with people like Sibel in our lives, “I think to myself. What a wonderful world!” - Peter Dent

Click on the Album Cover to enjoy the music.

Recently, while in Vancouver, I visited Lorraine Foster, a great singer and good friend. Lorraine and I worked extensively in the late 1990s and early 2000s until I left Vancouver. In our working time, we recorded one CD and did concert tours of Vancouver Island and Southern Ontario. She told me that she had discovered an audio cassette of a live performance we did in the late 1990’s.

I took the tape, had it transferred to disc and asked my friend John Coulthard to do some minimal mastering. The performance took place on March 15th, 1997 at the Unitarian Church of Vancouver. The two side players were Danny Parker on Bass and Joel Fountain on percussion.

This is a live recording so the chance to do any editing is non-existent. But with all its limitations, it is a wonderful memory of what we were doing in 1997. I hope you enjoy the tunes. It was great to rediscover this history of our performance and bring it back to life.

Click here or on the Album Cover to enjoy the music.

Aug 23/2023
Apr 26/2024