Robert Payne 

Artistic Director / Conductor

 

Conductor, Robert Payne, a graduate of the Brandon University School of Music (BU, 1986), with a major in piano and a double minor in trumpet and percussion, is a retired music educator who taught concert band, wind ensemble, jazz band, chamber ensemble, percussion, and piano for 31 years in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Mr. Payne completed post-graduate wind band conducting seminars with Eugene Corporon, Allan McMurray, Dale Lonis, Paula Holcomb and Rodney Winther. He also holds a diploma from the Canadian Wind Conductors Development Program.

 

Mr. Payne has performed as guest conductor for the Manitoba Provincial Junior Honour Band, the Manitoba Central Region Senior Honour Band, and numerous other Provincial Honour Bands over his career.  He has been a clinician and adjudicator at many music festivals throughout the Province of Manitoba and was the Musical Director of the Elmwood Summer Band Camp for 10 years. 

 

Mr. Payne served the Manitoba Band Association throughout his career on multiple committees and presided as Board President for six years.  In 2019, the Manitoba Band Association honoured Mr. Payne with their most prestigious Award of Distinction – “In recognition of his outstanding contribution to music education in Manitoba”.

 

Since moving to Kelowna in the Spring of 2017, Mr. Payne has performed with the Kelowna Community Concert Band, volunteered with the Central Okanagan Jazz Festival and the Okanagan Symphony Youth Orchestra, has performed with the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra. Most recently he was appointed as President of the Board of Directors for the Kelowna Community Music School Society. 

 

Mr. Payne served as substitute conductor for the Kelowna Community Concert Band intermittently through the 2018 and 2019 seasons, and in the spring of 2020, Mr. Payne was appointed to the position of Artistic Director and Conductor for the Kelowna Community Concert Band.