Sooke Harbour
Chamber Music Workshop

Marc Destrubé enjoys a varied international career on historical and modern violins, performing as soloist, chamber musician, concertmaster or director/conductor.

He was until recently co-concertmaster of the Orchestra of the 18th Century (Amsterdam) with whom he toured to major festivals and concert halls around the world for the past four decades, performs with the Axelrod String Quartet (quartet-in-residence at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC) and the Vancouver quartet Microcosmos, and is a regular guest director and soloist with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, the Australian Haydn Ensemble and Lyra Baroque Orchestra.

With Microcosmos he established the Kessler Academy, a multi-generational mentorship string orchestra project held every summer in Vancouver.

Simon MacDonald began studying the violin in Victoria in 1980 and decided to pursue it professionally after performing with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada in 1990–91. He earned degrees from the New England Conservatory (BMus 1996) and McGill University (MMus 1998).

Simon has performed across Canada, the U.S., Europe, and Russia, holding key positions with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, and Regina Symphony Orchestra. A passionate collaborator, he has premiered numerous works at the Winnipeg New Music Festival, launched Regina’s first Beethoven Quartet Cycle, and performed in ensembles ranging from Baroque groups to Broadway tours.

From 2017–2024, he served as Head of Strings and Artistic Director of the Young Artists Collegium at the Victoria Conservatory of Music, in the footsteps of one of his first teachers, Sydney Humphreys, who was the first head of strings of the VCM. Now based in Victoria, Simon teaches privately and performs widely throughout British Columbia

Yariv Aloni is the Music Director of the Victoria Chamber Orchestra, Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra and the Sooke Philharmonic, and principal guest conductor of the West Coast Symphony Orchestra in Vancouver. 

Former violist of both the Penderecki string quartet and the Aviv piano quartet, he has performed in many European and North American concert halls, including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Centre in New York, the Louvre in Paris, and Tonhalle in Zurich. He has recorded for the United, Marquise, Tritonus and CBC and independent labels. He regularly performs with the Victoria Piano Quartet and the Omega String Trio in numerous chamber-music concerts, festivals and recital series. 

Yariv was a finalist at the François Shapira competition in Tel Aviv. He earned the Israel Broadcasting Authority award for chamber-music performance and numerous awards and scholarships from the American-Israel Cultural Foundation. 

Born on a kibbutz in Israel, Yariv began studying the violin and subsequently turned to the viola, which he studied with David Chen at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem; Daniel Benyamini, principal violist of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra; and Michael Tree, violist of the Guarneri Quartet.

With an emphasis on chamber music, Yariv studied at the Jerusalem Music Centre with distinguished visiting faculty from around the world, including Isaac Stern, and the Amadeus and Guarneri String Quartets. His conducting teacher and mentor was the Hungarian conductor János Sándor, former music director of the Budapest State Opera and the Györ Philharmonic Orchestra.

Pamela Highbaugh Aloni is praised for her “meltingly beautiful solos” (The Detroit News) and performances of “depth and insight” (Times Colonist), and is a co-founding member of the prize–winning Lafayette String Quartet.

Since 1991, Pamela along with her quartet colleagues has been an Artist in Residence at UVic, where she teaches cello, chamber music and co-supervises the strings mentoring course in collaboration with School District 61. She and the LSQ maintain their leadership in one of the strongest university string programs in Canada. The Lafayette quartet celebrated 25 years of musical life together in 2011. Highlights of these years include a celebration of the millennium performing all sixteen of Beethoven’s string quartets, tours in North America and Europe, and the initiation of the Lafayette Health Awareness Forum. Recordings include a recent title “Tre Vecchi Amici” featuring works written for the quartet. Their CBC recording “Death and the Maiden” was awarded “Outstanding Classical Recording of the Year” by the Western Canada Music Awards.

A native of California, Pamela served as principal cellist with the Detroit’s Renaissance City Chamber Players. She was a Ford Motor Company Artist in Residence at the Center for Creative Studies Institute of Music and Dance and a faculty member at Oakland University. She earned her BMus and MMus degrees from California State University, Northridge and Indiana University. Her principal teachers include Peter Rejto, Janos Starker and Paul Katz.

An enthusiast teacher, Ms. Highbaugh Aloni served for ten years on the faculty at the Courtenay Youth Music School and Festival and for the past six years has been the coach for the Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra cello section. She has performed both as a soloist and recitalist and has been a guest artist with the Sooke Philharmonic, Vetta Ensemble of Vancouver, Victoria Summer Festival, Eine Kleine Summer Music, Chamber Music San Juan, and the Victoria Symphony’s Summer Cathedral Series, and has served as principal cellist with the Galiano Ensemble since its inaugural season in 2000. Pamela plays on a George Craske cello made in England, 1850.