Willi Zwozdesky | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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Willi Zwozdesky

Willi Zwozdesky. Conductor, arranger, teacher, baritone, b Bonnyville, Alta, 1 Sep 1955; B MUS (Alberta) 1977, MA and M MUS (U of Washington) 1981. Willi Zwozdesky studied music theory and conducting, and in 1987 studied arts administration on scholarship at the Banff Centre School of Management.

Zwozdesky, Willi

Willi Zwozdesky. Conductor, arranger, teacher, baritone, b Bonnyville, Alta, 1 Sep 1955; B MUS (Alberta) 1977, MA and M MUS (U of Washington) 1981. Willi Zwozdesky studied music theory and conducting, and in 1987 studied arts administration on scholarship at the Banff Centre School of Management. Conductor of the Vancouver Men's Chorus beginning in 1982, Zwozdesky was an early supporter of the male and gay choral movements in both Canada and the US. He has been a clinician, adjudicator, and administrator, and has sat on the choral directorship faculty of the British Columbia Choral Federation, an organization of which he was also executive director in 2005.

As an arranger of concert, folk, and popular music, Zwozdesky has worked with the Elektra Women's Choir (arranging Connie Kaldor's Wood River), the Seattle Men's Chorus, Chor Leoni Men's Choir, the Turtle Creek Chorale, and the Edmonton Ukrainian Male Chorus, who recorded his Malanka Suite in 2005. A number of Zwozdesky's arrangements have been published by his own Rhythmic Trident Music Publishing (founded 1990).

In 2004, Willi Zwozdesky was the recipient of the BC Choral Federation's Willan Award and GALA's (Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses) Legacy Award.