Directed by Paolo Bortolussi, the UBC Contemporary Players ensemble includes graduate and undergraduate students from the School of Music focusing on music and performance of our time. Programs blend masterworks by internationally acclaimed composers with world premieres of works written expressly for the ensemble by UBC composition majors.

Flutist Paolo Bortolussi is a soloist, chamber artist and new music pioneer. Raised in Halifax, NS, he has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician across Canada, the US and abroad. A specialist in contemporary music, Bortolussi is the flutist and co-director of the Nu:BC Collective, a new music and multimedia arts ensemble in residence at UBC. To date he has premiered over one hundred and fifty solo and chamber works. In 2016, Bortolussi released his first solo album, Israfel – music for flute and electronics, on the Redshift label, which includes works by Keith Hamel, Larry Lake, John Oliver and Kaija Saariaho. Currently principal flutist with the Vancouver Island Symphony, Bortolussi has appeared as soloist with the VIS as well as the Albany (NY) Symphony and the Turning Point Ensemble, and has performed with the Aventa Ensemble, the Vancouver Opera Orchestra, the Vancouver Intercultural Orchestra, as well as the Vancouver and Victoria Symphony Orchestras. Bortolussi is on the music faculty of the University of British Columbia, Kwantlen Polytechnic University and Trinity Western University. He holds a BMus in performance from the University of Ottawa as well as Masters and Doctoral degrees from Indiana University. He is currently director of the UBC Contemporary Players.

Joanne S. Na is a DMA student in Composition at UBC studying with Dorothy Chang, and serves as a coach for the Contemporary Players. Her works have been selected for scores and concerts throughout the US and South Korea, including the 63rd Annual University of Michigan Organ Conference, Pacific Chamber Orchestra’s Dream American Workshop, 2021 Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium, Hwaum Project Academy Call for Scores (South Korea), among others. In 2021, she won the NAfME Student Composers Competition and received the Seoul Grand Philharmonic Orchestra Composers Award in 2020. She has collaborated with renowned artists and ensembles including Grammy-winning soprano Estelí Gomez, soprano Arwen Myers, cellist Arlen Hlusko, clarinetist Wonkak Kim, 4X5 Piano Duo, Delgani String Quartet, Kenari Quartet, Helix! New Music Ensemble, Hwaum Chamber Orchestra, Pacific Chamber Orchestra, and University of Oregon Symphony Orchestra. Her piece Open Letters for clarinet and piano is commercially recorded by clarinetist Wonkak Kim and pianist Eunhye Grace Choi and will be released in early 2024. Before coming to Canada, she studied in the US, earning her Bachelor’s from Rutgers University and Master’s from the University of Oregon.