ABOUT ME
Kevin Vuong (he/him) is a Toronto-based clarinetist, music director, and conductor-educator.
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Equally comfortable on the podium, in the pit, and in the classroom, Kevin Vuong is a GTA-based conductor-educator whose diverse resumé includes serving as Music Director for numerous musical theatre productions, as a freelance studio, new music, and concert conductor, and as a conductor-clinician working with school and community groups including the Toronto Youth Wind Orchestra, the Metropolitan Winds of Toronto and the Ontario Provincial Honour Band. Kevin currently teaches vocal music, instrumental music and musical theatre at Arts Mackenzie at Alexander Mackenzie High School in Richmond Hill, Ontario.
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Most recently, Kevin co-authored an article titled “Hope for New Horizons: In Response to Building Back Better’” for the Canadian Winds, and served as Music Director for the 2022 Toronto Fringe Festival Patron’s Pick production of Nam Nguyen’s A Perfect Bowl of Pho.
Kevin has also recently served as a mentor with the Global Ideas Institute, co-leading a group of high school students towards developing innovative approaches to bolster the digital safety of marginalized communities through the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Kevin is committed to representation, diversity, equity and inclusion in music education, serving on the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access (IDEA) committee of the Ontario Band Association, and has conducted research on student-centred pedagogies in the secondary instrumental music classroom.
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Kevin holds a Master of Teaching from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, and recently completed his Bachelor of Music (Music Education) with Honours at the University of Toronto where he studied clarinet with Peter Stoll and conducting with Dr. Gillian Mackay and Ivars Taurins.
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Biography and CV current as of December 2022.
September 2020 - June 2022 (expected)
MASTER OF TEACHING
ONTARIO INSTITUTE FOR STUDIES IN EDUCATION
Intermediate/Senior Instrumental Music and History
Part of the MT-UTS cohort - a school-based cohort rooted in experiential learning and global citizenship education.
Research focus is on teacher-conductors and democratic/student-centered pedagogies.
Continued involvement as Music Representative on the UofT Drama Coalition Executive.
September 2015Â - June 2019
BACHELOR OF MUSIC (MUSIC EDUCATION)
FACULTY OF MUSIC, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
Recipient of the Kenneth and Helen Bray Scholarship and the William Croombs Memorial Scholarship for Music Education..
Awarded the Gordon Cressy Student Leadership Award in 2019 for involvement on the Faculty of Music Undergraduate Association and contributions to campus musical theatre.
Studied clarinet with Peter Stoll and conducting with Gillian Mackay and Ivars Taurins.
January 2020 - Present
WOODWINDS TEACHER
WARE ACADEMY OF MUSIC
Available for private or virtual clarinet, saxophone and recorder lessons at any level.
For more information and to book a trial lesson, please visit www.wareacademyofmusic.com/clarinetinstructors.html
July 2019Â - September 2020
OFFICE ASSISTANT
OPERA ATELIER
Managed traditional administrative duties such as mail, messages, couriers, supplies, maintaining files as well as providing administrative support for the Co-Artistic Directors and the Executive Director.
Assisted with management of social media accounts, and with social/digital media strategy. Leveraged the use of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn to support sales and promote brand in co-operation with Marketing staff and Co-Artistic Director.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT & PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY
While cognizant that we meet today in an online space, I wish to acknowledge this land on which we currently live. As I am currently situated in Toronto, I wish to honour the enduring presence of Indigenous Peoples in my community.
Since time immemorial, Toronto, or Tkaranto has been the traditional land of the Haudenosaunee, the Anishinabek, the Chippewa, the Wendat and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous Peoples from across Turtle Island, and I am grateful to have the opportunity to live, work and create on and with this land.

We must understand that settler colonialism does not exist in the past tense, but is a constant ongoing process in which we are all complicit. Thus, as educators, we have a responsibility to ask questions involving the history (past, present and future) of, our relationship with, and our actions on, stolen land.
Consequently, as artists, we acknowledge that we have the responsibility to affirm and uplift the marginalized members of our community. We also understand that the land does not just provide us with space and time to create, but accept the land as teacher and fellow creator – it permeates all that we do and have done. Therefore, we must commit to eradicating injustice throughout the colonial systems and structures in which we work, educate and create.
I encourage all of us to take concrete actions beyond the Land Acknowledgement. Find out more about the diverse Indigenous Peoples of Canada and the land on which you are currently situated by visiting native-land.ca, familiarizing yourself with the calls to action in the Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and to listen to, support and uplift Indigenous ways of knowing, movements, organizations and excellence in our spheres of privilege and influence. I offer these as small, but ongoing steps towards truth and reconciliation in Canada.
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I wish to make sure that whenever my student-musicians walk into my classroom, that they feel welcomed and part of a musical organism where the whole is the greater of the sum of it’s parts. I will always strive to foster community and a brave space for my students to both find each other, and be themselves.
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I am unapologetic in advocating for diversity, equity and inclusion in music education, especially for greater visibility of Asian-Canadian artists and educators in our classrooms, curriculum, and musical canon.
I am a (hypenated) conductor-educator for two reasons - firstly as I believe my artistry informs my teaching informs my artistry, and because I believe in teacher-conductors as democratic agents of change in the music classroom.
CONDUCTOR
I am a dynamic and ​multi-faceted conductor with experience in diverse settings (recording studios, musical theatre, orchestral, concert band, etc.) and working with instrumentalists and singers of all levels.
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I am also committed to growth as a conductor through continued participation at conducting workshops and apprenticeships with master conductors.
EDUCATOR
As an educator, I have worked with students of all levels, from young recorder students to university-level/adult artists.
I have worked with instrumental ensembles at TDSB Music by the Lake (Grade 6-8) for three years and conducted (in interim) the Richmond Hill High School Grade 10 Symphonic Winds for four weeks.
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I also have experience leading woodwind (saxophone, clarinet and recorder) clinics in private and group settings.
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I am currently a Master of Teaching student at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.
CLARINETIST
I am a freelance clarinet player and private teacher in the Toronto area with experience in chamber, orchestral and wind ensemble playing, as well as doubling on saxophone in musical theatre pit orchestras.
MUSIC DIRECTOR
I have music directed (vocal and orchestra) both professional and amateur productions, and have experience with workshopping/premiering original musicals.
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Most recently, I was the Music Director for a semi-staged concert production of Sweeney Todd in the Victoria College Chapel.
