Library Creative Session

"Jeremy Berkman... turns phrases into characters with eloquent tone and smooth line in Underhill’s stunning Trombone Quintet…” - Elissa Poole (Globe and Mail)

A graduate of Juilliard School of Music as well as Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music (with degrees in music and economics) trombonist Jeremy Berkman currently plays with and leads the education and community engagement efforts of Vancouver’s award winning Turning Point Ensemble (TPE). He performs with the Vancouver Opera Orchestra, One Two Trio (Brass Trio), and large jazz ensembles led by Jill Townsend, Daniel Hersog, and John Korsrud. With TPE, Jeremy has co-led a number of large scale collaborations and in 2011 was honoured with Vancouver’s Mayor’s Arts Award (Music). His most recent musical passion is music from the 16th and 17th century, which he plays on a sackbut made in 2020 by BC brass instrument maker Andrew Clark inspired by various instruments from the 16th century. He has contributed to over 40 commercial recordings, and is featured in Still Image (music of Owen Underhill on Centerdisc). With The Peggy Lee Band he has recorded five cds, toured nationally and internationally, and as a band member been nominated for a Juno Award. A student of Tim Atherton, Thomas Cramer, and Per Brevig, Jeremy taught for 30 years at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Jeremy's students have become successful professional performers, educators, and most importantly more passionate listeners.  Jeremy's first visit to Orchestra North was in 2017 as part of a collaboration with Turning Point Ensemble, and he is very happy to be working to develop a new project with Roxi Dykstra and Orchestra North for which this year's visit will hopefully advance!

Cellist Isidora Nojkovic is an active soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician. Praised for her "great control" (Chicago Classical Review), she has a passion for contemporary music and commissioning, having premiered over 50 works, and is one half of the contemporary violin/cello duo Orbit (“the new cross-continental duo to pay attention to.” – Classical Post). A founding member of Varo String Quartet, she also performs regularly with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Illinois Symphony, Vancouver’s Turning Point Ensemble, and the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra. She has completed two tours with Lincoln Center Stage, performing in twenty-two countries as part of a piano quintet. 

Isidora is currently cello faculty at Millikin University in Illinois and coaches chamber music for the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra. She is a graduate of University of Ottawa (BMus.) and Manhattan School of Music (MMus.). 

Kent Dykstra  (B.Ed. Trinity Western Univ., M.Ed. Univ. of Alberta) is the music teacher and principal at Credo Christian High School, Langley, BC. He trained as a youth in both violin and piano, and has served as church organist and choir director. From 2000 to 2008, Kent successfully built a band program at Parkland Immanuel Christian School, Edmonton, which sent groups on tours to BC, Manitoba, and Ontario. His passion is composing and arranging music for his students, for both band and stringed instruments, especially based upon the Genevan Psalms. He released three CDs of Genevan Psalms arranged for string orchestra.

He has been the director of the Reformed String Camp in Canada for seventeen years.