Dr. Dale Sorensen
Conductor, 2020–2023; 2024–present

Dale Sorensen is currently Chair of UPEI’s Department of Music, where he teaches applied brass instruments and conducts the Wind Symphony. An active trombonist who performs in a variety of genres, Dale is a member of the PEI Symphony Orchestra, the Maritime Brass Quintet, the Charlottetown Festival Orchestra, and a regular guest with Symphony Nova Scotia. As a soloist, Dale has premiered more than 25 Canadian trombone works, and recorded an all-Canadian album of music for trombone, Harambee, available on all streaming services. In addition to his frequent solo recitals, Dale has performed as soloist with the Windsor Symphony (ON), PEI Symphony Orchestra, Nova Sinfonia (NS), and the Acadia University, UPEI, and University of Toronto Wind Ensembles.

From 2008 to 2011, Dale was the conductor and music director for the Strathgartney Chamber Orchestra. During his doctoral studies from 2011 to 2015, he directed weekly rehearsals and conducted regular public performances of the University of Toronto Trombone Choir. Since returning to PEI, Dale has been a guest conductor for various projects including the PEI Symphony Orchestra's co-production of The Nutcracker with Dance Umbrella at the Confederation Centre of the Arts in December 2023. A dedicated educator who serves as an adjudicator and clinician at music festivals and workshops throughout the Maritimes and Ontario, Dale has been a frequent adjudicator for the PEI Band Days festival, and in February 2024 served as the conductor/clinician for the PEI Public School Branch's High School Honour Band.

Dr. Nicole Strum 
Conductor, 2023–2024

Nicole Strum is currently Assistant Professor at UPEI where she teaches music theory and applied saxophone, assists with the UPEI Wind Symphony, and directs UPEI Summer Studios, a week-long chamber music workshop for advanced young musicians. As a saxophonist, Nicole has been praised for her expressive voice and the intensity of her interpretations. She is a member of two duos focused on contemporary music: the Feldsperling Duo (with flautist Liesel Deppe) and the Strum-De Borba duo (with saxophonist Tristan De Borba). Performance highlights include appearances at the North American Saxophone Alliance's Regional and Biennial conferences, the World Saxophone Congress, the Society for Composers Inc. Region 10 Conference, the UNCG New Music Festival, Mount Allison University's Recital Series, the Transitio_MX Festival Internacional de Artes Electrónicas in Mexico City, and as concerto soloist with the UPEI Wind Symphony.

Nicole has held positions as director of the Mount Allison Symphonic Band, the UPEI Wind Symphony, and ensembles at Three Oaks Senior High School in Summerside, PE and Colonel Gray High School in Charlottetown. She directed bands at military cadet summer training centres in Alberta for several years early in her career and is active as an instrumental and ensemble adjudicator at local and national music festivals including for MusicFest Canada "The Nationals." Nicole aims to create compelling, equitable concert programs which promote underrepresented composers and genres and is interested in the wind ensemble as a space for collaborative musicianship.

Dr. Karem J. Simon 
Conductor, 1995–2019

Karem J. Simon is an active soloist, chamber and orchestral musician, and conductor. Now a Professor Emeritus at UPEI, he was a member of the Music faculty from 1991 until his retirement in 2023, where his principal duties include the instruction of clarinet and saxophone majors, the conducting of the Wind Symphony, and the teaching of courses in music education.

A native of Newfoundland and a graduate of UBC, Northwestern, and Mount Allison Universities, Dr. Simon has been a featured artist with the PEI Symphony, Saint John String Quartet, Gros Morne Summer Music Festival, and the International Clarinet Association's ClarinetFest.

As a Canada Council for the Arts and PEI Council of the Arts grants recipient, he studied contemporary clarinet techniques in 2008 with Robert Spring at Arizona State University. He is known as a passionate and sensitive musician, able to inspire musicians of diverse backgrounds. His philosophies and methodologies have been forged through his forty-two years of public school and university teaching, and synthesized through his experiences and studies with some of the leading wind band conductors – John Paynter, Eugene Corporon, Dale Lonis, Michael Haithcock, Craig Kirchoff among them. Conducting engagements with the PEI Symphony Orchestra, the National Youth Band of Canada, and a variety of provincial Honour Bands highlight his career. The UPEI Wind Symphony produced twenty-two CDs under his direction.

In 2023, he released an album, Solitary Clarinet, a collection of pieces for unaccompanied clarinet, which is available on all of the major online music streaming platforms.