Composer, conductor, performer, and teacher, Rob McKenzie brings to his work a lifetime of experience in the Vancouver music scene. His interest in composition stems from early experimentation with pop, rock, and jazz improvisation. This lead to jazz, and classical training in Vancouver, Los Angeles, and Toronto; culminating in 1989 in a Masters degree in music composition from the University of British Columbia.
McKenzie's works, among them Indigo, Bala de Plata, Veils, Fiddlehead Shuffle, and Vicious Circle have been recorded and performed on CBC Radio, Pro-Musica's Sonic Boom series, as well as the Vancouver and Montreal International Jazz festivals. Recent completed works include commissions for the Hard Rubber Music Society, the Little Chamber Music Series That Could, the B.C. Boy¹s Choir and Saxophilia. As a trombonist, Rob has performed in orchestras, chamber ensembles, big bands, jazz and rock groups; playing in concerts, musicals, touring groups, and on studio sessions for television and radio with the likes of Maynard Ferguson, Slide Hampton, Louie Bellson, Muhal Richard Abrams, Clark Terry, Kenny Wheeler, Natalie Cole, Hugh Fraser, Phil Nimmons, Harry Connick Jr., and Rob McConnell. A regular with the Alan Matheson Septet, he also leads his own group Solid Brass, a jazz nonet featuring five of the West Coast's finest trombonists.
When he isn't writing or performing, Rob teaches composition, arranging, trombone, and theory at Vancouver Community College and Capilano College. He currently lives in Vancouver with his wife and two children.
