
Dr. Darlene Chepil Reid (BSc. McMaster, AMus Conservatory Canada, HBMus. Lakehead, MMus. Western, DMus. Alberta). She has studied composition with many Canadian composers including Allan Gordon Bell, Peter Paul Koprowski, David Myska, and Aris Carastathis and music theory with Catherine Nolan and Henry Klumpenhouwer. Darlene has been the recipient of many of Canada’s most prestigious academic scholarships and prizes including a Killam Scholarship and SSHRC Masters/Doctoral fellowships. She is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre. She was President of New Music North from 2000-2013 and Artistic Director from 2018-2021. Darlene was selected to attend the National Arts Centre Composers Program (2007) and the Institute for Music in Film at the University of Miami (2012).
As a composer, Dr. Chepil Reid writes in an avant-garde and experimental fashion for both acoustic and electroacoustic instruments. Her works have been performed by many soloists and ensembles including the Penderecki String Quartet, the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, the University of Alberta Symphonic Winds, the Western University Chamber Orchestra, Larry Zimmerman, John Helmer, Athanasios Zervas and Trio Fibonacci.
Darlene has been a private piano teacher and has taught music theory at Western University and the University of Alberta and has been a music history examiner with Conservatory Canada. Currently she is a Contract Lecturer in the Lakehead University Music Department teaching private composition lessons, composition courses, history, theory, analysis, film music, orchestration, music appreciation and is the Director of the Lakehead University New Music Ensemble. Darlene is a member of the Canadian Federation of Musicians Thunder Bay Local 591 and performs regularly on tenor/bass trombone, tuba, baritone with Roy Coran’s Jazz Big Band, and ThunderBrass quintet.
Darlene has performed with many ensembles including, Lake Superior Scottish Regiment Band and Stage Band, Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, London Jazz Orchestra, Edmonton Cosmopolitan Music Society Band, and University of Alberta Symphonic Winds. Darlene is director/arranger for ThunderBrass and conducts Thunder Bay’s prestigious Fort William Male Choir. Darlene is currently a prolific arranger and has been commissioned for arrangements of various genres for choir and vocal with large ensembles. She has done many arrangements and adaptations of popular music hits for the choir and other ensembles across Canada and the US.