Masterclass Series
Generously supported by the David Rubel Realtor Team​
Please note that there will be no masterclass on October 11th or November 1st.
2025/2026 Masterclass Clinicians
Arid Landscapes
September 12, 2025
Arid Landscapes is a co-led ambient, electronic-inspired, electro-acoustic duo consisting of Vancouver based, JUNO nominated pianist Noah Franche-Nolan and Toronto based guitarist Dan Pitt. The two create atmospheric, usually spontaneous pieces by combining various pianos, keyboards, synths and guitars while blending in effect pedals along with live audio processing to create unique soundscapes that blend a multitude of styles and influences. Their debut self-titled record is available on Sept 19 2025.
​
Listen to Arid Landscapes on Bandcamp here.
​
Noah Franche-Nolan is a Juno-Nominated Canadian pianist, improviser, composer, and producer based in Vancouver, BC. He leads the Noah Franche-Nolan Trio, featuring bassist Jodi Proznick and drummer Nicholas Bracewell. This trio also serves as the rhythm section for the Indo-Jazz Fusion Juno-Nominated group Raagaverse, led by Shruti Ramani, blending rich cultural traditions with contemporary jazz elements. As a film composer and inter-disciplinary collaborator, Franche-Nolan has built a diverse portfolio, including the live score for the 1922 silent film Häxan. This project was commissioned by Vancouver’s independent theatre, The Cinematheque, and showcased his ability to merge historical cinematic art with modern musical sensibilities. Additionally, he composed the score for NYC filmmaker Talha Jalal’s documentary Rite of Passage and Vancouver playwright Shelby Satterthwaite’s play Light Rapid Transit. In the realm of recording, Noah is the co-leader of Arid Landscapes, an electro-acoustic duo collaboration between Noah and Toronto-based guitarist/composer Dan Pitt. Their first self-titled record released on Signal Chain Records, a record label run by Noah and Dan. Through his work as a performer, composer, and producer, Franche-Nolan strives to blend sincere emotional connection with musical intricacy and artistic curiosity, offering audiences and collaborators a uniquely expressive artistic voice.
​
Dan Pitt is a guitarist, composer and improviser currently based in Toronto, Canada. Dan performs regularly throughout Toronto in a variety of music genres and ensembles. He leads his own creative improv group, Dan Pitt Trio, which features bassist Alex Fournier and drummer Nick Fraser. Their debut record, "Fundamentally Flawed", was regarded as “an album that is rich in complexity, original creativity and sophisticated musicianship.” (JazzMusicBlog). They now have two albums as a group including the former mentioned and their 2023 release “Stages”.
Samuel Blaser
September 19, 2025
Winner of the prestigious 2019 "Prix du Musicien européen" from the Académie du Jazz in Paris and the 2021 Downbeat Magazine Critics Poll ("Rising Star Trombone"), Samuel Blaser is redefining what it means to be a trombonist in today's musical landscape. Born in 1981 in La-Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, this dynamic artist burst onto the professional scene after graduating from conservatory in 2002, quickly making waves across continents.
​
During his formative years, Blaser forged powerful connections with the Vienna Art Orchestra and the European Radio Big Band, earned a coveted Fulbright Scholarship, and pursued graduate studies at Purchase College Conservatory of Music in New York. His debut album as a leader, the Samuel Blaser Quartet's 7th Heaven (Between The Lines), marked the beginning of an extraordinary journey. After 16 transformative years living between New York and Berlin, absorbing the pulse of two of the world's most vibrant music scenes, he returned to his Swiss roots in December 2021, bringing with him a wealth of international experience.
David Occhipinti
October 3, 2025
David Occhipinti is a composer, guitarist, and a long-standing contributor to the Canadian music scene. David’s musical accomplishments have earned him two Chalmers Arts Fellowships, as well as multiple JUNO nominations for his work as a recording artist. His critically acclaimed album Forty Revolutions was nominated in 2007; Duologue, in collaboration with saxophonist Mike Murley, in 2003. David has also performed on other JUNO nominated recordings.
​
Camera, (2012) is a recording that features David’s chamber music compositions and guitar improvisations. It was heralded by his mentor, Jim Hall as: “an absolute gem… his writing is unique, his playing is completely original and stunning… an absolute work of art!"
The 2019 release, these out of infinite, features David’s works for the voice with text by Dylan Thomas, James Joyce, e.e. cummings, T.S. Elliot, Emily Carr, Emily Brontë, and Emily Dickinson. Fanfare magazine wrote, “Occhipinti’s settings are stellar and hypnotic….like George Crumb… sheer delight. It breathes freshness and clarity.”
​
David’s first orchestral work, Saturnia (2022), was part of the Toronto Symphony’s 'Explore the Score' program which took place on October 22, 2022 at Roy Thomson Hall.
He received a commission from the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra to compose a piece for brass and percussion. The premiere performance of En Passant was in Ottawa on May 1st, 2022 with Jean-Michel Malouf conducting.
A world premiere recording of Net of Gems, for flute and harp, appears on a recent recording by Suzanne Shulman and Erica Goodman. David has also had his compositions commissioned or recorded by a wide-ranging list of artists- including percussionist Beverley Johnston, Arraymusic Ensemble, Canadian Children’s Opera Chorus, and Random Access Large Ensemble.
​
David has performed and toured across Canada, the U.S., Europe, and Japan. He has performed Canadian premieres of works by Steve Reich and Gabriel Prokofiev. David has been based in Toronto for most of his career, but during the 1990s he also spent some time studying in New York City with Jim Hall, and three years living in Italy.
No Masterclass
October 10, 2026
Thanksgiving Weekend
Lavender Town
October 17, 2025
A fusion group in an atypical sense, Toronto’s Lavender Town approaches modern jazz from a hyper-contemporary angle. Influenced as much by video game music as they are lofi hiphop, Lavender Town blends the sounds of the 21st century with virtuosic maximalism, featuring breakneck grooves and heroic feats of instrumental acrobatics.
Avataar
October 24, 2025
JUNO award winner for Best Jazz Album (Group) in 2022, JAZZ FM’s pick in ‘25 of the Best Jazz Albums of 2021’ and a recipient of the Toronto Jazz Festival's Special Projects Initiative award for 2016, AVATAAR's music marries classical Indian music, modern jazz, Brazilian lyricism, atmospheric textures and ambiance, Javanese gamelan, and contemporary improvisation. Cleverly layered and cinematic in scope, the music drives and swirls through a vast sonic palette and has drawn comparison to Mahavishnu Orchestra, Charles Lloyd, Keith Jarrett with Jan Garbarek, late Coltrane, and Oregon. The resulting confluence is a mesmerizing blend of rhythmic hypnotism, sonic landscapes and soaring melody that marries ancient and modern musical sounds.
​
AVATAAR's core personnel includes: Sundar (saxes and flutes), Michael Occhipinti (guitar), Felicity Williams (vocals), Justin Gray (bass and bass veena) , Ravi Naimpally (tablas and percussion), and Max Senitt (drums). Guests on the recording 'Petal' include; Robi Botos (piano) and Samidha Joglekar (Hindustani voice), and on the most recent album ‘Worldview’ include Todd Pentney (pno/synth) and Aaron Lightstone (oud)
Alex Samaras
November 7, 2025
Alex Samaras is recognized as one of North America's leading singers in the jazz, experimental and new music idioms. He has performed with Meredith Monk Vocal Ensemble, Beverley Glenn Copeland, Jackie Richardson, Marvin Hamlisch among others.
​
Alex leads his own vocal group GREX, exploring the extremes of the human voice in the context of ancient music and his own original compositions. He has performed across the country in well known groups A Sondheim Jazz Project and The Queer Songbook Orchestra. Both groups have released records to critical acclaim.
Alex released his first solo album under the name TRYAL in 2017 and has since been touring and playing festivals around Canada.
He has premiered new operas, created roles in new musicals, and can be heard on multiple records.
​
His work in the dance community has allowed him to collaborate with choreographers Susie Burpee, Ame Henderson, Meredith Thompson and others. He has an ongoing movement practice exploring the mechanics of the human body with Christine Wright, Susan St. Claire and Jennifer Swan.
​
Alex teaches singing at The University of Toronto Jazz Department, Humber College, Jazz Works Music Camp and National Music Camp where he runs a chorus of 200 hundred high school students. He is also the founder of the PAL Chorale for Seniors at the Performing Artists Lodge in Toronto.
Samantha Wilson
November 14, 2025
Sam Wilson is a guitarist-composer whose practice focuses on creating instrumental music for improvisers. Her current artistic muse is wild spaces and site-specific responses, evident by her latest release Wintertides (April 2024), featuring drummer Jen Yakamovich and bassist Geordie Hart. Written in the winter of 2022 on both the east (Scotsburn, NS) and west Coast (at Lena Residency, Galiano Island BC); it’s inspired by contrasting landscapes and the collaboration of bi-coastal communities. Her albums Into a Heart Pt. II and New Doors (Jackson/Wilson Duo) won Music Nova Scotia’s “Jazz Recording of the Year” in 2022 and 2023, respectively. All of her releases have been nominated for the East Coast Music Awards. In 2021 Sam won the Paul Cram Creation award and composed her first piece for orchestra, ‘Recover-we’, which was performed by Symphony Nova Scotia at the 2023 Open Waters Festival.
​
Sam was raised in Ontario but has made Nova Scotia her home for more than a decade; she currently resides in Halifax. She performs regularly with her collaborator Andrew Jackson in their duo project (Jackson\Wilson Duo), as well with her trio that features a rotation of musicians including Caito Macdonald, Kyle Tully, Gabriella Ciurcovich, Jen Yakamovich and Geordie Hart. She has worked with Phillip Greenlief (Elephant Heart), Andrew Mackelvie, Ellen Gibling, Matt Gallant (Borrowers), Nicholas D'amato, Nicola Miller, Music Declares Emergency, Votive Dance, Upstream Music Association, among others and supported artists such as Laura Roy and Kaia Kater. She is an alumni of St.FX University and the Creative Music Workshop.
Interested in conducting a masterclass at U of T Jazz?
Please send an email to sam.little@mail.utoronto.ca