Devin joined the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra as Executive Director July 1, 2018. With his diverse background in music, performance, composition, technology, business, publishing, and graphic work, Devin has been a great part of our team. He’s also a longtime resident of Scarborough, Ontario — and very personable, which is appreciated by our musicians, audiences, and community partners.
As a musician, Devin has played percussion in community orchestras in London, Ontario, as well as with several top Ontario Drum & Bugle Corps. He has also taught percussion, including with military ensembles (Elgin Regiment) in the London area. He studied percussion at U.W.O. under Bob Hughes. In his earlier years, he also did some theatre, including his high school production of “The Pirates of Penzance” (Major General Stanley) and “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown” with the London Community Players. His pop rock band, “Twice Shy” also was a winner of an amateur band contest (when he was just 16) sponsored by Labatts, a local radio station, and the Western Fair Association.
Devin was also a celebrated organist and teacher with the local London Yamaha Music Centre from 1986-1991, which led to his moving to Toronto, hired to work as a national product specialist for Yamaha Canada Music Ltd. Head Office, in the early 1990s.
From 1989 through most of 1991, before moving to Toronto, Devin was Music Director of the Second City Cornerstage Comedy Theatre in London, Ontario. There he worked with emerging talent like Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding), Kathryn Greenwood (Women Fully Clothed), and many more. He also did a few Fringe Festival shows with friends like Jonathan Wilson (.34 Calibre Testing, My Own Private Oshawa). After moving to Toronto to work with Yamaha, Devin continued performing with local comedy groups, including 500 Miles Off Broadway, the Random Few, and the Second City Toronto Training Centre. He has also done a few Second City Alumni Shows, including as the main act at a Canadian Comedy Awards celebrations (London, Ontario).
From 1991-1999, Devin’s work with Yamaha also included concert performances, product training clinics, and working with Yamaha’s education team. Digital organs (Electone), digital pianos (Clavinova), and digital portable keyboards and workstations were his responsibility. Devin also produced the Canadian version of the Yamaha Electone Festival, including teaching masterclasses alongside international artists.
Through the first decade of the 2000s, Devin did technical and visual work with the Canadian Stage, including shows like “The Shape of Things” with Allan Hawco and Amy Redford, “The Overcoat” (CanStage production, all international tours), and “Hair: A Tribal Rock Musical“. Devin has also composed and performed music for independent feature film soundtracks and shorts, including “Solid Cover”, “Thrillmasters: Behind Enemy Lines” (which he helped create, edited, and did all the audio production on), and the still-popular Star Wars Fan Film, “Death Star Repairmen“. During the 2000s, Devin also became a publisher of a small monthly magazine, which sadly came to an end when COVID showed up.
During the pandemic, Devin was able to bring his skills to bear to lead our #SPOGreatMusic Digital Content team to many successes. As Executive Producer, he has managed ambitious weekly content production schedules. He has also been the audio editor of all SPOGreatMusic Podcast episodes released to date, and personally edited almost 50% of the total video content released by the SPO. During the 2020/2021 virtual season, SPO released 92 videos and 16 podcast episodes. The 2021/2022 season is expected to offer as many performance videos, an international online Flute Festival, 4 audio podcasts, and at least one video podcast (produced for the Stratford Symphony Orchestra). Devin’s ideas have been quoted in recent Orchestras Canada materials (and here, page 21), and together with our Ronald Royer, was invited to represent SPO and Canada as part of a case study project, based in the U.K., on digital content and efforts during the pandemic crisis. This report will be available in the near future.
Special thanks to all of our SPOGreatMusic Digital Content Production Team for working so hard to create an award-winning season online, including Devin, Producer (and music performer) Ronald Royer, and our Podcast host (and segment audio engineer) Dr. Daniel Mehdizadeh.
