Music Director
Zach Power is a young music educator in the Abbotsford and Chilliwack school districts, currently teaching elementary music and choir at Irene Kelleher Totí:ltawtxw on Eagle Mountain. He loves working in music with people of all ages and levels of experience, from Kindergarten to adulthood and in professional and casual environments. He especially loves collaborating with and learning from his wife and fellow music educator, Julia Albano-Crockford.
His musical education started in Chilliwack at Vedder Middle and Sardis Secondary schools where he became inspired to pursue a degree in music education at the University of Victoria. There he studied trombone under Scott MacInnes and performed in the UVic Wind Symphony, the UVic Orchestra, the UVic Chamber Singers, the Don Wright Symphonic Winds, and the Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra. While at UVic, he was fortunate to be able to attend the Western International Band Clinic in Seattle, Washington; the Midwest Clinic in Chicago, Illinois; and Podium 2018 in St. John’s, Newfoundland; the latter of which he attended as a British Columbia representative in the Canadian National Youth Choir.
Zach is extremely passionate about music-making in many forms. While a trombonist by trade, he has extensive experience in the choral world, learning from luminaries such as Dr. Geoffrey Boers, Richard Nace, and Dinah Helgeson at summer workshops; Steve Guidone and Jim Johnston with the Northern Lights Chamber Choir; and Madeleine Humer, Michael Gormley and Donald Hunt at Christ Church Cathedral in Victoria where he has been singing since 2015. Zach has taken on roles of assistant conductor of the Arion Male Voice Choir, the interim conductor of the British Columbia Youth Choir, the assistant conductor of the Don Wright Symphonic Winds, the director of the Shuswap String Orchestra, the director of the Northern Lights Chamber Choir, the founder/director of Shuswap Tuba Christmas, and the founder/director of the Shuswap Youth Choir prior to beginning work with the Fraser Valley Community Winds.
In addition to working with community ensembles, Zach began his career in Salmon Arm teaching at Salmon Arm Secondary, North Shuswap Elementary, and Hillcrest Elementary where he helped start up award-winning choirs at each school in addition to leading concert band, jazz band, and R&B ensembles as well as composition, guitar, and musical theatre classes. It is from these experiences and the community connections formed in his other ensembles that Zach has discovered a world of excitement, friendship, and love of music that is shared by the people he leads. It is this camaraderie and sense of belonging that keeps drawing him to work with people and make music together, a joy he is privileged to share with the Fraser Valley Winds each Thursday evening.
When not making music, Zach can be found nerding out about Canadian geography and history, following his professional hockey and baseball teams, and, whenever possible, walking the streets of Victoria at night with Discover the Past as a historical tour guide sharing ghost stories.
Executive Team
This is your executive team! They are volunteer members of the FVCW who are dedicated to the ensemble, its members, and the behind-the-scenes work it takes to keep it alive.
Feel free to contact members of the executive team with any questions, comments, or feedback you have. For general questions, or if you’re not sure who you wish to speak with, please direct your questions to info@fvcw.ca.
- Brittany Jenewein, President, president@fvcw.ca
- Craig Raven, Treasurer, treasurer@fvcw.ca
- Mary Kreisch, Secretary, secretary@fvcw.ca
- Kirsten Johnstone, Director, info@fvcw.ca
- Emma Kreisch, Director, info@fvcw.ca