Paul Dykstra

Mr Dykstra works with students of all ages and abilities, including preparation for RCM exams.
Paul Dykstra continues his career as concert artist, recording artist, teacher, Festival
Adjudicator, chamber musician, and mentor to musical friends all over North America.
A product of the University of Alberta’s Piano Performance program, he studied with Helmut
Brauss, was the recipient of the Richard Eaton Scholarship for piano, and received the highest
Silver Medal with Western Board Associateship examinations in Piano Performance and
Pedagogy. He is also an Alum of the Royal Conservatory of Music, and is a member of RCM
College of Examiners.
A featured performer at the inaugural Valhalla Festival concerts, Silverton BC, in 1988-89, Mr
Dykstra was a vital part of the program that worked to bring Japanese students to the
Kootenays to study with his teacher, Helmut Brauss, and to revive awareness of the internment
of Japanese during WWII. He has also studied in Master Classes with prominent pianists such
as Robin Wood, Anton Kuerti, and Abby Simon at Shawnigan Lake Summer School of the Arts,
and at the Banff Center.
His many performance and recording credits include world premieres of works by American
composers with clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, both solo and with the Slovak Radio Orchestra,
performances of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with the Abendmusik Orchestra in Rye, NH,
and the Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto with Great Bay Philharmonic during his 20 years in
the US. He was a finalist for the American Prize Concerto Competition in 2017. During this
time he was also on the Faculty of St. Paul’s School, in Concord NH, giving private piano
instruction to gifted students from all over the globe. Paul has worked for Yamaha in the US
as outreach clinician for their Recreational Music Making Program, and has recorded chamber
music and vocal works in addition to a solo Classical CD, at Futura Productions in Boston, and
at Mechanics Hall in Worcester.
Other activities of note include a guest appearance as keyboardist for the disco band Tavares
in Atlantic City, a tour of the US and Trinidad with NYC Living Arts’ production of Porgy and
Bess (as pianist with 13 orchestral musicians), and continued involvement with Jazz and
Progressive Rock genres. Since the early 1990s he has been in demand as an Adjudicator at
Music Festivals in BC, Alberta, Ontario, and the Eastern US.
Mr Dykstra continues his work as an RCM Examiner (since 2011). He was one of the first
teachers to enter students in RCM in the US. Presently he is privileged to work with a diverse
group of piano students at the Kelowna Community Music School. He lives in West Kelowna
BC with his wife, Celina, and continues to work as a solo and collaborative artist throughout
Canada and the US.