Welcome
"Thanks for visiting my geeky website. Feel free to contact me or post comments on anything you find. Happy reading!" ...Brad
All About Brad
Born in Western Canada, Brad spent much of his youth in the outdoors: fishing and hunting with his dad; hiking and camping in outdoor clubs or with friends. He took up trombone, trumpet, piano and drums early on and quickly fell in love with music, playing in various bands and signing on as a founding member of the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra.
After high school Brad decided on a musical career and entered the University of Victoria on trombone. He eventually completed a Bachelor of Music degree at the University of British Columbia, where he studied with Gordon Cherry of the Vancouver Symphony, and a Master of Music degree at Northwestern University, where he studied with Frank Crisafulli of the Chicago Symphony. He received a Canada Council Grant for private study with Mark Lawrence of the San Francisco Symphony, and attended the Aspen, Banff, and Waterloo Music Festivals.
Brad worked his way through university in various jobs: forklift operator, dishwasher, pizza delivery boy, gas station attendant, a two year stint with the Canadian military (where he learned to fire a Howitzer), and a summer performing trombone/drums and driving trucks for the Toby Tyler Circus. One of the last remaining "Big Top" circuses in the world, the (now defunct) Toby Tyler Circus taught Brad many important and useful skills, such as how to drive an 18 wheeler tractor trailer unit up a steep, gravel road (floor it), how to drive a stake in the ground with a sledge hammer (don't), and how to keep on playing while a herd of miniature horses stampedes by.
Brad spent six weeks in Southern Africa in 1992, just after Nelson Mandela's release and before the official fall of Apartheid with the first non-racial democratic election in 1994. He toured South Africa and Namibia with Kevin Thompson (at that time a trombonist with the Cape Town Philharmonic), witnessing many demonstrations and much rioting in Cape Town, and visiting the shanty towns first hand.
Brad performed for three years in the National Youth Orchestra of Canada before winning an audition for the Principal Trombone position in the Victoria Symphony Orchestra, a job he has held since 1989. Brad is also a member of the Beacon Hill Brass, and has performed in the past with the Palm Court Orchestra, the new music group Aventa Ensemble, the Vancouver Symphony, the CBC Vancouver Orchestra, and the Vancouver Opera Orchestra. In 2008, Brad was engaged for four weeks as a substitute player for the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra in Kuala Lumpur.
Brad has performed as a member of the Victoria Symphony Brass Quintet for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh. Some of the notable people Brad has performed on the same stage with (as an orchestral or side musician) are Natalie MacMaster, Paul Anka, Sarah Brightman, Kiri Te Kanawa, David Foster, Dudley Moore, The Moody Blues, The Three Irish Tenors, Sheena Easton, Kenny G, and Celine Dion. Brad is a member of the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN), and serves in the position of Vice-President of Local 247 of the American Federation of Musicians. In recent years he has taken up euphonium and he plays it whenever he can.
Brad Howland worked as a income tax preparer for various employers (H&R Block, National Money Mart, Fladar & Greene Chartered Accountants) before striking out on his own to form Howland Tax Services, Inc. in the early 1990s. Brad has over 16 years of experience preparing all types of income tax returns, making it a personal crusade to learn as much as he can about cross-border Canada/US tax situations. Howland Tax Services prepares hundreds of tax returns each year for people all over the United States and Canada.
Brad is currently on the faculty of the Comox Valley Youth Music Centre, in the past teaching at the Victoria Conservatory of Music, the Conservatory's Summer Jazz Workshop, the Marrowstone Music Festival, and the University of Victoria.
An avid runner and hiker, Brad has completed races up to 26.2 miles (Victoria Marathon) and backpacks up to 120 miles (Olympic National Park). He hopes to do something similar again one day, having recently dieted down to his university-age weight! Brad has two amazing children and is expecting a third with Michelle Cox.