What began nearly three decades ago as a small group of brass players performing Christmas music among the lights at Victoria’s world-famous Butchart Gardens has grown into one of Vancouver Island’s most distinctive live music ensembles.

Festive Brass brings together some of the Island’s finest professional musicians with a shared belief that great brass playing can be virtuosic, imaginative, theatrical — and a lot of fun. Its members are active across Vancouver Island’s professional music scene as orchestral musicians, chamber players, jazz and commercial performers, arrangers, conductors and educators, bringing a remarkable breadth of experience to the stage. With a library approaching 200 arrangements, many created by members of the ensemble, Festive Brass has developed a musical personality all its own, moving easily between classical music, jazz, popular music, film scores and the occasional wonderfully twisted holiday favourite.

Since taking its Christmas concerts on the road in 2022, Festive Brass has become an annual holiday touring tradition on Vancouver Island, performing in communities from Victoria to Campbell River and playing to sold-out houses in Sidney over multiple seasons. The ensemble has also appeared three times as guest artists with the Vancouver Island Symphony, performing original Festive Brass arrangements with full orchestra.

Collaboration and community are central to what Festive Brass does. The ensemble regularly invites community and school choirs to share the stage, giving young singers the opportunity to perform alongside professional musicians while bringing together performers, families and audiences from the communities in which the group performs. These partnerships have become an important part of Festive Brass tours — not simply as additions to the concerts, but as part of the ensemble’s commitment to building connections through live music.

Festive Brass is equally committed to the future of brass music itself. Through new arrangements, commissions, collaborations with composers and arrangers, and the work of its members as professional music educators, the ensemble aims to contribute to a living and evolving brass tradition while encouraging the next generation of musicians.

Christmas may be where Festive Brass began, but it no longer defines where the ensemble is going. With increasingly ambitious productions combining brass, rhythm section, guest artists, storytelling, multimedia and theatrical elements, Festive Brass continues to explore new ways of creating concert experiences that are entertaining, surprising and unmistakably its own.

Core Members

  • Stevan Paranosic, Trumpet/Flugelhorn

    Stevan Paranosic is the Principal Trumpet of the Vancouver Island Symphony. He has performed in the trumpet sections of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Victoria Symphony, Kamloops Symphony Orchestra and other regional orchestras. He is a graduate of The University of Windsor (BMus), University of British Columbia (MMus) & the University of Victoria (B. Ed). He is a dedicated music educator, devoted father and an amusingly eccentric maestro of Christmas brass music madness.

  • Bruce Hurn, Trumpet/Flugelhorn

    Bruce Hurn has had a trumpet & music career spanning 45 years, having performed both locally and internationally with numerous well known artists such as The Temptations, Michael Bublé, Rob McConnell and David Foster. He holds a Masters degree from The University of Victoria, where he studied composition, theory and arranging with Ian McDougall.

  • David Flello, Trumpet/Flugelhorn

    David Flello is a musician and an educator living in Victoria, B.C. He recently retired from the public education system in BC after teaching for 36 years.  His performance experience as a freelance trumpet player has spanned most musical styles including orchestral, small ensemble, pit orchestra, jazz and commercial music. He has performed in the trumpet sections of, and/or as a soloist with, a large number of ensembles including the Victoria Jazz Orchestra, Victoria and Vancouver Island Symphony Orchestras, Dockside Drive and with notable artists including Holly Cole, David Foster, Rob McConnell, Guido Basso and the Temptations.

  • Robert Fraser, Bass Trombone

    Robert (goes by Bob to his friends) studied Music Education at Brandon University and trombone performance at McGill University before winning his position as principal bass trombone in the Victoria Symphony. In 2008, he finished a Master of Arts from UVic, where he did a double major in musicology/performance. Bob has also played with the Calgary Philharmonic, and Winnipeg Symphony as a leave replacement.

  • Jonathan Eng, Drums

    Jonathan Eng studied at University of Victoria, Humber College and the Banff Centre for the Arts. His versatility as a percussionist is shown through a wide range of work in multiple symphonies to musical theater orchestras. Other musical specialties include performing in big bands, rudimental drumming, and working with fife and drum groups.

    He is an active Canadian Forces primary reservist performing for Royalty such as Queen Elizabeth II and recently for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Jonathan has previously led a premiere Jazz Quintet to play for the Governor General and the US Ambassador to Canada.

    Jonathan is an active educator in the community through teaching privately, instructing as a clinician for the percussion ensemble in BC Cadet Honour Bands, and also delivering master classes in many public and private schools throughout Greater Victoria.