Director of Music
Douglas Knight
In June 2007, Douglas Knight joined the staff of Cedar Park United Church as its new music director. A consummate musician, Douglas’s expertise as a director and teacher in choral music and the voice is well known throughout the community. Douglas, is music director of Stewart Hall Singers, is founder/director of Voices for Hope, a large daytime community broadway choir, directs regular choral vocal workshops in the community, teaches adult group voice classes, and teaches private voice and piano lessons at his Pointe Claire studio.
Douglas has a B. Music from McGill University in Piano Performance with High Distinction, and he studied at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montreal. He followed two full-time curricula at both of these institutions, where he studied for five years under the famous teacher and concert pianist Lubka Kolessa. He pursued extensive private training for many years in operatic conducting and vocal coaching with Metropolitan Opera conductor Paul Nadler and assistant conductor and Metropolitan Opera prompter Joan Dornemann. He then pursued orchestra conducting privately for many years with Gustav Meier at the University of Michigan and Tanglewood. During this period, he was selected as one of the few Canadian conductors to be an active participant in prestigious conducting workshops throughout the United States, giving him the opportunity to conduct orchestras in Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Houston, New York, Lake Chattaugua, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia, to name a few.
During Douglas’s music career, he has held many positions as director. He was the director of Montreal West Operatic Society and Orchestra for 12 years and music director of the Parish of Vaudreuil for 20 years. He was founder/director of The Knight Singers, performing the major choral masterworks, and he has directed numerous Broadway musicals with the Hudson Music Club, the Studio Theatre Workshop, and various high schools. Douglas has been conductor of the Lakeshore Chamber Orchestra, as well as the Vaudreuil Philharmonic, a pickup orchestra. He is a frequent accompanist and coach for singers. And he frequently accompanies singing auditions. In this capacity, he has worked for Centaur Theatre and the Shaw Festival.
