We actually have 2 conductors. They each take 2 seasons.

Summer and Fall Conductor

John Forbes spent thirty years in the military band system playing keyboards, french horn, tuba, trombone, trumpet and percussion. He was also a concert pianist and vocalist, conductor, composer and staff arranger for the military.
For his last five years of military service, he was responsible for cadet band training for the entire Pacific Region providing clinics, competitions, military tattoo, honour band and summer band training for teenage musicians.
Mr. Forbes also spent 18 years as a night club musician, playing many bars throughout B.C. including 3 years at the Empress Hotel and 12 years at the " Old Forge " in Victoria.
He was recently inducted into the Victoria Music Hall of fame as the founding member of the “Brothers Forbes”, is presently the conductor of the " Nanaimo Concert Band ", and has been seen playing keyboards and trombone with the "Blues Allstars" down at the Nanaimo Blues Under Ground.

Winter and Spring Conductor

François started his musical venture strumming a guitar. One day he heard a community band play and asked how to join this group. He studied basic music notation and within a few months he was playing tuba with the band. His search to improve brought him to the “Conservatoire de Musique” in Trois-Rivières, Québec, for advance music studies. Engaged in an 8 years program to acquire all the technical skills, theory, history, harmony, counterpoint, fugue, orchestration and much more, François got his first professional job after only 6 years with the “Orchestre Symphonique de Trois-Rivières”. A few years later the Canadian Military was looking for “skilled musicians”, they offered him a position with the then Royal Canadian Artillery Band in Montreal. Although being a full time military musician, François was also active in the civilian world playing with local groups like Vic Vogel’s “Le Jazz Big Band”. Posted to Winnipeg, he did not take long for François to get “gigs” with the Winnipeg Symphony, Opera and Ballet Orchestras. On the jazz side he played with the likes of Ron Pailey. Actually François is the only musician that played with both Ron and his wife (at the time) in two different music idioms: classical (Winnipeg Symphony official Brass Quintet) and jazz (big band with Ron). During those years, he also got some high profile gigs. One of them ended up as an HBO Special where he’s the special guess with Harry Belafonte…

Getting tired of carrying a tuba, string bass, electric bass and amplifier to every job, François decided to study conducting. In 1987 he was posted to New Brunswick. It did not take long before he was playing with the local symphony. Maestro Nurham Arman took him under his wing so he could learn from a master the art of orchestra direction. From there François had engagements all over the world, both as a musician and conductor. Here are countries where François performed: Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, Canada, China, Dominican Republic, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, Turkey and USA.

Today François is semi-retired and is sought after as a wine enthusiast.