Festival Artistic Director, Patricia Hoy has received critical acclaim as a soloist and chamber musician throughout North America. Patricia has toured from coast to coast in Canada and the United States, most recently completing a series of recitals in the Canadian north and Alaska. She has won numerous competitions and awards including the Armand Hammer Award, presented to the most outstanding young artist in California. Her performances with Canadian and U.S. orchestras have met with critical acclaim and have been featured on CBC, PBS and WQXR. She has served as coordinator and faculty pianist at the Banff Centre and was a faculty member at the Young Artists Experience, a summer workshop for gifted young chamber players.

Patricia balances her performing schedule with a faculty position at the University of British Columbia where she lectures and coaches chamber music. Always searching to extend the boundaries of her own and her audiences’ musical experience, Patricia takes special pleasure in introducing contemporary yet lesser known works to the concert stage.

The eminent teacher and performer John Perry first heard Patricia perform when she was 15 years old. A few short months later she was invited by him to study at the Aspen Music Festival and later to join him, first at the University of Texas at Austin and later at the University of Southern California where, in her first year she won the USC concerto competition and went on to be a Graduate Fellowship recipient and recognized as the top graduating doctoral student.