CBC Music announced its annual “30 under 30” list last week, bringing news that two Western alumni made the cut as ‘Canada’s hottest young classical musicians.’
Matthew Boutda, MMus’23, and Andrew Busch, BMus’22, both expressed surprise ─ and delight ─ at being named notable rising stars, counting their time at the Don Wright Faculty of Music as instrumental to their early success.
As inductees to the list, they share the honour with classical guitarist and fellow music grad Madeline Hall, BMus’24, who made the 2023 edition during her final year at Western.
Matthew Boutda (Danielle Sum)
Matthew Boutda, choral conductor, tenor
Boutda, 29, is the only conductor among the 2024 inductees.
Also recognized for his talent as a tenor, Boutda’s love of choral music started early, singing in his church choir.
That passion led him to pursue his bachelor’s degree in music at the University of Toronto, where he sang in a tenor/bass choir conducted by Mark Ramsay, now a Western professor and coordinator of choral activities in the Don Wright Faculty of Music.
“To be a singer in one of Mark’s choirs was a wonderful experience,” Boutda said. “It was an inspiration for me to see how he worked. He was an important mentor and connection in growing my love of choral music.”
Boutda then came to Western to study under Ramsay, pursuing his master’s degree in choral conducting while working as the assistant conductor of Chorale and the Western University Singers.
“My two years at Western were wonderful,” said Boutda, who received the Clifford Evens Graduate Conducting Award, which recognizes graduate students showing “promise as a future professional conductor.”
After graduating from Western, Boutda headed to Montreal, where he is entering the second year of his doctoral studies in choral conducting at McGill’s Schulich School of Music. Last year, he earned the Wayne Riddell Choral Award and worked as principal conductor of the McGill Concert Choir.
Starting this fall, he’ll conduct the McGill University Chorus for the 2024-25 season, while continuing as director of music at Leaside United Church in Toronto, a role he’s held since 2019.
Over the past year, Boutda was selected to take part in conductors’ workshops with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, the Vancouver Chamber Choir and the Elmer Iseler Singers, and to lead a masterclass with the National Youth Choir.
Boutda shares an equal love of conducting and singing, noting, “it’s still important to sing as a conductor. You learn a lot from the people you work with, and you can get the inside scoop of what it means to be in a choir, as a choral leader.”
Andrew Busch (Matt Duboff)
Andrew Busch, percussionist
With a father who’s a drummer, Busch has been around drums since his childhood. As a teen, he joined the Diplomats Drum and Bugle Corps in Windsor, Ont.
“I loved it and made a lot of friends, so I kept going,” he said.
But his love of drumming reached new heights after watching a marching band competition in Indiana.
“I was completely moved by it,” the Amherstburg, Ont. native said. “From that moment, it took off. I have loved percussion ever since.”
With an eye on a professional career, Busch decided to pursue his passion at Western, following his brother Nick, BMus’19, MMus’21, to the Don Wright Faculty of Music.
View this post on Instagram
“I had a great time at Western. I was so excited to study percussion performance and to just dive into my music education and to be inspired and surrounded by musicians,” Busch said.
He’s grateful to have studied under professor Jill Ball, director of the percussion ensemble.
“My four years with Jill were so fantastic, I learned so much,” he said. “I owe so much to her and the band program with (professor) Colleen Richardson.”
Busch made history earlier this year as the first percussionist to receive a Michael Measures Prize, earning second place and a $15,000 award, given in partnership with the National Youth Orchestra (NYO) of Canada and the Canadian Council for the Arts.
He just wrapped up his second summer with the NYO, which includes five weeks of training and a tour across Canada.
Busch is a laureate of the 2018 National Music Festival of Canada and the 2020/21 Maritsa Brookes Concerto Competition. He has performed as both a chamber and orchestral musician in North America and Europe. In 2022, he co-founded the Kairos Percussion Quartet, a chamber music collective based in Toronto.
He recently received his master’s degree in percussion at the University of Toronto, and has been accepted to the Glenn Gould School, where he’ll begin studies for his two-year artist diploma this fall.
