Our History

The South Fraser Branch was officially formed in February 1963 as “Surrey, North Delta and District Branch”  after having operated for 4 years as a division of the Vancouver Branch.  There were 9 members on the first roster.

In 1999, the name was changed to South Fraser Branch to reflect the areas where our teachers live and teach — Surrey, North Delta, Langley, Fort Langley, White Rock,  New Westminster and Burnaby.

Our largest ongoing branch project for over the past 50 years has been our annual South Fraser Music Festival which has grown from one afternoon of piano solos to its current  piano, strings and woodwind classes taking up several weeks.  This festival (open to students of South Fraser members)is held in February/March and features top adjudicators from BC, Alberta and Washington. Our festival offers scholarships as encouragement to senior students.

In 2013, the South Fraser Branch hosted “Concerto Stars” a gala concert held at the Bell Centre for the Performing Arts.  The concert featured young students in concert with Lions Gate Sinfonia and a special performance by well-known Canadian pianist, Ian Parker.

Our Branch meets 4 times a year at Northwood United Church. We organize annual professional development workshops for our members and all such events are open to non-member teachers in the community for a small fee.  We celebrate Canada Music Week annually and feature our students in an annual Awards Recitals to honour achievements in music examinations.

Other events include senior master classes, student recitals and house concerts given by our performing teachers, as well as showcase Mall events in our community.