Notice Board

Music at Noon concert series featuring:
Holly Bhattacharya, violin & Deanna Oye, piano
12:15 p.m. | Nov. 17
University Recital Hall
Free admission, all are welcome to attend

Join us for a violin & piano recital with works by ULethbridge alumnus Sonny-Ray Day Rider, Beethoven and Hungarian composer Béla Bartók.

Holly Bhattacharya, violin

Holly Bhattacharya was born in Durham, U.K. to two musician parents and she began leaning the violin at the age of four.  Since graduating from college, Holly has enjoyed a varied career, spanning orchestral, chamber, theatre and commercial music as well as teaching, coaching and invigilating for music competitions. She has been a regular player with many of the UK’s top orchestras including the London Philharmonic and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Holly also performed as part of the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival (Maine, USA) and MusicaRiva Festival (Lake Garda, Italy)

Theatre work has included almost eight years of performances with The Phantom of the Opera in London’s West End, (U.K.) Quadraphenia on tour, Thursford Christmas Spectacular and The Independent Opera Co. (Old Vic Theatre, London) She also worked regularly at Glyndebourne Theatre and took part in several education projects and workshops. Pop work has seen Holly record and perform with the likes of Take That, Jarvis Cocker, Gorillaz, Mike Oldfield, Neneh Cherry, De La Soul, Florence and the Machine, Deep Purple and Kylie Minogue. Chamber music has taken Holly to the International Chamber Music Festival in Alcala, (Spain) and all around the Mediterranean and Norwegian Fjords as a guest entertainer for SAGA cruises. She has led workshops at Lancing College and BHASVIC, Brighton, as well as regular concerts with Ensemble Reza around the South of England.

Holly has been living in Canada for five years and teaches at both the Conservatory and University in Lethbridge and is assistant concertmaster for the Symphony Orchestra. She plays with the Musaeus String Quartet and is a member of the Jessica Mcmann Trio. With this trio she recorded the album Prairie Dusk at Studio Bell in 2023 and several of the tracks were trending at #1 on CKCA radio for several weeks. She has done three tours of Alberta and British Columbia with this group and has another in Spring 2027. In 2024 Holly played at Parliament Hill, Ottawa for National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. She was honoured to be invited into the Senate building to listen to indigenous leaders discuss what truth and reconciliation means within their communities. She was a member of the CKCA steering committee which distributes funds to artists of all kinds in the Columbia Basin in BC. She is very happy to be returning to the stage today with Deanna Oye with whom she has collaborated several times.

Deanna Oye, piano

Pianist Deanna Oye is Associate Professor and Studio Coordinator in the Department of Music, University of Lethbridge, where she teaches Studio Piano and developed the Collaborative Piano/Guitar course series. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from the Eastman School of Music where she studied with Dr. Jean Barr, and has given solo and collaborative performances throughout Canada, the U.S., Scotland, Germany, and Japan, with broadcasts on CBC Radio Two and National Public Radio in the U.S. Deanna is active as an adjudicator, master class clinician and is frequently invited to give career talks to aspiring musicians. She is also passionate about helping her students make connections between music and their other passions and mentoring them to find their own unique niche in the music world.