Rowan FitzGerald
Rowan FitzGerald
Bands & Instrumental
A native of Charlottetown, Rowan FitzGerald has recently retired from a 30 year career teaching instrumental music in the PEI school system. In addition to his duties as an instrumental music teacher, Mr. FitzGerald has taught saxophone performance at UPEI, presented clinics and guest lectures in music education, adjudicated music festivals and conducted honours band programs in all four Atlantic Provinces, Quebec and in Hong Kong.
Throughout his extensive career, he was the driving force behind the creation of an instrumental music program at East Wiltshire Intermediate School, the co-founder of the Eastern School District Summer Band Camp, a co-creator of the PEI Band Days Festival and an integral force in the creation of a non-competitive music festival through the Queens County Music Festival. In 2000, Mr.FitzGerald was nominated and received a Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence and in 2011, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award during the Music PEI Awards Gala.
For more than 20 years, Mr. FitzGerald has worked with community bands in Nova Scotia as a conductor and clinician. In the fall of 2009, he co-founded the Second Chances Community Band in Charlottetown where he currently co-directs approximately 60 musicians ranging in age from 25 to 90.