The First Unitarian Fellowship of Nanaimo is delighted to present Ben Zhao: musician extraordinaire and master of traditional Chinese musical instruments. FUFON’s Musical Director, Patrick Courtin, met Zhao while they were both historical interpreters at Barkerville Historic Town, and had the opportunity to collaborate musically. Zhao will speak about Chinese musical history and culture, and perform a variety of traditional music on several different instruments. He will be accompanied by Courtin on the piano.

A short one-act concert of Chinese and western music by Ben Zhao and Patrick Courtin will follow in the afternoon, after the service.

To join any of our upcoming services on Zoom, please click on this SERVICE LINK a few minutes before the service.

Ben Zhao, originally from Beijing and now living in Vancouver, is a retired professional musician and teacher, veteran of international performances and guest lecturing tours and master of 9 different traditional Chinese musical instruments. 

Barkerville created this video about Ben – see it here.

Patrick Courtin is FUFON’s musical director. Based on Vancouver Island, Patrick is a classically trained professional musician with a Bachelor’s degree in jazz studies.
He is a sought-after pianist, multi-instrumentalist, international touring musician, composer, arranger, and music teacher.