Music Camp Faculty

Dr. Paul Rushka – Camp Director, Bass

Award-winning bassist & educator Dr. Paul Rushka has been a dedicated instructor of adolescent and young adult musicians for over 25 years. He is currently on faculty at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia and is an online instructor at the VSO (Vancouver Symphony Orchestra) School of Music, the premiere community music school in BC. He has substantial experience working with many high schools throughout the lower mainland of BC, where he has led small jazz ensembles, which focused on the development of practical jazz improvisation skills, taught private bass lessons, music theory classes, led clinics for small and large ensembles, and contributed to music department functions. Paul has served as adjudicator at regional and national music festivals, and prior to moving to Nova Scotia, was on the faculty at Vancouver Community College.

As a performer, Paul has performed on over 20 albums and several CBC broadcast recordings, toured throughout Canada, China, parts of the United States and Europe. He has performed at most major Canadian Jazz Festivals, and has performed and/or recorded with an extensive list of jazz luminaries. 

Paul holds a Doctor of Music degree from McGill University, where he was the recipient of a prestigious 3-year Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Doctoral Scholarship from SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada), which funded his research on the compositional language of Canadian jazz legend Kenny Wheeler.

Heidi Burns – Drums

Heidi is a drummer from Antigonish, Nova Scotia, currently based in St. John's, Newfoundland. She is a graduate of St. Francis Xavier University, holding a Bachelor of Music degree with Honours. Prior to moving to St. John's, Heidi had been an active member of the Nova Scotia music scene, collaborating with a variety of groups and artists. Heidi has spent time playing a range of styles including jazz, rock, pop, country, indie, and folk. In addition to her work as a performing drummer, she has enjoyed teaching private drum lessons for the past five years.

Brendan Fitzpatrick – Guitar

Brendan is a musician and educator from St. John’s and a graduate of St. Francis Xavier University, holding a Bachelor of Music Degree with Honours. Brendan has been playing guitar since the age of five and bass since the age of seven, having studied with some of Atlantic Canada's finest musicians. He started teaching music lessons in 2022 and has since taught students of all ages and varying skill levels. Drawing from his experience playing multiple genres of music, Brendan is a well-rounded instructor, capable of teaching all styles from rock and country to jazz and blues and beyond. Growing up, Brendan loved participating in music camps every summer. These camps helped instill a lifelong love of music and performing. 

Hilmar Hilmarsson – Trumpet/Brass

Hilmar is an Icelandic-born, Nova Scotian raised, trumpet and flugelhorn player, composer, and improvisor based out of Halifax, Nova Scotia. He moved to Wolfville, Nova Scotia at a young age, and has spent most of his life living and playing music in Nova Scotia. Growing up around a musical family primed him to discover his own love of jazz when he was a teenager, and after meeting and learning from a seasoned jazz musician in his community he pursued music with a deep passion for improvised music. 

He went on to study jazz trumpet at St. Francis Xavier University, studying directly under Paul Tynan. There he would continue to refine his style. Hilmar takes inspiration in combining the explorative nature of Kenny Wheeler and Herbie Hancock’s music, with the groove and bop sensibilities of Roy Hargrove. Blending acoustic and electric and exploring interplay between musicians on stage through his compositions is the focus for his small group work. His most recent project is Fjunk, a funk-fusion band with a strong emphasis on interplay and groove.

Hilmar has performed on stages from Iceland to Mexico, in many musical contexts.  From playing a headlining show with Of Monsters and Men at a festival in front of over ten thousand people, to performing original works in intimate settings, and playing rock and funk covers at bars. He has a broad and varied musical scope, without ever losing what makes his musical voice unique.

Angelina McCaughan – Saxophone/Woodwinds

Angelina is an up-and-coming saxophonist from Cole Harbour, NS. Her previous music ventures include playing alongside members of the Stadacona Band of the Royal Canadian Navy, playing in both the Halifax and Antigonish Jazz Festivals, and teaching private lessons. Angelina is a 2026 honours graduate of the St.FX Bachelor of music program with a passion for teaching, composing, arranging, and improvising. She's super excited to be back for another amazing year at St.FX summer music camp!

William Mulligan - Violin/Fiddle/Strings

William is a fiddle player based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He started learning to play the violin through Halifax’s public school system and quickly fell in love with the instrument. While initially interested in bluegrass, William’s interests include a variety of styles such as jazz, classical, rock, and celtic music.

Alan Syliboy - Artist in Residence

Artist and musician, Alan Syliboy, was born and raised in Truro and lives at Millbrook First Nation, NS. He grew up believing that native art was generic. “As a youth, I found painting difficult and painful, because I was unsure of my identity.” But his confidence grew in 1972 when he studied privately with Shirley Bear. He then attended the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, where 25 years later, he was invited to sit on the Board of Governors. Syliboy looked to the indigenous Mi’kmaq petroglyph tradition for inspiration and developed his own artistic vocabulary out of those forms. His popularization of these symbolic icons has conferred on them a mainstream legitimacy that restores community pride in its Mi’kmaq heritage.

Alan's musical group, Alan Syliboy and the Thundermakers, are an award-winning Canadian Indigenous Rock and Spoken Word group out of Mi’kma’ki. Blending genres from rock, jazz, improvised experimental, spoken word and ambient orchestral music, the Thundermakers maintain a foothold in the past, while always pushing towards a better future for Indigenous Peoples everywhere. They have received three nominations for Indigenous Artist of the Year from the East Coast Music Association (2019, 2021, 2022) and won Indigenous Artist of the Year in 2018 and 2019 from Music Nova Scotia.

“Inspiration for my spoken word pieces comes from things I find researching our Mi’kmaw culture” says Syliboy of the storytelling practices that he’s embedded within the group. “I think that artists play a big role in instilling pride in our own people again; it’s a traditional role for an artist to interpret the symbols of the past, I think that’s the way it’s always been passed down. It is my hope that we can advance our culture by moving in a contemporary direction.”