In early September 2025, students at the UBC School of Music found their access to the Chan Shun Concert Hall — the venue which has served as a regular rehearsal space for large ensembles since 1998 — severely reduced. Instead, their rehearsals were relocated to the smaller, black-box-style Telus Studio Theatre, located elsewhere in the Chan Centre, with only dress rehearsals and major student concerts continuing to take place in the concert hall. UBC Opera also announced that their productions, many of which formerly took place in the concert hall, would be relocated to the Old Auditorium.
According to Music Undergraduate Student Association (MUSA) President Sayako Leznoff, the move came as a shock. Leznoff, a fourth-year studying oboe performance, said the news was broken at a usual woodwind, brass and percussion ensemble meeting during the first week of classes, but since there was no department-wide communication on the matter, members of the string ensemble were only made aware as they walked into their first rehearsal.
Rehearsing in the concert hall offered students the opportunity to train in a renowned facility known for its unique acoustic design. “You learn a lot listening across the ensemble, listening and watching the conductor with such distance between you, learning how to project your sound and fill the space” — crucial skills that Leznoff said cannot be sufficiently developed while rehearsing in the Telus Theatre. She said students were not given a clear reason for why this was happening, though they suspected external renters were being prioritized.
Frustrations with the perceived lack of administrative transparency and grievances about the move to the Telus Theatre led MUSA to gather questions from the public and launch a petition. “We sent [those questions] to the director of [the school of] music, Dr. Hedy Law, and she answered them and sent out responses to the entire [school of music] student body. This was kind of the only communication we had from the school,” said Leznoff.
In a written statement to The Ubyssey, Law confirmed an increase in Chan programming for its 28th season is behind the move. The current arrangement with students rehearsing outside the main concert venue, she said, is “consistent with many other universities.”
While these responses may have helped better orient students to why the disruption was happening, they did not put a damper on the effects of the relocation. Leznoff said she and her peers have experienced frequent headaches and dizziness since their large ensembles moved into the Telus Theatre, a space students feel does not accommodate the level of sound produced by a 90-piece orchestra, which often rehearses for three hours at a time. In an interview with CityNews Vancouver last September, Leznoff mentioned being intermittently exposed to dangerous sound levels reaching 120 decibels during these sessions.
In November 2025, Law addressed UBC School of Music students, saying an independent noise assessment was carried out by VOHS Consulting Group, “which confirmed that sound levels are consistent with professional orchestral environments and not considered harmful given the shorter rehearsal durations.” However, “in consultation with UBC Safety and Risk Services and Arts Safety,” Law announced further hearing protection (earplugs, plexiglass and curtains) would be implemented in the Telus Theatre.
In February, Law sent an email to the School of Music student body, updating them on rehearsals at the Chan — which would remain at the Telus Theatre — and explaining that the university has planned “an external review of the School of Music to help inform long-term solutions for ensemble rehearsal scheduling in the 2027/28 academic year and beyond.”
In response to these ongoing challenges, MUSA announced a protest on Instagram featuring performances by musicians from UBC orchestra, choirs, opera, french horn and saxophone quartets, interspersed with speeches from students and alumni. With the protest, MUSA hoped to “show the university how rehearsal space matters, how music education and music performance matter, and they shouldn’t crush it and dissolve it just because it's expensive to [maintain].”
Leznoff said an ideal solution would be a full return to Chan Shun Concert Hall, but that even increased partial access would be considered a victory. She suggested proposals such as beginning to charge music students for concert attendance as a way to help bridge the gap in lost revenue from allowing the students to return.
The protest was held on March 12 in the AMS Nest Atrium, beginning at 11:30 a.m. The musicians opened with a performance of “Oh Canada,” leading into “Do You Hear the People Sing?” from the musical Les Misérables by the orchestra and members of the UBC Choirs. The orchestra then continued with “Les Toréadors” from Carmen by Georges Bizet, “Hungarian Dance No. 5” by Johannes Brahms and Johann Strauss’s “Radetzky March,” conducted by graduate student and assistant conductor of the UBC Symphonic Orchestra Simón Ramírez Ortiz. They then transitioned into a vibrant rendition of Arturo Márquez’s “Danzón No. 2.”
Leznoff led a series of speeches on the declining quality of music education at UBC and the lack of consultation with faculty and students at the university. “UBC has failed us,” she said. “UBC has failed the broader music community of Vancouver.” Other speakers echoed a sense of feeling cheated — for many incoming students, the chance to rehearse at a venue of the Chan Shun Concert Hall's calibre was a driving factor in their decision to attend UBC.
First-year graduate composition student Reid Contreras Woelfe said “UBC music students have felt under siege for months,” forced to navigate an “undue bureaucracy” in the wake of financial constraints facing universities province-wide, instead of focusing their energies on honing their artistic capabilities. UBC alumna Kaitlyn Darrach compared the inadequacy of the reduced rehearsal space at UBC, and funding challenges she’s experienced working in music education in B.C. public schools, to “putting a figure skater on grass.”
After a break to allow for shifting seating arrangements, the protest continued as a sight reading session conducted by UBC alum Samuel Ivory, who invited community members and students to bring their instruments and play an arrangement of “Jupiter,” the fourth movement from Gustav Holst’s The Planets. Sight readers then joined UBC Choirs in interpreting Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.”
The choice was fitting; while the protestors’ frustration and disappointment was palpable in speeches and the ensuing cheers of support, the event was equally a celebration. Not just of music, but of the artists’ talent, resilience and commitment to their craft.
