About

Bachelor of Music, Queen’s University (2014): Saxophone Performance, Concurrent Education
Bachelor of Education, Queen’s University (2015): Intermediate/Senior (Artist in Community Education focus program)
Intermediate/Senior Instrumental Music
Intermediate/Senior Dramatic Arts
Intermediate/Senior History & Civics
Special Education, Part 1
OCDSB eLearning Certified
Guidance & Career Education, Part 1
Teacher Librarian, Part 1
Reading, Part 1

Nick Roy

Nick Roy is an Ottawa-area high school teacher, musician, and arts educator. He currently works as an instrumental music teacher at Merivale High School in the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, and has additionally taught many other subjects, including history, drama, civics & career studies, and special education. He has also had extensive experience as a private instructor and clinician, running his own music lessons studio both in-person and online from 2015-2023.

Nick is a highly versatile collaborative musician – performing, recording, and instructing on all manner of instruments, most predominantly saxophones, clarinets, and piano. As an instrumental music teacher, he instructs on a wide variety, including woodwinds, brass, percussion, guitar, bass, ukulele, and banjo. He currently plays lead tenor saxophone in the Stan Clark Orchestra, an Ottawa-based 17-piece big band specializing in classic swing music, and keyboards and synthesizers in the Ottawa indie rock group SubFloor. As a performer, Nick has worked extensively with Ottawa-based singer-songwriter Craig Cardiff, collaborating on three albums together, for which he wrote, played and recorded woodwind and brass parts – 2011’s Floods and Fires, 2013’s Love is Louder (Than All This Noise), and 2021’s All This Time Running.

Nick has performed with a multitude of artists, including the Kingston Symphony Orchestra, Encore Sax Quartet, Aardvark Jazz Ensemble, Big Band Ottawa, Queen’s University Drama Department, Blue Canoe Productions, Queen’s Musical Theatre, and Suzart After Dark.

As an educator, Nick not only teaches instrumental music in a high school classroom setting, but has also had the pleasure of providing many learning and performing opportunities elsewhere in the community. He spent two years directing a jazz ensemble for adult learners with the Ottawa New Horizons Band program and continues to provide regular masterclasses and clinics for its members. He is a founding staff member and the current Executive Director of Dovercourt Recreation Centre‘s Band Camp. He has also worked extensively with the Ottawa Youth Orchestra Academy, the Bluesfest School of Music & Art, and with the Tett Centre in Kingston, ON.

Through his work on the executive committee of Capital Region MusicFest, in addition to his time at WESTFEST, Westboro FUSE, and Dovercourt’s Music in the Park festivals as community performances coordinator, Nick has provided the opportunity for thousands of Ottawa-area students and musicians to perform in their communities, finding new audiences to continuously help them grow their passion for making music.