Calgary born violinist Dolores Vann received her music training in Vancouver, California, Toronto and New York with teachers William Gratch, Douglas Stewart, Roman Totenberg, Elie Spivak and Kathleen Parlow. 


She was a recipient of many scholarships and awards, is a graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto where she attended the Artist Diploma program. During those years she was heard in solo and chamber music concerts throughout Ontario and B.C. as well as in recital at Yale University, the Julliard School of Music, and the Peabody Institute. 


Over a span of 40 years, Ms. Vann was a member of the Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Edmonton Symphony Orchestras, the McGill Chamber and CBC Radio-Canada Orchestras, the Edmonton Chamber Players and Musici Allegri, the CBC Vancouver and Vancouver Opera Orchestras. She also performs as soloist on the Viola d'Amore and has been heard in concert in the Western provinces and the Maritimes. 

For the past 30 years Ms. Vann has also been a teacher of violin, viola and theory. In Edmonton she was well known for her work with handicapped children.

She is an examiner for Conservatory Canada, and a music festival adjudicator, which has taken her to all the major centres in Western Canada. One of her pupils earned the singular distinction of being the youngest violinist at age 13 to receive an ARCT from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.

Her students are often competitors and winners in Provincial music festivals and over the years many have moved on to major orchestras in Canada and abroad. She also has students in the National Youth Orchestra of which she serves as a board member.

In 1986 she moved from Edmonton to Gabriola Island with her husband Michael Vann, a noted bow maker and luthier. 

She served as concertmaster of the Vancouver Island Symphony from 1995 to 1999. She is a founding member of that orchestra.

During the year 2000 Ms. Vann was commissioned to set the senior violin syllabus of Conservatory Canada.

She joined the faculty of the Victoria Conservatory of Music in 2001 as senior violin teacher and chamber music coach.

Ms. Vann now divides her time between teaching, playing recitals and as a much sought-after adjudicator and examiner.