About Us
What makes West Coast Recordings unique and valuable? The answer is that Christopher Haas, the engineer and director, is a professional musician with many years of performance experience and a conductor who can read a full orchestral score. As a conductor and music teacher, he understands the important ensemble concepts of balance, blend, texture, tuning, tempo etc. This helps him to design recordings and create mixes which are faithful to conductor and composers' intentions.
Chris is a multi-talented musician/conductor/teacher/photographer with over 40 years of performance experience in the areas of pop music, jazz, Afro-Cuban, choral and classical music. In addition to performing, Chris has been a high school band director since 1996 and, for twenty years, was the director of bands at the award-winning Magee Secondary School in Vancouver. Magee's Wind Ensemble and Sr. Jazz Band would often perform over 20 concerts a year and tour internationally every two years. Chris currently teaches concert band, jazz band, guitar and photography at Moscrop Secondary School in Burnaby.
In 2008, he earned his Masters in Conducting from the American Band College at Southern Oregon University. Also in 2008, he began frequent recordings of concert bands, jazz bands, community orchestras and chamber ensembles. From 2011 to 2019, he was the associate conductor of A Little Night Music. While working with ALNM, he conducted (and recorded) 4 concerts a year. Through the many recording opportunities as a conductor and musician, Chris also honed his skills as an engineer to create outstanding recordings.
Our Clients
Big Bands - John Korsrud's Hard Rubber Orchestra, South Van Big Band, Randers Big Band, Dan Hersog Big Band, Vancouver Legacy Big Band, Inlet Jazz Band
Jazz combos for artists such as Ingrid Stitt, Steve Maddock Sextet, and Ben Henriques
High school recordings at Magee SS, Moscrop SS, Eric Hamber SS, and York House School.
Classical Ensembles: West Coast Symphony Orchestra, Richmond Orchestra and Chorus Association, Richmond Singers, Coastal Sound Music, Pacific Symphonic Wind Ensemble, White Rock City Orchestra and more!
Chamber music clients include: Muzewest Concerts, Trinity Pacific Chamber Orchestra and the Vancouver Wind Quintet.
Vancouver Classical Guitar Society - Conducting, Recording and livestream of festival opening night concert, July-2021.
Private client recordings - Spencer Tsai performing the Sibelius Violin Concerto, Mozart Piano Concerto and Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto. Others include: harp, bagpipe audition, organ recitals, violin audition for the Boston Symphony.
Recorded at: UBC Recital Hall, Fei and Milton Wong Theatre at Simon Fraser University, Fraserview Mennonite Church, Holy Rosary Cathedral, Ryerson United Church, St. Andrews-Wesley United Church, Christ Church Cathedral, South Arm United Church, Canadian Memorial United Church, Bill Reid Gallery, St. Helen's Anglican Church, Broadmoor Baptist Church, New Westminster Christian Reform Church, Trinity United Church, Burnaby Danish Lutheran Church, Pat's Pub, The Vancouver Symphony Annex, Capilano University, Magee Secondary School Theatre, Eric Hamber Secondary School, York House School, Evergreen Cultural Centre.
Collaborated with Muzewest Productions, former CBC producer Joe Fingerote, Jean Routhier and Heather Lamb at the Fei and Milton Wong Theatre at Simon Fraser University and the sound crew at Pat's Pub.
All images on this site were taken by C. Haas (unless credited otherwise) and as such are copyright protected. To see more images by Chris Haas, please visit his Flickr page here.
Chris is a multi-talented musician/conductor/teacher/photographer with over 40 years of performance experience in the areas of pop music, jazz, Afro-Cuban, choral and classical music. In addition to performing, Chris has been a high school band director since 1996 and, for twenty years, was the director of bands at the award-winning Magee Secondary School in Vancouver. Magee's Wind Ensemble and Sr. Jazz Band would often perform over 20 concerts a year and tour internationally every two years. Chris currently teaches concert band, jazz band, guitar and photography at Moscrop Secondary School in Burnaby.
In 2008, he earned his Masters in Conducting from the American Band College at Southern Oregon University. Also in 2008, he began frequent recordings of concert bands, jazz bands, community orchestras and chamber ensembles. From 2011 to 2019, he was the associate conductor of A Little Night Music. While working with ALNM, he conducted (and recorded) 4 concerts a year. Through the many recording opportunities as a conductor and musician, Chris also honed his skills as an engineer to create outstanding recordings.
Our Clients
Big Bands - John Korsrud's Hard Rubber Orchestra, South Van Big Band, Randers Big Band, Dan Hersog Big Band, Vancouver Legacy Big Band, Inlet Jazz Band
Jazz combos for artists such as Ingrid Stitt, Steve Maddock Sextet, and Ben Henriques
High school recordings at Magee SS, Moscrop SS, Eric Hamber SS, and York House School.
Classical Ensembles: West Coast Symphony Orchestra, Richmond Orchestra and Chorus Association, Richmond Singers, Coastal Sound Music, Pacific Symphonic Wind Ensemble, White Rock City Orchestra and more!
Chamber music clients include: Muzewest Concerts, Trinity Pacific Chamber Orchestra and the Vancouver Wind Quintet.
Vancouver Classical Guitar Society - Conducting, Recording and livestream of festival opening night concert, July-2021.
Private client recordings - Spencer Tsai performing the Sibelius Violin Concerto, Mozart Piano Concerto and Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto. Others include: harp, bagpipe audition, organ recitals, violin audition for the Boston Symphony.
Recorded at: UBC Recital Hall, Fei and Milton Wong Theatre at Simon Fraser University, Fraserview Mennonite Church, Holy Rosary Cathedral, Ryerson United Church, St. Andrews-Wesley United Church, Christ Church Cathedral, South Arm United Church, Canadian Memorial United Church, Bill Reid Gallery, St. Helen's Anglican Church, Broadmoor Baptist Church, New Westminster Christian Reform Church, Trinity United Church, Burnaby Danish Lutheran Church, Pat's Pub, The Vancouver Symphony Annex, Capilano University, Magee Secondary School Theatre, Eric Hamber Secondary School, York House School, Evergreen Cultural Centre.
Collaborated with Muzewest Productions, former CBC producer Joe Fingerote, Jean Routhier and Heather Lamb at the Fei and Milton Wong Theatre at Simon Fraser University and the sound crew at Pat's Pub.
All images on this site were taken by C. Haas (unless credited otherwise) and as such are copyright protected. To see more images by Chris Haas, please visit his Flickr page here.
Recording the Richmond Orchestra - South Arm United Church - November 30, 2021
Recording the Randers Big Band from Denmark at Pat's Pub, Vancouver, October 2015
Recording the Vancouver Winds at Ryerson United Church, Vancouver on July 8, 2015