Jacob Autio, Jake to his friends, began group piano lessons at age 6 in a small music studio in Abbotsford, BC. He vividly remembers practicing and singing “do do do, this is do” while pounding out a scale with his right hand, his left hand, and then hands together. Throughout his school years he continued to study piano and began singing in his school choir and his church’s children’s choir. In his teenage years, Jake started to play the trombone and euphonium in band and he dabbled in his high school choir. In university, Jake focused on music education and euphonium as his passion for singing and choral music was only starting to blossom.
While attending the University of Ottawa, Jake fell in love with conducting and sought out as many opportunities to get in front of a group. He co-conducted a wind ensemble at the University of Birmingham, England, for one year, founded the University of Ottawa Community Concert band, and was an intern for the Choeur classique de l’Outaouis under Robert Filion. Jake moved back to BC to Victoria where he finished his Bachelor of Education and completed his Masters in Music Performance on the euphonium. During this time Jake studied Kodály and Orff methodologies and since then has travelled and studied in Western Canada, Hungary, and the United States to obtain his Kodály Certificate.
Jake is the founder and artistic director of the BC Kodály choir (bckodalychoir.com) and is currently the acting president of the BC Kodály Society and a board member of the Kodály Society of Canada (KSC) where he is the editor of Alla Breve, the official publication of the KSC. He has taught elementary music & Kindergarten in public schools in Campbell River, Burnaby, and Surrey school districts and works to create joyful musical experiences with his students.