Skip Kutz

Gov­er­nor (Saskatchewan) 2011–2013

Skip Kutz, a Saskatchewan based musi­cian and uni­ver­sity edu­ca­tor, has stud­ied with Guy Fal­lot of the Paris Con­ser­va­tory and War­ren Ben­field, prin­ci­pal bass of the Chicago Sym­phony Orches­tra. As a per­former, he has played with many ensem­bles includ­ing the Orchestre Jeunesses Musi­cales, the Con­gress of Strings as well as the Saska­toon Sym­phony Orches­tra. As a con­tem­po­rary jour­ney­man bassist, he has per­formed with Colin James, the Mamas and Papas, Almeta Speaks, Sierra Noble and many other artists across Canada.

Skip has been active in the arts advo­cacy field, serv­ing as the three-term pres­i­dent of the Saskatchewan Arts Alliance, rep­re­sent­ing 65 arts orga­ni­za­tions in the province. In this role, he shep­herded the Sta­tus of the Artists Act to sec­ond read­ing in the provin­cial leg­is­la­ture, and nego­ti­ated a major increase in Saskatchewan Arts Board fund­ing.  He also served as the pres­i­dent of the Saska­toon Musi­cians’ Asso­ci­a­tion, pres­i­dent of CJUS-FM (Uni­ver­sity Radio) and as a board mem­ber of the 25th Street The­atre. In 2008 and 2009, Skip was asked to lend his exper­tise in the area of jazz as one of the jurists for the Juno Awards.

Over the years, Skip has per­formed on CBC Radio and TV, Global Tele­vi­sion, CTV and on more than 30 record­ings. In addi­tion, he was the exec­u­tive pro­ducer for the Saska­toon Symphony’s anniver­sary CD, Pas­sion­scape. He con­tin­ues to per­form and is cur­rently a fac­ulty mem­ber at the Gabriel Dumont Insti­tute at the Uni­ver­sity of Saskatchewan.