It’s a homecoming affair for two new business owners that have recently set up shop in Wesbrook Village.
Entrepreneurial duo and artistic couple Holly Yuen and Charles Pattison have recently taken over Mastery School of Music, while yogi and businesswoman Kim Scarrow is the force behind Havn Hot Yoga Studio. For both Yuen and Scarrow, the path back to the Lower Mainland and the University Neighbourhoods has been interesting.
Yuen is a B.C. native; after attending UBC for her undergraduate studies and law school, she moved to Hong Kong to practice as a litigation lawyer. It was there where she met Pattison, a trained physicist who was working in finance.
After many years abroad as expatriates, including stops in Singapore and France, the desire to be closer to family led Both Yuen and Pattison to move to the Lower Mainland in March 2024, where they could also explore opportunities to pursue different career paths.
Both are music enthusiasts and pianists, and one day Pattison – who was born in England but grew up in France – came across an intriguing opportunity.
Numbers and mathematical formulas had long been the focus of his professional life. He completed his thesis at the Large Hadron Collider (CERN) in Switzerland before being headhunted by a bank to work as a mathematician in Hong Kong, where he met Yuen.
Yet years later, while having lunch with friends, Pattison was asked a common question: if he could do any job, what would he choose?
“I said I’d run a music school”, he told The Campus Resident. “That’s what I’m passionate about. I’ve always been a musician, I play the piano, it has formed me as a person, I’ve organized music clubs. I thought it would be really fun to combine my business experience with something I am very passionate about.”
So in late 2023, he typed into Google “Vancouver music schools for sale”, and to his surprise, he found one on the market in Richmond. After convincing his wife “with a little arm twisting”, they bought it.
And when Wesbrook’s Mastery School of Music went up for sale earlier this year, Pattison doubled down and bought it after realizing synergies could be achieved with both schools under his ownership.
It didn’t take long for Yuen to join, but not without a little trepidation.
“I thought, oh my goodness, has he bitten off more than he can chew?” Yuen recalls asking herself. “Maybe he does need some help with paperwork and organization.”
Yuen – who has played the piano since the age of 6 and has completed all grades of piano instruction – now works as director of legal and operations.
With a developing family business, the couple say they’re looking forward to continuing offering musical instruction to campus residents and building a sense of community among local music lovers.
“I love the community here, it’s so vibrant, it’s nice, it’s growing, and it has plans,” Pattison says.
In the short term, they plan to continue building on the school’s success while consulting with community members to assess what they want from their local music school.
“What we should be encouraging is children wanting to learn, because they see something in their lives and they connect it to learning an instrument,” adds Yuen.
A home for the campus yoga community
Kim Scarrow, founder and director of Havyn Hot Yoga, has fond memories of living on campus as a child.
During her middle school years, she would swim at the UBC pool and explore the University Endowment Lands with her father. Years later, she has returned to campus to open Havyn’s second location, in Wesbrook Village.
Her introduction to yoga came out of necessity. While suffering from chronic spinal pain in her early 20’s, Scarrow discovered the healing power of yoga.
“I discovered how transformative a non-Bikram heated yoga practice was for my healing,” she says. “Once I returned from university out east, my passion led me to create this space to share that healing with my neighbours.”
With a location already open at West 4th and Alma St., she found herself in a position where she could take over the existing yoga studio in Wesbrook and continue providing yoga classes to campus residents, as well as mat pilates and strength-based classes.
Not just content with running a business though, Scarrow says she is making an effort to embed Havyn in the campus community.
“Community is a term that gets thrown around a lot, but fostering genuine connections has never been more critical,” she says. “In a world that often feels fractured, building trust and care among diverse groups is essential. Providing third spaces for these connections is a priority for me, and I’m thrilled to create opportunities for these bonds to flourish.”
Scarrow says she is optimistic about UBC’s plans to further develop campus and feels supported by the university officials who want to see local business owners succeed.
“As a small business facing high costs and tight margins, every client counts. I’m optimistic about the densification plans in the area, which I believe will expand opportunities for creative commerce,” she says. “This studio feels like coming home for me. Bringing more healing to such a healing space feels exceptionally special.”
Mastery School of Music is located at 3396 Shrum Lane and Havyn Hot Yoga’s UBC campus location can be found at 3378 Wesbrook Mall.
EMMANUEL SAMOGLOU IS THE MANAGING EDITOR OF THE CAMPUS RESIDENT.