Lesley Andrew (MMUS, HBA, HBFA, Diploma in Opera) has made soloist appearances with many of Canada’s finest orchestras and choirs.  Known for her extraordinary vocal range and versatility in many genres of music, she often ‘switches hats,’ performing as the soprano and alto soloist, from opera to show tunes, oratorio to jazz. 

Immediately following the completion of her undergraduate degree, Lesley began an extended tenure with the Stratford Festival, including The Mikado, The Pirates of Penzance, Twelfth Night, Cyrano De Bergerac, Alice Through the Looking Glass, The Music Man and Patience. She has performed many major concert and recital tours, including Argentina, European, North America, and aboard the QE II 1999 World Tour. Lesley has made special guest television appearances on The Tonight Show, Oprah

Winfrey, To Tell the Truth, Donny & Marie, The Comedy Network, YTV, and many more.  

Lesley adjudicates and conducts masterclasses at festivals, universities and colleges around the world. She runs her voice and drama studios - Dream in Progress Productions from London and Windsor, Ontario, and online around the world! Her ‘Summer Glee’ program (theatre and music for youth) is now in its twenty-fifth year, with more programs offered each summer in communities across Canada.  

Lesley’s professional activities have included teaching and stage directing appointments at Wilfrid Laurier University, at the Universities of Windsor and Western Ontario, The Guelph Spring Festival, SOLO (Southern Ontario Lyric Opera) and as Head of Vocal Music at George Brown College. She continues to work as a soloist, actor, collaborative recital artist, stage director, adjudicator, and motivational speaker.

www.dreaminprogress.com

Praised both as a soloist and a chamber player, Canadian pianist Michel Fournier (DMus) has performed with a number of orchestras and is widely appreciated for the many recitals he has given in Canada, Europe and United States. His repertoire covers a broad spectrum of piano music from different eras and styles. He has a special fondness for French music and has earned critical acclaim for the originality of his interpretation and his refined sound.

Dr. Michel Fournier toured extensively with world class musicians and ensembles; he has several Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) recordings, many albums and movie soundtracks to his credit.

Highly appreciated as an educator, Michel Fournier has provided guidance to thousands of musicians, teaching masterclasses, coaching and adjudicating national competitions for young musicians across North America, Europe and Asia. As a teacher, many of his student are award-winners in national and international competitions (Tureck International Bach Competition, American Protégé, Thousand Islands International Chopin Competition, Canadian Music Competiton, National Music Festival in Canada and others). His private music studio in Montreal welcomes students from around the world for artist residency.

As a student of French pianist Yvonne Hubert, Michel completed a Master’s degree before continuing his studies in France and Austria. He also studied under legendary pianist Menahem Pressler at University of Indiana. He earned a Doctorate in Music from University of Montreal.

Michel Fournier’s numerous CD’s have won public and critical acclaim all over Canada.

https://standremanagement.com/?projects=michel-fournier

Valery Lloyd-Watts invites you to explore with her how music transforms sound into an emotional reaction. Performing some of the world’s finest classical music, Valery shares her understanding of this process, greatly enhancing how listeners perceive music.

At the age of four, Valery began playing piano and made her debut with the Vancouver Junior Symphony Orchestra at age 12. Having received numerous awards by age 16, she was invited to perform with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

Valery is a graduate, scholar and medalist of the Royal Conservatory of Music, Canada and received her Masters in Music from the University of Wisconsin. She was a scholar at the Royal College of Music, London where she played concerts and performed on the BBC.

After moving to Kingston, Ontario in 1970, she continued performing as well as developing the methods of Shinichi Suzuki as applied to piano. Valery and music partner, Carole L Bigler wrote Studying Suzuki Piano: More Than Music and Valery recorded the entire Suzuki repertoire. Wishing to share learning music with others, Valery and Carole created More Than Music, Inc. which presented an annual music camp, Suzuki Kingston, for 32 years.

Valery recorded over 50 CDs which include The Healing Heart of Music, Music for your Baby, Music for a Better Brain, Classically Romantic Piano and Great Movie Themes. She made an award-winning TV series, Music Meant for You, and travelled much of the Western world, performing and teaching.

In 2008, the Women’s Executive Network (WXN) designated Valery one of Canada’s 100 Most Powerful Women.

https://valerylloydwatts.com

Patricia O’Callaghan is something of a wandering minstrel with a career that has taken her across genres, continents, and a range of disciplines and passions. Her recording career spans six solo CDs and many interesting guest collaborations. Most recently Patricia started an appointment at Queen’s University’s DAN School of Drama and Music in September 2021, where, in addition to teaching a studio of private voice students, she is directing the School’s Music Theatre Ensemble.

A speaker of French, Spanish, and German, her early recordings focused on European cabaret, and she is considered a specialist in the music of Kurt Weill. Patricia has performed his Threepenny Opera, Seven Deadly Sins, and Kleine Mahagonny with Soulpepper Theatre Company, Edmonton Opera, and Vancouver Opera, to name a few. She has sung with some of the world’s great ensembles and artists (Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Don Byron Quartet, Bryn Terfel), and has performed in venues that range from London’s Royal Opera House to New York’s Noho cabaret Le Poisson Rouge.

Patricia also writes and co-writes songs and has had the honor of premiering many new compositions, from both the classical and pop worlds. It has been her great privilege to work with such creators as R. Murray Schafer, David Braid, Dennis Lee, Christos Hatzis, George Aperghis, Steve Reich, and Steven Page, to name a few. Her film, theatre and television credits include her own Bravo! special, The CBC produced Ken Finkleman series Foolish Heart, and the semi-autobiographical Rhombus/Westwind film Youkali Hotel, which has won several prizes, including a Golden Sheaf Award for best female performance.

http://www.patricia-ocallaghan.com

Founder of Ollin.ca, Yessica Rivera Belsham is an Interdisciplinary Artist from the tail of Turtle Island, México. She is grounded in her heritage while her love of life and her passion of world rhythms, colour, movement and healing arts are combined in one as she celebrates visual arts, dancing, drumming, and singing in her daily life while walking gently with Mother Earth. Yessica has a background of working with a wide range of various populations within México and Canada while promoting growth within individuals, families, and communities in a compassionate and embracing manner with workshops and events fostered in inclusion, diversity, and equity within the province of Ontario as Ollin.ca.

Tricia Baldwin is the Director of the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts at Queen’s University. She and her talented team have established the Isabel as a noted arts presenter of local, national, and international talent and an arts incubator for new works. Tricia is the co-founder of the Ka’tarohkwi Festival of Indigenous Arts with curator Dylan Robinson and the Isabel Human Rights Arts Festival where social justice and the arts interconnect. Prior to the Isabel, Tricia Baldwin was the Managing Director of the internationally acclaimed Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra from 2000 to 2014. Tricia Baldwin has been awarded the Canada Council for the Arts’ John Hobday Award in Arts Management and the Queen's Human Rights Initiatives Award.

Robb MacKay teaches at Rideau Heights Public School in Kingston. He delivers music programs to students in Kindergarten to Grade 8 and collaborates with secondary school music teachers. He is also an adjunct lecturer at The Dan School of Music and Drama at Queen's University where he teaches courses in popular and world musics. Robb’s research interests include gender and equity in music education and the arts in special education. He makes frequent media appearances to discuss current events in popular music. Robb is a multi-instrumentalist with passion for musics of all origin and description. 

Dr. Colleen Renihan is Assistant Professor and Queen’s National Scholar in Music Theatre and Opera at the DAN School of Drama and Music, Queen's University. She holds a PhD in Musicology from the University of Toronto. Colleen has published chapters in several edited collections on opera, and in the journals twentieth century music, The Journal of the Society for American Music, U of T Quarterly, and Music, Sound, and the Moving Image. Her book, The Operatic Archive: American Opera as History, was published by Routledge in 2020 in its Interdisciplinary Studies in Opera series. A second book project that examines operatic innovation in Canada 1970-2010 is underway. Colleen is also co-directs a SSHRC and CFI-funded project on inclusive and accessible community music theatre.

Pianist and harpsichordist Cécile Desrosiers holds a B.Mus (McGill University), L.Mus (Guildhall School, London, U.K.) and an M.Mus (University of Western Ontario). She has also studied with harpsichordists Eric Lussier, Hank Knox and Colin Tilney. Ms. Desrosiers has appeared as guest soloist with the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra, Niagara Symphony, Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, Brandon University Orchestra and McMaster University Chamber Orchestra. She has been heard on WQXR-FM (New York) and on numerous CBC and Radio-Canada broadcasts. Cécile Desrosiers currently teaches at Carleton University, works as a Conservatory Canada examiner and is sought after as a music festival adjudicator. 

Eleanor Gummer has been teaching children of all ages for over 40 years. She holds a MMus in Piano Performance (McGill University), as well as a BMus (U of Manitoba), Fellowship and Licentiate diplomas (Trinity College of Music, London) and an ARCT. Ms Gummer studied in Europe, New York and has performed across Canada. She is a Conservatory Canada examiner and is actively involved in researching music by women. She is also the author of Pianokids® Violinkids® and Guitarkids® and the founder and director of Whitby School of Music. Ms Gummer is active as an adjudicator, clinician and composer. 

Natasha Finlay, ARCT, is a dance notator for The National Ballet of Canada. She holds two Royal Conservatory of Music Gold Medals for Piano Pedagogy and has taught in Paris, London, Montreal and Toronto, including at The Phil and Eli Taylor Academy for Young Artists. She is a piano examiner for the Royal Conservatory of Music and runs a French-English piano studio in Toronto.

Nisreen Jardaneh believes that every child should have access to music education. She has been teaching for many years in group and private settings as well as elementary and secondary schools. She holds a Graduate Research Certificate in Piano Pedagogy, MA from the University of Ottawa, and a Masters in Music Education from Université Laval. Nisreen is always eager to find creative ways into teaching music and embraces the effective use of technology to accelerate music learning. She is a pianist but also enjoys playing accordion, ukulele and any other instrument she can put her hands on.

Loving music as long as she can remember, Molly Luhta has cultivated her passion and is now a lyric soprano. Her opera performances have taken her across Canada, and she performs regularly as a soloist in concerts and recitals. She has adjudicated for regional festivals, as well as for CFMTA's 2020 Canada Music Week Festival. In 2019, she debuted "Clear Shining Moment", written for her by Martha Hill-Duncan (RCM Voice, Level 8 Repertoire). In 2016, she won 1st Place at the National Canadian Music Competition. She holds degrees from Western University (M.Mus, Voice Literature and Performance) and Queen’s University (B.Ed, B.Mus).

Audrey Marshall, an RCM examiner and adjunct faculty member of the Golandsky Institute, studied piano in Scotland, and at age 12 was awarded a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music (London). After a career as a practicing orthoptist and lecturer, she immigrated to Canada with her husband. She has continued piano study, including at the Dorothy Taubman Institute of Piano Technique; with Edna Golandsky, founder of the Golandsky Institute (Princeton, NJ); and with Taubman proponent Ilya Itin. Audrey has worked with compromised pianists for 25 years. She has a private studio in Kingston and teaches in Toronto and online.

Pianist Dina Namer is well known to chamber music lovers in Canada. She has had an extensive career in both the United States and Canada as a harpsichordist and pianist, performing and recording a wide range of repertoire from Baroque to Contemporary Canadian works. Dina has had a long association with the musicians of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, recording frequently for CBC and Radio Canada. She is presently a Continuing Adjunct Lecturer in Piano at the Dan School of Drama and Music, Queen’s University, where she teaches collaborative and solo piano performance.

Lori Lynn Penny has taught all subjects of music theory at all levels for more than 40 years. She is a member of The Royal Conservatory’s College of Theoretical Examiners, marking rudiments, harmony, history, and analysis examinations. She co-authored the Celebrate Theory series – preparatory to level 8. Lori Lynn has a BMus in Elementary School Music; a DipFA in Music Education (Kodály Method); an MA in Music Theory; and a PhD in Education (Teaching, Learning, and Evaluation), researching Music Theory Pedagogy. She is also Treasurer of the Ottawa Region Branch of ORMTA and Director of the Gloucester Music Club.

Lee Watson’s musical journey started at age 7 with piano lessons and unlocked a love for music, arts, and teaching especially. She advocates for every student, especially those in need of encouragement. She wishes to see every student (young and old!) find joy in music no matter their skill level or talent, and regularly organizes community events where students can perform, such as Woof A Roo, long-term care homes or Stroll the Streets. She holds an MTS (Tyndale University, Toronto), BMus (University of Windsor) and an ARCT (RMC). She is president of ORMTA’s Windsor-Essex branch and a Certified RCM Teacher.

Larysa Kuzmenko is a Toronto-based composer, pianist, educator and Juno nominee, of Ukrainian heritage. Her music has been commissioned, performed, broadcast and recorded by many outstanding musicians all over the world. Her works demonstrate a strong affinity towards the mainstream of classical music. She imbues her music with a strong melodic sense, and a firm rooting in traditional, albeit extended tonal processes. Her music is published by Counterpoint Music Library Services who has recently contracted with her to publish all remaining unpublished works as well as all future works. Some of her pieces have been published by Boosey and Hawkes (choral), Plangere (piano), and Frederic Harris (The Piano Odyssey Series). Her solo piano works receive over a hundred performances a year. Her choral works Winds and Stars are performed regularly all over the world. Larysa has been awarded commissions to write a wide variety of pieces including choral, orchestral, chamber and solo. She is currently on staff at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Music, where she teaches piano, harmony, and composition. You can find out more about her at her website: www.larysakuzmenko.com

Ukrainian - Canadian soprano Natalya Gennadi is gaining attention in North America for her performances inwide-ranging repertoire. After receiving her Masters in Opera Performance at University of Toronto, Natalya caused a sensation in the leading role of Tapestry Opera’s Oksana G, receiving a Dora Award nomination. Natalya understudied Tatiana in Eugene Onegin at Hawaii Opera Theatre, sang Mimi in La bohème with Highlands Opera and Violetta in La Traviata with Opera York. In 2021, Natalya starred in the title role of Adriana Lecouvreur in a digital production with Voicebox:Opera in Concert. Natalya shares her love of Slavic music as a professional diction coach and is an avid supporter of Ukrainian vocal repertoire, which she has proudly performed at recent benefit concerts in Toronto and Montreal.

Composer, arranger, and teacher, Christopher Norton is universally regarded as the leader in his field. Born in 1953, he is a New Zealand-born, now Canadian-based composer. His long and fruitful association with Boosey & Hawkes has resulted in the world-famous Microjazz series, the Preludes for piano, 2 Concert Collections for piano and, with his wife Wendy, 30 Micromusicals. The Connections series has also expanded to include duet volumes, teacher accompaniment books and books for flute, clarinet and violin with piano accompaniment. Christopher now lives, with his wife Wendy Beardall-Norton, another published composer, in Stratford, Ontario, Canada.

Xingbo (Isaac) Wang, founder of  Magnopere Corporation is a self-taught multi-instrumentalist with a passion for music. He received his Bachelors of Applied Science in Engineering Science from the University of Toronto in 2014 and his Masters of Applied Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Toronto in 2016. He was a software developer at a Canadian music technology start-up during his post-secondary studies between 2012-2015. Since 2016 he has been working in the aerospace industry as a systems engineer and lead software developer for UAV start-ups in Canada and the US, as well as a member of technical staff supporting Canadarm 2 operations on the International Space Station. In 2022, Isaac founded Magnopere Corporation with the goal of bringing state-of-the-art technological advancements to the music industry, with a focus on remote music collaboration.

Rebecca Featherstone, a graduate of Mohawk College for Applied Arts (2000) and McMaster University BA in Music (2002), has been teaching piano for over 20 years. Owner of a multi teacher studio in Toronto since 2008. In 2020 Rebecca created Musicology, a robust video conferencing platform with collaborative and interactive tools designed to teach music online with the highest quality audio unique to Musicology alone. Available for iOS and a Web App for Chrome globally, Musicology allows the student to fully participate in their lesson as naturally as possible and as similar to an in-person lesson without the need for extra accessories or equipment.

Eleanor Gummer has been teaching children of all ages for over 40 years. She holds a MMus in Piano Performance (McGill University), as well as a BMus (U of Manitoba), Fellowship and Licentiate diplomas (Trinity College of Music, London) and an ARCT. Ms Gummer studied in Europe, New York and has performed across Canada. She is a Conservatory Canada examiner and is actively involved in researching music by women. She is also the author of Pianokids® Violinkids® and Guitarkids® and the founder and director of Whitby School of Music. Ms Gummer is active as an adjudicator, clinician and composer. 

Vice President Musical Instruments & Education Division, Steve Butterworth is a music industry veteran with 34 years of experience in the musical products and music education fields. With studies in low brass and jazz at Humber College and a B.A. in Music from McMaster University, he is also a 21-year veteran of the Royal Canadian Navy Band. He has been a frequent workshop facilitator and adjudicator for concert and jazz bands at regional and national music festivals. He has a passion for creating opportunities for all to know the joy of learning and performing music together with others.

Dr. John Burge began teaching at Queen’s University in 1987. A Juno-winning composer, in 2014 he was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada for his success as a composer and support of the Arts in Canada. Having completed his A.R.C.T. in piano performance while still in high school, John Burge has continued to perform throughout his career, usually in presentations of his own music. John Burge enjoys working with musicians of all ages and has adjudicated music festivals across Canada. A passionate advocate for Canadian music, he served as the President of the Canadian League of Composers from 1993-2007.

Craig Milner is the National Course Supervisor for the Young Musicians Course (YMC), Piano Club (PC), and Keyboard Club (KC). He is also the coordinator for Yamaha Grade Exams and the Junior Original Concert Program (JOC) across Canada. Craig is a strong believer in nurturing creativity and during the past few years his students have been selected for concert performances of their own compositions in the USA, Hong Kong, Japan and Australia.

Ruby Chung is the Marketing Specialist for Yamaha Canada's Music Education Department. Ruby began her music training at Yamaha Taiwan at the age of four. With her diploma in ARCT piano performance and pedagogy as well as a B.A. in Commerce from Queen's University, Ruby's biggest passion is to bring the best music education to all in Canada. Ruby is a certified Yamaha group music instructor and holds the Yamaha Grade 4 Teachers Certificate. She is also a teacher trainer for Yamaha Music Schools in regional teaching seminars across Canada.