Geraldine Kroeker, Kitchener ON
Junior & Intermediate Piano

 Geraldine Kroeker holds an ARCT Diploma in Piano Performance from The Royal Conservatory of Music and a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Music from Brandon University, in Manitoba, where she studied with Dr. Ken Nichols. Ms. Kroeker has attended
masterclasses with Kendall Taylor.
    Ms. Kroeker is active as a solo performer, accompanist, workshop clinician and adjudicator and serves as a church organist and choral director. She has taught piano and theory in private lessons and group classes to students of all ages and levels. Many of her students
have progressed to the provincial festival finals, have won awards in provincial composition competitions and have gone on to careers in music.
    Ms. Kroeker has led numerous workshops on repertoire, technique, learning temperaments and marketing/motivational methods. She has served on the music selection committee for the Provincial Music Festivals syllabus and has been a member of the Manitoba Choral Association in addition to being an active member of the Manitoba Registered Music Teachers’ Association.

Dinah Helgeson, Vashon, WA
Choirs

Dinah Lindberg Helgeson recently retired from International School Bangkok, Thailand, after nine years as Head of Fine Arts and the High school Choir director. 
    Ms Helgeson attended college at Pacific Lutheran University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Music Education. While at PLU, Dinah was member and soprano soloist with “The Choir of the West” under the direction of Dr. Maurice Skones. Dinah pursued graduate studies at University of Southern California where she studied with Dr. Rod Eichenberger.
    Ms Helgeson taught vocal music in the state of Washington and Montana and was a familiar vocal/choral clinician and guest conductor. Prior to living in Bangkok, Dinah was in demand as a guest conductor and choral clinician in the U.S. Canada, and Southeast Asia. She conducted several All-State Choir festivals throughout the U.S. 

Sharon Stanis, Victoria, BC
Strings and Chamber Groups

  Sharon Stanis has had a multi-faceted career as a chamber musician, soloist, and educator. As a co-founder of the Lafayette String Quartet, she has toured extensively in North America and Europe. The quartet garnered prizes from the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition and the Portsmouth (England) International String Quartet Competition.
Ms. Stanis has appeared as soloist with the Victoria Symphony and the Palm Court Orchestra; and has served as concertmaster of the Victoria Symphony in the Summer Festival Series. At Basses Loaded IV, Ms. Stanis performed the Bottesini Grand Duo with Gary Karr. In addition to being a member of the Galiano and Aventa Ensembles, she is a frequent guest artist on the Eine Kleine Summer Music Series.
    A dedicated and enthusiastic teacher, Ms. Stanis is currently an Artist-in-Residence at the University of Victoria, where she teaches violin and coaches chamber music. She adjudicates numerous festivals across Canada, enjoys giving master classes throughout North America, and has coached the violinists of the Victoria Youth Orchestra. She served as an associate instructor in the music history department at Indiana University.
Before coming to Victoria, Ms. Stanis was a member of the Renaissance City Chamber Players, and on faculty at Oakland University and The Institute of Music and Dance in Detroit.
    Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Ms. Stanis studied with Linda and David Cerone, Gary Kosloski, Henryk Kowalski, and Peter Salaff. She received her BM and MM from Indiana University, where she coached with Rostislav Dubinsky who was integral in the formation of the Lafayette String Quartet. Other coaches include members of the Cleveland, Alban Berg, and Amadeus Quartets.
    In addition to the seven compact discs recorded with the Lafayette Quartet, Ms. Stanis has recorded the Murray Adaskin Second Violin Sonata, the John Mills-Cockell Concerto of Deliverance, and the soundtrack of Criminal Acts by Tobin Stokes. She is the violinist in the theme music from the television show Bob and Margaret, composed by Patrick Godfrey.

Edward Daranyi, Stratford, ON
Speech & Drama

    Edward Daranyi is the Resident Teaching Artist at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. In his past 10 seasons at Stratford, Edward has served as Assistant Director of West Side Story, Oklahoma!, A Delicate Balance, Oliver!, Ghosts, The Lark, Quiet in the Land, The Count of Monte Cristo, King Henry VIII and Associate Director of The Donnellys: Sticks & Stones.
    His acting credits at Stratford include roles in Cyrano de Bergerac and Alice Through the Looking Glass. Other directing credits include Noye’s Fludde (CBC); Dance of Death; Weird Kid; Nightlight; Sometimes…; and Nunsense, Baby, Six for Song, Little Shop of Horrors, On Golden Pond and On the Fourth (SummerStage Theatre, Boulder, Colorado). Edward recently co-created a landmark multi-disciplined adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Mozambique with Shakespeare Link Canada and Montes Numuli. Edward is a BFA acting graduate of the University of Windsor, where favourite roles included Rudy in Bent, Ralph in Our Country’s Good, and Othello/Tybalt in Goodnight Desdemona (Goodmorning Juliet).
    Edward has taught acting at the University of Guelph and the National Theatre School of Canada and has taught Shakespeare workshops for Humber College, George Brown College, The Centre for Indigenous Theatre, Cawthra Park School for the Arts and the National Ballet School of Canada. His production company, In the Blink, produces youth-oriented theatre in the Toronto area and he regularly voices characters for the TVO/Treehouse series Mighty Machines.

Dr. Wayne Jeffrey, Vancouver, BC
Concert Bands, Jazz Bands & Orchestras   

Dr. Wayne Jeffrey is presently Director of Ensembles of the Kwantlen University College Department of Music. He has previously held positions at the Universities of Western Ontario, Toronto and Cincinnati and was the Music Director of the Wind Symphony and Conducting Instructor in each school. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in conducting and music education from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York and has appeared as an Associate Conductor of the Eastman Wind Ensemble on many concerts. In Europe, he studied and performed in London, Munich, Budapest, Salzburg and Vienna. As a hornist and conductor, he has broadcast and performed in Canada and abroad and has recorded with the Pacific Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Toronto Chamber Winds, the Hannaford Street Silver Band, CJRT Orchestra and the Erik Schultz Brass Quintet. Orchestral and chamber performances occur across Canada including Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Windsor, London, Hamilton, Toronto, Kingston, Montreal and Fredericton, He appears frequently as a guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator at festivals throughout North America and Europe.

Presently located in the Vancouver area, he performs as a freelance hornist regularly with orchestras on Vancouver Island and throughout the lower Mainland including the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and Sinfonia: Orchestra of the North Shore. Recent guest conducting appearances include the Toronto Wind Orchestra, the Vancouver Island Symphony Orchestra, the Surrey Youth Orchestra and the Irish Youth Wind Ensemble.

Charlene Biggs, Sudbury, ON
Senior Piano

Charlene Biggs received a DMA in Piano Performance from the Eastman School of Music, and a Masters in Performance and Piano Literature from Goldsmiths College, University of London, England. She has performed extensively in Great Britain as a soloist and collaborative artist, appearing at such prestigious venues as the Royal Festival Hall, the Purcell Room, Greenwich Festival, Glasgow University, The National Theatre and the Barbican Arts Centre. She has also performed in France, Holland, Austria, Italy, Canada and the USA. Dr. Biggs has held faculty positions at the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto, where she was also the National Academic Advisor, and in the Community Division of the Eastman School of Music, where she was Assistant Chair of Piano. She is currently Joint Co-ordinator of the School of Music, Cambrian College, and an adjunct Professor at Laurentian University, both in Sudbury, Canada. Dr. Biggs continues as a Senior Examiner for the Royal Conservatory, and is much sought-after as an adjudicator and pedagogy clinician across Canada. She also continues a hectic schedule as a solo and collaborative artist. Recent performances include the Barrie ‘ Colours of Autumn’ Festival , McMaster University, Wilfred Laurier University, York University, and the Toronto Arts and Letters Society.  

Edette Gagne, Vancouver BC
Concert Bands

 A charismatic and dynamic conductor, Edette Gagné has built a reputation for excellence in musical performance in her work. Her passion for music is fueled by intense musicianship and attention to detail, and Edette’s performances reflect both careful adherence to performance practice and the high standards she sets for both herself and her ensembles.
    Edette holds a Master of Music degree in conducting from the University of Calgary, Bachelor degrees in arts and education from the University of Alberta, as well as Associate Performance Diplomas in piano and voice from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. She has studied conducting with Helmut Rilling, Toshi Shimada, Paula Holcombe, Allan McMurray, Frank Klassen, Kenneth Woods, David Hoose and Christopher Zimmerman.
    Her conducting experiences have now circumnavigated the globe, with shows conducted across Canada, Sydney Australia, Los Angeles and New York City. She is in great demand as a guest conductor, adjudicator, vocal coach and lyric soprano. A strong proponent of new and rarely performed works, Edette has conducted several World, North American and Canadian premières.
    Presently, the Canadian West Coast is her home, where she is the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Coast Symphony Orchestra, Principal Conductor of the WVYB String Ensemble and Youth Orchestra, the Associate Conductor of the British Columbia Boys Choir, and the Music Director for the North Shore Light Opera Society.

Charles Peterson, Seattle, WA
Intermediate & Senior Voice

Charles Peterson, tenor, holds a BME degree from Indiana University School of Music, a diploma in Sacred Music as a voice major from Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, a MA in voice performance from Western Washington University, and has taken additional graduate studies at Roosevelt University and the University of Washington. He has had voice apprenticeship studies in Hannover, Germany.
    Mr. Peterson has taught on the voice faculty of Moody Bible Institute (Chicago), Western Washington University (adjunct) (Bellingham), and was Chair of the Voice Department and Director of Opera Theatre at St. Cloud State University. He is widely recognized as an expert in dealing with vocal problems and collaborates frequently with otolaryngologists and speech therapists.
    In 1994, he was invited to teach in Budapest, Hungary and in 1995 was appointed to the faculty for the Voice Foundation’s 24th Annual Symposium in Philadelphia: Care of the Professional Voice. In 2008, he was selected to be one of four master teachers at the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) National Intern Program at the University of North Carolina, and in 2010, he served as a visiting professor at St. Martin’s University, teaching vocal pedagogy. Mr. Peterson has taught master classes in Germany, Hungary, North Carolina, Oregon, Maine, and Washington State.
    A long time member of NATS, Mr. Peterson was the Program Chair for the 1995 National Conference. He has served on the National Board of Directors, as a regional Governor, a District Governor, and as Chapter President, and Treasurer, and chaired the committee for the rewriting of the National Code of Ethics, and is a board member of the NATS Foundation. He is a frequent guest lecturer, clinician, and adjudicator of local to national competitions including the Metropolitan Opera auditions.
    Mr. Peterson’s solo performance experience includes oratorio and opera roles, and recitals. He is also an accomplished choral and orchestral director, most recently serving two seasons with the Whatcom Chorale and Sinfonia in Bellingham, WA, bringing an emphasis on vocal technique and musical style and production.
    He maintains an active voice studio in Seattle, Washington, with a pedagogy emphasis in classical and music theatre singing. Students from the U. S., Canada, Germany and Hungary have come to this studio for study. Students of Mr. Peterson have performed in the United States, Canada, and Europe, and on Broadway in New York.

Gail Suderman, Vancouver, BC
Choirs

      Gail Suderman grew up immersed in the musical tradition of the Mennonite Church, initially developing her skills as an accompanist. Since the early age of eight, Gail has been accompanying choirs, singers and instrumentalists. It was while accompanying singers that she began to find her own voice, which eventually led to studies at the University of Victoria, where she pursued Graduate Studies in Voice Performance and Orchestral Conducting, graduating with Honours.
    After several years of singing professionally in Opera and Oratorio, Gail began her teaching career, developing an award winning Choral and Voice
program at Gladstone Secondary School in Vancouver. During her time teaching high school music, Gail was featured in the Vancouver Sun by Music Columnist Lloyd Dykk as one of the top Music Educators in British Columbia.
    Gail is currently Director of Voice and Choral Music at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and is Artistic Director of Vancouver’s popular Good Noise Vancouver Gospel Choir. She also has a successful private voice studio, her roster of students ranging from award-winning Classical singers to R&B, Rock, Pop and Musical Theatre Professionals. Gail gives frequent choral and vocal workshops for High School music teachers, community and church choirs, directs weekend Gospel music workshops, and is in demand as a Performer, Voice Teacher, Guest Conductor, Workshop Clinician, Voice and Choral
Adjudicator.

Carolyn Cole, North Vancouver, BC
Jr. & Int. Strings  

   Seattle-born Carolyn Canfield Cole has spent twenty-nine years in the Vancouver music scene. Her passions include studying and performing Early Music with other like-minded individuals and developing Outreach and Educational initiatives for Sinfonia, Orchestra of the North Shore to bring to its community. She enjoys mentoring and teaching young people and living a “green” and healthy lifestyle.
Ms. Cole's early musical influences include her first violin teacher, Italian Eugene Nastri of Everett, Washington; former conductor of the Seattle Youth Symphony, Vilem Sokol; and her post-secondary violin teacher and humanitarian, Hungarian Denes Zsigmondy, with whom she studied at the University of Washington in Seattle. Her graduate studies and consecutive Fulbrights took her to Cologne, Germany to study with the great Russian pedagogue Max Rostal. She also spent several summers in Zurich, Switzerland in Master Classes with the Russian legendary Nathan Milstein and Nice, France, in Master Class with American, Aaron Rosand.
    Ms. Cole's performance engagements include a 25-year career with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. She is currently a full-time member of the Vancouver Opera Orchestra and Concertmaster of Sinfonia Orchestra. She also performs with the Pacific Baroque Orchestra and the Early Music Society. She has spent many years in summer residence at the Carmel Bach Festival in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.
    Ms. Cole has an extensive volunteer background, having served for many years as a parent volunteer in secondary schools for school music programs as an Executive Board member and in concert production. In the 1980's she founded the Vancouver Chamber Players and produced benefit concerts for groups such as the Physicians for Nuclear Disarmament and the Food Bank. She has served as the Sinfonia librarian for many years in addition to her many administrative and board duties for the Orchestra. She now serves as Vice President for Sinfonia's board, where she is able to engage her passion for writing and developing educational, outreach and multi-cultural projects for the community.
Ms. Cole is in demand as a clinician, adjudicator and string coach in the Lower Mainland and beyond. She has worked for the past six years with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and District 44 Honor Orchestra Program as coordinator and coach and until recently she coached the strings of the Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra. She has organized and taught a local after-school strings program for disadvantaged children and recently she opened her new coaching studio entitled “Orchestra Excerpts Only” Studio focusing on coaching orchestral repertoire to students and professionals alike who are preparing for any level of exams or auditions.
    Carolyn believes in life-long learning. She has lived only in the woods and the rain of North Vancouver, BC since moving to Canada. She and her husband, Roger Cole, have raised three boys and an Airedale dog.

Leah Field, Vancouver, BC
Junior Voice

    Leah Giselle Field is a Vancouver-based mezzo soprano. Currently a DMA candidate in Opera at UBC, she holds a MMus in Literature and Performance- Voice from the University of Western Ontario, and a BMus in Opera from UBC. She has Voice, Piano, and Speech Arts and Drama training in the Royal Conservatory of Music curricula, as well as Speech Arts training in the Trinity College curriculum. Leah offers master classes in voice, and teaches both private and group voice lessons through the UBC School of Music. She is the Artistic Director of the Dodson Music Series, a Friday afternoon concert series through UBC Libraries.
    An active performer, Leah has sung in North America, Europe, and China. Recent performance credits include Marcellina in Opera on the Avalon’s production of Le Nozze di Figaro, the title character in Giulio Cesare with the Shanghai Conservatory, Mrs. Herring in Opera on the Avalon’s production of Albert Herring, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Julie Riel in Louis Riel, la Zia Principessa in Suor Angelica, and Dorabella in Cosi fan Tutte with UBC Opera, and Suzuki in Vancouver Island Opera’s Madama Butterfly. In addition to operatic roles, Leah has performed in concert repertoire and oratorio with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Toronto, and the UBC Symphony Orchestra, and presented the recital program Tel jour, telle nuit with pianist Richard Epp in March.

Alan Matheson, Vancouver, BC
Jazz Bands and Brass

    Alan Matheson is a Canadian trumpeter, pianist, composer and arranger. He studied with Vincent Cichowicz at Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois) and graduated with a degree in performance. Alan currently teaches trumpet and jazz piano at the University of British Columbia and teaches in the jazz studies programs at Vancouver Community College and Capilano College in North Vancouver. He is the leader of his own big band, nonet and septet and has played with a wide variety of local groups including the Vancouver Opera Orchestra and the CBC Vancouver Orchestra.
    Alan has also directed the CBC Jazz Orchestra in broadcast tributes to Duke Ellington and Paul Whiteman. As musical director of the Festival Vancouver Big Band, Alan has conducted for Clark Terry, Phil Woods and Bud Shank. He has also performed with Mel Torme, Cleo Laine, Louis Bellson and Doc Cheatham. Alan has played at the Vancouver, Montreal and Paris jazz festivals and toured Sweden and Finland with Goran Larsen's "Helsinki City Jazz Orchestra". His compositions and arrangements have been played by Bud Shank, Clark Terry, percussionist Salvador Ferreras and french-hornist Martin Hackleman and, most recently, by the Houston Brass Sextet. Alan's main musical influences are Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Bix Beiderbecke, Clark Terry and Woody Shaw.

Dr. Edward Lewis, Regina, SK
Concert Bands

    Dr. Edward Lewis earned his Ph.D. at New York University, M.Sc. at Juilliard, and B.Mus.Ed. at Eastman. He was awarded the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal, a national honour, in recognition of his musical contributions to Canada; the Saskatchewan 100th Anniversary in Confederation Medal for his significant contributions to the people of Saskatchewan, appointed Professor Emeritus by the University of Regina, and awarded the Special Recognition Award for Jazz Musician/Educator of the Year by the Saskatchewan Jazz Festival.
   Dr. Lewis was appointed the founding Director of Bands for the University of Regina and has served as the Canadian Adjudicator in New York City at the International Brass Quintet Competition of the New York Brass Conference, as well as extensively adjudicating in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. As a soloist and ensemble performer he has appeared in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia. He has also appeared in the U.S. in venues including Carnegie Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, Eastman Theatre, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Radio City Music Hall (NY) and has performed with the Phoenix Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Regina Symphony, the Colorado Springs Symphony and other orchestras, bands and jazz bands.
   Dr. Lewis has done countless clinics and workshops with high school and university ensembles preparing them for competitions and festivals.

Karla Flygare, Seattle, WA
Woodwinds

    Karla Warnke Flygare is the Principal Flutist with the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra and the Auburn Symphony, with whom she is a frequent soloist. She has served as Principal Flute with the Northwest Chamber Orchestra, and can be heard on the orchestra’s 2006 CD release of works by Philip Glass. An active musician in Seattle, she has worked with the Seattle Symphony and the Seattle Opera. Since winning the National Flute Association Chamber Music Competition in 1986 with a performance at the New York City convention, she has continued to be active in chamber music, performing Debussy and Ravel at the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, chamber music with Joseph Silverstein on the Northwest Chamber Orchestra Chamber Series, and music by Icelandic composers on the Mostly Nordic Chamber Music Series. Ms. Flygare holds the position of Affiliate Artist in Flute at the University of Puget Sound and a complete bio along with student statements can be found at www.KarlaFlygare.com

Janelle Nadeau, Vancouver, BC
Harp & Guitar

   Janelle Nadeau has been performing and touring with various groups, ensembles and as a soloist throughout Canada. She graduated from the Harp Performance program at the University of British Columbia and has been a member of the acclaimed Winter Harp ensemble for the past six years as they tour throughout British Columbia as well as other provinces. Janelle has toured Canada with the National Youth Orchestra, has performed for Celebrity Cruises, has worked closely with Grammy-nominee Deborah Henson-Conant and she plays as a guest harpist in various orchestras in the lower mainland including the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the Vancouver Opera. She has had solo tours with Manitoba's popular Home Routes concert tour as well as through Manitoba Arts Council. Janelle is the 2008 first place winner and the 2006 second place winner of the Winnipeg Women's Musical Club competition. Her performances have been heard on CBC as well as VIA TVA television. This bilingual harpist has studied harp with Richard Turner, Heidi Krutzen and Rita Costanzi and now teaches private lessons and masterclasses in Vancouver.