Patricia Ahern has been a frequent soloist and core member of Tafelmusik since 2002. She was educated at Northwestern University, Indiana University, and the Schola Cantorum in Basel, Switzerland. She taught baroque violin at the Freiburg Conservatory in Germany and Oberlin’s Baroque Performance Institute, and has given masterclasses at McGill, York University, Wilfrid Laurier, University of Windsor, Western University, University of Toronto, University of Wisconsin, Grand Valley State University, California State University Long Beach, Sookmyung Women’s University (Seoul), and the Sydney Conservatorium (Australia). She has concertized throughout Canada, the US, Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America, and has performed with Milwaukee Baroque, Ars Antigua, Chicago Opera Theater, Toronto Consort, Aradia, I Furiosi, Newberry Consort, Musica Pacifica, and the Carmel Bach Festival. Tricia has recorded for Sony, Naxos, and Analekta.
Matthew Antal was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario. He attended Cardinal Carter Academy for the Arts where he began playing Viola at age 12 because he was told "you look like a violist". He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto under Katharine Rapoport and a master’s degree from the University of Victoria under Joanna Hood, both in Viola performance. He also holds an advanced certificate in early music performance from the University of Toronto where he studied with Patrick Jordan and Stefano Marcocchi. Matthew is a regular performer with several ensembles around Toronto including Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Theatre of Early Music, and Elixir Ensemble.
In three decades of work at the Shaw Festival, Guy played in over 4000 performances. Recent work on stage includes King Charles III (Studio 180, Toronto); Agatha Christie’s comedy thriller Spider’s Web (Theatre Aquarius, Hamilton); the world premiere of Norm Foster’s The Writer (Foster Festival, St. Catharines); and The New Canadian Curling Club (Thousand Islands Playhouse, Gananoque, 2019; Western Canada Theatre Company, Kamloops and Vernon, British Columbia, 2020). On television he has been seen in Murdoch Mysteries, The Firm and Warehouse 13. Guy is also heard as the voice of Mr. Bear on Rupert the Bear. While working at the Stratford Festival, Guy received a Guthrie Award, and he has also received a Newton Award and a Paul Reynolds Award at the Shaw Festival. He has been an artist-in-residence at universities across Canada, and frequently teaches with colleague Sharry Flett, specializing in “Victorian Costumes and Customs.”
Julie Baumgartel has performed with Tafelmusik and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra across Europe, North America and Asia. A resident of Kitchener-Waterloo, she frequently performs with the K-W Symphony along with performing in many chamber music projects in the Waterloo Region. Julie has been featured in numerous CBC radio broadcasts and performs chamber music regularly with the Gallery Players of Niagara, at the Festival of the Sound in Parry Sound, and with the Factory Arts Quartet as the in residence ensemble of INNERChamber in Stratford. From 2003-2012 she was conductor of the KWS Youth Sinfonia and taught at the Wilfrid Laurier String Academy from 2011- 2021.
Originally from Ottawa, cellist Samuel Bisson is quickly distinguishing himself in Canada as a versatile soloist, chamber musician and orchestral player. Currently based in Toronto, he performs frequently in the GTA and has performed and toured across Canada, the US, Austria and China. Samuel is the cellist for the dynamic Odin Quartet in Toronto. He also currently holds the position of principal cellist with the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra and has appeared as principal and section cellist with the Toronto Concert Orchestra, Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, Brantford Symphony Orchestra and Niagara Symphony Orchestra. Beyond the boundaries of classical performance, Samuel is an active studio session musician and performer/arranger in a variety of genres. He has worked and collaborated with artists such as Drake, Sarah Brightman and members of Barenaked Ladies and Our Lady Peace. Samuel is also an established musicians contractor in the GTHA. He is the regular contractor for the Brantford Symphony Orchestra, the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra, the Toronto Mozart Players and the Urban Orchestra and contracts orchestras for a variety of clients including TAIWANfest, ORGANIX Organ Festival, the City of Toronto, and various film score recording sessions. As a composer, Samuel is at home with a broad range of musical styles, from concert music to pop songwriting. He is at ease writing for solo instruments, to small chamber ensembles to full orchestral scores. His concert music has been performed by many ensembles throughout Canada. He has arranged orchestral accompaniments for several rock/pop bands and has written music for animated and live action films. He has score music for 6 feature films as well as numerous short films, including the National Film Board supported short film "Nuit Blanche", which went on to win the grand prize at LG's Life's Good FilmFest.
David began his studies on the violin at the age of seven. His family having relocated numerous times allowed David to experience instruction from a number of teachers in various methods. David’s introduction to orchestral playing was with the Niagara Youth Orchestra in St. Catharines. After high school David earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Music Education from Northwestern College in Roseville Minnesota. During his time in Minneapolis David was able to tour internationally as Concert master of the Continental Singers and Orchestra and of the Communique Singers and Orchestra. While in Minneapolis David studied with Roger Frisch, Associate Concert Master of the Minnesota Orchestra. Upon returning to St. Catharines David studied with Deryck Aird of the Bradley Institute of Music and at that time, Concert Master of the Niagara Symphony. David has been a member of the Niagara Symphony Association since 1989 and has also worked for the District School Board of Niagara as a secondary school music educator since 1989. He currently teaches music at Centennial High in Welland. David and his wife Deborah met while preparing a faculty recital for the Laura Secord Music Department where David began teaching. Since then they have formed the chamber ensemble now known as Glissandi; together with their friend and colleague Douglas Miller, principal flute with the Niagara Symphony. The past twelve years have been very full as the demand for their particular style of chamber music has increased. Performances and audiences have varied greatly providing many rich experiences. One of those was a concert tour of Southern England in the spring of 1997. Upon returning from that tour Glissandi set out to record their first CD entitled Serenity. He enjoys both teaching and performing and is looking forward to much more of the same. David and his wife Deborah have three children: Matthew, Nicholas, and Jessica.
Deborah Braun (harpist) is a native of St. Catharines and began her harp studies locally with Doris Scharing. She subsequently studied with Eilene Malone of the Eastman School of Music, Suzanne Thomas of the Buffalo Philharmonic, and Elaine Pamphilon of Cambridge, England. In additional to extensive solo and ensemble playing, she is harpist with the Niagara Symphony Orchestra and Glissandi.
Keiran Campbell was drawn to the cello after he stumbled across one in his grandmother’s basement and was baffled by its size. Once he turned 8, he began taking lessons—on a much smaller cello—in his native Greensboro, North Carolina. After studying extensively with Leonid Zilper, former solo cellist of the Bolshoi Ballet, he received his Bachelors and Masters at the Juilliard School, working with Darrett Adkins, Timothy Eddy, and Phoebe Carrai. Keiran also spent several springs in Cornwall, England, studying with Steven Isserlis and Ralph Kirshbaum at Prussia Cove. Keiran has performed with ensembles including The English Concert, NYBI, Philharmonia Baroque, The Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, Four Nations Ensemble, and Les Violons du Roy. He recently performed with Le Concert Des Nations under Jordi Savall, touring Europe performing Beethoven Symphonies before recording them on Savall’s new Beethoven CD. During the summers, Keiran has performed with Teatro Nuovo, Lakes Area Music Festival, and The Carmel Bach Festival. He is also on faculty at the recently formed, UC Berkeley-based, Chamber Music Collective, which focuses primarily on post-1750 performance practice. Recent performance highlights include concerto appearances with Tafelmusik and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, a concert of Monteverdi Madrigals with Jordi Savall and Le Concert des Nations in Carnegie Hall, a solo recital with fortepianist Sezi Seskir at the Berkeley Early Music festival, and performances of Handel’s Saul and Solomon with English Concert at the BBC Proms and Edinburgh Festival. Keiran is also fascinated by instrument making, which he studies with the maker of his cello, Timothy Johnson. keirancampbellcellist.com
Suzannah Clark, AKC, BMus, MMus, MFA, MA, PhD, is Morton B. Knafel Professor of Music, Director of the Mahindra Humanities Center, and in 2019 was named Harvard College Professor. Since 2017, she has also served on the faculty at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Canada during the summer program “Evolution: Quartet.” From 2016–2019, Clark was Chair of the Department of Music. Before joining Harvard in 2008, she taught at Oxford University and was a Tutorial Fellow at Merton College for eight years. Prior to her faculty position at Oxford, she was a Junior Research Fellow and British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at Merton College. She completed her undergraduate and master’s degrees at King’s College London and graduated with an MFA and PhD from Princeton University. Clark specializes in the music of Franz Schubert, the history of music theory, and medieval vernacular music of the 12th and 13th centuries. Her book Analyzing Schubert (Cambridge University Press, 2011) challenges a century of music-theoretical approaches to Schubert’s songs and instrumental music. She presents a new theoretical paradigm for analyzing Schubert’s harmonic and melodic soundscape, a paradigm rooted in late 18th- and early 19th-century thought. In a series of subsequent articles, Clark has extended her theoretical model to the music of Schumann, Brahms, and Liszt. Clark is currently at work on a book, Quirks in Tonality: Aspects in the History of Tonal Spaces, which focuses on the theories of Gottfried Weber, Arthur von Oettingen, and Heinrich Schenker. She is especially interested in the insights that their diagrams of tonal space provide about changing conceptions of modulation, key relations, and the threshold between diatonicism and chromaticism. She uses these insights to demonstrate new ways of understanding and hearing some of the most famous passages in the symphonic, chamber, and song repertoire of the nineteenth century. Clark’s interest in the invention of vernacular polyphony and monophonic song in the 12th and 13th centuries centers on habits of citation, intertextuality, and the hermeneutics of melodic and contrapuntal design. While the music of this repertoire has traditionally been seen as little more than a melodic cloaking of the words, Clark argues for a hermeneutics of the sonic material. Her landmark essay modeling this mode of hermeneutics and music analysis appeared in Plainsong and Medieval Music and has been widely cited since its publication in 2007. Her interest in how theorists invoke concepts of nature to shape their theories was first articulated in her PhD thesis and led to a conference that she co-organized at Merton College entitled “Music Theory’s Nature.” This culminated in her first co-edited volume with her colleague Alexander Rehding, Music Theory and Natural Order from the Renaissance to the Early Twentieth Century (Cambridge University Press, 2001; pbk 2005). Her other co-edited volumes include: Music in Time: Phenomenology, Perception, Performance (Harvard Publications in Music, 2016) with Alexander Rehding and Citation and Authority in Medieval and Renaissance Musical Culture: Learning from the Learned (Boydell & Brewer, 2005) with Elizabeth Eva Leach. Clark has held fellowships from the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (Germany), Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada), British Academy (UK), Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK), the National Humanities Center in North Carolina (USA), where she was the William J. Bouwsma Fellow, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (USA), where she was the Edward T. Cone Member, and the American Council of Learned Societies (USA). Clark has served as President of the New England Conference of Music Theorists (NECMT), and she has delivered keynotes at its sister conferences: Music Theory Society of New York State (MTSNTS), West Coast Conference of Music Theory and Analysis (WCCMTA), and Music Theory Midwest (MTMW). She delivered the keynote at the UK’s Society for Music Theory annual conference in 2019. In 2019, she was named the Music-Theorist-in-Residence of the Dutch-Flemish Society for Music Theory, delivering a series of seven lectures on Haydn, Schubert, Liszt, and the history of music theory. In 2017, she delivered the Robin Orr Lecture in Cambridge University on the theme “Cupid’s Arrow and the Conventions of Medieval Song.” From 2014 to 2016, Clark served as Reviews Editor of the Journal of the American Musicological Society. She has served on the editorial boards of Music Analysis and Music Theory Spectrum and is currently on the advisory board for Music Analysis and Nineteenth-Century Music Review. She has previously served as member-at-large on the Executive Board and Chair of the Publication Awards Committee for the Society for Music Theory (SMT) and on Council for the American Musicological Society (AMS), as well as in other capacities for both the SMT and AMS. At Harvard, Clark teaches courses primarily in music theory, but also in historical musicology. At the graduate level, her courses include: Schenkerian Analysis (MUS 222r), Neo-Riemannian Theory (MUS 223r), Current Trends in Music Theory (MUS 221r), Quirks in the Major-Minor System (MUS 220r), Theory and Analysis of Sonata Forms (MUS 230r), and Music during the first hundred years of the construction of the Notre-Dame Cathedral (MUS 231r). At the undergraduate level, she has taught courses on Tonal Analysis (MUS 151), Tonal Counterpoint (MUS 156), Theory II: The Classical Style (MUS 150a), the Sacred and Profane in the Thirteenth-Century Motet (MUS 191r), and a Freshman Seminar “Musical Jokes from the Middle Ages to the Present Day.” In 2014, the Art Career Project named Clark amongst the “15 Notable Art Professors in Boston.” As mentioned above, she was named Harvard College Professor in 2019, which “recognizes particularly distinguished contributions to undergraduate teaching and creating a positive culture of teaching in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.” Throughout her career, Clark has enthusiastically championed educational and outreach programs, from the high-school level to postdocs and the general public. At Harvard, she was co-chair of the Committee on General Education in the lead-up to the 2019 launch of the new Program in General Education, which is the cornerstone of the Harvard College curriculum. While at Oxford, she headed Merton College’s postdoctoral Junior Research Fellowship competition in the Sciences, Arts, and Social Sciences. For 5 years, she directed the Music Program of the Oxford Sutton Trust Summer School for first-generation university-bound students and high-school students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds. As the Fellow in Music at Merton College, Clark was integral in establishing the new Choral Foundation at Merton College, which launched in the fall of 2008. An important part of her vision for Merton’s mixed-voice Chapel Choir was that it would offer a musical opportunity to women, as well as men, that would rival the centuries-old all-male Choral Foundations at Oxford and Cambridge. Having co-founded the Merton Choir with Peter Phillips, the Director of the Tallis Scholars, she now regularly hosts pre-concert talks with Peter Phillips during the Tallis Scholars’ annual concerts in the Boston Early Music Festival.
Canadian soprano Sheila Dietrich is a versatile and in-demand young performer whose style and vocal technique shine in both concert and operatic roles. Ms. Dietrich has appeared as a concert soloist with ensembles across Canada including Les Violons du Roy, Capella Intima, The Toronto Continuo Collective, Nota Bene Baroque Players, TACTUS, The Toronto Classical Singers under Jurgen Petrenko, The Elora Festival Singers and The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir under Noel Edison, The Guelph Chamber Choir under Gerald Neufeld, and The Bach Elgar Choir under Howard Dyck. Operatic roles include Mother (Amahl and the Night Visitors | Menotti), Pitti-Sing (The Mikado | Sullivan), Belinda (Dido & Aeneas | Purcell), Venus (La Dafne | Gagliano), Helena (A Midsummer Night’s Dream | Britten), Abigail Williams (The Crucible | Ward) and La Petite Chaperon Rouge (La Foret Bleue | Aubert). A Kitchener-Waterloo native, Ms. Dietrich received her Bachelor of Music Performance and Opera Diploma from Wilfrid Laurier University where she studied with Victor Martens. Ms. Dietrich continues to study with Laura Pudwell. In 2015, Ms. Dietrich made her Carnegie Hall debut as a featured soloist in an evening devoted to the music of Purcell under the direction of Richard Egarr. She was also a finalist in the 2015 New York Oratorio Society Solo Competition and was awarded the Johannes Somary Prize. More information, including a full rep list, and upcoming performance dates, can be found at Sheila’s website: www.sheiladietrich.com.
Canadian mezzo-soprano Jennifer Enns Modolo has delighted audiences across the country with her clear, unaffected voice and meaningful singing. As an accomplished concert soloist, and with a repertoire that ranges from early music to contemporary, she performs regularly with ensembles throughout Ontario and across Canada including the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, the Elmer Iseler Singers, the Grand Philharmonic Choir, the Nota Bene Period Orchestra, and the Spiritus Ensemble. She is a member of the Hamilton based ensemble Capella Intima, which specializes in performing exciting concerts of lesser known 17th century vocal and operatic music. In addition to performing with large and small ensembles, Jennifer also delights in the art of the solo recital and collaborates frequently with lutenist Magdalena Tomsinska and pianist Lorin Shalanko. Recent and upcoming engagements include a Copland’s ‘In the Beginning’ with the Da Capo Chamber Choir, a program of early Christmas music with Capella Intima and the KW Symphony Orchestra, Handel’s Messiah with the Hamilton Symphony Orchestra, Mozart’s Coronation Mass with Fanshawe Chorus London, J.S. Bach’s Cantata 182, ‘Himmelskönig, sei wilkommen’ and the Easter Oratorio with Spiritus Ensemble, and “Sacrum and Profanum” with counter tenor Daniel Cabena and lutenist Magdalena Tomsinska as part of the Nota Bene Baroque Players concert series. Jennifer is featured on several Aradia Ensemble recordings, including Handel’s Israel in Egypt (Naxos, 2008), Vivaldi Sacred Music, Volume 3 (Naxos, 2008) and singing the role of Eustazio in Handel’s Rinaldo (NAXOS 2005), all under the baton of Kevin Mallon.
The Eybler Quartet came together in late 2004 to explore the works of the first century and a half of the string quartet, with a healthy attention to lesser known composers such as their namesake, Joseph Leopold Edler von Eybler. The group brings a unique combination of talents and skills: razor-sharp ensemble skills, technical prowess, expertise in period instrument performance and an unquenchable passion for the repertoire. The Toronto- based ensemble’s live performances have consistently garnered praise as “glowing and committed”, “spirited” and “lively and energizing”. Their recording of Joseph Haydn’s Op. 33 String Quartets for the Analekta label was called “simply a treasure” by Early Music America, “the tempos are beautifully chosen, the ensemble perfect, and the intonation absolutely pure. This is music-making that reflects the deeply human and attractive qualities found in Haydn the composer—good humor, wit, and invention.” Their recording with clarinetist Jane Booth won praise from Gramophone for being “totally engaging performances that breathe life into Backofen’s music”. Their most recent release, Beethoven Quartets, Opus 18 nos. 1-3 garnered this praise from Gramophone: “…the revelations flood in: the swiftness with which the Eyblers take the great Adagio of Op 18 No 1 allows violinist Aisslinn Nosky’s almost vibrato-free period-instrument tone to sound breathtakingly fragile.” Violinists Julia Wedman and Patricia Ahern, and violist Patrick G. Jordan are members of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. Cellist Margaret Gay is much in demand as both a modern and period instrument player. This summer the group will again be on the faculty at the Banff Centre as part of the EQ: Evolution of the String Quartet program. In September 2022 Patricia Ahern joined the group, replacing founding member Aisslinn Nosky.
After completing a Bachelor of Music degree at Boston University School for the Arts, Margaret Gay accepted an invitation to the Banff Centre for Fine Arts, where she completed the winter programme. From there she moved to Toronto, where she earned a Master’s degree at the University of Toronto and began a remarkably active freelance career performing on both modern and period ‘cello. Margaret performs regularly with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony, Opera Atelier, Mississauga Sinfonia, Baroque Music Beside The Grange, the Eybler Quartet, and Ensemble Polaris, a group exploring the traditional music of various Nordic countries. She is the Artistic Director of The Gallery Players of Niagara, an organization based in the Niagara Region that presents chamber music. She was for many years a member of Modern Quartet, a string quartet dedicated to the performance of new works, the Burdocks, a foursome specializing in works of the 20th century, and Critical Band. In the summers she has performed at the Carmel Bach Festival, Stratford, Elora, Parry Sound, Grand River Baroque, and Lameque Baroque Music festivals, as well as teaching ‘cello and coaching chamber music at the Toronto Board of Education Music Camp, and the University of New Brunswick Summer Music Camp. Margaret can be heard on numerous CD’s, including a recent release from Analekta of Joseph Leopold Eybler's string quartets Op. 1, Ensemble Polaris, Not Much Is Worse Than A Troll, a Hungaroton disc of 17th century English theatre music, Ah! How Sweet It Is To Love, O Bali, from New Music Concerts, and, A Curious Collection for the Common Flute.
Glissandi, is a Niagara-based trio that has been performing together for over twenty-five years. They are featured regularly in Niagara's finest venues, and are members of the Niagara Symphony. Glissandi has recorded three CDs and each of the members is an established freelance musician of their own.
Violinist Rona Goldensher’s playing has been described by the Globe and Mail as having an “on-the-edge, inspired freshness”. Originally from New York City, Rona received her Bachelor and Master of Music from the Mannes College of Music. She has performed and toured throughout North America and Europe as well as the Middle East and Japan with many ensembles including Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra (Toronto) , Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (San Francisco), Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra and Orchestra of St. Lukes (New York), City Musick (Chicago), Elora Festival Orchestra, Hamilton Philharmonic, and Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony. As a chamber musician, Rona was longtime founding member and first violinist of Toronto’s Windermere String Quartet a core member of Toronto’s Talisker Players, and continues to collaborate on chamber music projects from early to new music at various venues and festival in Ontario. Her recording credits include Sony, Harmonia Mundi, Analekta, Pipistrelle, Newport Classics and MHS/ Musicmasters. Rona loves working with her violin students in her private studio in Waterloo.
Lucas Harris discovered the lute during his undergraduate studies at Pomona College, where he graduated summa cum laude. He then studied the lute and early music at the Civica scuola di musica di Milano and at the Hochschule für Künste Bremen. Since 2004 he bases his freelance career in Toronto, where he serves as the regular lutenist for Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. He is a founding member of the Toronto Continuo Collective, the Vesuvius Ensemble (dedicated to Southern Italian folk music), and the Lute Legends Collective (an association of specialists in ancient plucked-string traditions from diverse cultures). Lucas plays with many other ensembles in Canada and the USA and has worked in recent years with the Helicon Foundation, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, Atalante, The Newberry Consort, Les Délices, and Jordi Savall / Le Concert des Nations. He teaches at the Tafelmusik Summer and Winter Baroque Institutes, Oberlin Conservatory’s Baroque Performance Institute, and the Canadian Renaissance Music Summer School, and is also a regular guest artist with Early Music Vancouver. In 2014 Lucas completed graduate studies in choral conducting at the University of Toronto. Upon graduating, Lucas was chosen as the Artistic Director of the Toronto Chamber Choir, for which he has created and conducted over twenty themed concert programs. He has also directed projects for the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, the Ohio State University Opera Program, Les voix baroques, and the Toronto Consort. One of Lucas's many pandemic projects was the reconstruction of 12 solo voice motets by the Italian nun Chiara Margarita Cozzolani, now available for free download on the Web Library for Seventeenth-Century Music. www.lucasharris.ca
A native of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, with roots in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, violinist, Tanya Charles Iveniuk, has performed across North and South America, and the Caribbean. Recipient of the Women’s Art Associate of Canada – Luella McCleary Award, the Gabriella Dory Prize in Music, and the Hamilton Black History Council’s John C Holland Award, Tanya received a Bachelor of Music (Violin Performance) from the University of Toronto, and an Artist Diploma (Orchestral Performance) from the Glenn Gould School. Tanya is an alumna of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada as well as the National Academy Orchestra, the latter of which she now serves in as a violin mentor. Currently, she is the concertmaster of the Obiora Ensemble, and violinist with Ensemble du Monde (Guadeloupe), Toronto Mozart Players, and the Odin Quartet. Her former posts include concertmaster and soloist with the Colour of Music Festival Orchestra (COMF) and the COMF Virtuosi (SC, USA), Associate Concertmaster of the Gateways Festival Orchestra (2015) and a violinist for 10 years with Sinfonia Toronto. Tanya is a dedicated educator, and an in-demand string adjudicator and clinician abroad as well as in Ontario. She is on the Education Outreach Team for Ensemble du Monde in Guadeloupe and has also been an instructor in Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico for the Centro Regional de Estudios Musicales program and in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines for the White Chapel Music Studio. Tanya is on faculty at the University of Toronto as well as at the Regent Park School of Music.
Michele Jacot is a Canadian musician with an active schedule of performing, conducting, adjudicating, teaching and concert production. Besides being in demand for her skills as a clarinetist, Michele is equally at home as a saxophonist and flutist. She regularly performs with symphony orchestras and opera companies, as well as in theatre pit orchestras including Mirvish Productions and the Shaw Festival, and in many chamber ensembles. Michele was extremely honoured to be the Associate Conductor for Canadian musical icon, Howard Cable, and appeared with him as guest conductor of several Canadian orchestras. In addition, Michele is a dedicated teacher and is in demand from the elementary to the post-secondary level. She maintains a busy timetable teaching privately, presenting workshops, adjudicating, and designing and leading instructional woodwind clinics for school music teachers. Michele has been the Artistic Director of Toronto’s Wychwood Clarinet Choir since its inception in 2009. She is proud to be a Yamaha Canada Spotlight Artist, and an Artist at Vandoren, Paris, France. Born and raised in Toronto, Michele holds a Bachelor of Music in Performance from the University of Toronto and a Master of Music in Performance from Northwestern University in Chicago.
Patrick Jordan, a native of West Texas, studied with Susan Schoenfeld before moving to Boston in 1981 to study with Walter Trampler. Mr. Jordan holds a Bachelor's degree from the New England Conservatory and an Artist's Diploma in Chamber Music from the Longy School, where he began several years' study with Eugene Lehner. Now a resident of Toronto, Mr. Jordan is a member of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra with which he tours throughout Canada, the United States, Mexico, Asia and Europe. He is also the Artistic Administrator and violist with the Gallery Players of Niagara. He has been a member of the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra since 1997 and has appeared with the New York Collegium as well as the American Classical Soloists. While living in Boston, he performed regularly with D.C. Hall's Band (a recreation of a 19th-century dance and concert band),the van Swieten Quartet, a period instrument string quartet, and the Handel & Haydn Society Orchestra. He was a member of the Boston Quartet, a modern instrument string quartet, and the Really Eclectic String Quartet (RESQ), a group that explored popular dance and lyrical music from many cultures. From 1988 to 1993 he was Lecturer in Violin and Viola at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA; he is currently on the faculty of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. He has recorded for Sony, Sony Classical, Dorian, Newport Classic, NorthStar, Analekta and Northeastern.
Musician Penner MacKay has been living and breathing drumming for more than forty years. His work has accompanied numerous television shows (“Off the Map”), major theatrical productions (Shaw Festival), and movie soundtracks (“The Snow Walker”). In the late 70’s he was part of the Juno Award Winning group “Myles and Lenny.” In the 80’s he toured North America with singer/songwriter Dan Hill. Most recently, ‘Accordion Crimes’, on which Penner played percussion, was listed as one of CBC musicologist Jurgen Gothe’s favourite CD’s of 2006. This versatile musician has conducted workshops for all age groups from troubled teens, to university students, to senior citizens. He’s also worked with corporations like Royal LePage, using drumming as an exercise in team building and co-operation. In 1992, with the help of artist/craftsman Rod Hillier, Penner created a set of thunderous tunable drums from wine barrels. Inspired by the Japanese Taiko drummers, and given that the two men live in the winery region of Niagara, these drums made perfect sense; they are completely unique, impressive works of art that make the ground tremble. And so was born ‘The Barrelhouse Drum Company.’ Having studied all styles of drumming, Penner has been passing his extensive knowledge along to students for 20 years. In 2006, he helped to launch “Drums Along the Niagara,’ Niagara-on-the-Lake’s annual drumming festival. In 2006, he received the town’s cultural award for volunteering. Personable, dynamic, and inspiring, when it comes to performance and percussion, Penner is one of Canada’s great communicators.
Eric is a producer/arranger/multi-instrumentalist performing in the studio and in concert on: jazz, classical, finger style acoustic and electric guitar; classical and jazz chromatic and diatonic harmonicas, celtic and jazz violin and mandolin; accordion, clarinet, banjo, tablas drums and didgeridoo. He was a member of the multiple Juno award winning country vocal group “THE MERCEY BROTHERS”, performed in shows at Casino Fallsview, COUNTRY CLASSICS, Memories from the attic, SIX CHIX and HOLIDAY PARTY. Performed harmonicas in Shaw Festival Theatre’s production of FLOYD COLLINS. Canadian tour of DON MESSER’S VIOLIN with Frank Leahey. Presently on call guitarist with KITCHENER-WATERLOO SYPHONY and is a featured jazz, country and classic guitarist at various concerts in Canada. Eric keeps busy teaching the various instruments he plays at his recording studio MAHAR MUSIC STUDIO in Bolton Ontario when he’s not mountain biking or skiing.
James Mason is highly regarded as one of Canada’s most prominent oboists. He came to Canada in 1975, accepting the position of Principal Oboe with the Saskatoon Symphony and Lecturer in Woodwinds at the University of Saskatchewan. Since 1979 he has been the Principal Oboe of the KitchenerWaterloo Symphony and Canadian Chamber Ensemble. He has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician in Germany, Holland, Spain, South America and Japan as well as the United States and Canada. Mr. Mason has many recordings to his credit and is heard regularly on CBC radio, for which he has recorded most of the standard chamber music and solo oboe repertoire, along with several new works for oboe and orchestra and oboe and strings written specifically for him. Mr. Mason has appeared as guest Principal Oboe with the Boston, Toronto and Montreal Symphony Orchestras, along with the National Arts Centre Orchestra. Since 1981 he has been a regular performer at both the Elora Festival and the Festival of the Sound in Parry Sound, Ontario. Over the years, Mason has been a very familiar face in the musical life of southwestern Ontario. He and his wife, violinist Julie Baumgartel, were founding Artistic Directors of the Grand River Baroque Festival. Jim has also appeared as performer, audience member and heckler at INNERchamber in Stratford. He has performed and recorded on numerous occasions with the Gallery Players. He was on the faculty at Wifrid Laurier University for 37 years. In 2000, in recognition of his contribution to the arts, Mason was given the Kitchener Waterloo Arts Award for Music.
Alberta-born soprano Lindsay McIntyre has been hailed as “stunning” (The Whole Note) for her work in concert and on the stage. Recent performances include Claude Vivier’s “Love Songs” and “Musik für das Ende” at the Southbank Centre in London, UK, “Garden of Vanished Pleasures,” “Love Songs,” and two seasons of “Electric Messiah” with Soundstreams, Buxtehude’s “Membra Jesu Nostri” and Craig Hella Johnson’s “Considering Matthew Sheppard” with the Grand Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Handel’s “Dixit Dominus” and BWV 4 & BWV 165 with the Theatre of Early Music, and Steve Reich’s contemporary masterwork “Music for 18 Musicians” at the University of Toronto New Music Festival. Lindsay is completing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at U of T, and was recently named winner of the 2022 DMA Recital Competition and Shalom Ben-Uri Graduate Recital Prize.
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Borys Medicky's multi-faceted musical career keeps him busy as harpsichord soloist and continuo player, a church musician and a sought-after harpsichord technician and maker. He co-founded and co-directed the Toronto Continuo Collective, an all-continuo ensemble dedicated to fostering an increased interest in the stylish basso continuo accompaniment of seventeenth-century vocal and instrumental music. From 2006-2014 he was the artistic director of the Kitchener-based Nota Bene Baroque Players. He has served as organist of the Fifth Church of Christ, Scientist in Toronto for close to two decades In 2017 he joined the faculty of music at Western University, where he coaches the early music studio and has taught classes in harpsichord performance and the history of early keyboards. He resides in Kitchener, Ontario with his wife and three always-hungry cats.
Douglas Miller is a versatile soloist who is active within various symphony orchestras, chamber music series, mega-musicals, film and television recordings. He has performed with the Toronto Symphony, Hamilton Philharmonic, and Kitchener Waterloo Orchestra. He is current principal flute of the Niagara Symphony and a former Instructor at Brock University. As theatre musician, he is a regular member of the pit orchestras in Toronto productions such as The Sound of Music, Phantom of the Opera, The Wizard of OZ, and Les Miserables. In The Lion King, and The Lord of the Rings, he played a collection of ethnic bamboo flutes, several of which he built himself. In 2004-2006 he toured North America with Hal Princes' production of EVITA, celebrating the show's 25th anniversary. He has been a member of the Shaw Festival Orchestra in various productions since 1991 and performs regularly at the Stratford Festival. One of his many online videos with guitarist Timothy Phelan was used for a seminar in the music curriculum at Brock University in 2021. He has performed with Diana Krall and has made videos with Idina Menzel, Jonathan Antoine, and Chantal Kreviazuk. He is heard on the soundtracks of many films and TV series such as CBC's Road to Avonlea and David Suzuki's Nature of Things. Mr. Miller's diverse education includes a Master of Music in flute from University of Toronto, a Bachelor of Music and Licentiate with Distinction in saxophone from McGill University, where he completed a year of graduate studies in recording engineering. A graduate of the Royal Conservatory's Orchestral Training Program, he also spent a year of Advanced Studies in Music at the Banff Centre followed by private studies in Vienna. He is a founding member of The Gallery Players of Niagara and has produced three CDs with his trio Glissandi. He regularly performs his multimedia show, 'Flutes en Route!' a showcase of ethnic flutes from around the world. He makes his home in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
As a performer, Charlotte Nediger’s first love is playing continuo in an orchestral and/or choral setting, something she’s been delighted to do with Tafelmusik since joining the orchestra in 1980 at age 21. She also works being the scenes as Assistant to the Music Director, Librarian, and Program Editor, and oversees Tafelmusik’s Artist Training programs, notably as Artistic Coordinator of the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute and Tafelmusik Winter Institute. A native of southwestern Ontario, Charlotte holds Bachelor and Master degrees from the University of Western Ontario and a Solo Diploma from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague in the Netherlands. She teaches at the University of Toronto.
During her tenure at Brock University, Joan taught film, media, and popular culture studies, programmed public film series on- and off-campus, juried film festivals, and served as president, Canadian Film Studies Association. Her writing is found in film anthologies and media journals. She co-edited Slippery Pastimes (2002), and Covering Niagara (2010). In two recent publications (2022), Lost Movie Theatres, and the companion volume, Disappearing Motel Culture, Joan explores the historical twists and turns of Niagara Falls as border city and tourist destination. She has curated image projections for Chorus Niagara and Toronto Orpheus concerts, and served on the advisory committee for the Film House, St. Catharines Performing Arts Centre. Programming film series for the Niagara Falls History Museum, and collaborating with musicians Doug Miller, Eric Mahar, and Penner McKay for Gallery Players movie nights, are among her favourite engagements. As well as academic and teaching awards, and research grants, she is recipient of the Laura Sabia Award (2003) honouring women’s contributions to the arts in Niagara.
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Passionate advocates of chamber music, Toronto-based Odin Quartet explores of the role of classical music in modern-day storytelling. Named after the one-eyed Norse god, seeker of knowledge and holder of the wisdom of the world, the ensemble is dedicated to making classical music accessible to generations of listeners, both old and new. Since their formation in 2015, the Quartet has promoted modern Canadian compositions, including those of cellist Samuel Bisson, alongside classical music literature. In June 2015, the Odin Quartet took part in the Luminato Festival's epic production of R Murray Schafer's 1980 oratorio Apocalypsis. Since their 2017 debut at the opening gala of the Music Niagara Festival, the Quartet has been a recurring performer at the summer festival, in 2019 and 2021. Other festival appearances include the University of Toronto's New Music Festival, Midday Music with Shigeru, the Ottawa Valley Music Festival, Guelph Connections, and Music Mondays Toronto. The Odin Quartet has enjoyed multiple collaborations with the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra as its ensemble-in-residence since 2018. Most recently, the Quartet premiered a new piece for string quartet and symphony orchestra by Samuel Bisson, under the baton of Maestro Ron Royer and has also been a collaborative artist for their annual New Generations Composer’s Project. The ensemble presented its first concert season in 2019-2020 in Toronto and ambitiously programmed a second concert season in 2021-2022. This second season featured their 2-part project, a commission of compositions from composers worldwide, entitled “Lockdown Lullabies” in which over 180 works were received and 30 were chosen and premiered. Additionally during this season, the Quartet released its first album entitled “Journey Through Night: Canadian Music for String Quartet” featuring the musical creations of 7 Canadian composers. The Quartet has recorded numerous film scores both locally and internationally and is regularly featured in musical projects by other artists both in Toronto and abroad.
Acclaimed by the specialized press and public alike, Canadian-Argentinian Alexander Panizza developed his musical education in Toronto, Buenos Aires, Geneva, Paris, Barcelona, and London, where he completed a post-graduate diploma at the Royal College of Music. His mastery of pianistic sonorities and powerful sound allow him to shine in the grand piano concerti repertoire, including those by Brahms, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Beethoven and Schumann. His discography features Beethoven’s 32 Piano Sonatas, Alberto Ginastera’s complete piano compositions, and works by Carlos Guastavino, Muzzio Clementi and David Winkler (Naxos, American Composers Series). Alexander has performed with orchestra and in solo and chamber recitals in the Barbican Hall in London, Herkulessaal in Munich, Colón Theatre in Buenos Aires, Richelieu Amphitheatre in Paris, Palas Theatre in Athens, Nanning’s Guangxi Concert Hall in China, National Theatre in Panama City, Solis Theatre in Montevideo, and Prince Mahidol Hall in Bangkok, and among other prestigious halls in over twenty-five countries worldwide. With a special interest in collaborative piano, Alexander performs regularly in chamber music series. He has appeared at Soesterberg (Holland) and Long Island Mozart Festival (USA), and integrates the distinguished faculty of Seven Lakes Festival (Patagonia) and Vancouver Island Music Academy. Alexander Panizza is a dedicated mentor, adjudicator, and pedagogue. He integrates juries in competitions in Canada, Chile, and Argentina, including the CCC Toronto International Music Festival. Alexander is a faculty member at the Catholic University in Buenos Aires, holds a piano studio in Toronto, and offers masterclasses at higher education institutions in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Since 2020, he has served as the Artist-in-Residence for the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra (Canada). In 2021, he opened the International Piano Series at Bogotá’s Teatro Mayor (Colombia). During the pandemic, Alexander pivoted towards the digital realm, producing video works that combine music with visual arts, literature, and film.
Mike Phelan is a drummer, percussionist, instructor, educator, conductor & an arranger of Percussion Ensemble music. He was the District School Board of Niagara’s Principal Percussion Instructor from 1989 to 2012. Mike is a Percussion Instructor with the Niagara Elementary Instrumental Music Program, the Ridley College Music Department, offers private instruction for students 10 years of age & older in his home studio & continues to work with & coach several Secondary school Percussion Ensembles. Mike also teaches an Adult Percussion Class through Niagara College, providing enough students register! Mike is a percussionist with the Niagara Symphony Orchestra & performs on a regular basis with the Town of Lincoln, Thorold, Port Colborne & the Hamilton Concert “Wind” Ensembles. As a “pit” percussionist, he performs with Garden City Productions in St. Catharines & Firehall Theatre in Niagara Falls. Over the years, Mike has been the drummer/percussionist for many popular Rock & Contemporary bands such as Starlord, Nightwinds, Jeffrey & the Juniors, Private Stock & Undun. He was the Music Director, Conductor & Arranger of The Malletheads, a very popular student Percussion Ensemble, from 2000 to 2006. The group recorded 4 CD’s in that span, highlighted by performances with the John Sherwood Trio, at the OMEA Conference in Huntsville, ON. & with the Niagara Symphony Orchestra for a Christmas Pops Concert. Since 1993, Mike has been the Principal Percussion Instructor at the Niagara Symphony Summer Music Camp. In 1996, Mike wrote & performed two pieces of music for the CD “Local Scores” recorded by the late poet/lyricist Terrance Cox & in 1999, enjoyed the experience of teaching the Percussion Techniques Course at Brock University. From 2008 to 2011, Mike was the percussionist with the World Rock Symphony Orchestra, featuring a 7-piece Rock band, a 12-voice Gospel Chorale & a 35 piece Orchestra at Fallsview Casino’s Avalon Ballroom in Niagara Falls, ON.
Canadian guitarist, conductor, composer and arranger Timothy Phelan has performed in Canada, the USA, Mexico, Cuba, Martinique, Europe, Scandinavia and China. He made his CBC debut recording at the age of eighteen as concerto soloist with Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, and he has since been heard in solo, concerto and chamber music broadcasts over CBC Television & Radio, Radio France, Radio Caribbean, Cuban Radio & Television, and Radio Jalisco, Mexico. He is a regular guest soloist, conductor, teacher and lecturer at international guitar festivals in Canada, the USA, Mexico, Europe and China. A passionate and accomplished chamber musician, Tim collaborates in several duos with celebrated musicians, including fellow Canadian guitarist Emma Rush, Niagara Symphony Principal Flutist Doug Miller, violinist Julia Wedman of Canada's revered Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, and with Swedish cellist Kristin Malmborg in Aurora Polaris Cello & Guitar Duo. Tim is also a member of The Gallery Players of Niagara, performing with, among others, the Eybler String Quartet and members of Tafelmusik, and he has been involved in the performance and acclaimed recording of new transcriptions of Schumann song cycles for voice, strings and guitar, with world-renowned Canadian baritone Brett Polegato. Tim is a prolific arranger of music for solo guitar, guitar ensemble, and various chamber music combinations of guitar with other instruments. Much of his work as a composer has been dedicated to expanding the repertoire for guitar with choir, and he has collaborated with many of Canada's finest choral ensembles, even writing works for choir with symphony orchestra and guitar, including a commission for Chorus Niagara & The Niagara Symphony. For the past decade, Tim has been composing new works for guitar orchestra, and conducting their premieres in Sweden, Germany and Mexico. A graduate of the University of Toronto, and a former director of the University of Toronto Guitar Orchestra, Tim has been on faculty at Brock University for the past decade.
Hamilton tenor Bud Roach maintains a busy schedule of performances from the Baroque to the contemporary. Recent highlights include performances with the Toronto Consort, Soundstreams, the role of the Sailor in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with Les Violons du Roy (Richard Egarr, conductor) in Montreal, Quebec City, and Carnegie Hall, appearances with the Hamilton Philharmonic, and a new recording (along with performances in Toronto and New York) with his ensemble Capella Intima. Bud’s recordings for the Musica Omnia label have been recognized internationally as ground-breaking achievements in historically-informed performance practice. “Roach is marvellous throughout….Five stars” (Early Music Today, UK). Recent recital appearances include Toronto (Early Music Centre), the Midtown Concert Series (New York), and the Boston Early Music Festival Fringe Series (“revelatory concerts”- Early Music America, 2013). Highlights for the 2016-17 season include concert appearances with the Toronto Consort, La Chapelle de Quebec, the Hamilton Philharmonic, Bach Elgar Choir, Nota Bene Baroque Players, the Menno Singers, the Spiritus Ensemble, Soundstreams Canada, Talisker Players (Cole Porter), and Toronto Masque Theatre, as well as solo recitals in Boston, New York, Guelph, and Thunder Bay. With Capella Intima, Bud leads programmes in Hamilton, Toronto, and Kitchener, and will also be presenting a lecture/recital on the self-accompanied performance tradition of the alfabeto aria at the Historical Performance Institute, Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University. Bud is also the founder and Artistic Director of the successful HAMMER BAROQUE concert series, presenting some of Canada’s finest early music performers. www.budroach.com
Anna Ronai has performed at major venues in Europe, North America and China, including the Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall in New York, Gläserner Saal, Musikverein, and Schubert Saal, Konzerthaus in Vienna. Anna has collaborated with distinguished singers as Brigitte Fassbaender, Michelle Breedt, Bernarda Fink, Robert Holl, and Members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Anna is a graduate of the Music University of the Arts Vienna, where she earned two Masters degrees, one in Piano Performance and the other in Collaborative Piano. She maintained positions at the Vienna and Innsbruck Conservatories, and a faculty position for piano, piano chamber music at the Institute for European Studies in Vienna. She has played for master-classes with esteemed artists including Brigitte Fassbaender, Christa Ludwig, Thomas Hampson and Linda Watson. Anna has appeared and placed in several major Lied Duo competitions such as the Robert Schumann Duo Competition in Zwickau, Germany, the East & West Artists International Auditions in New York, and Schubert und die Moderne in Graz, Austria. In 2009 Anna moved to Canada, and is a Vocal / Opera Coach at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo. In Fall 2020 Anna joined Conrad Grebel University College at the University of Waterloo as the piano instructor, where she has also been an instrumental accompanist since 2019. She is an active performer at concerts and recitals across Ontario and abroad. Performances with the Trio d’Argento include “Music Toronto” (the world-premiere of ”Manidoog” by native composer Barbara Croall). Recent collaboration with Vienna based Flutist Ulrike Anton and the “Exil.arte” Institute in Vienna included several concerts in Europe and at the Holocaust Education week in Toronto .
A graduate of the performance programme at the University of Toronto under the tutelage of Patricia Kern, Baritone David Roth has sung on the opera and concert stage in Canada, the US, Great Britain, and Germany. He has appeared recently in concert with notable organisations such as Tafelmusik, The Toronto Consort, La Chapelle de Québec, I Furiosi, The Alderborough Connection, and Capella Intima. He has sung in the professional choruses of the COC and Opera Atalier, and appeared as Figaro and Don Alfonso in Weimar, Germany, with Lyric Opera Studio Weimar and Theater Rudolstadt respectively.
Peter Shackleton is principal clarinetist of the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra and a member of Music in Common and INNERchamber. He has served as principal clarinetist of Orchestra London Canada, and has performed with Tafelmusik (on historical clarinet) and Les Violons du Roy, as well as with the Milwaukee Symphony, Winnipeg Symphony, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony and Stratford Festival Orchestras. Peter is currently on the faculty at Wilfrid Laurier University and in the past has held teaching positions at Western University and Lakehead University. Awarded First Prize at the 27th CBC Radio Competition, he has performed as a soloist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, CBC Radio Orchestra (Vancouver), Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra and Tafelmusik. Peter received his Honours Bachelor of Music from Northwestern University and a certificate in Chamber Music Performance from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Jonathan is a specialist in period instruments of the lute and guitar family, with a background in classical and electric guitar. His performances offer "exciting and technically brilliant" (Marvin Dickau) displays of the wealth of the musical language, and are engaged in inspiring and educating audiences. Versatile as a soloist, chamber musician and continuo player, Jonathan frequently distinguishes himself across Canada, the United States, and Europe. He is active in the rich early music scene throughout Canada, and can be seen performing music on period instruments, solo and with ensembles such as Aureas Voces (Halifax), Pacific Baroque Orchestra (Vancouver), Les Méandres (Montréal), and in festivals and series including Music and Beyond, Festival Montréal Baroque, Musique Royale, and Hammer Baroque. In 2020 he gave a solo concert tour of British Columbia for Living Room Live, performing music for the baroque guitar. He forms part of Duo Oriana with Toronto based soprano Sinéad White, with whom he shares the role of Artist in Residence at St. James Cathedral, Toronto for the year 2022. Upcoming engagements include performances with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, and a recording project with Duo Oriana. He has extensive experience in contemporary classical music, having premiered and performed large-scale works on classical, and electric guitar in series such as Live@CIRMMT and Montréal/Nouvel Musique. With the Cygnus Trio he has taken part in the commissioning and premiering of multiple compositions, all of which are recorded on their 2018 album ‘Amalgam’. He is also deeply interested in developing repertoire for historical instruments, which can be heard through his own compositions and in composer collaborations. In September 2020 he premiered Toronto based composer Arie Verheul van de Ven's piece "Mosquito Touch" for solo theorbo, accompanied by animations by visual artist Alex McLeod. His classical guitar studies began in Penticton, British Columbia with Selwyn Redivo and he received a bachelor of music with a double major in guitar and lute performance at McGill’s Schulich School of Music where he was recognized for outstanding achievement in Lute. He studied with Jérôme Ducharme and Sylvain Bergeron. In 2020 Jonathan received a Master's in the Performance of Early Music at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya in Barcelona, studying in the studio of Xavier Diaz-Latorre. His master’s research on historical stringings on the baroque guitar received the highest marks and is published in RECERCAT which presents research carried out at institutions in Catalunya. Jonathan is also passionate about caring for and protecting the natural world. He has worked as an educator for the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre, and can always be heard supporting at-risk species on this Earth that he loves. If he’s not practicing, or performing with instrument in hand, you’ll often find him appreciating life outdoors.
Tafelmusik is a world-renowned period orchestra and choir in the heart of Toronto. Founded 45 years ago on the pillars of passion, learning, and artistic excellence, Tafelmusik brings a fresh perspective to historically informed performance. Played on period instruments and grounded in scholarship, 17th- to 19th- century instrumental and choral music shares the stage with exciting multimedia programs, bold new commissions, and intriguing cross-cultural collaborations. From dynamic live performances at Jeanne Lamon Hall in Toronto’s historic Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre and stunning Koerner Hall, to international tours, award-winning recordings, and inspiring education programs, Tafelmusik is a musical powerhouse with a reputation for thrilling and delighting audiences.
ALEX TOSKOV, winner of The Glenn Gould School Chamber Music Competition 2011, is a recipient of various scholarships such as Norwegian Government scholarship, The Royal Conservatory full tuition scholarship, and Serbian Fund for highly gifted students. In early 2015, Alex established the Odin String Quartet. In September 2012, Alex became a member of Sinfonia Toronto. They toured South America in 2018 and China in 2019. Recently, Mr. Toskov has appeared with Toronto Mozart Players, and has recorded various soundtracks for CBC's Murdoch Mysteries. Alex participated at St. Gallen Festival in Austria 2004, Stavanger Chamber Music Festival in Norway 2009, and Colours of Music Festival 2012 & 2013. Mr. Toskov performed as a soloist with Serbian Radio Symphony Orchestra. He was a concertmaster of Bayreuth Festival Orchestra in 2006, German-Scandinavian Youth Philharmonic 2009, and was a member of Santiago de Chile Philharmonic Orchestra in 2007/2008.
Christopher Verrette joined Tafelmusik as a violinist in 1993 and has been a frequent soloist and leader with the orchestra. He has performed music from 7 centuries in 25 countries and on over 50 recordings for 16 labels. A native of New Hampshire, he studied at Indiana University with Stanley Ritchie, and contributed to the revival of early music in the American Midwest as a founding member of Ensemble Voltaire and the Chicago Baroque Ensemble, and as a guest with numerous other ensembles. In Toronto he is lead violinist with the Musicians in Ordinary and the Schola Cantorum of St. Michael’s College, and participates in the Toronto Bach Festival. He is also heard in film and television soundtracks such as The Tudors, and on the companion recording to Sylvia Tyson’s novel, Joyner’s Dream.
Canadian soprano, Maria Vetere, has performed in Canada, the United States, Great Britain, South America, and Europe and is quickly establishing herself as a world-class Italian soprano. In 2019, she gave a triumphant debut at New York’s prestigious Carnegie Hall and has been featured and reviewed in Opera Canada Magazine, the New York Times and international newspapers. Reviews have deemed “her singing not only combines the tonal beauty of Tebaldi but just a touch of Callas’ cutting edge” (The Philadelphia Local). “Vetere drew an abundance of meaning and beautiful vocal technique, earning the huge applause which followed.” (Operawire), “Everything—from her spot on pronunciation to her exquisite dynamics—lived and breathed Mimì” (Opera Canada). “Vetere is a rising star.” (U Globo, Brazil). She has performed under the baton of legendary Maestro Richard Bonynge and has received numerous awards and recognitions for her singing, including the highest honour of the NYIOP International Auditions for vocal excellence in a female voice and she was inducted to the Niagara Falls Cultural Wall of Fame in 2021 for her global contributions to opera and vocal pedagogy. Roles include: Mimì (La Boheme), Violetta (La Traviata), Desdemona (Otello), Leonora (Il Trovatore), Aida (Aida), Margherita/Elena (Mefistofele), Norma (Norma), Suor Angelica (Suor Angelica), Manon (Manon), Giselda (I Lombardi) and Elisabetta (Don Carlo). Dr. Vetere is also a highly sought after vocal pedagogue and scholar. The Vetere Studio International boasts a roster of over 60 artists on 5 continents. She continues to dedicate her life’s work to the betterment and maintenance of Italian vocal technique and style, and focuses her academic research on the period from Verdi to Verismo, called La Scapigliatura. Dr. Vetere is also the director of Opera Niagara and has established numerous international opera programs, including the newly designed Summer Opera Festival of Niagara (SOFON) in 2023.
Trevor Wagler has dedicated his life to the art of music. He is co-owner/Director of Renaissance School of the Arts, as well as a freelance French horn player (on both modern and historical instruments), conductor, organist, composer, arranger/orchestrator, music editor/copyist and clinician. He holds a Bachelor Degree in Music Composition, a Diploma in Performance, and a Diploma in Chamber Music from Wilfrid Laurier University, as well as a Masters of Music Degree in horn performance from Western University. He has performed with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Canadian Chamber Ensemble, Tafelmusik, Orchestra London / London Sinfonia, the Hamilton Philharmonic, the Nota Bene Period Orchestra, the Windsor Symphony, the Stratford Festival, Drayton Entertainment and more, sharing the stage with the likes of Dianna Krall, Anne Murray, Michael Burgess and Howard Cable. Trevor has conducted the historic Waterloo Concert Band since 2006, and has spent nearly two decades conducting various ensembles for the KWS Youth Orchestra Programme. He is the regular guest conductor of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony for their acclaimed joint performances with KW GLEE. He founded the Kitchener-Waterloo Youth Concert Band (KW YCB) in 2017. Passionate about music education, Trevor maintains an active teaching schedule at Renaissance School of the Arts, and holds part-time faculty positions at both Laurier University and the University of Waterloo (Conrad Grebel University College). In addition to his active performance and teaching schedule, Trevor is also a busy arranger/orchestrator and composer, having written more than 1000 scores for orchestras, bands, chamber ensembles and soloists around the world. Recent commissions have included orchestrating (and conducting) The K-W Symphony Presents KW Glee Live! (2015, 2017, 2019 - and hopefully again in 2022, pending the end of this pandemic!) at the Centre in the Square (Kitchener), as well as new music for the KWS, Symphony Nova Scotia, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony, the Vancouver Symphony, the Edmonton Symphony, and the Kingston Symphony. Trevor is a member of the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN), the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada, the International Horn Society, the Historic Brass Society and the National Geographic Society. Trevor resides in Waterloo, Ontario with his soulmate, flutist Wendy Wagler, and three fabulous children.
The Toronto Star declared "under Warren's direction, the orchestra sounded full-bodied and alive!" and "...sounding luscious and regal, Warren accomplished his task". Daniel Warren has conducted the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, The Colorado Symphony Orchestra, The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Nova Scotia, Hamilton Philharmonic, Orchestra London, the Windsor Symphony, Symphony New Brunswick, The Thunder Bay Symphony, The ERGO and Continuum ensembles and the Canadian Chamber Ensemble. Many of these performances have been heard on CBC radio. Warren served as Resident Conductor of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony for fourteen years and, more recently, as Creative Advisor and conductor for Orchestra London Canada. For the past twelve years he has been conducting at the Westben Arts Festival Theatre in performances of opera, choral and orchestral programs. Comfortable with virtually all genres of orchestral music, Warren has conducted such notable opera singers including John Fanning, Gary Relyea, Susan Platts, Donna Bennett, Karina Gauvin, Jane Archibald, Daniel Lichti, Virginia Hatfield, Jennifer Enns Modolo, James McLean, and Mark Dubois. Other artists include Anne Murray, Barenaked Ladies, Roger Hodgson of Supertramp, Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo, Neil Donell (lead singer, Chicago) Louise Pitre, Holly Cole, Denzal Sinclair, Martin Fry of ABC, Laurence Gowan of Styx, Jeans ‘n Classics and Cirque de la Symphonie. Recent Opera and Ballet engagements include conducting the world premiere of Brian Finley's opera "The Pencil Salesman", Massenet's "Cendrillon", Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro", Mozart’s “Die Zauberflöte” at Westben and Opera Kitchener’s "Die Zauberflöte", The Nutcracker with Ballet Jörgen and the Minnesota Ballet. Other acclaimed conducting engagements have taken Daniel Warren to the United States, Austria, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic. As a conductor and as a trumpet soloist Warren has recorded both on CD and in live television broadcast. He has toured extensively with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Canadian Chamber Ensemble throughout Canada, the United States, England, France, Holland, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and throughout South America. Also active as an arranger, Daniel Warren’s work was recently played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, England. His symphonic arrangements span Classical, Jazz, Broadway and Rock styles and have been performed by orchestras in Canada, the USA, England and Asia. He has arranged for such artists as Quartetto Gelato, Payadora, David Rogers, Louise Pitre, Michael Dore, Donna Bennett and Stephen Michaels Kabakos. He resides with his wonderful wife and family in their rural, owner-built home.
Violinist Julia Wedman brings an "infectious vitality" to music (Victoria Times Colonist). Her playing has been described as "highly communicative", and "extraordinarily lithe and intuitive" (Globe and Mail). Originally from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Julia completed her studies in music at the University of Western Ontario, the University of Toronto and Indiana University at Bloomington. With a life long passion for chamber music, she formed her first serious string quartet at age 15 and performs with a wide collection of chamber ensembles including the Eybler Quartet, I FURIOSI Baroque Ensemble and L’Harmonie des Saisons (Montreal). She joined the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra in 2005, and is regularly featured as a soloist with the group on their home series in Toronto as well as on tours in Canada, the U.S.A, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Germany, China and Korea. Always interested in the latest research in period performance, Julia joined the Accordes! Ensemble in 2019 at Oxford University (UK) in their ground-breaking research into 19th Century performance practice, which culminated in a CD of music by Tchaikovsky and Fuchs.
Originally from Victoria, BC, baritone Paul Winkelmans has sung professionally across Canada, both chorally and as a soloist. He completed his music studies at the University of Manitoba and McGill University before moving to Toronto in 2017 to pursue singing full-time. His recent opera roles include Aeneas in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (Manitoba Underground Opera), Schaunard in Puccini’s La Boheme (Fraser Lyric Opera), Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni (Manitoba Underground Opera), and Frank in Strauss’ Die Fledermaus (Opera McGill). Highlights of his concert work include the bass soloist in Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s The Creation, and Fauré’s Requiem. He is currently working as a freelance singer in Toronto, ON, where he has sung with The Elmer Iseler Singers, The Amadeus Choir, MYOpera, and Shoestring Opera.