go to: Vocal Jazz Adjudicators
Choral Ensembles
Andree Dagenais
Senior Years
Andrée Dagenais is an assistant professor at Brandon University where she conducts the Brandon University Chorale, the Brandon Concert Choir and founded the Brandon University Women's Voices in 2003. Under her direction BU Chorale has been invited to perform at the Choral Conductor’s conference in Québec in 2005 at the Winnipeg New Music Festival (2003 and 2004), the Festival Unicanto de Corais de Londrina and at the Festival of sacred music in Sao Paulo (2002). The BU Chorale represented Manitoba at the National Festival of music and won the City of Lincoln trophy in 2000 and 2001. Before coming to Manitoba , Dr. Dagenais taught at Université de Montréal. She holds a doctorate from University of Iowa (1999). Last year, she has been invited to Venezuela for the third time to conduct a workshop and be part of the choral competition jury for the VIII Edición del Festival Internacional D'canto. Dr. Dagenais returns to Québec every year to teach a summer workshop to advanced choral conductors. Andree was the guest conductor of the Women's Choir in February 2006 at MCA's Provincia Honour Choirs week-end.
Henry Engbrecht
Senior Years
Professor Engbrecht has shared his passion for choral music with a vast number of choral conductors during his tenure at the University of Manitoba's Faculty of Music.
Professor Engbrecht has reached out to the community at large to share his gifts through countless workshops and choral performances.
In 1976 Professor Engbrecht became the founding president of The Manitoba Choral Association. In 1997 he became founding president and artist director of the Foundation for Choral Music in Manitoba. This foundation provides $50,000 in grants annually to the choirs and choral projects in the province of Manitoba.
Professor Engbrecht is the founding conductor and artistic director of Canzona, one of Manitoba's leading choral ensembles.
Professor Engbrecht was and continues to be a visionary leader in our Manitoba Choral Community.
Brenda Harvey
Early Years
Brenda Harvey was born and raised in the province of Newfoundland, where her earliest education included the study of violin, piano, voice and choral music. Her desire to become a music teacher led her to Mount Allison University, in New Brunswick, where she received her Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Education. Since arriving in Manitoba, Brenda has completed her Level Three Orff Certification at the University of Manitoba. For over thirty years, she has been a music specialist in the former Fort Garry and now Pembina Trails School Division. She presently teaches at Whyte Ridge School where, as well as general music classes, she directs a number of choirs. In March of this year, her Girls' Choir was awarded the Mr. and Mrs. Will Rook Trophy and her Grade Four Choir received the Ann Tate Memorial Trophy for outstanding performance at the Winnipeg Music Festival. Brenda's love of music and children led her to be nominated for the M. J. Morrow Award for excellence in Music Education, which she received in October, 2005. Brenda has been the director of Minnesingers East and will direct the PTV Boys Choir for the year 2006 - 2007, as part of the Pembina Trails Voices Program. She also enjoys singing in the Westworth United Church Choir.
Dr. Victoria Meredith
Senior Years
Dr. Victoria Meredith serves on the Faculty of Music at the University of Western Ontario (London, Ontario) where she teaches graduate and undergraduate choral conducting and conducts the university's award-winning advanced mixed choir, the University of Western Ontario Singers. Choirs under her direction have performed at national conferences of such highly-esteemed organizations as the American Choral Directors Association, the Canadian Music Educators' Association, and the International Kodaly Society, and have received numerous awards, including six CBC National Choral Competition prizes and five Canadian Music Educators' Association National Performance Awards.
Victoria Meredith maintains an active career as a guest conductor, workshop clinician, and adjudicator and holds degrees in Music Education (Indiana University), Voice Performance (University of Northern Colorado), and Choral Conducting (University of Arizona). She has guest conducted choirs across Canada and in the United States including the Ontario Youth Choir (CBC Choral Competition first-prize winners), the New Brunswick Youth Choir, the New Brunswick Spring Choral Fest , the Nova Scotia Youth and Adult Choir Camps, the Nova Scotia Youth Choir, and the Pennsylvania Honor Choir. Recent engagements have taken her to Prince Edward Island, Alberta, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Trinidad, and Minnesota. As a mezzo-soprano soloist, she has performed concerts in Canada, the United States, England, and Austria.
Dr. Meredith has published numerous critical performing editions of renaissance and baroque choral compositions and articles on a variety of topics of interest to choral musicians, and has served on the Editorial Board of the Choral Journal and the Board of Directors of the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors.
Derek Morphy
Early Years - November 20 and 21
Born in England in 1941, educated in Wales, Derek Morphy sang as a Choral Scholar in the chapel at St. John’s College, Cambridge, and has since sung in a number of chamber choirs in England and Canada, the most recent being the Winnipeg Singers.
Since arriving in Canada in 1967, Derek Morphy has sung the bass solos in many major sacred works, and most recently sang the role of Sarastro in performances of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. He was a featured soloist on a 2005 Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra Christmas recording.
He completed a 37 year career as a High School Choral Music Teacher in 2000, during which his choirs were several times awarded local and national honours. He continues to conduct the Chamber Choir, Renaissance Voices, and the Trinity United Church Choir, as well as acting as a vocal and choral adjudicator in Manitoba and across Canada.
He particularly enjoys working with young choirs, and has been asked to give workshops and act as a clinician with many Winnipeg school choir groups.
He is a member of the boards of both the Manitoba Choral Association and the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors, and co-chaired their national conference, Podium, in 2004
Mark Sirett
Middle Years - Nov 22 and 23
Dr. Mark Sirett is a native of Kingston, and a graduate in choral conducting and pedagogy from the University of Iowa. In addition to his doctoral studies he has worked with noted American conductors Robert Shaw and Harold Decker, and - on two occasions - with Swedish choral conductor, Eric Ericson.
He has taught courses ranging from conducting to sixteenth-century counterpoint and analysis at Queen's University, the University of Western Ontario, and the University of Alberta, Bucknell University (PA).
For six years served as Organist/Music Director of St. George's Cathedral, Kingston. Under his direction the Cathedral Girl Choristers won first prize in the 1996 CBC Choral Competition for amateur choirs. Since founding the Cantabile Choirs in the fall of 1996, the choirs have received numerous distinctions including first prize for the Girls' Choir in the Ontario Provincial Music Festivals Finals in 1997 and 1998, as well as first prize in the Canadian National Music Festivals Finals in 1997. The Cantabile Youth Singers toured England in 1998, and have been invited to sing for Podium 2000 (the annual convention of the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors) in Edmonton, and the 2001 Cork International Choral Festival.
Dr. Sirett is also an award-winning choral composer. His works have been performed by some of Canada's leading choirs, and heard on CBC radio and television. Recent commissions include works for the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and the Elora Festival Singers.
Dr. Sirett is frequently in demand as a guest conductor, choral clinician and adjudicator. He has conducted workshops for the Ontario Choral Federation, the Royal College of Organists, and the Royal School of Church Music and will conduct the 2001 Ontario Youth Choir.
Brian Tate
Senior High and Community
Brian Tate is a vocal coach, pianist, singer, composer, and arranger. He has coached singers of all levels in all styles of music. Brian is music director of the Universal Gospel Choir and teaches singing at Langara's Studio 58 theatre school. He performs with the Brian Tate Quartet and also as a solo vocalist.
Brian received his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of British Columbia and went on to further music studies in London, England, and Toronto. His love for music of many kinds has led to a diverse career that includes orchestral and choral conducting and performance, West African drumming, jazz piano and vocals, musical theatre, and composing music for film, television, stage and the concert hall. Brian has twice received Vancouver's Jessie Richardson award for original theatre music and his choral music is performed worldwide.
Ruth Wiwchar
Early Years
Ruth has enjoyed a varied career as a music educator in the fields of Elementary Music education and Choral Music. A graduate of Brandon University, Hamelin University (St. Paul, MN) and Memphis State University, Ruth has worked with grades K – 12, and has been privileged to teach a variety of courses at the University of Manitoba for over twenty – five years.
Currently, Ruth is Music Consultant for Kindergarten through grade six, with the Pembina Trails School Division and serves the division as Artistic Director of Pembina Trails Voices. She continues to conduct the award-winning PTV Cantemus., as well as to co-conduct the PTV Choraliers and the PTV Singers.
Ruth loves working with the children youth and adults at Westworth United Church where she is the Director of Music. She conducts the Senior and Chancellor (Youth) choirs and supervises the seven music ensembles at the church. During summer sessions at the Faculty of Music, U of M, Ruth teaches Basic Orff, Level Three and Choral Music, Levels Two and Three in the School of Music’s Orff Certification Program.
Professionally, Ruth is the Past - President of the Manitoba Choral Association, and is active on the United Church’s Winnipeg Presbytery Worship Committee.
Her husband, Dan, and their two sons, Stephen and Michael have been most supportive of her activities through the years!
Vocal Jazz
Tom Dowden
Vocal Jazz
After completing his Masters of Music Education at the University of Northern Colorado, with a concentration in Jazz Studies, Tom returned to teaching music in the Winnipeg school system, and directing both Vocal Jazz and Jazz Bands at the University of Manitoba. Several of his compositions and arrangements have been performed by High School and University Jazz groups in Winnipeg and other parts of Canada and the United States. Tom has served as an adjudicator at the Vocal Jazz section of Choralfest on three occasions, and has directed the Vocal Jazz portion of the University of Manitoba Summer Music Camp for two years.
Matt Falker
Vocal Jazz
Matt is currently on the faculty at MiraCosta College, the University of Southern California, and California State University, Northridge, where he directs vocal jazz ensembles and teaches jazz piano and other related classes. His previous positions include Cal State Fullerton, Orange County High School of the Arts, Fullerton College and Purdue Musical Organizations at Purdue University. He also taught at Hamilton High School Academy of Music (a Los Angeles music magnet program) and directed Jazz Incorporated, the Academy's award-winning vocal jazz ensemble. The ensemble released three CD's and received two consecutive Down Beat Magazine "DB" national awards for best high school vocal jazz ensemble. Mr. Falker also teaches private jazz piano and voice.
A native of northern Michigan, Mr. Falker received his undergraduate degree from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo in jazz piano and his master's degree from the University of Southern California in jazz voice. Mr. Falker works with high school and college choirs in the United States and Canada and served as the showchoir and vocal jazz clinician for the International Music Camp in North Dakota for five years. He also coaches vocals and conducts pit orchestras for musical productions put on by the Golden Performing Arts Company in Canoga Park, CA, and plays regularly with the Los
Angeles Chapter of the Gospel Music Workshop of America (James Cleveland, founder). His vocal arrangements are published by UNC Jazz Press and he is available as an adjudicator/guest performer for vocal jazz festivals. More information about Matt is available at www.mattfalker.com.
John McMillan
Vocal Jazz
John is a graduate of the Music Composition program at MacEwan College and most recently, has returned to Edmonton after completing the Jazz Studies program at the University of Toronto. John is the conductor of the FORM vocal jazz ensemble under the T.I.M.E organization, is the artistic director of “Happnin’” (the University of Alberta vocal jazz ensemble) and the MacEwan College vocal jazz ensemble. Besides directing choirs, John is in demand as a performer, composer, arranger, teacher and clinician. John has performed extensively in New York and Toronto, Western Canada and the United States. His vocal and band charts can be heard across North America, both in educational venues and on the professional scene.
5-276 Marion Street
Winnipeg, MB R2H 0T7
Canada
PH: 204-942-6037
FAX: 204-947-3105
