Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra

biographies

Conductors

John Barnum

johnbarnum John Barnum was Music Director of the Scarborough Philharmonic 2006-2008. He has been Music Director of Orchestras Mississauga for over thirty years which involves the Mississauga Symphony, an orchestra similar to the SPO, and Sinfonia Mississauga, a professional chamber orchestra. He has been Music Director of the Georgian Bay Symphony, centred in Owen Sound, for 16 years. A number of years at The Royal Conservatory of Music were highlighted by six years as Director of The Royal Conservatory Orchestra and Orchestral Training Program. For many years, John taught conducting at The University of Toronto. His choral directorships have included The Orpheus Choir of Toronto and The Edmonton Symphony Chorus. Mr. Barnum has held positions as Assistant Conductor of The Edmonton Symphony and Resident Conductor of The Thunder Bay Symphony. He has had extensive experience directing youth orchestras, particularly noting his positions with The Mississauga Youth Orchestra, The Kitchener Waterloo Symphony Youth Orchestra and The Edmonton Youth Orchestra. He has conducted most of Canada's finest ensembles but has particularly enjoyed the opportunity of seeing strong home-based development.

Geoffrey Butler

Geoffrey Butler’s interest in conducting was fostered early, first at the world-renowned St. Michael’s Choir School and later at the University of Toronto’s Opera School. He has been artistic director of the Toronto Choral Society since 1994, and director of music at All Saints Roman Catholic Church in Etobicoke since 1983.

As an artistic director and conductor, Mr. Butler has also led Opera York in performances of many opera classics, including Il Barbieri di Siviglia, Don Giovanni and Carmen. He was also the music director of the recent world premiere of The Warrior Bard, a celebration of the life and music of Thomas Moore. An accomplished tenor, Mr. Butler is well known in Canada and the United States and recently added the role of Cavaradossi in Tosca to his repertoire.

Howard Cable

Principal Pops Conductor Howard Cable

Dr. Howard Cable, a member of the Order of Canada, has been a leading figure in Canadian music for over 60 years and studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. His experience on both radio and television and his familiarity with a broad range of repertoire includes arranging/composing for entertainers such as the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, Sharon, Lois and Bram, and the Toronto Children's Chorus. On the world stage, he has conducted for Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Peggy Lee, Bob Hope, Victor Borge, Danny Kaye and Jim Carrey!

During the past summer Dr. Cable was in Ottawa giving master classes and conducting the Band of the Ceremonial Guard. This elite band plays every summer morning on Parliament Hill for the ceremony Changing of the Guard. The band arrives at the Hill playing Cable's "Ten Provinces March". Also, Dr. Cable conducted the C. G. Band at Carleton University in the first performance of his latest suite "The Shining Mountains".

Christopher Kitts

christopherkitts Christopher Kitts comes back to us from Vancouver where he was conductor of the Vancouver Pops Symphony and Music Director at the Centre in Vancouver for the Performing Arts, he also guest conducted with the Burnaby Symphony, the West Coast Symphony and conducted at the Canada Day celebrations in Kelowna. While in Vancouver he was very active in film and television doing studio recordings and on screen conducting. Before that he was in Bermuda conducting their first professional orchestra. In Ontario he has conducted the Brantford Symphony, the Mississauga Symphony, the Brampton Symphony, but is best known for the10 years with the Scarborough Philharmonic. In his academic career he was head of music at Birchmount Park C.I. for 28 years, leading his students to performances on NBC.tv, CBC, West german radio Carribean Broadcasting, and at the United Nations, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, the New Orleans Worlds Fair, England, Germany, the Netherlands and Barbados. In 1980 they won a worlds championship representing Canada against 32 other countries. Mr. Kitts is now retired but still adjudicates music festivals as he has done for many years for the Toronto International Music Festival and the Kiwanis Music Festival.

Jerome Summers

jerome summers Jerome Summers was born in Kamloops and educated in British Columbia, where he became a member of the Vancouver Symphony and CBC Vancouver Radio Orchestras. After acquiring graduate degrees in composition from the University of British Columbia, he undertook studies in conducting at the prestigious Toho Gakuen in Tokyo, under Kazuyoshi Akiyama and Morihiro Okabe. A versatile musician, he has established a distinguished career as a conductor, composer, and clarinetist.

Since locating in Ontario, Maestro Summers has appeared with many of Canada’s leading orchestras and performers and has broadcast frequently on CBC national radio.

A highly-acclaimed clarinetist, Jerome Summers has released three critically-distinguished recordings and collaborated with many of the world’s leading artists in concerts, world premieres, broadcasts, film sound-tracks, ballet and operas. A frequent performer and guest interview on CBC national radio, Mr. Summers continues to be a strong advocate for Canadian music throughout the country.

His conducting activities have embraced the full spectrum of styles and genres, including opera and ballet productions, symphonic masterworks, world premiere performances of new works, pops, theatre pieces, recording sessions and chamber orchestra performances throughout North America and Western Europe.

Jerome Summers enters his fifth season as founding Music Director of the Stratford Symphony Orchestra and is enjoying his thirteenth year as Director of the International Symphony Orchestra in Sarnia/Pt. Huron, Mi. These thriving musical ensembles are fine examples of the numerous artistic successes Maestro Summers has developed and refined over the years. Of major significance is his 30-year tenure as professor and conductor at the University of Western Ontario, where he is now a professor emeritus.

As well, his many appearances as guest conductor across the continent have been critically acclaimed, and he will be featured on podiums in Germany, Italy, Toronto and in San Diego, Ca. in upcoming concerts this season.

Jerome Summers is celebrated as one of Canada’s most vital musicians.

Please visit www.jeromesummers.com or www.mtmartists.com for further information.

Composers

Michael Conway Baker | Alex Eddington | Kevin Lau | Chris Meyer | Ronald Royer

Michael Conway Baker

michaelconwaybaker Michael Conway Baker has many honours in the field of music. His awards include three GENIES (Canadian Academy Awards) for best film music; an (ACTRA) award for best music in a television series along with seven nominations. His concert music, now 153 works, includs symphonies, concetos and full length ballets (National ballet of Canada and Royal Winnipeg Ballet). In 1991 he received a Juno for his Piano Concerto. He is listed in the 2005 Groves Dictionary of Music. In 1997 he was invested with the Order of British Columbia and received the Queens Golden Jubilee Medal 2003. In 2006 he was inducted into the B.C. Entertaiment Hall of Fame.

http://www.michaelconwaybaker.com

Alex Eddington

SPO Composer-in-Residence

Composer, musician, playwright and actor Alex Eddington completed a Master’s degree in composition at the University of Alberta; his undergraduate training was in his native Toronto. He has attended several workshops for emerging composers including the National Arts Centre Young Composers’ Programme in 2006, and the 2008 Quatuor Bozzini “Composer’s Kitchen” in Montréal. Mr. Eddington’s musical works have been commissioned and performed in Canada and internationally by musicians and ensembles including the Mississauga Symphony, the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra, the Talisker Players, the Toronto Chamber Choir and soprano Kristin Mueller-Heaslip. In 2008, his orchestral work Reiteration was the winner of the Orchestras Mississauga Emerging Composer Competition. He received a 2004 SOCAN award for his monodrama Death to the Butterfly Dictator!, and in the same year, Dance Attack! for orchestra was a finalist in the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s “New Creations” competition. Mr. Eddington is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre.

As a playwright and actor, Alex Eddington has created three original plays for himself to perform on the Canadian Fringe theatre festival circuit: two solo shows - an autobiographical monologue (WOOL) and a multi-character “musicological comedy-thriller” (The Fugue Code) - and a two-person play with live music (Old Growth). He was the recipient of the 2008/09 Urjo Kareda Residency Grant at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, through which he created and workshopped a full-length play (Emily C.) and was an apprentice to three professional sound designers. In summer 2009, Mr. Eddington travelled to Calgary to participate in the renowned One Yellow Rabbit Summer Lab Intensive. He is currently - off and on - touring his unique new production of TJ Dawe’s beloved one-man comic monologue, Tired Clichés.

Alex Eddington is also a choral singer, musical improviser, occasional conductor, a concert narrator who has appeared with members of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, and a freelance arts administrator who has worked with Tafelmusik, the Toronto Consort, soprano Mary Lou Fallis, and the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra.

Alex Eddington is based in Toronto, Canada. Please visit him online at www.AlexEddington.com and look for Acky-Made Productions on Facebook.

Kevin Lau

kevinlau Kevin Lau is a composer of orchestral and chamber music. He has had works commissioned and performed by a variety of ensembles, including the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, the Mississauga Symphony Orchestra, the Esprit Orchestra, the Georgian Bay Symphony, the Cecilia String Quartet, the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra, and the Toronto Philharmonic. His orchestral composition "Fountain of Dreams" was selected as the winner of both the 2005 Mississauga Young Composers' Competition and the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra Composer's Competition in 2008/09.

Kevin is also active in many other areas of composition. In 2006 he wrote the score to the theatre musical “Box Office,” which was staged seven times at the Tarragon Theatre as part of the 2006 Toronto Fringe Festival. He has over a dozen film scores to his credit, including the Canadian children’s feature “Gooby” (starring Eugene Levy and Robbie Coltrane), co-written with composer Ronald Royer.

Kevin is currently pursuing his doctorate degree in music composition at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Christos Hatzis. He is the artistic director, composer in residence, and co-founder of the Sneak Peek Orchestra.

Chris Meyer

chrismeyer Chris Meyer began his musical career rather late, only taking up the piano as a teenager after his parents brought home a very enticing synthesizer. Despite a subsequent immersion in music, higher learning led Chris to a degree in physics from the University of Toronto. Between labs and lectures he taught himself the foundations of music by studying harmony, counterpoint, orchestration and classical music's greatest hits. His real training as a composer began after university and in an unusual way – as an apprentice in the “musical workshop” of Toronto composer Ronald Royer. Assisting with all tasks from copying parts and score preparation, all the way through fleshing out orchestrations and solving compositional problems, Chris learned his craft.

Interesting, approachable and playable are the three goals Chris aspires towards in all his musical work for both the audience and performers. This was put to the test during his first orchestral performances with the Mississauga Symphony under conductor John Barnum. Following those successes, Chris has had his music performed by the orchestras of Stratford, Sarnia and Port Huron, Huronia (Barrie), Georgian Bay and Scarborough. In an interesting adventure, Chris worked as an orchestrator on the soundtrack of the feature film Gooby which was released in 2009 in theatres across Canada and the United States. To top it all off, Chris is now composer-in-residence for the Stratford Symphony orchestra for the 2009-2010 season. For more about Chris and his music, checkout his website at www.meyercreations.com

Ronald Royer

ronroyer Ronald Royer is a prominent Canadian composer with numerous performances, commissions and commercial recordings. His compositions have been performed throughout Canada, Austria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Mexico and the United States by leading soloists, ensembles and over forty orchestras.

Along with co-composer Kevin Lau, Mr. Royer recently finished composing his first feature film score for the Canadian children’s movie Gooby, starring Robbie Coltrane and Eugene Levy. Gooby premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in France on May 14, 2008 and will hit theatres in North America in the spring. Other commissions include grants by the Canada Council for the Arts to compose Sinfonia Concertante for Piano Trio and Orchestra (the Gryphon Trio and the Mississauga Symphony), Mirage for Orchestra (Mississauga Symphony) and Water and Light, Fireworks at the Falls for Orchestra (Niagara Symphony). As well, Mr. Royer received a Laidlaw Foundation grant to compose Travels with Mozart for Chamber Orchestra. This composition was jointly commissioned by five orchestras, Jyvaskyla Sinfonia (Finland), Toronto Sinfonietta (Canada), International Symphony (Canada/USA), Peterborough Symphony (Canada), and Scarborough Philharmonic (Canada), to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of Mozart.

Recordings include the recently internationally released The Nightingale’s Rhapsody with Clarinetist Jerome Summers and The Thirteen Strings of Ottawa by Cambria Master Recordings (California) and the Storyteller’s Bag by the Children’s Group as well as recordings by the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic (Czech Republic), the Toronto Sinfonietta, and cellist Simon Fryer with pianist Lydia Wong.

Born in Los Angeles into a family of professional musicians, Ronald Royer began his career as a cellist, performing with such ensembles as the Utah Symphony, Pacific Symphony and Toronto Symphony, as well as working in the Motion Picture and Television Industry in Los Angeles during the 1980’s. Mr. Royer began serious studies in composition in the 1990’s, receiving a Master’s Degree in Composition from the University of Toronto in 1997. In June 2004, he became the Composer-in-Residence for the Orchestras Mississauga supported by a residency grant from the Canada Council for the Arts. Mr. Royer is an associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre and works as an Instructor of Music for the University of Toronto Schools.

Performers

Dion Mazerolle | Kaye Royer | Amir Safavi | Toronto Choral Society |

John Trembath |

Lesley Duff, flute

lesleyduff Lesley Duff gradated from the University of Toronto in 1995 with a Bachelors Degree in Music Performance studying with members of the Toronto Symphony. As an active freelance flute and piccolo player, Ms. Duff has performed with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Hamilton Opera, The Royal Winnepeg Ballet and the Band of the Ceremonial Guard (Ottawa). She has been heard on CBC Radio 2 and has toured Canada, the US, Poland as well as other European countries. She currently holds principal flute positions with the Scarborough Philharmonic and The Band of the Royal Regiment of Canada. With over 25 years experience performing in orchestra, bands, chamber and solo work, Ms. Duff brings to her classroom a wealth of practical knowledge and performing experience. She teaches Instrumental Music at Henry Hudson Sr. P.S., to grades 7/8 students in the Scarborough area.

Corey Gemmell, violin

coreygemmell Corey Lyle Gemmell, violinist, is a native of Hamilton, Ontario. He has distinguished himself as a soloist and chamber musician with performances in Canada, Germany, the United States and China. Concerto appearances include performances of the Brahms Violin Concerto, the Brahms Concerto for Violin and Cello, the Beethoven Violin Concerto and Mozetich’s Affairs of the Heart for Violin and Orchestra and both the Sibelius and Beethoven Violin Concertos. 2009 saw him performing the Beethoven Triple Concerto with Symphony Hamilton Orchestra and Vaughn Williams’ The Lark Ascending with the York Symphony Orchestra. In the 2009-2010 season Mr. Gemmell will be performing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor with the York Symphony, the Beethoven Triple Concerto again and Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with Scarborough Symphony Orchestra.

He is currently concertmaster for The Sound of Music at the Princess of Wales and Symphony Hamilton Orchestra. As an active chamber musician Mr. Gemmell performs in numerous festivals and recitals each season.

At present Mr. Gemmell is associate concertmaster Esprit Orchestra, associate concertmaster of Toronto Philharmonia, a member of the Mississauga Sinfonietta, and the Elgin String Quartet. He is also concertmaster for the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra. He often performs with the Canadian Opera Company and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

He can be heard on compact disc in recordings of sonatas by Brahms, Ravel, Robert A. Baker, David Eagle and Hope Lee.

As an adjudicator Mr. Gemmell makes appearances at music festivals across Canada.

He is on faculty at the Royal Conservatory of Music, the National Music Camp and is a member of the Royal College of Examiners.

The Gryphon Trio

gryphontrio Formed in 1993, the Gryphon Trio continues to delight audiences around the globe with their highly refined and dynamic performances. Based in Toronto, the Trio tours regularly throughout Canada, the United States, and Europe. Their celebrated recordings include works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Dvorak, Lalo and Shostakovich. With a strong commitment to expanding the piano trio repertoire, the Trio has commissioned and premiered over 50 works. Their 2004 recording, Canadian Premieres, features the work of leading Canadian composers and was awarded a Juno. Their most recent recording, Tango Nuevo, features the music of Astor Piazzolla and Hilario Duran, and represents their tenth CD for the Analekta label.

As Canada’s pre-eminent ensemble, the Trio continues to be actively involved in teaching and nurturing future generations of both classical musicians and audiences. In addition to master classes at schools and universities across North America, the Gryphon Trio members are Artists-in-Residence at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music, where Dr. Parker is the Rupert E. Edwards Chair in Piano Performance and violinist Annalee Patipatanakoon is an Assistant Professor. The Trio has also collaborated with composer Gary Kulesha and music commentator Rob Kapilow in presenting enriching lecture-demonstrations.

Strongly dedicated to pushing the boundaries of chamber music, the Trio has collaborated on special projects with clarinetist James Campbell, actor Colin Fox, choreographer David Earle, and a host of jazz luminaries at Toronto’s Lula Lounge. Their most ambitious undertaking has been the groundbreaking multimedia production of Christos Hatzis’ Constantinople, which has been performed in Canada, the United States, and was presented by the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden in England in 2006.

Cellist Roman Borys has taken the lead with the Trio’s responsibilities as Artistic Directors of the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, a position they have held for two seasons. The Gryphon Trio has been a mainstay at the OICMF since its inception, the Festival of the Sound in Parry Sound, and many other chamber music festivals.

Julian Knight, viola

Julian Knight graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree from the Juilliard School
in New York City in 1979. He then gained professional experience working for the
Hamilton Philharmonic and the Canadian Opera Company before moving to Paris
France in nineteen eighty-two. The recipient of a Canada Council grant he
continued his studies while also furthering his professional experience in various
French orchestras. On his return to Canada, he began freelance activities that have
seen him engaged by every major orchestral ensemble of the Toronto Region.
Currently he holds the Principal Viola position in the Mississauga Symphony and
the Scarborough Symphony and is a member of Sinfonia Toronto. Julian has
appeared as a soloist with among others the North Bay Symphony, the Oakville
Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonia Mississauga, Sinfonia Toronto, the Canadian
Electronic Ensemble and the contemporary music trio, Resonance.

Iris Krizmanic, French horn

iriskrizmanic

Iris Krizmanic, as well as being principal horn of the Scarborough Philharmonic holds the position of third horn in the Niagara Symphony and plays with the Ontario Philharmonic under the baton of Marco Parisotto. She graduated from the Glenn Gould School (GGS), having studied with principal horn of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Neil Deland, and Associate Principal Christopher Gongos. She has had the privilege to work under many renowned conductors such as Bramwell Tovey, Uri Meyer, Mario Bernardi, and the late Richard Bradshaw amongst others. She toured to China with the Royal Conservatory Orchestra as part of a cultural outreach program for the school. Even after graduating this past year she remains an active participant in the GGS orchestral and chamber programs. A multi-talented musician, Iris also plays the cello and is currently lead soprano at St. Simon-the-Apostle Anglican Church. As a musician in demand she has had the opportunity to perform in musicals as a cellist, in oratorios as a vocal soloist, and as part of her new brass quintet, Red Brass. Iris looks forward to May 2010 where she will be a featured soloist with the Greater Toronto Philharmonic performing Richard Strauss' first horn concerto.

Dion Mazerolle, baritone

Originally from New Brunswick, the baritone Dion Mazerolle is known for his versatility within the realms of opera and concert recitals. Having traveled extensively, he has performed in different companies around Canada, United States and Europe. He has performed for companies such as Orlando Opera, Opera Ontario, Calgary Opera, Pacific Opera Victoria, Opera de Montreal, Opera York and Brasov State Opera in Romania.

With the Brasov State Opera, M. Mazerolle toured 20 cities in Germany, France, Austria and Switzerland as the Villains in Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann.

Past member of Atelier lyrique de l’Opera de Montreal, M. Mazerolle is also the winner of numerous prizes including Grand Prize of the Young Artist Competition from Societe Radio-Canada, Jacqueline Desmarais Foundation and Jeunes Ambassadeurs lyrique.

He was been recorded and heard on numerous occasions by CBC-Radio and SRC-Radio for Saturday Afternoon at the Opera/Opera du Samedi and different concert program series.

Kaye Royer, clarinet

kayeroyer Kaye Royer was born in Canada and has performed in orchestras and chamber ensembles throughout Canada, the United States, England and Italy, and as a soloist in concertos by composers such as Mozart, Weber, R.Strauss, Beethoven, Finzi, Dubois, Telemann and Ronald Royer. This season, Kaye will perform concertos with the Niagara Symphony, Sinfonia Toronto and the Scarborough Philharmonic and will be a featured soloist on a new CD recording with Sinfonia Toronto. She currently holds the position of principal clarinet with the Toronto Sinfonietta, Brantford Symphony, Canadian Sinfonietta and the Scarborough Philharmonic. She also performs regularly with the Niagara Symphony, and has worked with orchestras such as Orchestra London, Hamilton Philharmonic, Oshawa-Durham Symphony, Stratford Civic Orchestra, Talisker Players, Orchestra at Niagara Fallsview Casino and all of the ensembles which comprise Orchestras Mississauga—the Mississauga Symphony, Mississauga Philharmonic and Sinfonia Mississauga. Also active as a chamber musician, Kaye’s recent performances include the University of Toronto Chamber Series at Hart House, the Sunday Series at the Royal Ontario Museum, the Les AMIS concert series, and the Niagara International Chamber Music Series. Her principal teachers include Avrahm Galper, Toronto; Stephen Pierce, London, England; James Kanter, Los Angeles; John Bruce Yeh and Larry Combs, Chicago. As a recording artist, she has worked on the sound tracks of such films as Prisma, The Dog, and The Happy Couple, as well as the compact discs The Storyteller’s Bag, and Toronto Sinfonietta’s Romancing Chopin, on which she performed as a soloist. Kaye received screen credit for her work as a featured performer on the sound track of the Canadian feature film, Gooby, starring Eugene Levy and Robbie Coltrane which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in France on May 14 and is due to be released in theatres in the fall of 2008. She has also been heard on radio broadcasts on stations CJRT, CFMX, and throughout Canada on CBC 1 and 2 and the United States on NPR.

Amir Safavi, violin (SPO Young Artist 2009/10)

amirsafavi Prize--winning violinist Amir Safavi began his violin studies when he was five years old. A graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Music (ARCT), he received the Gold Medal for the highest mark on the Performance Examination in Canada. Amir has won numerous grand prizes and awards at the provincial and national levels, including the first award in the Strings Open (2008) and Diploma (2007) levels of the Provincial Finals Competition (OMFA), the ACNMP national award for the most promising performer of the festival, the Most Promising Performer award of the Toronto Kiwanis Music Festival, along with other best of festival awards throughout Canada. As well, he was selected as the Canadian representative for the 2009 ASTA National Solo Competition, held in the United States.

Amir made his solo debut with the Koffler Chamber Orchestra, under the baton of Jacques Israelievitch, and has performed with several orchestras including the Toronto Sinfonietta, Academy Symphony Orchestra and Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Orchestra, among others. This season, he will perform as soloist with the Guelph Symphony Orchestra, University of Toronto Hart House Orchestra, Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra and the Scarborough Philharmonic, as a result of winning their concerto competitions. Other upcoming performances include a solo recital at the Midday Music with Shigeru series in Barrie, Ontario. He has performed in many venues, including the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, George Weston Recital Hall, Glenn Gould Studio, Mississauga Living Arts Centre, and the River Run Centre. Amir has appeared frequently in the Soundstreams Canada- Young Artist Overture Concert Series, performing contemporary Canadian music and 20th century masterworks.

A scholarship student at the Young Artists Performance Academy of the Glenn Gould School of Music, Amir serves as the Concertmaster of the Academy Symphony Orchestra and the Senior Strings Orchestra of the University of Toronto Schools. Amir has performed in several master classes for eminent artists such as Peter Oundjian, Andrés Cárdenes, Mauricio Fuks, Andrew Dawes, Victor Danchenko, and Mimi Zweig. In addition, he has been coached by artists such as Joaquin Valdepenas, Joel Quarrington, and Andrew Burashko. Amir is currently studying with renowned pedagogue Paul Kantor and has studied privately with Jacques Israelievitch, former concertmaster of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

Toronto Choral Society

tcs The Toronto Choral Society (TCS) was founded in 1845 to foster a positive musical environment where singers could develop their musical ability, expand their choral repertoire and perform concerts for the community. Today the 150-voice TCS choir continues that tradition under the leadership of Artistic Director Geoffrey Butler. In concert the choir presents important choral works, both traditional and modern, and explores music of the many cultures that make up the GTA. TCS also makes an active contribution to the life of the city by participating in community events.

The Toronto Choral Society expanded in 2000 and now includes two smaller choirs as well as the original TCS choir. Street Haven Women’s Choir is drawn from clients of Street Haven at the Crossroads. North 44 Ensemble is a chamber choir which performs by invitation on special occasions and helps to fund the Street Haven Choir.

For more information about the choir and upcoming concerts, please visit the TCS website at www.torontochoralsociety.org.

John Trembath, cello

Mr. Trembath studied with Jack Kirstein of the Lasalle Quartet and Peter Howard of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Since graduating from the University of Cincinnati, he has served as principal and assistant principal cellist with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, principal cello with the Kingston Symphony, Toronto Pops and the Phantom of the Opera orchestra. Mr. Trembath also performed with many orchestras across Canada including the Hamilton Philharmonic, National Ballet, Canadian Opera, and Symphony Nova Scotia and as featured soloist with the Trinity Chamber Ensemble. Mr. Trembath can also heard on recordings with the Canadian Chamber Ensemble and the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony and the Canadian cast recording of the Phantom of the Opera.

Mr. Trembath teaches for the Toronto District School Board, Havergal College and National Music Camp of Canada.

09.10

scarborough philharmonic orchestra