Elaine Klimasko, Strings

Elaine Klimasko began her musical studies in Hamilton, Ontario at the age of four and continued her studies at the Toronto Royal Conservatory on a special string scholarship. She has studied in Canada, the United States and abroad and her teachers include Lorand Fenyves, Franco Gulli and Joseph Gingold. Her distinguished career as an orchestral musician, soloist, chamber musician, teacher and adjudicator has taken her all over the world.   Elaine is a founding member of the National Arts Centre Orchestra and has appeared as a soloist with the Orchestra. She is a well-known chamber musician and has performed with renowned artists such as Jaime Laredo, Anton Kuerti and William Preucil. Elaine Klimasko has earned an international reputation as a dedicated teacher. She leads a very active teaching career presenting masterclasses, coaching chamber music and orchestra musicians, serving on juries for competitions and teaching privately. Her students are very frequently winners of competitions and hold important positions as chamber and orchestral musicians all over North America. In 2003 NACO Music Director Pinchas Zukerman asked her to launch the first Junior Young Artists Programme for the NAC Summer Music Institute. This highly successful programme attracts very gifted students from Canada and abroad.

Eric Medhurst, Senior Piano

Mr. Medhurst, a Pianist and Organist, is a graduate of The Royal Conservatory of Music, with ARCT diplomas in Teaching and Performance and of the University of Toronto, with degrees in Music and Education. He has been a member of the teaching faculty of the RCM for over twenty-five years and a senior member of the RCM College of Examiners for about the same period of time. Mr. Medhurst remains active as a soloist and as a duopiano performer with his partner Mr. John Graham. Recent performances include the MMEF Interlude Series at the RCM in Mississauga, the RCM Noon Hour Concerts and in the RCM Faculty Series. He is currently Organist and Choir Director of Graceview Presbyterian Church in Etobicoke and has also taught Vocal Music for the Peel Board of Education. Mr. Medhurst is also a seasoned adjudicator, an evaluator for ORMTA, Kiwanis Music Festivals, the Davenport and Milton Festivals and for the RCM as well. He is a composer of Choral works and of works for flute and piano. His principal teachers included Miss Elsie Bennett, with further instruction from Marek Jablonski concerning the repertoire of Chopin and from James Anagnoson, concerning the duo and duet repertoire. Mr. Medhurst has conducted workshops at Unionville High School and has worked for the Toronto District School Board as an accompanist for “Let There Be Music” Choir.

Amber Morphy, Vocal

Amber Morphy, soprano and pianist, is a versatile performer who performs a variety of styles of music. This is most evident upon hearing her newly released self- titled CD. Amber began her musical training in the Kitchener-Waterloo area and later completed a Bachelor of Music in voice and piano at Wilfrid Laurier University. She then graduated with a Masters in Music from the University of Western Ontario, specializing in vocal performance. In 1991, Amber was accepted as a member of the College of Examiners for Royal Conservatory of Music. She has examined in voice and piano throughout Canada. She is also an adjudicator at music festivals and competitions throughout Ontario. In 2003, Amber had the honour of being the first Artist-in-Residence for the city of Cambridge. This exciting position allowed for monthly concerts, workshops and performances at community events. Amber is an active performer with various musical organizations including the Elora Festival, Gallery Concert Series, Hamilton Opera, Lyric Theatre and the Gilbert & Sullivan Ensemble. She is also an active accompanist as well as a music director for Summer Operetta Camps held in Guelph. Since 1987 Amber has run a successful private studio in Cambridge teaching all levels of piano, voice and theory. She has taught with Kindermusik of Cambridge for ten years. Amber also teaches voice majors at Eastwood Collegiate, an integrated Arts high school in Kitchener.

Ella Poret, Piano

Ella Poret began her music studies with Boris Berlin at the Royal Conservatory of Music followed by a degree in Piano Performance from University of Toronto where she studied with Patricia Parr and Marina Geringas. She has received numerous awards and scholarships in both piano and composition and released several recordings of her own music. She has performed throughout Ontario and United States and was a winner of the Songwriters Showcase in Los Angeles and New York. Ms. Poret is a member of the Canadian Music Festival Adjudicators Association and is a Senior Examiner with the Royal Conservatory of Music College of Examiners. She maintains a highly recognized piano teaching studio in Toronto. She is the author of “Piano World”, a method book for beginners. She is actively involved in adjudicating, examining and conducting workshops based on the “Piano World's” progressive method of piano teaching.

Jeff Reynolds, Brass

Jeff Reynolds is Assistant Co-ordinator of Performance at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto and co-conductor of the Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble as well as teaching trumpet, chamber music, jazz history and music education courses. As a trumpeter he has performed and recorded with the Calgary Philharmonic, Hamilton Philharmonic, the Orchestra of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, the Hannaford Street Silver Band and the Stratford Festival ensemble among others. Mr. Reynolds also has performed in many theatre and commercial engagements. He is active as a guest conductor, clinician, journal contributor and adjudicator.

Micheline Roi, Composition

Micheline Roi composer and sound artist, studied at Queen's University and later at McGill University where she received a Master of Music in Composition. Aesthetically, she considers herself an inclusionist, readily drawing on sound and any musical idioms to portray emotive sound. She has written concert music, radio art and sound installations. Ms. Roi's music has been performed and broadcast world-wide, and has been commissioned and performed by many great Canadian ensembles. Her honours include the Rudolphe Mathieu Award in the CAPAC young composers competition (1990) and the Godfrey Ridout Award in the SOCAN competition for young composers (1992). She has received awards and commissions from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Laidlaw Foundation, and the Ontario Arts Council. Ms. Roi's most recent commission, a site-specific sound installation for Chartres labyrinth, was premiered as part of the New Adventures in Sound Art's, Sign Waves in July 2005, on Toronto Island. Upcoming premieres include a piece for percussionist Beverley Johnston and a radio art piece for CBC Radio. Micheline lives in Toronto, Canada, with one great husband and one very furry cat.

A prizewinner in the 1987 International Clarinet Society Competition, Peter Stoll was also that year Solo Clarinetist with the World Orchestra of Jeunesses Musicales in Berlin and Vienna, which was broadcast on live television across Europe. He has been guest soloist with orchestras in Canada and the United States, and adjudicated bands, orchestras and choirs from North America and Europe. In June 1999 Peter was selected as woodwind adjudicator for the National Finals of the Federation of Canadian Music Festivals competition in Winnipeg, here he was also asked to perform in the Federation's 50th Anniversary Gala concert. Peter's tape “Bits 'n Pieces” has been broadcast on CJRT-FM and the English and French CBC, and is available at HMV and other Toronto record stores. Summer orchestral and chamber music performances have included the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Boris Brott Music Festival in Hamilton, the Ottawa Valley Festival and the Festival of the Sound in Parry Sound, Ontario. Past engagements included solo recitals for the CBC and the Mozart Society, performances with the contemporary music group Continuum for the Toronto Symphony's “Mada In Canada” festival and with the ERGO ensemble in the CBC's Glenn Gould Studio, which was repeated in Munich, Germany in June 2000, with a return invitation set for June 2001. Peter has played with the orchestras of Ragtime, Phantom of the Opera, ShowBoat, Miss Saigon and Mozart's Magic Fantasy, and is a regular member of the Toronto Philharmonia, with whom he played the Glazounov Saxophone Concerto to great acclaim in May 2000. He was featured in a showcase performance at the Ontario Arts Council's Contact, and now tours extensively presenting “Ebony and Ivory” concerts with jazz and classical pianist and composer Andrew Gilpin. Peter teaches clarinet and chamber music at the University of Toronto and privately.

Helen Torney, Piano

Helen Torney holds an ARCT Diploma in Piano Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music, Fellowship and Licentiate Diplomas from Trinity College of Music, London, England, a Bachelor of Music from the University of Western Ontario, a Bachelor of Education from the University of British Columbia and an Associate Diploma in Clarinet Performance from the Western Ontario Conservatory of Music. She studied piano with Edward Parker, Robert Rogers and Ira Swartz, and clarinet with Robert Riseling. Ms. Torney maintains a private studio where she teaches piano, clarinet and theory. She is active as an adjudicator/workshop clinician and is a member of Canadian Music Festivals Adjudicators' Association. After several years as an executive member and provincial delegate for the Coquitlam / Maple Ridge branch of the BCRMTA, she moved, in 1997, to Cobourg, Ontario. She is now also an Examiner of History, Harmony and Rudiments and served on the RCM Council of Examiners from 2001-2003.

Alvin Tung, Guitar

Alvin Tung has established himself as one of Canada's most brilliant young virtuosi by securing numerous first prizes in many different competitions across North America. His honours have included winning the silver medal at the prestigious Tokyo International Guitar Competition becoming the first Canadian in the thirty-five-year history of the competition to ever win a prize. He is also a two-time consecutive first-prize winner of the Canada Council National Grant Competition and Canadian National Music Competition. Tung completed a Bachelor and Master Degree in Music at the University of Toronto. At the age of 26, he is the youngest Doctoral (DMA) guitar recipient from the Eastman School of Music studying under Dr. Nicholas Goluses where he was a scholarship student. At Eastman, Alvin Tung received the honour of becoming the first guitarist to ever win the school's coveted Performer's Certificate as well as being appointed to the position of teaching assistant.

Tung gave his solo recital debut at the age of 12. Since then, he has performed across Canada, the United States and the Far East as a recitalist, a chamber musician as well as an orchestral soloist. His live performances are often recorded for broadcast on major radio and television networks across Canada, the United States and Asia. He has also enjoyed equal praise and success as a recording artist. With three CD recordings to his credit, the two most recent discs have already sold out across Canada. Alvin Tung has appeared as concerto soloist with orchestras such as the Canadian Chamber Academy, the Rochester Chamber Orchestra, Mississauga Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonic Orchestras of Taipei, Greece and Rochester to name a few. Concerts later this season include an extensive tour of western Canada and his return to Asia for his second concert tour of the Far East with engagements in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

At the age of 25, Dr. Tung was appointed to the faculty of the University of Toronto to instruct guitar and chamber music. He is also in great demand nationally as an adjudicator and clinician and has given masterclasses internationally. He has taught at the Taipei International Guitar Festival, the Algonquin International Music Institute, the International School of Musical Arts (ISMA) and was appointed to the faculties of the Weathersfield Summer Music Festival in Vermont and the Silver Bay Summer Music Festival in New York. His students are among the finest young musicians in Canada having won numerous first and grand prizes at national music competitions across Canada and the United States and have won major university scholarships. Dr. Tung is also actively involved in the promotion of fine music and talent, having been appointed as the Artistic Director of both the Muskoka Lakes Music Festival and the Merriam School of Music (MSM) Concert Artist Series where he also holds a seat on the Board of Directors. Alvin Tung's brilliant technique and intense artistry promise a bright future for this rising young star.