Following a 30-year career with the Toronto District School Board (Agincourt Collegiate Institute and Bliss Carman Sr. P. S.), David retired from the TDSB in February of 2021. Currently, he teaches for the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Arts, Media, Performance and Design at York University. David is a recipient of MusicFest Canada’s […]
Recently graduated from York’s MA and Phd music programs with a major in jazz compositions. The dissertation was called “Compositions Inspired by the Genius of Bill Evans” for solo piano. Mr McGill continues to explore jazz composition and improvisation. He enjoys helping others learn through the many teaching assistant roles at York over the past few years.
Sherie Marshall has performed professionally in various nightclubs across Toronto for over 30 years. From a young age, Sherie was always captivated with music and the performing arts. Her first professional experience was gained by singing background vocals in venues across Canada for American Gospel, Rhythm & Blues, and jazz vocalist Tobi Lark. She began studying […]
Czech-Canadian Bass-Baritone John Holland has embarked on a diverse career of opera, oratorio, and art song. In 2020, John won a JUNO award for a recording of Handel’s Dixit Dominus. His Operatic credits include Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Leporello in Don Giovanni at the Estates Theatre in Prague, […]
Wen Zhao is an acclaimed pipa virtuoso, “a sensitive and lyrical performer”. Born in Beijing having studied under the renowned pipa master Wang Fan Di at the China Conservatory of Music. In 1990 Wen continued her musical journey in England,performing and leading Chinese music workshops throughout the U.K. Wen lives in Toronto since 1997 and […]
Sacha Williamson is a highly accomplished singer / songwriter / performer and educator who crosses all soulful music genres. Moving from classic Soul and R&B to Jazz, and Electronica, this effervescent songstress has created an expansive repertoire of diverse music that is authentically all her own. She has captivated audiences from the U.K. to the U.S. and has performed […]
Award-winning Canadian pianist Luke Welch was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and grew up nearby in Mississauga. He played his first public performance at age seven, and his formative private piano teachers include Catherine Kuzeljevich and John-Paul Bracey. He later graduated from Western University in Canada with Bachelor and Master of Music degrees and completed additional graduate studies at Codarts Rotterdam University for the Arts […]
Education PhD (York University) MA (McMaster University) BMus (McMaster University) Biography Dr. Jennifer Taylor specializes in popular music studies, with a focus on the intersection of popular music making and gender. Dr. Taylor’s MA thesis examined issues of representation and identity in the all-woman music festival Lilith Fair. That work was published in the Cambridge Companion to the Singer Songwriter (2016). […]
Natalie Stewart’s career in music education spans three decades, and includes being an artist (piano, vocals), arranger, and director. With her education in classical music studies intersecting with her roots in gospel music, Stewart completed her Master of Arts in Ethnomusicology (York University, 2007), and has created a niche for herself that encompasses curriculum development, […]
Laura Swankey is a vocalist, composer, arranger, improviser and experimental electronic artist based in Tkaronto\Toronto. She has a unique approach to singing, using her agile, expressive and adaptable voice as an instrument in a wide variety of settings that range from traditional jazz to non-idiomatic improvised music, from chamber settings to experimental rock, folk, noise, pop and beyond. Laura currently teaches voice at the […]