Gloria Chu
Gloria Chu is a dedicated composer, pedagogue and performer. She is a multi-award winning composer of chamber, violin, cello, and piano works. Her compositions have been praised to “transport [the audience] into a heavenly world” by International Youth Music Competitions. Several of her pedagogical works have been featured in the Alliance for Canadian New Music Projects Contemporary Showcase syllabus. Her awards and recognitions include six Winning Awards from Alberta Piano Teachers Association Creative Music Writing Competition, Canadian Folk Song Arrangement Prize, First Place at the USA Modern and Contemporary Competition and First Place in Provincial Alberta Registered Music Teachers’ Association Student Composition. Gloria holds two Master’s degrees: MA in Piano (Ottawa) and MA in Strings (Chichester). She is currently working on her third Masters in Voice Pedagogy (Wales). She has been recognized by Steinway & Sons with a Top Teacher Award and is the recipient of the Royal Conservatory of Music Teacher of Distinction Award for her leadership as a music educator. Gloria has given presentations at city, provincial and national conferences on music learning topics. Her innovative teaching methods and pedagogy compositions motivate students to develop confidence in expressing their unique voice in both music and life. www.gloriachumusic.com
Kathleen Feenstra
Kathleen Feenstra has been teaching piano and theory in BC's Fraser Valley since 2001. Accredited by The Royal Conservatory of Music with an ARCT in Piano Performance (2010) and also an ARCT in Piano Pedagogy (2019), Kathleen is a member of the British Columbia Registered Music Teachers Association, the Association of Canadian Women Composers, and is an Associate Composer of the Canada Music Center. She enjoys teaching, composing, and arranging, and is passionate about seeing her students succeed in their musical studies. As a composer, Kathleen specializes in creating works that are pedagogical in nature. She has created more than 100 pedagogical works for piano. Recordings of her music are available on all major platforms. Kathleen has published five books of piano repertoire with 80 Days Publishing, featuring music for all levels of students. She has also made numerous arrangements of popular pieces for her students.
Joyce Janzen
Joyce Janzen teaches piano, theory, history, written and keyboard harmony, and analysis from her studio in Abbotsford, BC. She enjoys the challenge of relating to each student as an individual. Her love of theory in all its forms motivates her in passing on its riches. Joyce is active in music in her studio, her church and her community as well as being registrar for BCRMTA. In addition to scoring and editing Keyboard Harmony workbooks, Joyce has developed self study workbooks for history courses.
Christian Pacaud
Christian Pacaud is a composer, electric bass player and sound designer from Quebec City, Quebec. Most of his professional career has been spent working in collaboration with other composers on video game productions, designing and implementing interactive music systems. In 2016, he presented a talk at the Games Developers Conference alongside composer Austin Wintory, presenting their collaborative work on the interactive musical score for Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Syndicate. He is currently working as a composer and audio designer for Gearbox Software on Borderlands 4. As a musician, he has toured and played with various bands in genres ranging from jazz to extreme metal. You can find out more about his creative work at https://www.christianpacaud.com/.
Dr. Richard Covey
Richard Covey is an active composer, collaborative pianist, theorist and educator. After completing studies in piano with Jamie Parker, and composition with Glenn Buhr, Richard completed his MMus and DMA degrees at the University of British Columbia. There, he studied with accomplished composers Stephen Chatman, Keith Hamel, and Dorothy Chang. Richard is a sessional instructor in Composition and Aural Skills at the University of Prince Edward Island, where he directs and encourages music creation of all kinds by students year-round. He strongly believes this to be a crucial component of music education. As a Canadian composer, Richard's works have been performed across Canada and abroad by ensembles such as the Gryphon Trio, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, PEI Symphony Orchestra, UPEI Wind Symphony, and. several premiere performances by members of the PEI new music ensemble, eklektikos. In addition to writing for professionals, Richard enjoys composing educational music for community ensembles, student choirs and bands.
Nadin Martin
Nadine Martin began her career as a professional pianist, ensemble director, and collaborative pianist at the age of 11 in Summerside, Prince Edward Island. Since then, she has studied at the Conservatoire de Québec à Chicoutimi, Dalhousie University, and McGill University. She was the collaborative pianist for Dalhousie University’s string department, and has collaborated with orchestras, choirs, musicals, symphonic wind ensembles, as both a pianist and a horn player, and also played for various rock, reggae, jazz, and pop bands. She has competed in, and won, many local, provincial, national, and international competitions. She studied orchestral and jazz horn at McGill University, and has performed with diverse ensembles, ranging from orchestral to jazz. She now lives in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Nadine collaborates and performs regularly as a pianist and she is a music teacher at École Sainte-Anne.
Wade Tarling
Wade Tarling is an award-winning Canadian pianist whose music has captivated audiences across North America, South America, and Europe for over two decades. A graduate of Capilano University with a Bachelor of Music and a Jazz Diploma, Wade has honed his craft alongside some of the most renowned musicians in the industry, including John Medeski, Chris Wood, and Billy Martin (of Medeski, Martin & Wood), as well as Grammy-nominated pianist Rachel Eckroth.
Now based in St. John's, NL, Wade is a vibrant force in the local music scene. While he primarily shines as a solo pianist, he also tours extensively with the celebrated group, The Ennis Sisters. His talent extends beyond performance—he has recorded multiple albums of original compositions with the award-winning band Hip Waders and has released two solo piano albums, including Strength, nominated for a MusicNL Award, and Winter Songs, which earned him a MusicNL Award win.
With an artistry that blends technical brilliance and deep emotional expression, Wade Tarling continues to leave an indelible mark on the world of music.