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Rebecca Booker, piano, is a recent graduate of Wilfrid Laurier University's Honours Bachelor of Music program. It is there that she studied piano performance and vocal accompaniment under Professor Leslie De'Ath. She has taken part in master-classes taught by such pianists as Jon Kimura Parker, Heather Toews, and James Parker. She has performed with the WLU orchestra and choir, and has also been part of several chamber ensembles. Rebecca presently enjoys being involved in church music, choral and vocal accompaniment, and musical theater, as well as piano pedagogy in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. |
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Frances Chang , piano, was born in Seoul, Korea in 1978 and she started learning the piano when she was five. Ms. Chang and her family immigrated to Toronto, Canada in 1991 and she entered the Royal Conservatory of Music in preparation for college. In 1996 she was accepted at Queen’s University School of Music where she studied solo piano performance with Prof. Michel Szcesniak and composition with Norman Sherman and John Burge. Ms. Chang came to Youngstown State University in 2000 to study solo piano performance with Dr. Caroline Oltmanns where she actively performs both solo and collaborative works. She has won numerous competitions and scholarship awards in Canada including the 1999 Concerto/Aria Competition at Queen’s University, Senior Pianist and Accompanist awards at the Kiwanis Festival, the Kingston Symphony award, and the Korean-Canadian Scholarship award. Ms. Chang will be performing for the Rome Festival in Rome, Italy this summer and she received scholarships and accompanying awards and fellowships to attend The Cleveland Institute of Music to study master's degree in collaborative piano studies with Anita Pontremoli this fall. |
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Dawna Coleman, harp is an orchestral performance student at Wilfrid Laurier University, where she is principal harpist for the school orchestra and opera, part time member of the KW Youth Orchestra, and a participant in various chamber music concerts. As a student of Lori Gemmell and a former student of Marie Lorcini, she has performed in masterclasses for Rita Costanzi and Judy Loman. Dawna has had the privilege of performing in concerts with the Guelph University Choir (in performance with Arcady) and the Waterloo Chamber Choir. She has recently begun delving into the area of recording, collaborating on a CD featuring the works of local composers Leonard Enns and Michael Purves-Smith, and following this with a solo recording entitled On Wings of Paradise. Dawna maintains a busy schedule of engagements for weddings, private functions, and recitals, while teaching some students of her own. |
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Diana Dumlavwalla, piano, recently completed the MMus programme with Distinction at the Royal College of Music (RCM) in London, England studying piano with Yonty Solomon and voice with Roderick Earle. She received a BMus degree with Distinction from Wilfrid Laurier University and studied piano with Heather Dawn Taves and James Parker and voice with Patricia Pascoe and Kimberly Barber. Under the tutelage of Virginia Blaha, she also received her Associateship from the Royal Conservatory of Music and studied voice with Jose and Irene Hernandez. Diana was nationally recognized when she was awarded the Marusia Yaworska Music Scholarship. Solo and chamber appearances have included concerto performances with the Brantford Chamber Players and recitals at important venues in London, England. Diana received awards in various competitions including the Royal College of Music Contemporary Piano Music Competition and the NUMUS Pan-Am Chamber Music Competition. In July 2006, she performed at the Prague International Piano Masterclasses in the Czech Republic. As a soprano, she performed the leading roles in the operas Amahl and the Night Visitors, Hansel and Gretel and the musical, Peter Pan. She is a regular cantor at St. Pius X Church in Brantford as well as the Cathedral of Christ the King in Hamilton for Diocesan celebrations. A passionate teacher, she maintains a private studio and teaches at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo and the Beckett School of Music in Kitchener. |
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Mark Edwards, organ, started his formal music training in piano at age eleven in Ohio and continued his piano studies with Linda Bonadeo-Böll in Simcoe. In 2001 he turned his attention to the pipe organ and studied for three years with Ron Beckett, director of Arcady. He played services regularly at St Mary's Catholic Church in Simcoe and served as substitute organist at First Baptist Church (Simcoe), St Andrew's United and Central Presbyterian (both in Brantford). Mark attended Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan for the 2004/2005 school year as a post-graduate student. Areas of concentration there were the refinement of his performance skills both in piano and pipe organ. Mark's very successful year at Interlochen included an organ department concert tour of cities such as Grand Rapids and Cleveland, as well as a recital in Dallas. His completion of studies with top honors resulted in an invitation to return to Interlochen as guest organ recitalist for the 2005 Interlochen Arts Festival. Mark made his organ debut with Arcady at the 2005 National Convention of the Royal Canadian College of Organists. Mark is currently studying with David Higgs at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. |
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Adam Gesjorskyj, guitar, has showcased his talents in a wide variety of styles. In 2001, he formed the ensemble Allemande which regularly performs his own arrangements and compositions. His first recording, entitled Nostalgia (2000), features all original works, and a second CD is to be released soon. A graduate of McMaster University, Adam was a recipient of the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Silver Medal Award for two consecutive years, as well as the Patricia Majcher Award for the Arts. He has appeared with numerous groups such as Arcady and Duo Acorde through his active role as a classical guitarist and performer of popular styles. Adam is a first year teacher at St. John’s College where he also runs the guitar ensemble. |
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Anca Gaston, piano has performed with violinist Lucy-Ana Gaston and guitarist Adam Gesjorskyj as part of Arcady's The Transcendent Violin series. Anca has a grade 10 diploma in Piano Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music and maintains an active teaching studio. A Summa Cum Laude graduate in Communication Studies from McMaster University, Anca also holds a Bachelor of Education from the University of Western Ontario. She is currently completing a Masters in Applied Health Sciences at Brock University. |
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Sean Kim, keyboards was born in Seoul, Korea in December of 1978. He started studying theory and piano at age 3. In 1991, Sean and his family moved to Toronto where he began studying piano from Peter Longworth at the Royal Conservatory of Music. While attending A.Y. Jackson Secondary School in North York, Sean served as the principle French Hornist for the Thornhill Community Concert Band and the North York Concert Orchestra. In 1997 at the University of Western Ontario, Sean started studying harpsichord/continuo through the Early Music Studio where he was coached by Sandra Mangsen, Richard Semmens and Joseph Lanza, and masterclasses with Jaap Schroder. During the four years of the undergraduate program, Sean has performed with the University of Western Ontario Symphony Orchestra as a violist, and accompanist for various university ensembles. While at Western he studied piano from John-Paul Bracey and Gwen Beamish, composition from Peter Clements, Kim Lundberg, Peter Paul Koprowski, and Omar Daniel. In June of 2001, this elected Grad Class President received Bachelor of Music in Honors Theory and Composition. Sean was one of the three resident accompanists for the ARIA International Summer Academy in 2002. In 2003, Sean completed his degree of Master of Music in Composition at UWO writing a symphony, advised by Omar Daniel. Sean currently teaches music theory at the University of Western Ontario, conducts the Blyth Festival Orchestra, is a member of the board of the examiners for both theory and practical exams for Conservatory Canada, and performs regularly with Orchestra London as a continuo player. Sean also is an organist and choir director at St. John the Divine Anglican Church in Arva, Ontario. |
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Rebecca Stewart, continuo, holds undergraduate degrees from the University of Western Ontario in music history, French, and Education, as well as a master's degree in Education. Rebecca has been active as a continuo player since 1984, performing in many Baroque choral works such as Bach's B Minor Mass, the St. John and St. Matthew Passions, and Handel's Messiah. Rebecca toured as a singer with the chamber choir of The Gerald Fagan Singers to England, Belgium, Germany and Holland in 1998 and to Holland, Germany, Poland, and Lithuania in 2000, and as an accompanist for the St. Thomas Youth Choir to England and Wales in 2001. A teacher of elementary school music and French Immersion with a handful of private students, Rebecca enjoys reading and as many trips to the beach as possible in her free time. |
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Tracy Walker, piano, started studying the piano at the age of four. In 1998 Tracy received both an A.Mus from Western Ontario Conservatory of Music where she obtained the highest mark in Canada and an A.R.C.T. from the Royal Conservatory of music. Tracy is entering her final year at Wilfrid Laurier University where she is completing simultaneous degrees - Honours Bachelor of Music with a major in piano performance, and Honours Bachelor of Arts with a major in mathematics. She has been on the Dean’s Honour Roll since starting university, and has won many in-course scholarships as well as the Dorothy M Elliot Music Scholarship for Performance and the H. Leslie Staebler Award. At Laurier, Tracy has performed with the Wilfrid Laurier University Wind Ensemble and the Wilfrid Laurier University Symphony Orchestra. She also has premiered works for Jeffrey Donkersgoed, Daryl Jamieson, Michael Hadden and Rick Covey, and in April 2002 she helped record a movie sound track composed by Mike Hadden. She currently studies with Dr. James Parker and Previously with Gwen Beamish. She has also participated in Master Classes with Heather Toews, Kent McWilliams, Angela Hewitt, Janina Fialkowska, Kevin Fitzgerald and others. Tracy has been a piano and theory teacher at the Kitchener-Waterloo School of Music and Art for this past year and plans to continue teaching. Tracy became a member of Arcady in the spring of 2001 when she performed a chamber music concert with Ian Carruthers and Fleur Sweetman. |