Mark Vuorinen (Choral Instructor, Conductor) is Music Director of the Toronto Chamber Choir, a leading early music choral ensemble. Under his direction the choir continues to provide Toronto audiences with informed performances of seldom heard Renaissance and Baroque Masterworks. Mark holds a Master of Music degree from Yale University’s School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music where he received full scholarship. He is currently a candidate for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Toronto where he regularly conducts the University of Toronto MacMillan Singers and Toronto Bach Festival Singers in performances.

An active church musician, Mark has served parishes in Southern Ontario and Connecticut and is currently the George Black Fellow in Sacred Music at the Church of the Redeemer, Toronto. In this capacity, he directs a successful Bach Cantata Series that attracts an enthusiastic audience. Mark is Founding Artistic Director of the Toronto Choral Artists, a new semi-professional ensemble that debuted in early 2009. The mandate of this organization is to champion the works of young and emerging Canadian composers. Since its founding, the ensemble has performed world premieres by Canadian composers Rob Teehan and Elisha Denburg. Performances in 2009-2010 included a collaboration with the Toronto Bach Consort and a concert at the Music Gallery. 

A recipient of many awards, Mark was named the E. Stanley Sedar Scholar at Yale University in 2006 and is a past recipient of the Elmer Iseler National Graduate Fellowship in Choral Conducting. Currently, Mark is the recipient of the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto Centennial Foundation Graduate Fellowship. In the summer of 2008 Mark received the David and Marcia Beach Summer Study Award from the University of Toronto for studies in Germany with leading Bach scholar and conductor Helmut Rilling. Mark has twice been a finalist in the prestigious Leslie Bell Competition for Choral Conducting, winning an honourable mention in 2000. Mark’s research interests include the study of contemporary choral literature from the Baltic states, and in particular the music of Arvo Pärt and Veljo Tormis. In 2006, Mark was invited by the American Choral Director’s Association to present a workshop on this topic to the Connecticut Fall conference in Hartford, CT. Mark is an invited speaker at Boston University’s Arvo Pärt and Contemporary Spirituality Conference in March 2010, marking the composer’s 75th birthday.

Roger Bergs (Organ Instructor, Recitalist) is a musician of diverse talents and activities. In 1994, he completed his Master of Music degree in Composition at the Juilliard School in New York, where he studied with composer John Corigliano. Previously, he earned his Bachelor of Music degree in Composition at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, where his teachers included Gary Kulesha and Glenn Buhr. Upon graduation from WLU, he was awarded the WLU Alumni Gold Medal in Music. His musical education began at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, where he received his Associateship degree in Piano Performance in 1988. He has also received the Fellowship and Associateship degrees from the Royal Canadian College of Organists, winning the prestigious Willan Scholarship twice. In the fall of 1999 he began doctoral studies in composition at the University of Toronto, studying under Chan Ka Nin.

His compositions have been performed by such ensembles as the Symphony Orchestras of Toronto, Edmonton and Winnipeg, the CBC Vancouver Orchestra, the Esprit Orchestra, the Composers Orchestra, the Hannaford Street Silver Band, the Festival Winds of the Festival of the Sound in Parry Sound, the Aldeburgh Connection, the National Academy Orchestra of the Boris Brott Summer Music Festival, Continuum New Music (Toronto), NUMUS concerts of Waterloo ON, and the Galatea Ensemble (New York), and by such soloists as hornist James Somerville, trombonist Alain Trudel and organist Jan Overduin. He has been awarded prizes in composition competitions sponsored by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, SOCAN, CAPAC, PROCAN, Contemporary Showcase (Toronto) and the Canada Council. The Hannaford Street Silver Band’s recording of his commissioned work Attractive Metal with hornist James Somerville was recently released by Opening Day records. He has taught Composition and Music Theory for the Juilliard School, the University of Toronto, Mohawk College in Hamilton, Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City Tennessee and at the North Toronto Institute of Music.

Other musical activities have included a wide variety of arrangements, the preparation of musical documentaries for National Public Radio in New York, assistance with music for the Stratford Festival, and the editing of the orchestral score for the concert performance of the silent film The Battleship Potemkin. He has served as the composition adjudicator for such festivals as Contemporary Showcase (Toronto) and MusicFest '98. He is in his seventh year Music Director of Knox Presbyterian Church in Toronto, and served as music director the Toronto-based chamber choir Concertsingers for three seasons. He is also active as an organ recitalist.

Rev. Don McBey (Chaplain) is Minister at Scugog Island United church where, this year, he has organized a first-ever series of summer concerts. After many years as a lawyer and therapeutic counsellor in the Toronto area, and executive director of the Hamilton-Halton Counselling and Mediation Centre, he was ordained by the United Church of Canada in 2009. Rev McBey's mother was a noted piano and paedagogy teacher whose many students have gone on to musical careers across North America. He himself took composition with Prof. Crowley at Queens University while studying law in the 1980s. 

While sadly neglecting his instrumental side, he has sung in numerous semi-professional choirs and composes anthems and responses. His lifelong involvement in church music features such odds and ends as Anglo-Catholic cantoring and liturgical chant, mixed Methodist-Anglican services, Russian orthodox liturgies, revival meetings among the Gitksan of northern BC, Taize in central London during his year in Lambeth and singing Old Order Amish hymns in Hochdeutsch from the Ausbund. He is delighted to assist as chaplain at this year's Summer Institute.

Christopher Dawes (SICM Director, Keynote Address, Organ Instructor), numbered among Canada’s leading church musicians, concert organists and choral accompanists, is a freelance musician and consultant based at Toronto’s Church of St. George-the-Martyr. Mr. Dawes currently divides his professional time between freelance performing across a wide spectrum of the Toronto music scene and the Directorship of Canada’s Summer Institute of Church Music in Whitby (which he has directed since fall 2004), and the Organ Concerts and Academy at Stratford Summer Music, where he is an Artistic Associate and has served since its inception in 2000.
Mr. Dawes has given solo recitals and accompanied choral tours across North America and Europe, and been broadcast repeatedly on domestic and international radio services. His work appears on over two dozen commercial CDs to date and has been showcased in Canada’s greatest concert stages and organ lofts. He is faculty accompanist and coach to the graduate and undergraduate choral conducting programs at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music, accompanist to that school’s MacMillan Singers and Bach Festival Singers, a staff accompanist to the Toronto Children’s Chorus, and a resident musician for various productions of Theatre Erindale, the professional performance wing of the Theatre and Drama Studies program offered jointly by the Sheridan Institute of Applied Arts and Technology and the University of Toronto at the latter’s Mississauga campus.
A passionate advocate for the organ, sacred music and his country’s cultural life, Chris is known for a musicianship that freely crosses classical and popular styles and eras; for his imaginative, informed and approachable presentation of both the familiar and the obscure, and for his love of history, places, people, and all that is unusual and inspirational in music. A native of Kingston, Ontario, Chris lives with his wife Marcia, and their children, Nathaniel, Simon, and Charlotte in Georgetown, northwest of Toronto.

Rob Hanson (Circling the Microphone) is a music literate recording engineer with well over 200 CD credits for international labels and independent releases.  His work has received a JUNO nomination and critical acclaim. His specialty is recording in the rich acoustics of churches and performance halls across Ontario. A former Senior Engineer for Brock Sound Productions, Senior Staff Engineer for composer Paul Hoffert and Senior Engineer for Marquis Classics Record Label (dist. EMI) Rob records everything from orchestras, to choirs, to rock and reggae. From 2001 to 2005 Rob developed and presented the Fun 2 Sing Music Education Program which reached over 120 elementary schools and over 25,000 students across Ontario. Provided as a recording session workshop, students were encouraged to get involved and were featured on CDs with other schools from their community. Rob continues to provide in class recording session workshops that allow students of all ages to learn first hand lessons about the exciting world of studio recording techniques. Working closely with music educators and by tying in music curriculum objectives, it inspires students to get involved and build their interest in music. http://folkeshanson.com

Dr. Andrew Donaldson (Circle Sight and Sound) is an active teacher of guitar, voice and piano, and recently completed three years instructing music theory and classical guitar at Redeemer University College, Ancaster, Ontario. He is also Music Director of Hilariter Singers and Players, a vocal and instrumental ensemble that performs a wide range of music, specialising in global worship music. Andrew currently serves as Pastoral Musician and Worship Enlivener at Trafalgar Presbyterian Church in Oakville, Ontario, and recently finished a two-year term as President of The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada. Knox College, University of Toronto, conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity (honoris causa) at its spring 2007 convocation. Andrew served on the faculty of SICM from 2005 to 2007, returning for a memorable opening night concert with his Hilariter Singers and Players in 2008. http://hilariter.ca

 

 

 

Gordon Adnams (Circle Sight and Sound) Gordon Adnams has been involved in music education and leadership, as well as professional music-making for all his adult life. He has served as a minister of music at Forward Baptist Church in Toronto and Ellerslie Road Baptist Church in Edmonton, taught at Ontario Bible (now Tyndale University) College and Heritage Seminary, Cambridge and was Associate Professor and co-chair of the Music Department at Taylor University College in Edmonton. He earned both MusBac and MusM degrees from the University of Toronto, and more recently completed a PhD from the University of Alberta. His dissertation is entitled “The Experience of Congregational Singing.” Currently Dr. Adnams is the director of The Guelph Male Choir, part-time worship coordinator at MacNeill Baptist Church in Hamilton, teaches at Redeemer University College and leads workshops, seminars and retreats to encourage and enrich churches in their congregational singing. He and his wife, Louise, live in Ancaster, Ontario. He has served on the Board of the Summer Institute of Church Music since 2009.

 

 

 

Fred Kimball Graham (Circle Sight and Sound, Future Forum) has been Assistant Professor of Church Music (part-time) since 2001, Basic Degree Director at Emmanuel College since 2003, and Director of the Master of Sacred Music Program since its inception in 2008. He arrived at the College after completing 14 exceptional years as Music and Liturgy Officer at the General Council offices of The United Church of Canada. During his tenure there, the denomination renewed its song resources through publication of Voices United (1996) and its prayer resources through publication of Celebrate God’s Presence, both of which involved the worship office in intense ways. He holds a Bachelor of Music (Education) from the University of Toronto, a Master of Music in Organ Performance and Literature at the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY, Master of Philosophy from the Liturgical Studies program at Drew University, Madison, NJ. He has always maintained an active role in parish music ministry, serving since 1985 in several United Church congregations in the Toronto area for periods of six months to six years. As a traveling clinician in the areas of worship and music, Graham is well known from coast to coast in Canada’s United Church communities. He contributed the hymn tune LIFE RESTORED to the Voices United collection, an arrangement to the Anglican Common Praise (1998), and two new tunes iin 2006 to More Voices (supplement to Voices United) named NEW IDENTITY, and EMMANUEL COLLEGE.

 

 

 

Alison Riseley-Clark (Music Plus Reading Sessions), a native of New Zealand, moved to Canada in 1981 and completed a Masters degree in Organ Performance at McGill University in Montreal. During her studies, Alison competed in international organ competitions in Chartres (France), Bruges (Belgium), Manchester (England), and Michigan. Alison has also recorded for Radio New Zealand and the CBC. Alison started piano lessons with her father when she was five years old, and by the time she was 17, had completed two Diplomas in Piano Performance. At the time she wanted to become a concert pianist, but a famous organist (Dame Gillian Weir) persuaded her that becoming a concert organist was a lot more fun. Other teachers who have helped her along the way include John Grew, Gerald Wheeler, David Sanger, Daniel Roth, Guy Bovet, Lionel Rogg, and Harald Vogel. Alison is currently the music director at St. Marks Anglican Church in Brantford, Ontario. She oversees three choirs, a handbell choir and hosts an Advent and Lenten concert series. Alison has held church positions in Montreal, Toronto, Waterloo and Hilton Head( South Carolina). Alison performs many concerts, teaches, she accompanies three community choirs in Kitchener, and she works for Music Plus.

 

 

 

John Leek (Osborne Competition Co-ordinator) began his musical training in Hamilton, leading to advanced studies in organ and choral conducting in England. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in the Arts and Social Work, a Master’s Degree in Education, and a Diploma from the Royal School of Church Music. He is a member of the Royal Canadian College of Organists, Toronto Centre. Throughout his career, John has held a variety of positions including sub-organist of Christ’s Church Cathedral, Hamilton; associate organist of St Peter’s Anglican Church, Brockville; and Assistant Organist of St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney, Australia. He has also been organist for several choir tours, taking him to some of the world’s great Cathedrals in North America, England, France, Australia and New Zealand. John has been an accompanist for the international award-winning Hamilton Children’s Choir for over 25 years. In addition to his work with the Hamilton Children’s Choir, John is a freelance organist renowned as an accompanist of great sensitivity and musicality on both piano and organ. After 38 years in education as a teacher, social worker and school principal, John is about to retire, and is looking forward to devoting more time to family and to the wonderful world of music.

 

 

 

Thomas Baker (Opening Concert) studied music education at the Faculty of Music at University of Toronto, majoring in organ and trombone. During this time he also began to study composition and began to develop his art of improvisation. He was composer-in-residence with the Festival Singers in 1972, and his works have been performed and recorded by many of the country’s leading vocal groups. Baker received a Canada Council grant and several Ontario Arts council grant commissions for pieces. He was appointed an artist-in-residence at York University in 1975. Baker spent many years as a professional singer with the Festival Singers of Canada, Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, and the Vancouver Chamber Choir. Baker founded the Uxbridge Chamber Choir in 1983 and has been director since that time. He has been conductor of the Uxbridge Messiah Singers since 1984, and for 10 years was the Director of The Pro Arte Singers of Kingston. Baker has also spent many years developing his improvisational skills. He was music director at Second City in Toronto for 6 years in which his improvisational skills were used to their fullest extent in a theatrical setting. He has been Musical Director for many shows in Uvbridge and at Artword Theatre in Toronto. Baker has played as a jazz pianist in New York, Toronto, Kingston and Uxbridge. He has also played live improvisational piano to silent films for large audiences. Baker produced a CD of solo improvisational piano (“Conception Act”). He joined cellist Kye Marshall in 1997 to form the Baker/Marshall duo performing piano and cello improvisational works.Baker/Marshall Duo has 2 CD’s,”In the Moment”, and “Chiarascuro.” Baker is currently working on a new CD with Marshall, numerous compositions, and preparing for concerts. He also has produced a CD with his son, guitarist Aidan Baker and percussionist Alan Bloor called “Terza Rima”. He has also produced 2 solo piano jazz CDs, "I'll Take Romance" and "In the Mood for Spring", produced by Anne Mizen Baker, and "Songs of Offering" recorded on the Bechstein piano at Trinity United Church in Uxbridge where he has been music director since 1984.