Choirs
Elise Bradley – Toronto ON
Early and Middle Years School Choirs
This season marks Elise Bradley’s fifth year as Artistic Director of the Toronto Children’s Chorus. Ms. Bradley came to the position from her role as Head of Department, Music at Westlake Girls’ High School in Auckland, New Zealand. In demand both in New Zealand and internationally as a conductor, adjudicator and clinician, she was also a soloist in New Zealand and a member of New Zealand’s national chamber choir, TOWER Voices NZ.
In 2005, Ms. Bradley's school choir, Key Cygnetures, won the City of Vienna prize at the Internationales Jugendmusikfest in Vienna, Austria, competing against choirs and orchestras from around the world. Ms. Bradley led the Key Cygnetures Choir of New Zealand one last time to win the Award of the City of Vienna at the 2008 Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival. Ms. Bradley also served as Musical Director of the New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir, which won several awards at the International Kathaumixw in Powell River, British Columbia, in 2004 and won Champion of the Youth Choir section at the World Choral Games in Xiamen, China in 2006. In the same year, the New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir also won the World Choir Award at the Hong Kong International Youth and Children’s Choirs Competition, and Key Cygnetures won the Platinum Award for most outstanding secondary school choir in New Zealand at their national competition, The Big Sing.
Since arriving in Toronto in 2007, Ms. Bradley has garnered praise for her artistry and for her deep commitment to children and the art of treble choral music. She has not only developed a challenging annual concert series and prepared the Toronto Children's Chorus to perform with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Bach Consort and Soundstreams Canada, but has also continued the legacy of the Chorus, leading its annual School Choir Invitational Festival as well as the Toronto District School Board's Choral Project, originally established in cooperation with Founder and Conductor Laureate Jean Ashworth Bartle to provide professional development for music teachers.
In the summer of 2009, Ms. Bradley and the Touring Choir spent two weeks in Austria, the Czech Republic and Germany, performing with the Vienna Boys Choir at the 9th World Choral Festival at Vienna's celebrated Musikverein concert hall and also at the Haydn Hall in Eisenstadt, at Bach's St. Thomas Church in Leipzig and at the Berlin Dom. In November 2009, the Toronto Children's Chorus had the honour of performing with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in Benjamin Britten's War Requiem under the baton of Conductor Peter Oundjian and, in January 2010, with Krzysztof Penderecki and Soundstreams Canada.
During its 2010-2011 season, the Chorus performed three concerts with the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra and, this past summer, took part in the Melodia Festival in Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires and was one of only twenty-five choirs invited to participate in the 9th World Choral Symposium in Puerto Madryn, Argentina. In September, the Chorus was honoured to perform at two concerts marking the launch of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's 90th Anniversary season, singing the premiere of Larysa Kuzmenko's Behold the Night, specially commissioned for choir and orchestra by the Symphony, and William Walton's Henry V, featuring narrator Christopher Plummer.
Scott Leithead – Edmonton AB
Senior Years (Secondary) School Choirs
and Community and Church Choirs
Kokopelli's artistic director, Scott Leithead, B.Mus. is the founder of the Kokopelli and TIME Jazz Associations. . Scott is in demand as a clinician, guest director, and evaluator at events in North America, Europe and Africa. He has conducted provincial/state honour choirs in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, British Columbia and Montana. Scott has a passion for music from southern Africa and he has been hired to work with choirs in South Africa and Namibia on numerous occasions. In 2008/09, Scott was on sabbatical in Namibia, where he worked with the Mascato Youth Choir and numerous other choirs in southern Africa. Scott’s passion for innovative and unique choral music experiences has shaped the direction of the Kokopelli Choir Association and was the founder of Òran as the alumni ensemble for the Kokopelli Youth Choir.
This season Scott has been invited to conduct the Saskatchewan and New Brunswick Youth Choirs for the second time. On July 1st, he will lead the Unisong National Choir Festival on Canada Day with the National Arts Orchestra. In addition he will be presenting at Festival 500 in Newfoundland as a festival clinician and he will adjudicate the Ontario Vocal Festival, the Vancouver Kiwanis Festival, and the Edmonton Cantando Festival. He will be presenting major concerts with the Amabile Choirs in London Ontario, The Bach Children's Choirs of Guelph, The Toronto Children's Choir, The Hamilton Children's Choir, and The High Park Children's Choirs. He is also looking forward to conducting a summer program in Naramata BC in August 2011. He has been invited to work with ensembles and institutions in 9 provinces this year, as well as in the United States, the Cayman Islands, Thailand, and in Africa.
Eugene Rogers – St. Paul MN, USA
Senior Years (Secondary) School Choirs
and Community and Church Choirs
Dr. Eugene Rogers is the Associate Director of Choirs at the University of Michigan, where he teaches undergraduate conducting and conducts the Men's Glee Club and the University Choir. His past appointments include Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the Boys Choir of Harlem, Waubonsie Valley High School in Aurora, Illinois, and Anima Young Singers of Greater Chicago (formerly the Glen Ellyn Children's Choir). At Macalester College, where he served as Director of Choral Activities, Rogers commissioned and premiered numerous new works and began the Songs of the Earth (World Music) Concert Series.
Professor Rogers has appeared as guest conductor, adjudicator and lecturer in over fifteen states as well as Canada, Singapore, England, Portugal, Hong Kong and Italy. Recently, he was one of three featured conductors and lecturers for Singapore's Ministry Branch of Education Inaugural World Youth Choir Festival for Secondary and Junior College students and directors. His guest appearances include: the Westminster Chamber Choir, Florence, Italy and Princeton, New Jersey; Choral Music Experience, London, England; the Interscholastic Association of Southeast Asia High Schools Biennial Music Festival, Singapore; the Oklahoma State University Choral Festival, Stillwater, Oklahoma; the Florida ACDA High School Mixed Honor Choir, the Salem, Oregon All-City Honor Choir; the Virginia Music Educators Association District X SATB High School Festival Chorus; the Alabama Middle School All-State Choir; the Illinois ACDA Summer Conference; and the American Choral Directors Association North Central Division Middle School Honor Choir. Upcoming engagements include Chorus America 2011 San Francisco Conference, 2012 Oregon All-State Mixed Choir, Vocalizze Youth Program in Lisbon and Cape Verde Islands, and the British Columbia Honor Choir.
As a singer, Rogers has performed with the World Youth Choir, The Portland Symphonic Choir, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra Chorale and the May Festival Chorus in Cincinnati, Ohio. Recently, he traveled to and studied the choral traditions of East Africa (Tanzania), and published three editions of Tanzanian Choral Music under the Hal Leonard World Music Series.
In addition to his duties as a conductor, teacher and singer, Dr. Rogers is the Artistic Director of the Disneyland Hong Kong Winter Choral Festival, and serves on the board of Early Music America, IMUKA, LLC, and the American Composers Forum, where he functions as editor for the ChoralQuest series.
John William Trotter – Vancouver BC
Senior Years (Secondary) School Choirs
and Community and Church Choirs
John William Trotter is a rapidly rising conductor on today’s concert music stage. His work from the podium has been recognized internationally through numerous prizes, grants, and guest conducting invitations, leading to opportunities to conduct more than a dozen professional choirs and orchestras throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.
Trotter holds a Doctoral degree in Conducting from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), the top ranked program in the United States. He was awarded honours from the American Choral Directors Association and the Canada Council for the Arts before joining the Vancouver Chamber Choir, Canada’s most active professional choir, as Assistant Conductor in 2009. To date, he has conducted the ensemble in more than twenty-five performances in Taiwan, Japan, and across Canada.
A versatile artist, Mr. Trotter’s current activities range from traditional choral/orchestral repertoire, new music, jazz, and film score recording to work as a consultant, clinician, conducting teacher, writer, speaker, and composer/arranger.
Vocal Jazz
Julia Dollison – Berkeley CA, USA
Vocal Jazz
Julia Dollison has been described as "richly imaginative" (Wall Street Journal), "rare, fresh and substantive" (JazzTimes), "sizzling, illuminating" (DownBeat) and "breathtaking" (Sacramento Bee) since the release of her debut CD "Obsevatory" in 2005. Julia currently teaches applied voice at Sacramento State, where she coordinates the DownBeat Student Music Award-winning vocal jazz solo and ensemble program with her husband, Kerry Marsh. Dollison also teaches privately at the Jazzschool Institute in Berkeley, CA and serves as a Monterey Jazz Festival vocal jazz traveling/touring clinician and summer jazz camp faculty member. She has most recently performed with The Maria Schneider Orchestra, Dianne Reeves, Imogen Heap and Ben Folds with the Boston Pops, Dallas and National Symphony Orchestras. Julia can also be heard on radio and films including "Stepford Wives", "The Corpse Bride" and the Academy award-winning "Vera Drake."
Kerry Marsh – Berkeley CA, USA
Vocal Jazz
Kerry Marsh is an active vocal jazz arranger and clinician. Marsh released his debut CD with Julia Dollison, "Vertical Voices: The Music of Maria Schneider" on the ArtistShare label in 2010 to great critical praise. He has directed the vocal jazz program at Sacramento State University since 2003 and in that time, his students and ensembles have earned eleven DownBeat Student Music Awards. Marsh works alongside indie-pop recording artist Ben Folds as choirmaster in performances with major symphony orchestras throughout the country. Kerry holds a B.M.E. from the University of Kansas and an M.M. from the University of North Texas.
Stuart Sladden – Winnipeg MB
Vocal Jazz
Stuart Sladden has been teaching and performing in the Toronto area since 1996. His love of music began in high school where he was exposed to a wide variety of musical performance. During that time he studied both trumpet and voice, and it was his affinity for jazz that eventually led him to pursue a post secondary education in vocal jazz performance. He studied for a year at Humber College and transferred to the University of Toronto where he graduated with his Bachelor of Music in Performance, in 2002.
Since graduating from University, Stuart has been in demand throughout the GTA as a private instructor, freelance musician, clinician, and church musician, including most recently: working as the Music Director and Organist for Eden United Church in Mississauga, the Music Director of Oasis Vocal Jazz Ensemble, a community jazz choir from the Toronto area celebrating it’s 25th season this year, the Assistant Conductor of Pax Christi Chorale as well as a member of the Pax Christi Chamber Choir.
Stuart has recently made the move from Toronto to Winnipeg to begin graduate studies at the University of Manitoba in Choral Conducting.
