2024 Adjudicators

Actor, director, writer, and theatre educator, Robin has spent most of her life in theatre. Robin's career includes the creation and development of several new and unique comic characters, performed across Canada, and the realization of many other contemporary female characters; the foundation and development of a theatre company for young people, designed to foster and promote professional theatre experiences (PRISM Theatre In The Park, and Muskoka StageWorks); teaching theatre performance and production for Nipissing University; building virtual theatre performance experiences for Seniors; and award-winning improvisational theatre coaching and teaching for those 7 – 97 years of age! Winner of four awards for her work, one of Robin's passions is the development of community through theatre and the arts, and participating in the growth and strength that such a community can foster in people of all ages. It takes a village.

Dr Shannon Coates - Speaker | Educator | Maximizer

I am a voice teacher, speaker, and educator who holds three vocal performance degrees from the University of Toronto, culminating in a Doctorate of Musical Arts specializing in Voice Pedagogy. Following nearly two decades of owning and operating a successful independent voice studio in dual urban and suburban demographics (where I taught all singers you find in every voice studio from the six-year old who practices more than the rest of the studio combined, to the chorister who has been singing The Messiah from memory since before you were born, to the teenager who is finding new purpose in life through music, to the singer-songwriter whose poetry makes you weep, to the pro and pro-track performers who want a technique refresh), in 2019, I shifted my focus to working exclusively with voice teachers and to developing training and educational resources specifically for independent teachers. Along with my mentoring role, I regularly contribute to the larger voice teaching community through service to voice associations (most recently as the Past-President of NATS Ontario), presentations at international conferences, and by speaking to associations and teacher groups throughout the world. I enjoy a significant social media presence which I use to curate and distribute information related to voice pedagogy, and to promote and discuss the subjects I am especially passionate about: making teaching best-practices explicit and applicable in the independent voice studio and creating inclusive voice studios. More information can be found on my website: www.shannon-coates.com.

Christopher Foley is a pianist dedicated to the fields of pedagogy, opera, contemporary music, art song, and chamber music. At the Eastman School of Music, he received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 1994, majoring in Piano Accompanying and Chamber Music as a student of Jean Barr and David Burge. He is on the faculty of the Royal Conservatory of Music and serves as a Senior Examiner for the RCM's Certificate Program. Dr. Foley also served as Artistic Consultant for the RCM's Celebration Series recordings and Adjudicator Certification Program Specialist for the Certificate Program.

Highly active as a clinician, recent webinar appearances include The National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, The Frances Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy, The Aspen Music Festival, Collabfest, Tom Lee Music Canada, Trinity Western University, and Millionaire Musician. As author of the Collaborative Piano Blog, he writes about issues of importance to the collaborative pianist, as well as current musical events in Toronto and elsewhere. Recent projects include Foley Music and Arts, a blog about productive creativity in the arts, as well as The Suleika Project, an art song initiative with Edmonton-based mezzo soprano Aliya Amad.

As pianist and repetiteur for Tapestry New Opera, he has been involved with numerous productions, as well as being on the creative team for Tapestry's unique Composer/Librettist and Director/Musical Director laboratories. In 2010 he was the first Leadership Legacy Intern at Tapestry, where he created the Tapestry Songbook program, a workshop and recital program aimed at educating emerging singers and pianists in the new opera development process. Some of the many venues at which he has performed include the Eastman School of Music Faculty Concert Series, the University of Western Ontario, Cleveland State Composers' Forum, Vancouver International New Music Festival, April in Santa Cruz, Sonic Boom, Toronto Arts Week, Word on the Street, Canadian Contemporary Music Workshop, Toronto Dance Theatre, Algoma Fall Festival, and the Gamper Festival of Contemporary Music.

Martha Gregory grew up in Rochester, New York where she studied violin, piano and voice at the Hochstein School of Music,The Eastman School of Music, and Roberts Wesleyan College. Her string studies involved classical and Suzuki methods. In College, she worked at a Major in Music Education and Classical Voice with double minors in Violin and Piano. Marrying in 1974, she moved to Toronto and performed with many orchestras. She also taught for The Toronto District School Board in an out reach programme for strings.

Martha established a private studio in Pickering in 1982 which she still maintains. She is enjoying the challenge of online and live teaching this year. Since her move to Canada, Martha has enjoyed performing, teaching and promoting Canadian music through her work with music festivals across the country.

She has been performing with the Ontario Philharmonic Orchestra for the last 28 years under Marco Parisotto's baton and was principal violinist with the Hamstrings of Durham Trio for 12 years, performing at weddings and corporate events.

Not long ago she was awarded an Ontario Volunteer Service Award for 20 years. Martha has been very involved with music festivals for the last 33 years, including being Past President of the Ontario Music Festival Association and the Ontario representative on the National Board of Governors. In July of 2019 she became the Artistic Director of the Toronto Kiwanis Music Festival, the largest festival of its kind in Canada. She is proud of her local festival that celebrates 24 years this year and will be returning to a live and virtual festival.