2010 Festival Adjudicators

Cynthia Myers - Musical Theatre

Cynthia Myers, vocalist, actor and writer, has performed in clubs with various jazz combos in both Canada and the U.S. In Victoria, she was a featured vocalist at Pagliacci's and worked with both the Al Pease Quartet and the Big Band Trio. She was the bandleader and featured performer in The White Guys weekly cabaret at the Belfry Theatre. In the San Francisco Bay area Cynthia was a member of the Reel Blondes Cabaret in Danville and has an on-going gig with her combo Jazzette at Kelly's of Alameda. As well as their work as a traditional jazz group focusing on the standards of the 30's, 40's and 50's, Cynthia and Jazzette have collaborated on several shows - Little Shop of Horrors, Suds (The Musical), Twelfth Night, Smokey Joe’s Cafe and For All We Know.

Cynthia's favorite theatrical roles include: Mrs. Meers in Thoroughly Modern Millie, Dot in Sunday in the Park with George, Reno Sweeny in Anything Goes, Lola in Damn Yankees, Sally in Cabaret; By Jupiter, Too Many Girls, 50 Million Frenchmen, and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes with The 42nd Street Moon theatre in San Francisco; Parallel Lives, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Little Shop of Horrors, and Twelfth Night with Townhall Theatre in Lafayette. Cynthia worked with the Valley Shakespeare Company as the Queen in Cymbeline, and will be featured this January as Queen Aggravain in Pleasanton Playhouse’s Once Upon a Mattress.

Cynthia is a five-time veteran of the fringe festival having worked both in the Victoria and the Seattle festivals. Her work ranges from the one woman show Straight Ahead, to the dope-smoking villainess Mae in the musical adaptation of the film Reefer Madness.

Currently Cynthia is writing for children. Her adaptations of Where the Wild Things Are, Ferdinand, and My Fine Feathered Friend are geared for non readers ages 4-6. A 2003 multidisciplinary adaptation of The Pearl with her acting students using dance, dialogue, puppetry, and original music, has led to further work with young actors currently adapting George McDonald’s The Golden Key. Cynthia and Jazzette are just finishing up their long-awaited CD.

Janice Alcorn - Pop & Jazz/Blues

Janice Alcorn is a resident of New Glasgow Nova Scotia. Presently, she teaches grade 10 - 12 music and the grade ten dance courses at North Nova Education Centre in Pictou County. She also maintains a private vocal studio in her home. At NNEC she directs the concert choir as well as the senior jazz choir and an octet. Her groups have all been successful in achieving top awards at many festivals and competitions and her choirs have been featured at Nova Scotia Music Educators Conferences. Janice has also worked as choreographer and music director for many school productions, and taught church youth choirs and community adult choirs. She has been head of the jazz vocal department at the Acadia summer music camp for the past eleven years and is currently the vocal director of the High School Provincial Honours Jazz bands and choir.

As a performer Janice has a very diverse background. She has been church soloist and has been featured soloist on many occasions on such works as the Rutter’s Requiem, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Faure’s Requiem and Handel’s Messiah. She has also performed in a variety of other situations including musical theater productions, dance bands, studio work, rhythm and blues bands and jazz combos. Janice is a versatile performer who is comfortable singing almost any style and passes this experience on to her students.

Janice is in demand as an adjudicator and workshop presenter. She has presented several times at the Nova Scotia Music Educators Conference and has adjudicated throughout the Maritime region. Janice enjoys sharing her love of music with others through her adjudicating. Janice and her husband Andrew both teach music at NNEC, and they have three daughters who are also involved in the music business as performers and teachers, and one grand daughter who is a budding musician herself!

Paula Rockwell - Voice

Paula Rockwell, mezzo soprano, has been acclaimed for her "astonishing clarity and musical intelligence." Her career has taken her across Canada to England, Japan and the United States, performing with orchestras, giving recitals and instructing.

Paula has an affinity for contemporary music and has released a solo CD, which she co-produced, featuring 20th century Art Songs entitled Fleeting Melodies. The Halifax Herald said..." a repertoire such as this is both unusual and challenging and Rockwell with her beautiful, clear, ringing voice meets their technical demands with assurance and precision." She also has been featured on several recordings, Scott MacMillan’s The Celtic Mass for the Sea, 1st Baptist Church Choir’s Sing Lullaby under the direction of the late David MacDonald and has had compositions written for her. One of England’s foremost composers, Jonathon Willcocks, wrote a piece for Paula that she debuted at the Green Lake Festival of Music in Wisconsin entitled Mayhem!! The misfortune of Miss Maisy Murgatroyd.

Paula has taken on several operatic roles since graduating from University of Toronto working with the Canadian Opera Company, Toronto’s Opera in Concert, Vancouver Opera, Tidal Opera (to which she is a co-founder ) and with Orchestre Baroque de Montreal. Paula has been a regular soloist with Symphony Nova Scotia and the Chorus of Westerly in Rhode Island where she made her American debut singing Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody. She is heard every summer at the Sir David Willcocks Choral Symposium in Lyman, NH, giving master classes and concerts.

Since returning to Nova Scotia, where she lives with her husband and three daughters, Paula has become part of the music faculty at Acadia University, her alma mater. She created and directed Acadia’s Singing Theatre Production entitled "DaPonte’s Operas" highlighting Mozart’s three great operas he collaborated on with the librettist Lorenzo DaPonte. Her 2008 production project was entitled "Broadway through the Ages" and featured well-loved musical theatre repertoire old and new plus original monologues.

Other performances have included John Rutter’s Mass of the Children with the Chorus of Westerly, RI, Bach’s B Minor Mass with The Peterborough Singers in Ontario as well as a 3 city tour with the New Brunswick Symphony of well-loved Broadway tunes entitled "Broadway Spectacular", a three province tour with "Three Maritime Divas", Mahler’s Rückert Lieder with the York Symphony Orchestra, Ontario and a Brahms Concert Tour with fellow musicians Jennifer King and Isabelle Fournier.

Last September, Paula performed a recital/masterclass weekend in Hartford, CT for the AGO (American Guild of Organists), performed Vaughan Williams’ Hodie with The Chorus of Westerly, Westerly, RI, last November and adjudicated the Toronto Kiwanis Music Festival this past February. In May 2009, Paula performed the role of Baba the Turk in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress with Opera Nova Scotia. Paula will be returning to Rhode Island to perform in Mozart’s Mass in C Minor in November. In 2010 she will be performing a Spanish Concert at The Music Room, Halifax as well as the role of Dulcine in ONS’s concert production of Massenet’s Don Quiotte and Donna Elvira with Maritime Concert Opera’s production of Don Giovanni in June.

Hannah Parks - Junior Piano

Hannah Parks holds a Master of Music degree in piano performance from the University of Ottawa and a Bachelor of Music degree from Acadia University, where she also received the University Medal in Music.

Her experience as a collaborative pianist is extensive and diverse, including performances at the Canadian Leadership Awards at the National Gallery of Canada, as orchestral keyboardist with the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, as rehearsal and performance accompanist with the University of Ottawa Opera Workshop, and as a guest artist in the Octagon Chamber Series on Cape Breton Island. This past summer Hannah studied and performed at the Elora Festival Academy held in Elora Ontario, working with renowned collaborative pianist and vocal coach Leslie De’Ath.

As a soloist, Hannah has performed in master classes with Anton Kuerti, Janina Fialkowska, Nelson Delle-Vigne, Stéphane Lemelin, Dalton Baldwin, and Jean-Paul Sevilla. She represented Nova Scotia at the 2005 Canadian Music Competition national finals in Edmonton Alberta, and was piano finalist in the 2006 University of Ottawa Concerto Competition. Principal teachers have been Peter Allen, Ronald Tomarelli, and Andrew Tunis.

Currently, Hannah works as accompanist for well known Halifax women’s choir The Aeolian Singers, with whom she has toured throughout the Maritime Provinces, and released a new cd entitled Where I Live. She has composed, performed and recorded in partnership with local singer/songwriter Rose Vaughan, Brookfield cellist Anne Davison, and has recently embarked on a new recital partnership with soprano Susan Dworkin.

Hannah has been teaching piano in both group and private settings for ten years, in Halifax, at Acadia University, and in Elementary schools throughout the Halifax Regional Municipality with the MusIQ Club program. In September 2009 she re-located to Liverpool Nova Scotia, where she now operates a busy private piano studio.

Jennifer King - Senior Piano

Pianist Jennifer King holds degrees from McGill University (M. Mus. in solo piano) and Acadia University. While living in England for eight years, she also received a diploma with distinction in Music Teaching in Private Practice from the University of Reading’s International Centre for Research in Music Education, and a postgraduate diploma in Piano Accompaniment from the Royal Academy of Music in London. Jennifer attended the Britten Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies; the Hereford International Music School (UK) and Kneisal Hall Chamber Music School (USA).

A winner of many scholarships, including two Nova Scotia Talent Trust Awards, Jennifer was recently given an award of appreciation from Nova Scotia’s Lieutenant Governor in recognition of her contribution to musical life in the province. Currently Jennifer works at Acadia’s School of Music as faculty accompanist and is a part time faculty member teaching a course in piano accompaniment. She has been the pianist for the Young Artists’ master classes at Scotia Festival of Music since 2004. She is also in demand as an adjudicator for many of the music festivals within the province, can be heard as a part time member of Rhapsody Quintet, a pianist for Walt Music entertainment agency, on CBC radio, Bravo’s Bathroom Divas and an occasional harmonium/celeste/piano player for Symphony Nova Scotia.

Jennifer continues to perform as a chamber musician and has played in many of Nova Scotia’s concert series including the inaugural season of the Marigold Cultural Centre, Truro, two recitals for Music at the Three Churches Summer Concerts in Mahone Bay, six concerts for Sundays in the Garden Room, Wolfville, Musique Saint-Bernard, and two concerts in the sixth season of The Music Room Chamber Music Society. Jennifer has also played harpsichord for The Kemp Singers and Opera Nova Scotia’s performances of Idomeneo. Jennifer lives in Halifax, has two children and is married to a veterinarian. This year's performances include concerts in the UPEI recital series, Music Room Series, U de Moncton recital series and The Garden Room at Acadia University.

Eric Favaro - Choral

Dr. Eric Favaro is respected nationally and internationally as an innovator and advocate for effective programs in Arts Education in Canada. Trained as a music educator, Eric began his career with the Calgary Catholic School Board where he was lead teacher in music at the Fine Arts Centre for Staff Development, and later a classroom music teacher in schools throughout the board. Upon returning to Cape Breton, Eric taught elementary classroom and instrumental music, and later became the Coordinator of Arts Education for the Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School Board. He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in music education at the University of Calgary, University of Lethbridge, St. Francis Xavier University and Cape Breton University.

Eric has served on many provincial, national and international boards, including terms as President of NSMEA, President of CMEA, and a Board member of ISME. Recently retired as Arts Education Consultant with the Nova Scotia Department of Education, Eric is in demand as a clinician and workshop leader. He publishes frequently and continues to work on curriculum committees and other projects through provincial Ministries of Education and agencies with the federal government.

Mark Hopkins - Band

A native of Toronto, Mark Hopkins earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the New England Conservatory while serving as Assistant to Frank L. Battisti, and was awarded the Gunther Schuller Medal at graduation. Dr. Hopkins taught music in high schools for twelve years, including seven years service as Chair of the Music Department at Upper Canada College in Toronto. He is Founding Music Director (Emeritus) of the Toronto Wind Orchestra and the Alberta Winds, freelance professional wind ensembles in Toronto and Calgary. Dr. Hopkins lectured and conducted the Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, and Choirs at Hanover College in Indiana. From 2002-2005 he taught a variety of courses and conducted ensembles at the University of Calgary in Alberta. In Calgary he conducted the Symphonic Band and the Wind Ensemble, coordinated chamber ensembles, was Artistic Director of the 2005 New Music Festival, and was Coordinator and Instructor of the University of Calgary Summer Wind Conducting Symposium.

Dr. Hopkins brings a rich understanding and experience with adult community bands in Canada. He was Principal Conductor of the Hamilton Concert Band, and led the Northdale Concert Band in Toronto for seven years. A respected trumpet player, Dr. Hopkins served as Principal Trumpet of the Mississauga Symphony Orchestra for 12 seasons, and was very active as a free-lance trumpet performer within the greater Toronto area.

Currently, Dr. Hopkins is an Assistant Professor in the School of Music at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. He is responsible for overseeing the Music Education area, teaching conducting, and is Director of Wind Studies at Acadia University. He is founding Director and lecturer of the Acadia University Summer Wind Conducting Symposium. In addition to his academic duties, Dr. Hopkins is much in demand as a guest conductor and music education consultant. He is Artistic Director (Emeritus) and Principal Conductor of the Land’s End Chamber Ensemble, one of Calgary’s premiere new music ensembles. This virtuosic group won a Western Canada Music Award in 2005 for their first disc, Four Degrees of Freedom. In 2003 Dr. Hopkins was appointed Associate Conductor of the National Concert Band of Canada, a role he shares with Dr. Jeremy Brown. He travels throughout North America, adjudicating festivals and guest conducting orchestras and wind ensembles. In Canada, Dr. Hopkins has led honour bands in British Columbia, Alberta Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Quebec. Abroad, he has led collegiate and professional performances in the United States, Bermuda, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Italy, Switzerland, and Romania.