Glen Montgomery
Glen Montgomery has led a most diverse life musically succeeding to maintain a dynamic performing career while establishing a reputation as one of Canada's most successful teachers over the past decades. From Australia to Iceland, the USA and Russia, Montgomery has played over 30 concertos with major orchestras, collaborated with artists such as Lynn Harrell, Nina Beilina, James Campbell, Joel Quarrington, Frances Ginzer, Paul Brodie, James Somerville, John de Lancie, Jose Luis Garcia and countless others, and recorded for CBC, PBS, Belarus TV and Radio and Analekta.
Professor Montgomery over the years was on faculty at the Banff Centre, University of Ottawa, and University of Lethbridge (26 years) and is now on faculty at the Conservatory of Music at Mount Royal University as Distinguished Teacher in Piano and Chamber Music. His extensive list of highly successful students includes: Magdalena von Eccher, Stephen Nguyen, Carlos Foggin, Sarah Hagen, Vivian Lou, Kyuyoung Park and Jan Lisiecki. He has coached outstanding instrumentalists: Arnold Choi, Nikki Chooi, Annalee Patipatankoon and many others. Equally, Mr. Montgomery delights in the careers of his students who continue to cherish music, while prospering in medicine, engineering, law, education, journalism, etc. His students have ranged in age from three to 87 and he continues to value teaching people of all experiences who simply seek beauty and awakening through the discovery of music.
In the past several years Glen Montgomery has also developed a fine reputation as a composer, writing works for choir, solo piano, and chamber music. His major composition, Masques of Canada, premiered at the 2017 Festival of the Sound with a world-class ensemble.
Joanne Kolomyjec
Artistry of the highest order and inspired portrayals have secured soprano Joanne Kolomyjec an enviable reputation in the world of opera. Her highly acclaimed performances of Tatiana in Eugene Onegin, the title roles in Tosca and Jenufa, and Marguerite in Faust, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Magda Sorel in The Consul have thrilled audiences and critics alike in Canada, USA and Great Britain. A graduate with distinction of the University of Toronto’s Opera School and of its Bachelor of Music in Performance, Ms. Kolomyjec went on to be a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Competition (1983). She has been hailed as a stylish and elegant Mozartean, and has portrayed the Countess and Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, as well as Donna Elvira and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, and Fiordiligi in Cosi fan Tutti. Other prominent roles include Violetta in La Traviata, Mimi in La Boheme, Agathe in Der Freischutz, Micaela in Carmen, Madame Lidoine and Blanche in Les Dialogues des Carmelites, Lia in L’Enfant Prodigue, Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus and Anna Glawari in The Merry Widow, Alice Ford in Verdi's masterpiece Falstaff, and her first venture into Wagner with Freia in Das Rheingold. Ms. Kolomyjec has sung with all the major opera companies in Canada, and in the US with Santa Fe Opera, Florentine Opera, Portland Opera, Utah Opera, Arizona Opera.
Ms. Kolomyjec has also appeared regularly as a guest artist with major symphony orchestras across Canada and the USA. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in a concert performance of Strauss’ Daphne with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Other performances have included Mahler’s Symphonies nos. 2, 4 and 8, Handel’s Messiah, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Chausson’s Poeme de L’Amour et de la Mer, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and Egmont (Overture and Incidental Music), the Mozart Requiem, Bruckner’s Te Deum, Vaughn-Williams’ Sea Symphony, the Strauss Four Last Songs, Gorecki's Symphony No. 3, Fauré’s Requiem, Zemlinsky’s Lyrische Symphony, the Poulenc Gloria , Stravinsky’s Les Noces and the Shostokovich Symphony No. 14. As well, her extensive work singing del Tredici’s Alice in Wonderland cycle and selected works from the above with the National Ballet of Canada brought her to Pacific Opera in Orange County, California, San Diego Opera and the English National Opera. She has worked with world renowned conductors Sir Andrew Davis, Jakov Kreizburg, Charles Dutoit, Julius Rudel, Bramwell Tovey, Anton Coppola, Franco Manino, Mario Bernardi, Kazuyoshi Akiyama, Kenneth Montgomery, Simon Streatfield, Franz Allers, Imre Pallo, Seymyon Vekshtein, Gunther Herbig, Joseph Rescigno, Boris Brott, David Agler, Cal Stewart-Kellogg, Daniel Lipton, Bernard Labadie, Grzegorz Nowak, Uri Mayer, Victor Feldbrill, Raffi Armenian, Daniel Beckwith, Richard Bradshaw, George Manahan, Gabor Otvos, Thomas Fulton, Eugene Kohn, Michel Tabachnik, Sergiu Comissiona and Yoav Talmi.
Ms. Kolomyjec has also excelled as a recital and did a Canadian tour with Richard Margison in the Yukon. She also performed a program of Russian songs with renowned pianist Janina Fialkowska, which then was released as a critically acclaimed CD entitled "None But The Lonely Heart". Other recordings include 'Song to the Moon' with Mario Bernardi and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and 'A Night in Vienna' with the Kitchener Waterloo Symphony and Raffi Armenian. An exponent of contemporary music as well, Ms. Kolomyjec has recorded Shostakovich’s cycle of chamber songs, Romanzen Suite, and songs by the Canadian composers Oscar Morawetz, Sonnets of the Portuguese, and an orchestral cycle entitled Cantiones Mysticae by Godfrey Ridout.
Ms. Kolomyjec was on faculty at Memorial University of Newfoundland and at the University of Ottawa in Ontario. She is presently in her 17th year on the voice faculty at the Schulich School of Music, McGill University in Montreal Quebec, where she was presented with the 2013/2014 Teacher of the Year Award. As well Ms. Kolomyjec has presented many master classes at music faculties across Canada, has been on the voice faculty and audition panel for Opera NUOVA in the summers and been a jurist on panels for a number of competitions, including Jeunesse Musicale, Ontario Arts Council, National Music Competition, Kiwanis Music Festivals and the Canadian Music Competition, as well as for the Juno awards and Canada Council grants.