Adjudicators 2016

Matt Abraham (Percussion)

A native of Winnipeg Manitoba, Matt Abraham holds a Bachelor of Music (Percussion) and a Bachelor of Education (Music) from the University of Manitoba.  Principal percussion teachers include Jauvon Gilliam (National Symphony Orchestra, Washington) and Jeremy Epp (Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Detroit).  As a freelance performer, Matt has frequently performed as a percussionist with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Manitoba Opera Association.  Matt has worked with many outstanding percussionists, most notably Evelyn Glennie (Scotland), Arnie Lang (New York), Paul Yancich (Cleveland), and Jon Crabiel (Indiana).  In addition to teaching band at Vincent Massey Collegiate in Winnipeg, he has been invited to present guest lectures and work with students at the University of Manitoba, Lakehead University, Canadian Mennonite University, Providence College, and many other schools throughout Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Northwestern Ontario.

Lynn Ewing (Piano Beginner – Grade 4)

Lynn Ewing, a native of Saskatchewan, has taught piano, music theory, and, more recently, singing for many years in Saskatoon.  Of particular note has been her work with special needs students, including visually handicapped students and students with autism spectrum disorder.  Her students have distinguished themselves locally, provincially and nationally as recipients of diplomas, scholarships and competition prizes.  In addition to teaching, Lynn also enjoys performing both as singer and as pianist in a wide variety of settings either as a collaborative artist or as a soloist.  She works as a music adjudicator in western Canada and has examined for Conservatory Canada.  Lynn holds diplomas in piano (ATCL, LTCL ARCT) and singing (ARCT, LTCL, FTCL) from the Royal Conservatory of Music Toronto and Trinity College of London, UK.  She also has a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Saskatchewan and a B.Ed. (Secondary) from the University of British Columbia.  A Past- President of both the Saskatoon Registered Music Teachers’ Association and the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra Board of Directors, Lynn is a passionate advocate for the arts in Saskatoon.  She was pleased to serve for many years as a senator representing the Saskatchewan Registered Music Teachers’ Association in the University of Saskatchewan Senate, and is currently Chair of the Lyell Gustin Memorial Piano Scholarship Competition and Trinity College of London representative.  Lynn has recently stepped into the position of President of the Saskatchewan Registered Music Teachers’ Association (SRMTA) and serves on her local branch executive.  Married to Bill Feldbruegge, she loves attending concerts and family gatherings, performing music and walking on our beautiful riverbank with her German shepherd.

Millie Hildebrand (Choral Groups)

Millie Hildebrand’s love for music and the choral arts was launched on the family farm at Oak Lake, Manitoba, where singing was a daily affair and where piano and guitars were always within reach.  It naturally followed that she and her four sisters formed an ensemble, and they sing together to this day.  At the age of fifteen, Millie was allowed the privilege of attending the Mennonite Collegiate Institute where, under the tutelage of Henry Engbrecht, choir soon became her favourite part of the day.  A university education in Winnipeg and Windsor, Ontario provided the means to carry out her dream to become a music educator.  Now familiar to Manitoba’s music community as a teacher, choral director, voice instructor and festival adjudicator, Millie has taught classroom and choral music at all levels and has been active in implementing programs for young musicians in her local community of Steinbach and throughout the province.  These have included collaborations with the University of Manitoba, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the International Peace Gardens Music Camps, regional and provincial honour choirs, numerous choir tours, many musicals and a two-year teaching post in Bucharest, Romania.  Going back “a few years”, Millie’s performance history includes productions with Manitoba Opera, Winnipeg Mennonite Theatre, the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus and Canzona, to name a few.  She is completing her seventh year as director of the Faith and Life Women’s Chorus.  Millie is often seen sharing the podium with husband Ed, with whom she co-conducted the University of Manitoba Concert Choir for four years.  When away from their music posts, Millie and Ed occupy themselves with family interests and with their “bucket list”, traveling at home and abroad, most recently cycling the Danube and walking the Camino del Norte in Spain.

Irene Ilic (Vocal 8, 10, 12 & 14 years and under)

Soprano Irene Ilic earned her Masters Degree in Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music and has performed a variety of operatic and musical theatre roles in the U.S. and in Canada.  She has been a guest soloist with many Canadian choirs and orchestras.  Irene currently has a thriving private teaching practice in Newmarket, Ontario.  She is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS). the Ontario Registered Music Teachers’ Association (ORMTA) and the Canadian Music Festival Adjudicators’ Association (CMFAA).  She has adjudicated many music festivals, and is the founder of, and since 1996, the director of the Newmarket Voice Festival.  Ms. Ilic is very proud that her students have starred in the Toronto productions of Billy Elliot, Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, The Lion King, Mamma Mia and The Lord of the Rings, as well as in several productions of Opera Atelier.  Fifteen of her students have won the Silver (now Gold) medal for the highest mark in Ontario for Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) voice exams, most recently in 2015 for the grade ten level.

Linda Kundert-Stoll (Piano Grade 9 – Honours)

Linda Kundert-Stoll holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance (Magna Cum Laude) from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and a Master of Music in Piano Performance from the University of Calgary.  She also has an Associate Teacher’s Diploma in Piano from the Mount Royal University Conservatory and an ARCT Piano Teacher’s Diploma from The Royal Conservatory of Music.  For three summers, she attended the Banff School of Fine Arts as a scholarship student.  Ms. Kundert-Stoll’s performance experience includes recordings for CBC radio and giving solo and chamber recitals both in Canada and the United States.  Her primary teachers were Peter Turner, Priscilla King, Willard Schultz, James Bonn, Adam Wibrowski and Charles Foreman.  Ms. Kundert-Stoll is a member of the Senior College of Examiners for the Royal Conservatory of Music, and is the Co-Founder, President and Artistic Director of the Calgary Arts Summer School Association (CASSA).  Ms. Kundert-Stoll is actively involved in many music teachers’ associations and received the Alberta Registered Music Teachers’ Association (ARMTA) Recognition Award in 2006 and the Canadian Federation of Music Teachers’ Association (CFMTA) Hugheen Ferguson Teacher of Distinction Award in 2011.  She was Chair of the CFMTA “Peak Performance” Conference in 2005.  Ms. Kundert-Stoll has been a successful independent studio teacher for over thirty years.  She joined the Mount Royal University Conservatory teaching team in 2014.  She taught at Ambrose University in Calgary in 2009 and 2013, and she was a Mount Royal College Branch Teacher in the 1980’s.  She worked as a piano coach for Musicamrose from 1993 to 1996, and was an accompanist for the Elaine Case voice studio.  In addition, she worked as a reviewer and editor for the Frederick Harris Music Company.  Many of her former students are professional musicians. Her students win many local competitive festival classes; they regularly compete in the Calgary Concerto Competition, have performed with the Civic and Calgary Arts Orchestra, and consistently go to the national finals of the CMC.  Her students often win awards for highest marks, including RCM gold medals, and have been finalists in the Honens Pro Am Competition and the CFMTA National Piano Competition.  Two students performed in New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in 2011.  Her students have also excelled in composition, taking prizes at the local and provincial music festivals, and in the CFMTA, ARMTA, and APTA composition competitions.  Ms. Kundert-Stoll is an experienced adjudicator and workshop clinician.  For fun, she likes to ride horseback and plays slow pitch on a ladies’ team in Okotoks, Alberta.

Joan Linklater (School Orff, Recorder and Handbells)

Joan Linklater holds a B.Mus. from Brandon University, an M.Mus. from the University of Michigan, an ARCT in piano performance from the Royal Conservatory of Toronto, and Orff Certification from the University of Denver.  She is currently an assistant professor of music and chair of the music education committee at the Desautels Faculty of Music at the University of Manitoba.  She teaches courses in elementary music education and Musical Style & Structure and is the coordinator of the University of Manitoba’s highly respected Orff Certification Program.  As a past president of Carl Orff Canada she recently made a presentation on the history of Carl Orff Canada at an international forum on Orff Schulwerk in Salzburg, Austria.  In her work, Joan communicates the joy of music making with students in Kindergarten to grade five through careful presentation of Orff pedagogy and process, using movement, singing, speech, improvisation, recorder and listening.  She believes that through the Orff approach teachers can enrich their students’ lives and help them develop their full potential as musicians and global citizens.

Paul Madryga (Classical Guitar and Guitar Orchestras)

Paul Madryga’s academic credentials include a Bachelor of Music degree from Brandon University and a Masters degree in Classical Guitar Performance from Brisbane, Australia's Queensland Conservatorium.  Some of Paul’s past performance highlights include two short periods of intensive study with American pedagogue Bruce Holzman, and masterclass sessions with the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Leo Brouwer, Ricardo Cobo, Lily Afshar, the Sydney Guitar Trio, Denis Azabagic, Stephen Robinson, Kevin Gallagher, Daniel Bolshoy, and Australian composer Philip Houghton.  In 2010, he released his second solo CD, Tone Colour Paintbrush.  Paul’s work at the EGCM includes one-on-one teaching in the Suzuki and traditional environments, Suzuki Guitar group class instruction, the EGCM Guitar Ensemble Program, and professorial duties as the applied instructor for classical guitar at Brandon University and director of the BU Guitar Ensemble.

Rennie Regehr (Strings and Chamber Groups)

Rennie Regehr began his professional career with the Winnipeg Symphony and Manitoba Chamber Orchestra.  His career has taken him throughout Canada and abroad as orchestra musician, soloist and chamber musician.  He is currently the Principal Violist of the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra.  From 1992-2006 Mr. Regehr was the Dean of the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory in Toronto.  In that role he developed an internationally renowned orchestral program, that has trained many of Canada’s finest professional musicians and solo artists.  In addition to performing and teaching Mr. Regehr is an active conductor.  While at the RCM he was the artistic director and resident conductor of the orchestras of the Glenn Gould School and the Young Artists Performance Academy.  Since joining the University of Ottawa music faculty in 2006, Mr. Regehr has been the Principal Guest Conductor of the University Orchestra.  As a teacher, Mr. Regehr follows a tradition of great Canadian string mentors.  Himself, a student of Gerald Stanick, he continues that level of teaching and has taught some of Canadian’s outstanding violists who have gone on to study in major international graduate programs and win positions in many North American orchestras.  He has adjudicated many competitions and festivals, the finals of the Canadian Music Competition, as well as serving on numerous grant assessment committees for the Canada Council.  He is presently the Viola Professor at the University of Ottawa where he is also the Director of the Chamber Music Program.  In 2012 he received the Canadian Viola Society's Lifetime Achievement Award.

Henriette Schellenberg (Vocal Grades C, B, A and Adult)

Winnipeg soprano Henriette Schellenberg has enjoyed an international concert and oratorio career, and has worked with renowned conductors such as Charles Dutoit, Robert Shaw, Zubin Mehta, Andrew Davis, Seiji Ozawa, Helmut Rilling, Ivars Taurins, and Bernard Labadis, in Europe, Israel, the Far East, and throughout North America.  In Canada she regularly performed with orchestras from Victoria to Halifax, including the Winnipeg Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Tafelmusik, and Vancouver Symphony.  Her discography includes works with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Bach Choir of Bethlehem, CBC Vancouver Orchestra, and several CBC recordings: “The Gift of Messiah”, Britten’s “Les Illuminations” with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra (which received a Juno nomination), and a Clara Schumann CD with Irmgard Baerg.  She is sought after as a juror, adjudicator and masterclass teacher across Canada, and was Assistant Professor of Music (now Emeritus) at Canadian Mennonite University for 15 years, teaching voice, lyric diction and vocal pedagogy.  Before that she taught voice at University of Manitoba, Concord College, Canadian Mennonite Bible College, and maintained a private studio in Winnipeg.  Ms. Schellenberg received her music training in Winnipeg as a pianist and singer at the University of Manitoba, studying with Sylvia McDonald and Garth Beckett, and at the Nordwestdeutsche Musik Akademie in Germany with Theodore Lindenbaum and Gunther Weissenborn.  She studied piano, voice and opera, and sang in Germany for 8 years before returning to Canada to establish her singing and teaching career.  She was a member of the Manitoba Registered Music Teachers’ Association, as well as a founding and executive member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing since the establishment of the Manitoba branch.  Henriette lives in Kleefeld, a small rural town outside of Winnipeg, with her husband, conductor Rudy Schellenberg. They have 2 daughters, a son-in-law and 2 grandchildren, who live and sing happily in Vancouver.

Margot Sim (Pipe Organ)

Margot Sim enjoys multi-tasking as an organist, conductor, teacher, adjudicator, and clinician.  She holds Associate Performance diplomas (ARCT) in Organ, Piano and Voice from the Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto). Margot has been an organist for over 30 years with positions at several Winnipeg churches: Elim Chapel, St. Mary’s Anglican, Crescent Fort Rouge United, and Grace Bible Church (where she has been Minister of Music since 1992).  She considers it a privilege to have studied with her mother, nationally acclaimed organist Winnifred Sim.  Margot has taught organ at Providence College and loves adjudicating because of the opportunity to encourage musicians of all ages and levels of ability.  Margot has been a member of the Manitoba Registered Music Teachers’ Association since 1988 and serves on the Board of Directors of the Winnipeg Music Festival.

Derek Stoll (Woodwinds, Brass and Chamber Groups) 

Derek Stoll obtained a Bachelor of Music degree in Composition from the University of Calgary.  He has composed works for concert band, jazz band, small ensembles and solo instruments.  Mr. Stoll has traveled extensively with show bands throughout Canada, the US and Japan.  He studied jazz and brass performance at the Banff Centre.  He has taught science and music in the BC school system, and was the Director of Musicamrose (Alberta Summer Music Workshop Association) from 1989 to 1995.  He has recently lectured at Boston University, and is a consultant for Conservatory Canada’s new Contemporary idioms syllabus.  He teaches jazz piano at Mount Royal College in Calgary and is currently active as a clinician, adjudicator, and composer.  He is active in Alberta’s music scene, and is a Board Member of the Calgary Arts Summer School, Calgary Musicians Association, and the Classic Aircraft Collection and Restoration Society.  He is a co-founder of Alberta Musician Development Workshops.