Adjudicators 2022

Loren Hiebert
Ever since he was a quiet little boy growing up in rural Kansas, Loren Hiebert has felt a close connection to music. The folks in church always sang in four-part harmony, and there was southern gospel music on the record player. A most significant part of Loren’s musical development was his uncle and piano teacher, Glenn Loewen. Since 1980, Loren has been sharing that rich musical relationship with 60-70 piano students a year. Drawing on his active professional life as performer, recording artist, collaborator, and adjudicator, he has been eager to bring his students into that world of vibrant creative experience. Loren has been the accompanist for many individuals and groups. They have included opera singers Andriana Chuchman, Robyn Driedger Klassen, Victor Engbrecht, Philip Ens and Jerome Hines. He has performed and recorded extensively with violinist Rosemary Siemens. Loren improvised the accompaniments on Canzona’s three CD recordings of German hymns. He currently accompanies the Southern Manitoba Choral Society, the Faith and Life Male Choir, and the Central Manitoba Youth Choir. In addition to a university music degree, he holds ARCT diplomas in piano performance and piano teaching. He remains a long-time member of the piano faculty at the International Music Camp. In 2012 Loren received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal for his work with youth choirs, music within the community, and private music instruction. In 2018 he was recognized as a Teacher of Distinction by the Royal Conservatory of Music. Loren and his wife Lori live in Altona.

Katharine Rapoport
Known for her insightful and encouraging style as a festival adjudicator, Katharine Rapoport taught violin and viola performance, string literature and pedagogy as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto for over 25 years. In addition to being an avid chamber musician, she was also a long-time member of Esprit Orchestra, “Canada’s premier orchestra devoted to the performance of new works”. Katharine has adjudicated at competitions and festivals and has given violin and viola masterclasses and workshops across Canada and the US. A Senior Examiner for RCM Examinations, she is regularly invited to speak at conferences. With over 50 publications of Syllabi, playing editions, pedagogical texts, and articles to her credit, she is the author of Violin for Dummies in the popular series published by Wiley’s, now published in its Third Edition. She was the conductor of the RCM Chamber Orchestra and founded the University of Toronto Viola Ensemble. She taught String Methodology at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music for many years, and every summer, she coaches chamber music and performs with the resident string quartet at Basically Quartets in Wales. Her students’ distinctions include winning scholarships to Juilliard, Eastman, and other major music schools in the US and Canada, and first place awards at the Provincial and National levels of the Canadian Federation of Music Festivals. Her former students play with orchestras including the Boston Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra and Tafelmusik, as well as in chamber ensembles in Canada and the US.

Lois Watson-Lyons
Mezzo-Soprano Lois Watson-Lyons began her professional career singing on the CBC Television Program “Hymn-Sing” and as the alto soloist in a performance of Handel’s MESSIAH with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. She has appeared in opera, oratorio and concert performances in Canada and Europe (Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain, Finland). Lois made her operatic debut in Menotti’s THE CONSUL at the Klagenfurt Theatre in Austria and performed the role of Dinah in Bernstein’s opera TROUBLE IN TAHITI in Vienna. Since 1989 she embarked on a long career singing comprimario roles with Manitoba Opera in operas such as LA TRAVIATA, RIGOLETTO, THE BARBER of SEVILLE, SALOME, DIALOGUES of the CARMELITES, NOSFERATU, MACBETH and in the role of Mama Lucia in Mascagni’s CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA. She also toured in the role of the Old Maid in Menotti’s THE OLD MAID and the THIEF. But her favorite role was that of the Witch in HANSEL AND GRETEL with The Little Opera Company. Lois holds an A. Mus. and ARCT in recorder and was a member of both MRMTA and NATS. She was a vocal instructor at the Faculty of Music of the University of Manitoba and at CMBC/CMU for over 25 years. Many of her students have gone on to have their own singing careers. Two favourite ‘claims to fame’ is that she was the First Prize winner in the vocal category after participating in German Lieder master-classes in the inaugural year of the Franz-Schubert-Institut in Baden bei Wien, and that she had the privilege of singing in a performance with Duke Ellington and his band. Watson-Lyons is a frequent adjudicator and workshop clinician.

Dale Wheeler
After teaching piano and a variety of courses at the post-secondary level for over thirty years Dale Wheeler is now enjoying life as an independent musician. Living in Red Deer, Alberta he teaches part-time at Burman University and maintains a small private studio. He is also a senior examiner, clinician, and consultant for The Royal Conservatory of Music and RCM Publishing. He holds a doctorate in piano performance and pedagogy from the University of Oklahoma. He also holds degrees and diplomas from the University of Saskatchewan and Trinity College of Music, London. Dr. Wheeler has appeared as a recitalist, accompanist, adjudicator, and lecturer from coast to coast in Canada and throughout the U.S. For a number of years Dale was a regular columnist for Clavier magazine and has had articles published in the CFMTA Journal, American Music Teacher, and The Journal of the American Liszt Society. When not making music, his interests include water and snow skiing, classic cars, touring on his Harley motorcycle, and collecting vintage piano recordings. He and his wife have twin college-age sons.