PIANO

Toronto-based pianist Cheryl Duvall has established herself as one of Canada’s foremost contemporary music interpreters, immersing herself in a wide variety of compositional aesthetics and collaborative endeavours. Her lucid sense of contour, evocative sonic and emotional presence, and boundless versatility make her both a dynamic soloist and in-demand collaborator. She co-founded the “adventurous and smartly programmed” (Musicworks Magazine) chamber group Thin Edge New Music Collective alongside Ilana Waniuk in 2011. Since their inception, they’ve commissioned over 80+ works, mounting lavish multidisciplinary productions while collaborating with leading performers. TENMC was awarded the 2020 Friends of Canadian Music Award from the Canadian League of Composers and the Canadian Music Centre for being ‘an important musical innovator, working creatively across disciplines with an unwavering commitment to diverse and equitable programming'. In January 2020, she released her debut solo piano album Harbour, a highly acclaimed recording released on the Redshift Record Label featuring the music of Canadian composer, Anna Hostman. Harbour has been featured on the CBC radio and was chosen as the #1 Modern Composition Recording of 2020 by UK's 'The Wire' Magazine and was nominated for a Juno for Classical Composition of the Year. Her next solo album, Intimes exubérances, featuring an hour long piano solo she commissioned by Québécois composer, Patrick Giguère was released in April 2024 on the Redshift record label. . Duvall also regularly performs outside of contemporary music spheres, notably with American violinist Andrew Sords, and is the collaborative pianist of Durham region's Resound Choir.  She operates a full private teaching studio, is a member of the College of Examiners with the Royal Conservatory of Music, and adjudicates piano competitions across Canada. Duvall holds an Honours BMus and Diploma of Chamber Music from Wilfrid Laurier University, and a Master’s of Piano Performance and Pedagogy from University of Toronto.

INSTRUMENTAL

Hugh is an active musician based in Kingston, Ontario.

He is currently conductor of The Kingston Youth Orchestra and The Kingston Community Stringsand an active adjudicator and clinician. As a music educator for over 30 years, and concert band conductor, Hugh directed ensembles in music festivals throughout North America, including performances in prestigious concert halls such as Orchestra Hall Chicago, Carnegie Hall, The Music Center at Strathmore in Washington D.C. and Cadogan Hall in London (U.K.).

As a trumpeter Hugh studied with James Spragg and Robert Oades and has performed in many concert, jazz and brass bands throughout the years. He was a regular additional player with The Kingston Symphony from 1999 to 2013.

During a distinguished career in music education, Hugh was honoured to receive a Juno Award.

in 2012 as Musicounts Teacher of the Year.

VOCAL

Soprano Nathalie Paulin has established herself in the United States, Canada, Europe and the Far East as an interpretive artist of the very first rank. Winner of a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Opera Performance, she is an alumna of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio, and has collaborated with internationally renowned conductors including Harry Christophers, Jane Glover, Michael Christie, Robert Spano, Kent Nagano, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Antony Walker, Bernard Labadie, Sir Roger Norrington, Andrew Parrott, David Agler, Jacques Lacombe, Graeme Jenkins, and Andrew Litton on both the concert platform and in opera. As well, critics have been lavish in their praise. Reviewing in the Chicago Tribune, John van Rhein noted that “Paulin in particular is a real find; her rich, agile voice possesses great depth and allure, her manner radiates sensuous charm,” and for the New York Times, Steve Smith noted that "Paulin [sings] with rich tone and compelling emotion," while Renaud Machart from Paris’ Le Monde writes: “Nathalie Paulin was impeccable in diction, musicality and style.”  Ms. Paulin debuted for L’Opéra de Montréal as Mélisande in Pélléas et Mélisande and for Chicago Opera Theater as Galatea in Acis and Galatea. She was re-engaged by Chicago Opera Theater for the title role in Semele and for Mary in La Resurrezione, both by Handel. She has also been heard as Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro for Cincinnati Opera, and the Dallas Opera featured her in Bizet’s Carmen, Massenet’s Manon and Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen.

Recent and upcoming seasons of the Canadian soprano include Brahms’ Requiem with Victoria Symphony; four of Bach’s Cantatas with Les Violons du Roy (Montréal and Québec); Mahler Symphony #4, with Symphony New Brunswick; the world premiere of L’Orangeraie by Zad Moultaka with Chants Libres (Pauline Vaillancourt - Montréal and Québec); Canadian composer, Zosha di Castri’s Dear Life and Claude Vivier’s Lonely Child for the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa and the extensive European Tour which followed; the title role in Beethoven’s Leonore (1805) for Opera Lafayette (D.C); Vivier’s Lonely Child and Mozart’s Requiem for the Vancouver Symphony; Handel’s Messiah for the Vancouver Chamber Choir; and she curated a programme for Montréal’s Ensemble Arion. Other engagements have included Blow’s Venus and Adonis for Clavecin en Concert, Lonely Child for Symphony Nova Scotia, Goercki’s Symphony No. 3 for the Winnipeg Symphony, and Cherubini’s Stabat Mater for Ottawa’s Thirteen Strings. Of special interest was her rendition of scenes featuring the lead characters from late eighteenth century French operas by Sacchini, Cherubini and Martini for Opera Lafayette in D.C. and New York City, about which critic Jacquelyn Claire writes: “Her Antigone was a strong yet subservient woman, serving the needs of her ailing father. She was sensual and sad as the tragic lover, Sapho, and she was aflame as the unhinged mad mother, Médée.  A triumph of a performance!(…) She was utterly spellbinding.  Bravo!”. Other credits in the USA and Canada include Handel’s Messiah for Portland Baroque, Naples Philharmonic, New Jersey Symphony, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony and the orchestre symphonique de Montréal; Fauré’s Requiem for the Vancouver Symphony; Carmina Burana for Festival de Lanaudière; Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 for the Kingston and Ottawa symphonies; Bach Cantatas for Stratford Summer Music; the title role in Theodora for Vancouver Early Music; the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro for Opera Lyra Ottawa; and Beethoven’s Mass In C with Tafelmusik.

Ms. Paulin is highly regarded for the breadth of her musical curiosity and she has been engaged for works ranging from Canadian composer Jacques Hétu’s Les Clartés de la nuit with the National Arts Centre Orchestra and Handel’s Orlando with Washington Concert Opera to Micaela in Carmen with Opera Tampa to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 for the Seattle Symphony. She has been featured by the Handel and Hayden Society, Cincinnati Opera, Atlanta Symphony, Boston Baroque, Music of the Baroque, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Arizona Opera, Phoenix Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Mercury Baroque and the Colorado Symphony, as well as all the major orchestras and opera companies of Canada. On the festival circuit, she has been heard with the Bard Summerscape in New York State, Wexford Festival in Ireland, the Fredericton Chamber Music Festival, the Elora Festival, Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, and the Scotia Festival in Halifax.

Frequently heard on both the French and English CBC networks, she is a past winner of the Montréal Symphony Competition and holds a Master's Degree from the Université de Montréal. She won the Dvorak prize and has also received awards and prizes from the George London Foundation in New York, the Young Mozart Singers' Competition in Toronto, and the Canadian Music Competition. Nathalie Paulin has been teaching voice as well as French Mélodie for undergraduate students, and Advanced French Lyric Diction for graduate students, at the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto since 2008. She is also the co-director of the University of Toronto’s FCAVA (France Canada Academy of Vocal Arts). Nathalie has also been on faculty at VISI (Vancouver International Song Institute, Canada), Orford Music (Quebec, Canada), the Barachois Summer Music Academy (New Brunswick, Canada) and at the Stratford Summer Music Vocal Academy (Ontario, Canada).

DISCOGRAPHY & DVD:

Antonio Sacchini: “Oedipe a Colone” with Opera Lafayette, Ryan Brown, Director (Naxos)

Félicien David: “Lalla Roukh” with Opera Lafayette, Ryan Brown, Director (Naxos)

Antonio Caldara: “La Conversione di Clodoveo, Re di Francia” with Le Nouvel Opera, Alexander Weimann, Director (ATMA Classique)

Fauré and Duruflé Requiems with the Elora Festival Singers

Beethoven: “Leonore” (1805 version) with Opera Lafayette, Ryan Brown, Director (Naxos)

SPEECH ARTS

Kai Evoy is a local composer and music teacher who instructs his students within a school system and at his home studio. He is a certified Music for Young Children Teacher, and has won many awards both locally and provincially in Piano, Voice, Ensemble, and Speech Arts.

      Since his youth, Kai has performed in many lead roles at the Stirling Festival Theatre and has had the opportunity to direct both his peers and younger youth in stage performances. Needless to say, he feels at home on stage!

Kai has participated in local festivals that have led to provincial competitions where he has earned first place standings. Further, he has received medals of excellence from Conservatory Canada for achieving the top mark in the province on his music theory and performance examinations.

Kai also has volunteered his talents for the last three years with the Quinte Youth Unlimited Music/Drama team as a leader and vocal coach. Additionally, after winning Kid's Got Talent in 2020, Kai was recruited and trained in acting by the Mode Elle agency. Kai has returned each year to the Empire Theatre Kid's Got Talent event to do live tv interviews with the contestants and to be a spokesperson for the wonderful community fundraiser.

      After taking home many top awards in the Speech Arts competitions through the Stirling Festival of Sacred Praise, and being recommended each year for Provincial competition, Kai is thrilled to have the opportunity to give back to the festival by adjudicating in the Speech Arts category.