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BIOGRAPHIES
MUSICIANS:
Joanna Ciapka-Sangster
A native of Poland, Joanna received her Masters Degree in Music Performance from the Academy of Music in Poznan where she studied violin with Bartosz Bryta. After graduation Joanna toured throughout Europe and Egypt performing with various Polish orchestras including the State Philharmonic Orchestra in Poznan, Baltic State Symphony Orchestra in Gdansk, Pagart Polish Performing Arts Agency in Warsaw and Polska Filharmonia Kameralna Chamber Orchestra in Sopot. During this time she performed with such renowned conductors as Jerzy Maksymiuk, Woiciech Michniewski, Woiciech Rajski and Krzysztof Penderecki.
In 1992 Joanna relocated to Edmonton becoming a faculty member of the Society for Talent Education and of various orchestras. Joanna joined the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra as a core player in 1994, after winning a 1st violin chair at the international audition. In 1995 she also became a member of the Alberta Baroque Ensemble. She has been a member of numerous other ensembles including The Arden Ensemble, ECHO, Pro Coro Orchestra, the Polish Folk Arts Ensemble "Polonez" and La Belle Epoque Trio, The Warszynski Trio.
As a soloist, Joanna has performed with the ESO, Alberta Baroque Ensemble and Concordia College Orchestra. Her firstlove is playing in chamber groups and in 2005, together with her
husband jazz composer and saxophonist Kent Sangster, founded Obsessions Octet. In 2006, the octet released its debut CD Obsession to rave reviews. Obsession was nominated for a 2007
JUNO Award in the Contemporary Jazz Category and was awarded the Western Canadian Music Outstanding Jazz Recording of the Year Award. In the fall of 2009, the Obsessions Octet recorded their second CD Melodia which was nominated for the Western Canadian Music Award 2010. Their third record STEPPIN'UP was released in 2016 to great reviews and few
nominations to different Awards. In October of 2012 the Obsessions Octet made it's Carnegie Hall debut in NYC to absolutely outstanding reviews. In the summers of 2014 and 2017 the group completed very successful tours to Europe and in June of 2016 octet represented Alberta at the Rochester International Jazz Festival in "Oh Canada!" Series. The concert was recorded by PBS Public Television. More information about the octet can be found at: www.obsessionsoctet.com
Joanna also plays in Obsessions String Quartet. For many years she has been very active in the Polish Culture Society of Edmonton (TKP). In 2008 Joanna joined the TKP Board of Directors and became the Society's President in 2010. The Society elected Joanna as the Artistic Director of Chopin 2010 Celebration Committee in Alberta. In 2013 she has been elected by ESO musicians to join the Board of Directors of Edmonton Symphony Society and Winspear Centre for Music.
As a hobby, Joanna hosted Music Corner on CJSR 88.5 FM's Polish Radio Program "Katedra Klasyki" (since 2004) and from May 2021 she is the main host of the entire Polish language program on that frequency called Nasze Radio Canada 88.5FM.Tune in……every Sunday at 6pm.
Amy Nicholson holds an undergraduate music degree from Hannover Music and Theater School in Germany. She toured and performed in Germany and Poland with the German Chamber Academy, and Molte Chorde String Quartet. Returning home to Alberta she completed her Masters of Music degree as Tanya Prochaszka’s teaching assistant at the University of Alberta. Awards include a cello loan from the Fritz Behrens Stiftung, a 1864 Jaques-Pière Thibout cello (2001-2004), Jacques Bombardier SSHRC Scholarship (2008), Harriet Winspear Snowball award (2007), Canadian Federation of University Women award (2009) and a University of Alberta Doctoral Recruitment award (2009). Currently Amy performs with the Valkyrie String Quartet at the Candlelight Concert Series in Edmonton. As a freelance artist she enjoys performing with local groups such the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Edmonton, Dave Babcock Jazz ensemble, String Beans Quartet and the John Cameron Changing lives foundation Orchestra. She is active as a recording studio artist and is a sessional cello instructor for Concordia University.
Tatiana Warszynski, a native of Poland and a graduate of the Academy of Music in Gdansk, where she obtained her Master in Music, has been a violinist with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra since 1984. She has participated in many International Summer Master Classes in Poland and has performed with the Von Karajan Chamber Orchestra and the Festival Symphony Orchestra (Berlin, Germany), the Chamber Music Orchestra (Gdansk, Poland), the Gdansk Philharmonic Orchestra (Poland), and the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra (Germany). Tatiana has been an ardent supporter of Canadian composers, whose works she has commissioned, premiered and performed over the years. She participated in the Edmonton and the Saskatchewan New Music Festivals as well as performed in chamber music and solo recital appearances in Edmonton and around Canada. In years 2007-09 Tatiana served as a concertmaster of the Edmonton Chamber Players, an orchestra that predominantly performed contemporary Canadian music. Tatiana is also a member of the Warszynski Trio, which was founded to commission and play Canadian and international contemporary works and which released their first CD “Devil’s Dance” in February 2009. Mrs. Warszynski is also a founding member of the Mazurka Music and Art Society, an organization dedicated to the promotion and production of classical and contemporary music as well as visual art projects. In December 2012, Tatiana and her son Mikolaj Warszynski performed together as soloists with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra at the Winspear Centre. She stays active as a performer in recitals and chamber music concerts in Edmonton and Alberta. Recently she performed a solo piece The Shape of Things by Erin
Rogers with the ESO on the Winspear Stage at the New Music Concert. Tatiana and her husband, Tadeusz, a visual artist and printmaker, have four children and live in Edmonton, Alberta. Tatiana’s new CD - The Shape of Things, New Music for violin solo on PGMaudio label was produced in 2020 with support of Alberta Foundation for the Arts and Edmonton Arts Council.
The ZUMI piano duo (also known as Warszynski-Simurdova Piano Duo) was established in 2007 in Montreal featuring Mikolaj Warszynski and Zuzana Simurdova – both concert pianists are versatile performers who enjoy playing a wide range of genres, as well as offering a unique alternative approach to traditional presentation. In addition to performing piano duo for four-hands and two pianos, they enjoy alternating solo repertoire and/or chamber music.
Since inception, ZUMI duo has been regularly featured in the performance of music by contemporary composers. In 2007, they gave the Canadian premiere of Claude Vivier’s Disintegration for two pianos, at the Theatre de la Gésu in Montreal, as part of the Serie Hommage of the Société de musique contemporaine du Quebec. In 2009, they made their debut recital in Poland, during the prestigious contemporary music festival Swietokrzyskie Dni Muzyczne, held annually in the philharmonic hall in the city of Kielce. In 2010, the Duo actively promoted the music of Chopin in a series of multimedia concerts on the occasion of the 200th Anniversary of the composer’s birth, produced by Mazurka Music and Art & Chopin2010 Alberta.
The Duo has since went on to perform 2 Canadian Tours (2011 & 2015), China Tours (2015 & 2017), and 4 European Tours (2013, 2014, 2019, 2020).In March 2017, the ZUMI duo performed at New Music Edmonton’s ‘Hear This Now’ festival with works by Canadian and contemporary composers commissioned for performance either on two pianos or four-hands. In Poland, ZUMI has opened for the Chopin on the Motława River concert cycle in Gdańsk; performed at the Iwaszkiewicz Muzeum and the Canadian Embassy in Warsaw; with the Kielce Philharmonic in Poulenc’s Two Piano Concerto. In Czech Republic, they were invited to perform at the Janacek Hukvaldy Festival, at the Janacek Academy in Brno; in Paris at the Société Historique et Literaire polonaise; in Vienna at the Alten Rathaus. The ZUMI duo has performed in Canada, France, Poland, Austria, Czech Republic, Italy, South Korea, and China. ZUMI duo became Laureates of Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris in 2014. Please visit each of the artists’ websites for more information on their individual piano careers:
COMPOSERS:
A native of Western Canada, Ron Hannah was born in 1945 in Saskatchewan, and currently lives in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. After obtaining a B.Sc. in Chemistry in 1969, he studied composition at the University of Alberta with Violet Archer, Malcolm Forsyth and Manus Sasonkin, obtaining a Master of Music degree in 1975.
Hannah is the founding president of the Edmonton Composers' Concert Society and co-founder of the Edmonton New Music Festival, one of Western Canada's premier showcases for new music. He is an affiliate of the Canadian Music Centre and a member of SOCAN and the Canadian League of Composers. His works have been performed in Canada, the U.S. and Europe, and appear on ARKTOS, CLEF Records, and Eclectra labels.
He also has several string quartet arrangements of pop music on four Vitamin Label albums: The String Quartet Tribute to REM, The String Quartet Tribute to Led Zeppelin, Strung Out on U2 and Strung Out on Jagged Little Pill. Several of his works have been published by Grace Under Press (Toronto), Conners Publications (USA), and Concertino Musikverlag (Germany).
There are some 80 works in his catalogue, ranging from short choral and piano pieces to song cycles, trios, sonatas, quartets, electronic music, an opera, music for string orchestra and symphony orchestra, and two full- length ballets. He has written for the theatre, the concert stage, has produced a soundtrack for a CBC documentary (Lady From the Past), and has received commissions from the Alberta Choral Federation, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, among others. Current projects include a large piano work, a symphony, and a one-woman opera based on the writings of Emily Carr.
His music is stylistically varied, and it borrows freely from all traditions from folk to avant-garde, and while struggling to be unique and challenging, always is cognisant of music's primary directive, which is to communicate with an audience. His website, at http://www.connect.ab.ca/~cent4lit/ron has a complete and searchable listing of works and some lively and entertaining essays and reviews.
Joan Hansen was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, in 1941 and grew up in Mission, B.C. After attaining her B.A., Hansen continued her music studies at UBC, majoring in piano and in composition with Jean Coulthard. Later, having attained her Pb teaching certificate for graduates (UVIC Ed.) she taught in Vancouver and North Vancouver schools. On returning to Victoria she attained an AVCM and taught both private and class composition and 20th-Century music courses at the Victoria Conservatory of Music, and started the composition classes at VCM summer school, now held at UVIC Piano Summer School.
In 1979 Hansen was included in the World Who's Who of Women for "distinguished achievement as a composer, adjudicator and clinician."
Joan Hansen's published piano music includes the Music of Our Time series co-composed with Jean Coulthard and David Duke, pub. Waterloo; Two Sundances, the CFMTA Diamond Jubilee Collection, pub. Waterloo and recorded in the Glen Gould studio, Toronto, produced by CBC; Variations on a Theme by Murray Adaskin, co-composed with Imant Raminsh, Dale Reubart, Lorna Paterson, Ernst Schneider, Patrick Godfrey and Stephen Chatman, pub. Victoria Piano Summer School and available through CMC; and Whisper Time, a collection of 18 elementary and intermediate piano solos, pub. Waterloo, 2004.
Scott Edward Godin (born 1970) began his musical training on piano at the University of Alberta, completing in 1993 a Bachelor of Music Degree with Helmut Brauss. By winning the Johann Strauss competition in 1993, Scott was able to study in Vienna, Austria with internationally renowned pianist Paul Badura-Skoda in 1993 and 1994. He completed a Doctoral Degree in Musical Composition in June 2003 with John Rea at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. Scott's music has been performed throughout Europe, Canada, and the United States. Scott has worked with various ensembles and soloists, including la Société de la Musique Contemporaine du Québec (Montréal, Québec), ensemble de ereprijs (Apeldoorn, Holland), the Little Chamber Music Series...(Vancouver, British Columbia), KORE ensemble (Montréal), Orkest De Volharding (Amsterdam, Holland), Trio Fibonacci (Montreal), Continuum (Toronto), Arraymusic (Toronto), and the Bozzini String Quartet (Montréal).
Jarosław Gołembiowski stands out among composers for his motivation, as evidenced by the joy emanating from the accomplished performers of his music: Adam Golka, May Phang, Penderecki String Quartet, and the Lincolnwood Chamber Orchestra (LCO), among others. His commissioned compositions capture the spirit of extraordinary events like the Battle of Vienna (Gloria for mixed choir, 2004), and the Warsaw Uprising (Zdrowaś Mario [Ave Maria] for soprano, piano or organ, 1994). Other works resonate equally with traditional (B.A.C.H., variations for piano solo, Sonata alla Scarlatti for piano) and experimental forms and techniques (The Last 8:42, 1984, for magnetic tape) and Op. 100 for piano, 2004. His writing can translates the passing of time into sounds (Music for Hours for piano, 2011), and everyday life events into peaceful musical miniatures (Piano Games, 12 Preludes, 1983). His compositions influenced by folk motifs and religious inspiration were expressed in the 2016 performance of the Highlanders’ Dance (2016) and the Christmas Spectacular Medley 2016 with the LCO. Since 2014, his collaboration with the LCO inspired new compositions and arrangements for the orchestra.
Canadian composer and multimedia performer Piotr Grella-Możejko holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Alberta and an M.Mus. in Composition from the same university. Described by the German press as demonstrating “uncompromising honesty” («Neue Zeitschrift für Musik»), praised for its unorthodox aesthetics and compared to John Cage and Eric Satie («Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung»), called “brawny, high-contrast… full of rich counterpoint and compelling textural changes” («The New York Times»), “strikingly individual” («The Toronto Star»), and “wonderful-sounding” («The Buffalo News»), Grella-Możejko’s music has been commissioned, played and recorded in Canada and thirty-seven other countries on five continents. His work in multimedia has gained international recognition, as have his soundtracks. Grella-Możejko has worked with a number of critically acclaimed filmmakers and video artists, as well as dance companies.
Shane Krepakevich was born in St. Pierre-Jolys, Manitoba in 1979, but was raised in the country south of Edmonton, Alberta from the age of one. After finishing high school, he acquired an honours undergraduate degree in geology from the University of Alberta where, apart from general studies, he completed an experimentally-based undergraduate thesis examining the dissolution/growth of Diamond within Kimberlite melt at high pressures and temperatures. Predominantly self-taught in music, he studied classical guitar at the Grant MacEwan Community College in Edmonton, and took courses in composition and theory at the University of Alberta. Since his graduation from the University of Alberta, he has worked as a freelance abstract painter and as a geologist in Newfoundland, the Northwest Territories, and at the Universities of Alberta and British Columbia. Shane is firmly dedicated to an intuitive approach to composition based in musical, artistic, and scientific modes of thought. In short. Shane is an Edmonton based composer, improviser, visual artist and sometimes geologist. His favourite colour combination is currently ‘white with cadmium red light.'
Born in Tunbridge Wells in 1994, Frederick Viner studied composition at the University of York (BA 2016) and at the University of Oxford (MSt 2017). Having recently completed his tenure as Eton College Composer in Residence, he is now studying towards a PhD at the University of York as a WRoCAH scholar.
Viner’s music has received many accolades. In 2015, whilst an undergraduate at the University of York, his Bagatelle won the Ebor Organ Prize and was published by Banks in the Ebor Organ Album – Seven Pieces for Seven Decades. In 2016 Viner was awarded first prize in the Royal Northern Sinfonia’s Mozart’s of Tomorrow competition for Sleeping Gomatz, which the judging panel described as ‘ravishing’ and ‘constantly engaging’.
After graduating from York with distinction, he was appointed Artist in Residence with Sage Gateshead’s Young Sinfonia and was also commissioned to write the closing piece for the Brundibár Arts Festival. In 2017, during his time in Oxford, Viner won first prize in William Howard’s Love Song Composing Competition with Herz an Herz, chosen from 152 compositions submitted anonymously from 61 countries. In 2017 he was also awarded The Henfrey Composition Prize for Bells Wrung, as well as the prestigious National Centre for Early Music Young Composers Award for Prayer from Afar, which was performed at Bridgewater Hall by the Tallis Scholars and broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
In 2018 he was commissioned by Choir & Organ Magazine, Orchestra for the Earth, Borough New Music, Northern Praeclassica and pianist Jakob Fichert. In 2019 his music was performed by the Royal Tunbridge Wells Symphony Orchestra, the Chapel Choir of Selwyn College, the Gromoglasova Piano Duo and internationally renowned organist David Goode. In 2020 he was awarded the STR Music Composition Prize (sponsored by Sean Rourke) for his piece The Annunciation, as well as the LeFanu Composition Prize for his Etude I: Mirie it is.
Between 2020-21, his recent piano work ‘Something She’d Like’ was performed worldwide – in the UK, Germany, Turkey, Austria and Thailand – by world-class pianists including Paul Barton and Vadim Chaimovich.
VISUAL ARTISTS:
Brenda Malkinson is a Canadian artist working across disciplines to create contemporary stained glass, and woodblock prints. She is a recipient of the 2013 Edmonton Artists Trust Fund Award; 2018 Alberta University of the Arts Alumni Legacy Award; 2019 Eldon & Anne Foote Edmonton Visual Arts Prize, shortlist award.;2017 Chicago Printmakers Third Annual International Print Making Award, shortlist award; 2016 Alberta Foundation for the Arts Travel Grant.
Malkinson taught Art and Design for the University of Alberta, Faculty of Extension for twenty- three years, as well as workshops and retreats at, Red Deer College and throughout
Canada. Malkinson's glasswork has been published in several glass journals and the book Canadian Contemporary Stained glass, as well as reviewed in many periodicals and magazines. Recent exhibitions of her print work include International Print Exhibition, Canada and Japan, Kyoto, Japan
She has served on the Board of Directors for the Alberta Craft Council and Society of Northern Alberta Print Artists and volunteered her knowledge, skills, and time to schools and not-for-profit organizations as a mentor, as well as facilitating several stained-glass projects with students and the community. She has organized several local glass exhibitions and events including a lecture and exhibition at the Royal Alberta Museum in 1986, hosting Johannes Schreiter, German glass master. She has been a guest speaker and juror for numerous arts organizations and mentor for emerging and established artists. She is a member of the Alberta Craft Council and the Glass Art Association of Canada.
Art Statement
My work is a synthesis of elements influenced by nature, light and colour. I make work that is lives on the surfaces of wood, paper, and glass. I often work in series forming a body of work that becomes an abstract language of time when being faced with an unlimited and continuous stream of imbedded moments. My prints grow from multiple hand carved Baltic birch plates. I use lithography inks and intuitive inking methods while alternating the order of the plates resulting four to twelve layers pressed into the surface of the paper. The repetition of the plates and altering of the colour and transparency creates a sensation of elements floating forward and backwards, in and out of focus, continually shifting and changing. this intuitive process became a kind of conversation between the environment, the materials and me. What would often start in one direction would change as the layers talked with each other. The first layers remain and act as evidence of what was present just a moment ago and the transform into a memory that fades into the background.
Brenda Philp is a fibre artist who employs felting, beading, stitching, and other techniques to create fresh, fun, and uplifting visual and wearable art. Her free-spirited, melodious, and unabashedly happy work is influenced by a lifelong love of music. She embraces the power of colour, composition, and texture as a means to stretch and expand the expressive potential of the fibre arts medium and is relentless in her search for new learning opportunities and unique materials to work with. Practical by nature, her art process makes use of recycled objects, natural materials, and ingenuity to create and promote beauty.
Tatiana Walentynowicz (Peet)
Tatiana has been an Art Therapist and Psychotherapist in private practice for the last twelve years, with a regular studio art practice. Tatiana has formal training in Dance Performance and Composition, in addition to graduate level Art Therapy training at St. Stephen’s College in Edmonton. Tatiana has led numerous creative workshops, retreats, and trainings for professionals wishing to utilize visual art and creative process in their particular disciplines. She has taught Art Therapy at the undergraduate, graduate, and professional levels for many years. Tatiana is excited to show some of her visual art publicly for the first time.
Tadeusz Warszynski was born in 1955 in Poland. He was studying music from early age, eventually receiving his Master of Music Degree in percussion instruments from the Gdansk Academy of Music in 1980.
In 1982 he moved with his family to Edmonton, Canada. Here he was able to pursue his ongoing interest with visual art. He received his Master of Fine Arts in Printmaking from University of Alberta, Edmonton in 1996. His works were shown in galleries in USA, Germany, France, Poland, South Korea, Japan and Turkey; among many others across Canada. He lives with his wife Tatiana Warszynski (they have four children) and works in his printmaking studio in Edmonton, Alberta. Since 1993-2021 he was involved in teaching art as a sessional instructor in printmaking at U of A.