Teachers of Distinction Awards

CALGARY

Colleen Athparia
Colleen Athparia is an internationally recognized pianist, musical educator and recording artist with ten CDs. A faculty member of Mount Royal University Conservatory and University of Calgary, as well as a Senior Examiner for the Royal Conservatory of Music since 1980, she has toured as a performer and guest educator from Mexico to Taiwan, Russia, India and the Far East. Her background includes a Master of Music degree with Distinction from Indiana University, as well as receiving the Ontario Gold Medal and placing first in the Canadian Music Competition. Heralded by the National Post as one of the top four Canadian pianists of contemporary music today, she was among the top 50 esteemed performers and conductors honoured in Ottawa for her significant contribution to the Canadian Music Scene over the past 50 years. Her studio features many extremely talented students, two of whom have been listed in CBC’s top 30 classical musicians under 30. In 2015 she was nominated to the Order of Canada.

Sandra (Alexandra) Munn
Alexandra Munn studied at the Julliard School of Music. Her career includes many summers at the Banff Centre as Opera Coach, Academy of Singing, and as one of the founding faculty of the Musical Theatre Division. She has performed as soloist, assisting artist, and host for regional and national programs for CBC Radio/TV and CTV. She has also served as music festival adjudicator form Victoria to Charlottetown to Yellowknife. Alexandra is honoured to be a member of Edmonton’s Cultural Hall of Fame, Y.W.C.A. Woman of the Year in the Arts, a recipient of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal, and the Alberta Music Education Foundation 2012 Recognition Award. A Professor Emerita, University of Alberta, she is faculty member of Alberta College Conservatory of Music, Grant MacEwan University.

TORONTO

Marietta Orlov
Marietta Orlov studied in her native Romania with the renowned teacher Florica Musicescu (teacher of Dinu Lipatti and Radu Lupu) and graduated from the Faculty of Music in Bucharest with a BM in Performance and Master’s Degree in Performance. Starting at the age of 16, she was active as a soloist for 10 years, and she had the honour of being appointed Romanian State soloist. Over the course of Ms. Orlov’s career, she has participated in numerous concert tours across Europe and North America, most notably the Prague Spring Festival and Bromsgrove (England) Festival, among others. Ms. Orlov currently resides in Canada and is a dedicated teacher, renowned for fostering some of Canada’s most promising young musicians. She is a member of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music and The Royal Conservatory of Music’s Glenn Gould School, and has presented master classes across North America.
 

VANCOUVER

Keiko Parker
Keiko Parker is a much-admired theory teacher who has taught generations of students from a classroom in her Burnaby home. Among her students were internationally acclaimed pianists Jon Kimura Parker and Jamie Parker, who have praised their mother for the many hours spent listening to them practice, and for teaching them everything they know about music theory.

CALGARY

Linda Kundert-Stoll
Linda Kundert-Stoll has been a private music teacher for 30 years and has been on the faculty at Mt. Royal University since 2014. She is an active adjudicator and has adjudicated at most festivals throughout western Canada. Ms Kundert-Stoll is a senior member of the RCM College of Examiners, and is an active member of many music teacher associations. She 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. Many of her former students have gone on to be prominent musicians, including two who performed at Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center in 2011.

Elaine Case
Elaine Higgin Case is a third generation singing teacher who has devoted her life to musical education. Her fifty year teaching career began under the watchful eye of her mother and father who were prominent in the musical life of Calgary. Highlights of her career include founding the Mt. Royal Vocal Academy where she served as Artistic Director, adjudicating music festivals throughout western Canada, chairing the Rozsa national voice competition and mentoring voice teachers through vocal pedagogy classes. She has served as President of the Calgary Registered Music Teachers Association and as Regional Governor of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Her students have gone forward in international careers in opera and in musical theatre. Elaine is married to Allen and together they enjoy their two daughters with their husbands and four lively grandsons.

TORONTO

Linda Fletcher
Linda Fletcher has taught voice and piano privately for over 40 years and has been Music Director at Walton United Church for 35 years. Her students have won many provincial and international awards and numerous RCM Silver and Gold Medals. Linda has adjudicated major music festivals across Canada and is co-founder and President of the Oakville Vocal Arts Festival. She was a featured composer in the 2002 Canadian Composer’s Calendar. In 2006, Linda received the Pauline McGibbon Lifetime Achievement in the Arts award and in 2012, the ORMTA Special Teacher award. Linda was part of the creative team for the 2012 RCM Voice series. Some of her songs are included in the syllabus.

Judy Hunter
Judy Hunter has influenced countless students, teachers, and fellow musicians in Milton and surrounding communities. She has been an active participant in all musical activities in and around Milton and particularly as the founder of organizations central to the local musical community: the Milton Choristers and the Milton Music Teachers’ Association. Judy taught music at Milton District High School and Mohawk College and was organist and choir director at St. Paul’s United Church for 40 years. Judy presently teaches piano at McMaster University, plays cello in the Milton Philharmonic Orchestra and continues to maintain a longstanding voice and piano studio from her home.