2024 Adjudicators
Each year, the Kingston Kiwanis Music Festival seeks to find exceptional musicians from outside of our region to adjudicate our festival.
The adjudicators we invite have extensive experience in music education and typically have many years experience as adjudicators, examiners, clinicians, or educators in a public or private setting.
Katherine Dowling
Junior Piano
Praised by the New York Times for her “crystalline performances, gestural expressiveness, and careful attention to color”, and by the Boston Globe for her “effortless incisiveness”, award-winning “tour-de- force” (OpusKlassiek, Berkshire Eagle) pianist Katherine Dowling performs across North America and Europe as a soloist and chamber musician.
Katherine is familiar to audiences as an artist-in-residence at the Orlando Festival (Netherlands) and a resident fellow of the Avaloch Farm Music Institute (USA); as a multi-year fellow of the Tanglewood Music Center, a New Fromm Fellow, a Britten-Pears Young Artist, an International Musicians’ Seminar at Prussia Cove artist; through extensive involvement and numerous positions at The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity; and through multiple national tours under the auspices of the Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition.
She treasures her many collaborative relationships, most especially recital partner Catherine Cosbey (Cavani String Quartet), with whom she is co-director of the Regina Chamber Music Festival. As a soloist, and as a member of the chamber ensemble Gruppo Montebello, Katherine appears on eight critically acclaimed recordings on the Etcetera label. Her performances have been broadcast on the CBC (Canada), Radio-Canada, BBC (United Kingdom), and National Radio 4 (Netherlands). Recent highlights include joining Angela Hewitt and Silvie Cheng in W.A.Mozart’s Triple Concerto at Ottawa Chamberfest; her Vienna recital debut; several tours with violinist Kerry DuWors for Prairie Debut; a recording of the piano works of Alice Ping-Yee Ho(Canada Council for the Arts, Explore and Create); and appearing with the Regina Symphony Orchestra in Florence Price’s Piano Concerto.
In addition to her performing activities, Katherine is Assistant Professor of Classical Piano Performance at York University, having formerly served as Assistant Professor of Piano Performance at the University of Regina. She is also on faculty at The Phil and Eli Taylor Academy for Young Artists (Royal Conservatory of Music); duo526 Sonata Seminar (Indiana University Jacobs School of Music); and the European Summer Course for Chamber Music(Netherlands). She has served on the jury for the National Finals of the Canadian Music Competition, enjoys adjudicating at both the regional and provincial levels, and teaches master classes and workshops across Canada every season. She credits her own teacher, celebrated American pianist Gilbert Kalish, and conductors Henk Guittart and Oliver Knussen,as the major influences in her musical life. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts (Performance) degree from Stony Brook University (New York).
Katherine Dowling
Doctor of Musical Arts, Stony Brook University (New York)
Marlene Finn
Senior Piano
A native of Ottawa, Marlene Finn earned her Doctor of Musical Arts in Performance from the Université de Montréal. An active teacher and adjudicator, Marlene is a faculty member at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec in Gatineau where she has been serving as Professor of Piano since 1987. Her duties have also included teaching music and piano literature, collaborative piano as well as coaching chamber music ensembles. Prior to her position at the Conservatoire, she also taught at Queen’s University in Kingston and at the Université de Montréal. A highly appreciated pedagogue, she is regularly invited to give master classes and adjudicate competitions and exams across Canada. Many of her students have been the recipients of prestigious awards and scholarships and have been accepted in the finest music schools in the United States and in Europe.
Her piano teachers have included Dr. Natalie Pépin and the late Yvonne Hubert in Montreal as well as Martin Canin in New York. Over the years, she has participated in numerous master classes, workshops, and piano seminars in the United States and in Europe where she had the opportunity of studying with Paul Badura-Skoda, Jorg Demus, Leon Fleisher, Bela Siki and Menahem Pressler, among others.
Marlene has performed as a soloist, collaborative pianist and chamber musician in Canada, the United States and in Europe and has been heard on CBC and the SRC. Since 2001, she especially enjoys her collaboration with pianist and colleague Pierre-Richard Aubin. They perform four-hand and two piano repertoire, including transcriptions of major orchestral works.
Marlene Finn
PhD Musical Arts in Performance
Amanda Brunk
Voice and Choirs
Amanda Brunk is a PAVA-Recognized Vocologist (Pan American Vocology Association) and Designated Linklater Teacher specializing in contemporary voice technique and voice habilitation. Amanda teaches voice for singers at Wilfrid Laurier University and periodically coaches actors at Sheridan College/University of Toronto. She also maintains a successful private studio in Waterloo, Ontario. Her voice students have gone on to perform throughout Canada, on North American tours and in Broadway shows. As conductor of the Grand Philharmonic Youth Choir for eight years, Amanda led the choir to win competitions nationally and internationally, and to perform with grammy-winning recording artists and rock groups.
An enthusiastic advocate for the education and inspiration of young artists, she was the Founder and Music Director of the Music Theatre Academy at Laurier, an intensive three-week performance program for pre-professional emerging artists. Amanda is also the Founder and Artistic Director of The Singer’s Theatre, a summer music theatre training program that attracts singers from across North America since 2002 and has served as vocal director for various cruise lines. She is the proud recipient of two Professional Development Grants from the Canada Council for the Arts.
Amanda adjudicates regularly for classical, choral, pop and music theatre categories. from coast to coast. She is vice-president of the Ontario chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and is a published author for the NATS Journal of Singing and VASTA Voice and Speech Review.
Amanda Brunk (she/her), MA, BMus
PAVA-Recognized Vocologist
NATS (Vice-President, Ontario)
PAVA, VASTA, ORMTA, CMFAA
Martha Gregory
Strings
Martha Gregory was born in Rochester, New York where she studied violin, piano and voice at the Hochstein School of Music, The Eastman School of Music, and Roberts Wesleyan College. She did a major in Music Education and Classical Voice with double minors in Violin and Piano. Her string studies involved classical and Suzuki methods. After moving to Canada in 1974, she continued her voice studies with Megan Rutledge at the Royal Conservatory of Music. She also taught for The Toronto District School Board in an outreach program for strings in Cabbagetown schools. In 1982 she established a private studio in Pickering, Ontario that she still maintains.
Since her move to Canada, Martha has enjoyed performing, teaching, and promoting Canadian music through her work with music festivals. She has been an active freelance performer in classical voice, music theatre, violin and piano; has performed with the Ontario Philharmonic Orchestra for the past 28 years and was the principal violinist with the Hamstrings of Durham Trio for 12 years.
Martha has been involved with music festivals for the last 31 years and has been Executive Director of the Pickering GTA Music Festival for 24 years. In July of 2019 she became the Artistic Director of the Toronto Kiwanis Music Festival, the largest festival of its kind in Canada. She is Past President of the Ontario Music Festivals Association, and recently retired as the Ontario representative on the National Board of Governors. She has enjoyed adjudicating all across Canada.
Martha Gregory
Paul McGarr
Bands
Paul McGarr (Major in Jazz Performance U of T, Applied Music (Honours), Mowak College)is currently in Toronto at the prestigious Upper Canada College where he has been the Head of Arts and Director of Bands at the Preparatory School since 2007. During that time his Concert Bands and Jazz Ensembles have consistently received prominent awards on the Provincial, National, and International stage. Since 2015 he has been a member of faculty at the National Music Camp of Canada and was recently the Artistic Director for the Hamilton All Star Jazz Band from 2009 – 2016. He has over 30 years of teaching experience throughout southern Ontario and is currently a member of the OBA and CBA.
He majored in Jazz Performance studies (trumpet) with a minor in composition at the University of Toronto and has an Honours Degree from Mohawk College’s Applied Music program, including the Gold Medal Award (Mohawk College’s highest Accolade) and the Dr. Mitminger Award for combining Athletics and Academic Excellence.
Paul is also in high demand as an adjudicator and clinician working all over North America and Japan for such sanctions as Drum Corps International, Bands of America, Drum Corps Japan, Fiesta-val, Kiwanis, and Heritage music Festivals. He has had the pleasure of adjudicating the Drum Corps World Championships and the United States National Championships 23 times and the Japanese National Championships twice.
He, his wife, Jackie, with sons, Joshua, Mitchell and Andrew, and daughter, Jordyn, reside in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.
Dave Barton
Guitar and Ukulele
Dave Barton is a jazz guitarist, studio musician, arranger and composer, percussionist and private teacher working in jazz, pop, and classical music. He has performed with many of Canada’s great jazz players in concerts and on recordings, most notably recording and touring with the late jazz trumpeter Kenny Wheeler.
Dave Barton first studied guitar by trying to copy Chet Atkins records at the age of 10. Dave started gigging in dance bands at 16. Dave went on to study classical guitar, composition, and education at Queen’s University in Kingston Ontario, and to study jazz as a lifelong vocation. He notes that “Learning to improvise jazz is like learning to speak a language. Organized jazz instruction teaches the musical grammar and helps with the vocabulary of improvisation.” Dave is currently a studio instructor at the Dan School Of Music at Queens University. He taught secondary school music for 22 years in both traditional band classes and guitar classes. He was also a Guidance Counselor and Special Education support teacher.
Dave’s large-form compositions have been performed by the Toronto Jazz Orchestra, the Greg Runions Big Band, Brasswerks, The Limestone Jazz Collective, and the Queen’s University Jazz Ensemble. He has written numerous jazz tunes, big band compositions, brass ensemble works, and solo classical guitar works. He had also arranged standards and new original music for ensembles ranging from small pop combo to combined symphony orchestra-big band, recently Quinsin Natchoff’s piece, African Skies for the Greg Runions Big Band, and How High the Moon , for vocalist Yoon Sun Choi with the Kingston Symphony and the Greg Runions Big Band.
Michele Jacot
Woodwinds, Brass and Percussion
Michele Jacot is a musician with an active schedule of performing, conducting, adjudicating, teaching, and concert production.
Besides being in demand for her skills as a clarinetist, Michele is equally at home as a saxophonist and flutist. She regularly performs with symphony orchestras and opera companies, as well as in theatre pit orchestras including Mirvish Productions, the Shaw Festival, and in many chamber ensembles.
Michele was honoured to be the Associate Conductor for Canadian musical icon, Howard Cable, and appeared with him as guest conductor of several Canadian orchestras.
Michele is a dedicated teacher and is in demand from the elementary to the post-secondary level. She maintains a busy timetable teaching privately, presenting workshops, adjudicating, and designing and leading instructional woodwind clinics for school music teachers.
Michele has been the Artistic Director of Toronto’s Wychwood Clarinet Choir since its inception in 2009. She is proud to be a Yamaha Canada Spotlight Artist, and an Artist at Vandoren, Paris, France.
Born and raised in Toronto, Michele holds a Bachelor of Music in Performance from the University of Toronto and a Master of Music in Performance from Northwestern University in Chicago.
Michele Jacot
Mus.Bac.Perf. University of Toronto, M.M. Northwestern University
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