Meet the adjudicators!
PIANO (Junior & Intermediate Categories) – Kathy Dornian
A native Calgarian, Kathy Dornian is a nationally respected pedagogue, chamber musician, adjudicator and examiner. She earned a Master of Music Degree in piano performance from the University of Western Ontario and a Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Education and Kodaly Fine Arts Diploma from the University of Calgary. Her education was enriched by post-graduate performance studies at the prestigious Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary. Her teachers have included Marilyn Engle, Peter Smith, and Edith Hambalko, along with masterclass enrichment from many notable artists throughout the years.
Since 1985, Kathy Dornian has served on faculty at Mount Royal University Conservatory where she pursues an extensive and versatile career as a musician. She has built a solid reputation over the years as a sensitive and accomplished teacher, accompanist and chamber partner. She is currently an artistic collaborator with the internationally recognized Morningside Music Bridge Program, an affiliation which has taken her to Shanghai and Poland. For many years, she served as piano coordinator of the Academy of Music, a prestigious and nationally renowned program for gifted young musicians. Through this program, she has had the opportunity to work with and closely observe many internationally respected teachers including Kum Sing Lee, Anton Kuerti, Jeno Jando, Jon Kimura Parker, Steven Kovacavich and Angela Hewitt, to name just a few. As a performer, she has been heard in concert with many prominent and distinguished musicians including James Campbell and David Schifrin. She travels throughout Canada and the United States as an adjudicator, workshop clinician and as a senior examiner for RCM Examinations. She is currently a visiting faculty member of the renowned Central Conservatory and Middle School in Beijing, China.
Kathy Dornian has cultivated her collaborative and teaching career with equal success and enthusiasm and continues to pursue her lifelong passion for excellence in music education. As a chamber partner, she is equally at home with all instruments and as a teacher, she has successfully worked with all levels and ages of students. Known as a kind, inspiring and imaginative educator who fosters keenness and curiosity in her students, she is certainly one of Calgary’s most sought after and in-demand teachers. Her students are frequent awards and scholarship winners in festivals and national competitions. They consistently achieve high results in examinations and have and many have been accepted into programs such as Morningside Music Bridge and at post-secondary institutions. Many of her former students have forged on to create successful careers of their own in the music profession, although she is equally proud of those who have chosen other fields but maintain their passion for music and continue to show support for the arts.
Kathy is the proud mother of twin sons Jonathan, a psychiatry resident and Patrick, who completed his Masters degree in Mathematics at the University of Waterloo. She is also the proud ‘adopted’ mother of internationally renowned concert pianist Yuja Wang. She is married to Paul Dornian, a long time former director of the Conservatory at Mount Royal University and currently the President and CEO of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. Kathy speaks fluent Hungarian and in her spare time, she enjoys gardening, cooking, hiking, reading and traveling.
PIANO (Senior & Advanced Senior Categories) – Katherine Dowling
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) Dr. Katherine Dowling performs across North America and Europe as a soloist and chamber musician.
Katherine is familiar to audiences through regular appearances at Canada’s major music
festivals and concert series, including Ottawa Chamberfest and Stratford Summer Music. She is further familiar 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, and a Britten-Pears Young 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. Recent highlights include her recital debuts in Vienna, The Hague, and Rio de Janeiro, and appearing as a concerto soloist with orchestra in repertoire including Benjamin Britten, W.A. Mozart, Colin McPhee, and Florence Price. She has premiered over one hundred new works by composers including Louis Andriessen and John Harbison.
As a soloist, and as a member of the chamber ensemble Gruppo Montebello, Katherine appears on nine critically-acclaimed recordings on the Etcetera label. Her debut solo album “Awake and Dreaming – piano music of Alice Ping-Yee Ho” (Leaf Music) has been celebrated as “impressive…compelling and virtuosic” (Wholenote). Her performances have been broadcast on the BBC (United Kingdom), National Radio 4 (Netherlands), and Radio Canada, and her solo recordings have been featured on the CBC programs “About Time” and “This is my Music”.
Katherine treasures her collaborative relationships, and is deeply grateful to perform with an
international array of celebrated artists. She credits her own teacher, legendary American
pianist-pedagogue Gilbert Kalish, and conductors Henk Guittart and Oliver Knussen, as the
major influences in her musical life.
Prior to joining the faculty at Mount Allison University, Katherine held full-time faculty positions at York University (Toronto) and the University of Regina. She has also loved teaching at the Phil and Eli Taylor Academy Performance Academy for Young Artists (Royal Conservatory of Music); the duo526 Sonata Seminar (Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University); the European Summer Courses for Chamber Music (Netherlands); and GoCompose North America. She is a popular adjudicator, having served in this role at over fifty music festivals across the country, ranging from the Laflèche & District Festival (town population of 312) to the National Finals of the Canadian Music Competition.
Katherine is so pleased to have started her first semester as Assistant Professor in the Music Department at Mount Allison University. For more, and to keep in touch: www.katherinedowling.com
VIOLIN – Frank Ho
Violinist FRANK HO enjoys a career as soloist, chamber musician and teacher. A graduate of Yale University, he studied there with Sidney Harth (former concertmaster of
the Chicago Symphony, New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics) and Erick Friedman (noted pupil of Jascha Heifetz). Further studies with Yfrah Neaman at the Guildhall
School of Music and Drama in London, England, led to performances on three continents and recordings for the CBC. He also holds a Master of Musical Arts degree from the University of Alberta, where he specialized in historical and theoretical studies in musicology.
As a performer, Frank has performed at venues such as Royal Festival Hall (London),
Merkin Hall and Alice Tully Hall (New York), and the Winspear Centre in Edmonton. He remains active in his hometown of Edmonton as the concertmaster of the Concordia Symphony Orchestra and as a frequent collaborator in chamber music, most notably with
the late pianist Alexandra Munn. Recent highlights include the complete Beethoven
Violin Sonata cycle with pianist Joachim Segger. Current projects include the complete
solo and accompanied violin music by J. S. Bach (with pianist/harpsichordist Leanne
Regehr) and a CD of music for two violins and viola with Vaughan String Quartet
members Vladimir Rufino and Fabiola Amorim. In the summer of 2024, he toured
Switzerland, Austria, Leichenstein, and Italy as the solo violinist of the Canadian Landscapes Europe Tour, organized through Concordia University.
In addition to his private studio, Frank is currently on faculty at Conservatory of Music at the Winspear Centre, The King’s University and Concordia University of Edmonton. His students have been prizewinners in local, provincial, and national competitions in Canada, and have gone on to further studies at universities and conservatories in Canada, the USA and Europe. Several of his students have performed at venues such as Carnegie Hall, and are members of professional orchestras in Canada, notably the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, the Victoria Symphony, and the Thunder Bay Symphony. Frank is also a member of the College of Examiners for the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, and was president of the Alberta String Association from 2019 to 2022. He is the recipient of the 2025 Alberta Music Education Foundation’s (AMEF) Recognition Award for outstanding contribution to Music Education.
VIOLA – Daniel Scholz
Originally from Regina, Daniel studied at the University of Regina, McGill University and at the University of British Columbia. He was a prize winner at the Lionel Tertis Viola Competition, the most prestigious event of its kind, held on the Isle of Mann. Daniel served as the Principal Viola of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, the Winnipeg Chamber Music Society, and the Rembrandt String Quartet for twenty seven years before retiring in the fall of 2021. As a solo artist, Daniel has performed with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, Musickbarock, the Okanagan Symphony and the Vancouver Chamber Players. Daniel has also toured Europe with the Nordic Symphony of Tallinn, Estonia as Guest Principal Viola.
Daniel has been an instructor at the Marcel A. Desautels Faculty of Music at the University of Manitoba as well as the conductor of the Winnipeg Youth Symphony Orchestra. Daniel has been Artist in Residence at the Université de Montréal, Western University, Amici String Program, The Regina Conservatory, and Mount Royal University. Daniel continues to adjudicate for many of Canada’s major music festivals. Daniel is a sought after chamber musician and teacher at many of Canada’s major festivals and is a faculty member of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada. Daniel was also invited to perform and teach in Perth, Australia by the Australian String Teachers Association and the West Australian and New Zealand Viola Society. Daniel plays on a contemporary viola made by Garth Lee of Winnipeg.
CELLO (Junior & Intermediate Categories) – Vinci Chen
Born and raised in Vancouver, Vinci Chen began playing the cello at the age of 11. She completed two years of the Young Artist’s Collegiate Program at the Vancouver Academy of Music, studying with Joseph Elworthy, it was her immersive time at VAM that inspired her to pursue music as a career. She completed her undergraduate and graduate degree with Paul Marleyn at the University of Ottawa, then studied with Richard Aaron at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Vinci currently holds a cello position with the Victoria Symphony, and has previous orchestral experiences including performances with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, and the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra.
Aside from orchestral playing, Vinci loves playing chamber music, viola da gamba, and baroque cello.
CELLO (Senior & Advanced Senior Categories) – Information available soon
HARP – Lucile Hildesheim
…”fine technical command of the instrument, and brings a very personal touch to her music… an aura of unusual warmth.” Montreal Gazette
For harpist Lucile Brais Hildesheim, music is an expression of colour and texture. Curious to explore a wide range of music, she loves to push boundaries, and often brings a variety of harps, each with its own voice and personality, to the stage.
Lucile’s musical journey began in Montreal when she was eight, still too small to reach the pedals of the concert harp, but determined to learn to play. Her determination never wavered and eventually led her to McGill University, and a Bachelor of Music in Performance.
Soon after graduation she was a finalist in the CBC National Music Competition, and a position of harpist in residence was created for her at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. A beautiful relationship with the CBC and Radio-Canada began, with many studio recordings and concert broadcasts.
Her solo, concerto and chamber music concerts have taken her across Canada, to Europe and the United States, and to summer festivals at Lanaudière and Le Domaine Forget, as well as to Ottawa’s Music and Beyond festival. She has also performed with the Ottawa Jazz Orchestra, and in the Ottawa Jazz Festival.
Lucile is particularly fond of playing with choirs, especially at Christmas. Choir conductors value her sensitive accompaniment skills and have included her in many concerts and recordings.
In 2002, she premiered the Concerto for Celtic Harp by Canadian composer Mark Mitchell, which was reprised as a chamber piece with members of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra; in 2012 she played its American premiere in New York City.
She has produced three solo harp albums and published some of her compositions and arrangements.
Lucile teaches both classical and celtic harp to young and mature students at her studio in Ottawa, Canada. A member of the Royal College of Examiners, she is a harp examiner for the Royal Conservatory, and is in demand as an adjudicator.
She is equally passionate about snow and skiing, and is a certified ski instructor.
Lucile and flutist Sheila White make up the duo sheila&lucile, who perform classical, traditional, and new music, painting captivating soundscapes with their unique genre-defying arrangements. The duo’s creativity and mastery shine through in their two albums, each a finely crafted array of musical colours and textures expressed through a variety of harps and flutes.
Lucile performs on four kinds of harps: Lyon & Healy 23 Concert Grand; Josephus Dayspring 38 lever harp; Salvi Delta electric harp; and Haydn Harp carbon fibre 24.
VOICE – Geordie Roberts
George “Geordie” Roberts is a graduate of the School of Music UBC and the Vancouver Academy of Music. As a long-time member of the Vancouver Chamber Choir, he was a frequent soloist in concert and on recordings. He is a recently-retired faculty member at Capilano University Music Department, and the Co-ordinator of Music at Highlands United Church. He is highly regarded for his ease of vocal production and expressive singing. In addition to keeping busy singing, teaching and conducting, George is also a gifted accompanist and coach. A published composer and arranger, George’s choral music is available on the Cypress label. Geordie makes his home in North Vancouver with his wife, Frances, and they enjoy the company of three very musical sons: Aidan, Garreth and Liam.