2025 Adjudicators
Melanie Baux – Choral & Vocal
Melanie Baux has always loved being surrounded by music. Melanie has a Diploma in Music Performance from Mount Royal University and a Bachelor of Music Performance from the University of Manitoba. She has completed the Vocal Pedagogy Professional Workshop at the Boston Conservatory and completed all levels of Somatic Voice WorkTM The LoVetri Method. Melanie has performed with orchestras across Canada as a soloist in both Oratorio and Secular Works. She can frequently be found on the theatre stage, performing in musicals and concert works.
Melanie is passionate about developing and mentoring young performers. She has been a vocal coach and rehearsal lead for the Calgary Boys’ Choir and was the Artistic Director of the Cochrane Young Singers for five seasons. Melanie has been the Artistic Director of Swamp Donkey Musical Theatre Society since 2018. Melanie has been musical director, director, and choreographer for numerous musicals and continues to produce several shows each season. She is a sought-after voice teacher and vocal coach. Melanie frequently adjudicates Musical Theatre, Classical and CCM voice. She is dedicated to enriching communities through music.
Susanne Ruberg- Gordon
Quoted by the Chronicle Herald as “A superb musician”, Swedish-born pianist Susanne Ruberg-Gordon is a highly regarded and sought after chamber-musician and collaborative pianist. She is recognized for her artistry, nuance and interpretation, and has performed in Canada, the US, China and UAE with artists such as Dame Evelyn Glennie, Andras Diaz, Ron Leonard, Ian Swensen, James Campbell, Timothy Chooi, Nikki Chooi, Desmond Hoebig, John Kimura Parker, Josh Jones and Sydney Lee.
Susanne is the pianist and core member of the Juno nominated Land’s End Ensemble in Calgary, a piano-trio that is dedicated to excellence in performance and recording of Canadian and International new music, and to enriching collaborations with eminent composers and artists.
The ensemble has premiered over 125 new chamber works and is featured on 8 commercial recordings. www.landsendensemble.ca
As a passionate educator, Susanne is a faculty member at the Mount Royal University Conservatory Academy and APP Programs where she teaches Piano, Chamber Music and is the Artistic Facilitator of Collaborative Pianists.
She also teaches at the Valhalla Summer School of Music.
Since 2001, she has been a Collaborative Artist for the prestigious and acclaimed Morningside Music Bridge program in Canada, US, China and Poland.
“This was only one work of many in which Ms. Ruberg-Gordon achieved the finest balance acting as both the core sound and the glue of Land’s End Ensemble, absolutely ideal playing all night” – Calgary Herald
“Everything the composer could wish for” – Calgary Herald
Trevor Sanders – Guitar
Masters of Music – University of Alberta
Bachelor of Music – University of Alberta
Bachelor of Arts (Music) – Augustana University College
Since 2000, Trevor Sanders has been an active teacher, adjudicator and performer in the Edmonton area and throughout Alberta. He began teaching, and is currently on faculty at MacEwan University’s Alberta College Conservatory of Music since 2001, the Augustana Campus of the University of Alberta since 2008, and at Concordia University of Edmonton since 2023. He is a graduate of the University of Alberta (MMus) and Augustana University College (BA specialized in Music). As an active performer, his appearances as a chamber musician and as a soloist have been heard in numerous concert series and on radio. Trevor has been involved with a number of guitar ensembles, and is a founding member of the University of Alberta guitar quartet and the Edmonton Guitar Trio. He has also performed as a soloist with the Alberta Baroque Orchestra. Trevor currently teaches music theory and guitar for MacEwan Conservatory; music theory, jazz guitar, and classical guitar for the University of Alberta at its Augustana Campus; classical guitar for Concordia University of Edmonton; and guitar (classical, jazz, contemporary) for the Purple Door Music Academy.
Ross McIntyre – Band, Woodwinds and Brass
Ross McIntyre has been a conductor/educator within the Westwinds Music Society adult band organization in Calgary since 1992. He retired from The Calgary Board of Education in 2019 after thirty years of teaching both junior and senior high school music and is currently teaching for Mount Royal University, (Custom Music Workshops) as teacher mentor, guest conductor and trumpet clinician. Ross continues to be active throughout western Canada adjudicating music festivals.
In 1993, Ross received the “Excellence in Teaching Award” from the Alberta government and in 2001 received the “Tommy Banks Award” for his contribution to Jazz education. Ross was honoured in 2006 as one of the University of Calgary’s “Top Forty Alumni”. In 2013, Ross was awarded by the Canadian Government with the Prime Minister’s Award for teaching excellence.
Along with friend and co-producer, Samantha Whelan Kotkas, Ross received funding from the Canadian Space Agency to create and produce “From Blue To Red” – a hard cover children’s book and interactive online e-book. The book was written and illustrated by Lord Beaverbrook High School students whom were inspired by several professional mentors from across Canada. “From Blue To Red” features the narration of Jazz legend, Diana Krall and three Canadian astronauts: Dr. Robert Thirsk, Julie Payette and David Saint- Jacques. The e-book continues to live online in both English and French at: www.frombluetored.net or www.dubleuaurouge.net. “From Blue to Red” was chosen as the recipient of the 2013 Award for “Best Children’s and Young Adult Book of the Year” among Alberta Publishers.
Rhonda Sylvester – Musical Theatre
Rhonda Sylvester has been a proud part of the arts community since an early age and over the years, her love and passion for music, theatre and performance have continued to grow and blossom. Growing up in Stettler, AB, she was offered the wonderful opportunity to study voice with Elaine Pitt and her national winning award choir Pitt’s Pets. It was through Mrs. Pitt that Ms.Sylvester first found that special spark of magic only music can give to your soul. With great nurturing and development, this gift of music became not only a passion for her, but also became her life career choice.
She has obtained degrees in both Teachers and Vocal Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Toronto (Distinction) and Conservatory Canada, a music Performance degree (Honours) from Red Deer College, and a Bachelor of Music Vocal Performance (Honours) from U of A Augustana Campus. After obtaining her degrees, Ms.Sylvester lived in Kassel Germany for 2 years where she had the privilege of teaching English, Choral and Orchestra in the German school system for grades five to thirteen.
She has been the recipient of numerous scholarships and awards of her own, but she is most proud of the awards that her own students have earned in world wide competitions, including the Heritage Festival series in New York, where her Gracenotes Choir placed at a Gold level and were also the recipients of the esteemed Spirit of New York Award. Ms.Sylvester has had several students also hold successful auditions to be a part of the Honour Choir at Carnegie Hall series in the past several years and well as having numerous choirs, solo vocal students and musical theatre students go on to win top marks and placements at our own Alberta Provincial Choral and Music Festival as well as Canada West.
In addition to teaching, conducting and being a busy EA at an elementary school, Ms.Sylvester loves to perform any opportunity she gets. Some of her performance and musical directing credits include shows such as “Ready Steady Go”, “The Wizard of Oz”, “Oliver”, “Little Women”, “Bring Them Home”, “Pets”, “Fiddler On the Roof”, “The Music Man”, “My Fair Lady”, “Matilda”, “Moana Jr.”, “The Big One-Oh!”, and her two most favourite roles as Sister Mary Amnesia and the Narrator in “Nunsense” and “Nunsense: the Second Coming” and “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”.
Ms.Sylvester is a sought-after clinician and adjudicator in the disciplines of solo voice, choral, musical theatre. She is thrilled to be with us at our festival and hopes all performers will “Go forth, and shine!”
Dr. Tina Alexander-Luna – Classroom Music
Canadian Mezzo-soprano, Dr. Tina Alexander-Luna is a singer and teaching-artist known for her versatility. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Voice Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on the art songs of Canadian composer, Violet Archer, and the important role Archer played as a female composer in Canada during the twentieth century.
Equally at home in Opera, Concert, Contemporary Commercial Music (CCM), and Choral settings, Dr. Alexander-Luna has performed extensively across Canada in these realms.
As a musician with a passion for community, Dr. Alexander-Luna most recently taught as a tenured faculty member at Northwestern Polytechnic, where she had a thriving voice studio and was co-founder and artistic director of the Peace Region Music Series, a concert series aimed at making professional live classical music more accessible in and around Northern Alberta. Dr. Alexander-Luna is also the Vocal Director at the Adirondack Performing Arts Fellowship summer music program in Upstate New York.
Dr. Alexander-Luna will be featured as a presenter at the 2025 International Congress of Voice Teachers (ICVT) in Toronto, Ontario, and is Assistant Professor of Voice at the University of Regina. In demand as a clinician, adjudicator, and guest soloist, Dr. Alexander-Luna is excited to be back in Grande Prairie to adjudicate!
Viktoria Grynenko – Orchestra / Strings
Viktoria Grynenko is a Ukrainian-born, multifaceted artist based in Edmonton, Canada. In addition to violin performance, she also focuses on research and educational projects that involve rarely performed works for violin. Her efforts have been encouraged by Canadian and international organizations, such as the KUN Foundation, the Strauss Foundation, and by the Edmonton Artists Trust Fund Award. Building on her Ph.D. thesis obtained in 2021 from the University of Alberta and exploring relationships between violin and dance performance, Grynenko continues her active involvement in multi-disciplinary projects with local and international dancers. Recent highlights include her participation in the Mozarteum Summer Music Academy (Salzburg, 2019), conference presentations and performances at the Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini (Lovere, 2023), the Institute for Musicology and the Institute for East European History of the University of Vienna (Vienna, 2023), as well as a residency with the New Chamber Ballet (New York, 2024). In 2023, Viktoria Grynenko released her debut album Violin in Movement, showcasing rarely performed works composed or arranged for violin and piano and relating to ballet and dance with Oclassica label. In February 2025 her newest album Unbroken: Music from Ukraine will be released with the Leaf Music label featuring music by contemporary Ukrainian composers.
Viktoria Grynenko appeared as a soloist with the Norwegian Oslo Symphony Orchestra and the Ukrainian Glier Music Institute Symphony Orchestra, as a concertmaster for University of Alberta Orchestra. She has also performed as a soloist, chamber and orchestra musician throughout Canada, Germany, Austria, Italy, and Ukraine. Passionate about education, she teaches privately, leads numerous masterclasses for violin and chamber music students through community organisations and higher education institutions. Grynenko is passionate about giving back to the community, and to that end has been teaching with El Sistema programs across Canada for over a decade.She studied with Liudmyla Skorokhod and Leonid Shukhman in Ukraine, and with Oleg Pokhanovski, Yehonatan Berick and Guillaume Tardif in Canada.
Also active in other spheres, she was a founder of Job Hub Ukraine, a platform assisting Ukrainian refugees with their jobs searches in Canada, and she is currently a co-chair for Arts Habitat Edmonton.
Miriam Mahood – Senior Piano
Miriam Mahood is a RCM Examiner who exams extensively throughout Canada & the USA. Since Covid she has remotely examined over 900 candidates from Shanghai, Hawai, Texas, Georgia, California, New York, Rhode Island, Florida, Washington, Colorado, New Mexico, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Arizona, Connecticut, Maryland, & Illinois, in addition to those in Canada. Ms. Mahood has adjudicated regularly for the Alberta, Saskatchewan, & British Columbia Music Festival Associations, her most recent festivals being Ft. McMurray, Prince George, Wetaskiwin, Red Deer, Whitecourt, & Vemilion.
Ms. Mahood is a graduate of the Mozarteum, Salzburg, Austria (Konzertdiplom), Universities of Saskatchewan & Alberta (B Mus. & M Mus.) & holds the ARCT from the Royal Conservatory of Music, & the Associate & Licentiate from the Western Board of Music. She has been employed by such institutions as Alberta College, The Banff Centre, Universities of Alberta & Manitoba, Western Board of Music, Winnipeg Bible College, & has served as Music Director, Organist, & Choir Director in various Churches, most recently at St. Georges Anglican. For many years she was Scholarship Chair, & served on the Ball Committee, of the Johann Strauss Foundation. Ms. Mahood runs a successful Piano Studio dedicated to student success. Her hobbies are hiking, languages, ballroom, & travel.
Lynne Dalcin -Junior Piano
Lynne received her ARCT from the Royal Conservatory in 2002 and now operates a busy studio, teaching piano from beginner to ARCT and all levels of Theory, Harmony, and History. She began to play the piano at 7 years old and received her Grade 8 at 13. She did her senior grades and ARCT as an adult – studying in Alberta with Michelle Wheatley-Brown and Linda Kundert.
Lynne was honoured in January 2017 with the award of Art Educator of the Year in Airdrie. This award is given for promoting arts and culture in the community through education. Lynne strongly believes that children should be encouraged in art and music. It’s so important for all of us to help raise this generation of children in an environment that nurtures creativity, inspires imagination and celebrates beauty. Art and music is our legacy. It’s what tells our story. We must all encourage this generation to have a wonderful story to tell!
Additionally, Lynne is an active member of Music Coterie in Calgary and also a founding Director of the Airdrie Rotary Festival of Performing Arts. She also sings with the Airdrie Community Choir. One of Lynne’s greatest pleasures in recent years is adjudicating local Festivals in Alberta.
In her free time, she especially enjoys volunteering with the Airdrie Foodbank and acting as a Penguin Host at the Calgary Zoo. Of course, Lynne also adores spending time with her six beautiful grandchildren who all live in Alberta!