Marlene is very proud of her 2 grown children, her daughter, a piano teacher in Ottawa with 2 children and her son, Andrew, a professional actor on stage and screen. Since graduating from Mt. A. and representing the university on concert tour as a pianist, Marlene has taught hundreds of piano students, as well as other instrumentalists, many of whom have gone on to professional music careers. Marlene taught high school bands and choirs both before her children were born and after they were grown. These groups won many golds in Music Festivals. In addition to her private teaching she continues to serve on many boards and volunteer groups.

Awards:
1974 — Award for community service, including music in the Ottawa Valley
1984 — Education quality award for Innovative Curriculum Development in the classroom from The Nova Scotia Teachers’ Union
1990 — Presidential Service Award in recognition of and appreciation for voluntary service and contribution to the musical culture of Canada award from The Canadian Registered Music Teachers Association
1998 — Nova Scotia Music Educators’ Association Honourary life membership “In recognition of her Outstanding Contribution to Music Education in Nova Scotia”
2002 — From the Annapolis Valley Music Festival an award “In recognition presented to Co-founders of the Kings County Music Festival Marlene Jackson & Hetty Jackson with sincere appreciation for your inspiration and dedication”.
2003 — Nova Scotia Band Association Life Membership “For outstanding service to the Nova Scotia Band Association”.
2005 — A book, titled “Notes from a Musical Garden”, written by Brenda Porter, a past student of Marlene’s, was written for NSMEA. This book lists ten pioneers of music in Nova Scotia. Marlene was one of the pioneers.

Janice Potvin began her piano studies with Muriel Clarke and attended Acadia University (Music '84, B Ed '85) where she studied piano with Janice Stephens. After teaching elementary school music and classroom for a number of years, she now teaches private piano lessons at her home studio in Centreville, Kings County. When she is not teaching, she sometimes hears piano, violin and trombone all being practiced at the same time as her husband and three children all love music too.

Janice teaches children and adults who want to take follow the Royal Conservatory of Music program as well as those who prefer a more relaxed approach. Adult beginners are always welcome. Lessons are designed to match each student's abilities and level of commitment. The joy of music making is available to all who are willing to take up the challenge.

Anna-Maria Galante began taking piano lessons in Dartmouth at age 6. When she was 12, she started Royal Conservatory exams with Frances Balodis, the founder of the Music for Young Children program, which teams parents and children at group lessons.

At Frances' direction, Anna-Maria susbstituted for her mother, and took her younger sister to MYC classes. When Frances was transferred in 1982, Anna-Maria continued her Royal Conservatory work with Michal King and then Rafael Alcolado, both executive members of the Nova Scotia Registered Music Teachers Association.

During this period, while she attended Dartmouth High School, she taught 11 students at Cecelia Smith's Dartmouth music studio. After trying her own children in several different music programs, including Music for Young Children, she returned to teaching in 2006. She was inspired by taking her twins to Marilyn Manzer's Kindermusik classes, where she also met Rebekah Maxner, the founder of the Notekidds program.

Anna-Maria is a strong adherent of the child-centred approach that informs both programs. In 2007 she became a certified Kindermusik educator, in addition to offering the Notekidds program, and preparing candidates for Royal Conservatory exams. She prepared for her own Grade X RCM exam with Elizabeth Harwood, RMT, and most recently Heather Pineo Regan, the president of the Valley NSRMTA chapter.

Nicole Earl graduated from Acadia University in 2005 with a Bachelor's degree in piano performance, including courses in piano pedagogy. Since graduation she has taught piano privately at Acadia University in Wolfville, Kings Edgehill School and Dorian Hall in Windsor, as well as most recently for the Canadian Conservatory in Bedford. Over the last two years, she has volunteered as rehearsal and performance accompanist for St. Joseph's Church in Kentville, for their productions of 'Children of Eden' in 2007 and 'Beauty and the Beast' in 2008.

Rebekah has an independent piano studio in Hantsport, Nova Scotia, where she lives with her husband and children. She attended Acadia University ('95) where she studied piano with John Hansen, and completed her music degree with a major in composition under Owen Stephens. She is frequently invited to give workshops throughout the Maritime Provinces, and her compositions have been published in several collections of Canadian works. In her youth she won provincial and national composition contests, and now her students are doing the same.

For the past several years Rebekah has attended national and international conferences for piano teachers. Through workshops at the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy in Chicago (2005, 2007) and the MTNA/CFMTA Conference in Toronto (2007) she has sought to educate herself on modern teaching practices from today's top piano teachers.

As the author of the Notekidds Enriched Piano Program, Rebekah has created a new approach to teaching beginner piano students. The Notekidds philosophy respects different learning styles, encourages children to learn about themselves through music, and teaches concepts in creative, memorable ways. Teachers in Nova Scotia and throughout North America are choosing Notekidds as their studio method.

Rebekah is the Vice President of the Nova Scotia Registered Music Teachers' Association. She edits the NSRMTA's Arabesque provincial newsletter and has recently contributed to the Keyboard Companion magazine. In the past Rebekah has been involved with the music festival movement in Canada from the local to the national level. For the past several years Rebekah has coordinated her beginner piano program, Notekidds, through Acadia University's community music school. Most of Rebekah's compositions at this time are pieces for piano students, and she delights in creating sounds that stir up enthusiasm for music in young people.

A graduate of London University (Royal Academy of Music) with a B Mus (Hons), and Liverpool University with a PGCE, Tony moved to Carbonear, Newfoundland in 1970. Following a 20-year school system career that included 17 years as Supervisor of Music for the Avalon North School Board and study leaves during which he earned a Master’s degree in Music Education from the University of Western Ontario and a postgraduate Diploma in Fine Arts (Kodaly) from the University of Calgary, Tony resigned from his Supervisory position to open his own Music School; teaching piano, voice and music theory. He was President of the short-lived Newfoundland and Labrador Choral Federation in the early 1980s. He served as organist/choirmaster at Bethany United Church in Carbonear from 1976 until 2003. A highlight of this part of his career was taking the Bethany Junior Choir on tour in Manitoba (1990) where they were guests of the Winnipeg Mennonite Children’s Choir. Since “semi-retiring” and moving to Nova Scotia in 2004, Tony joined the Board of the Annapolis Valley Music Festival as well as the Valley Chapter of the NSRMTA. In 2005 he was appointed Director of Music for Pereaux Baptist Church, whose choir is now very busy with visiting other churches and localities to give musical services and concerts.

In addition to the above, Tony was very active in the Kiwanis organization in the 70s and 80s, winning the top award of “Kiwanian of the Year” for the Eastern Canada and the Caribbean District (1973), for taking a Youth Orchestra that he founded in Carbonear on a tour of Iceland. Later, in 1984, Tony was elected to the top Kiwanis position in Newfoundland, that of Lieutenant-Governor of the Newfoundland Division of the District.  He also entered many of his choirs, instrumental groups and individual students in the annual Kiwanis Music Festivals in both Carbonear and St John’s; where they won many major awards and recommendation.

For the “Vikings 1000 Years” celebrations (2000) in Newfoundland and Labrador, Tony composed, produced and directed a musical called “Viking Cantata 2000”. This featured 40 children and adults from the Carbonear area telling the musical story of how the Norse or Vikings explored and settled Scotland, Iceland, Greenland and Vinland (Newfoundland and beyond). This production did an extensive tour of N.L. and earned high acclaim with some international recognition, as it was believed (and still is) to be the only complete musical account of that part of history in existence.

Tony now resides in Kentville with his wife, Holly, who is a Consultant with the Annapolis Valley Regional School Board.  He has his own private studio in his home.

Marilyn resides in Kentville, NS, where she teaches students in piano, theory, and some beginner vocal.  Her students in piano currently range from 6 years to 17 years (Beginner to Grade 9).  Marilyn comes from Westville, Pictou County, and did most of her early music training in New Glasgow, in piano, organ, theory, and choirs.  She then attended Mt. Allison University, where she studied piano with Howard Brown, and organ with Allison Patterson.  Although she always wanted to teach private lessons in piano, teaching elementary music in the school system was the chosen path.  She taught music at Kentville Elementary, then took some time off when she had two children, and when her youngest child went to school, she went back to teaching full time at Aldershot Elementary School. 

During the first five years of Kings County Honour Choir, Marilyn was one of the accompanists, and went to England and Wales with the Choir. 

Since retiring from Aldershot, she now has more time for teaching privately, and her other interests -- golf, curling, singing in choirs, gardening and RVing.

Maureen MacLean received her early music education in Liverpool. She received her B.A. with Major in Music (Piano) at Mt. Allison University, then taught Primary to Grade 6 Music in the N.S. public school system before retiring in 1994. Since then she has taught privately in Middleton: piano, organ, Theory and History.

She has been the director of the Middleton Choral Society since 1976, and is presently organist at St. Alphonsus Church in Bridgetown. She is a Colleague of the Royal Canadian College of Organists.

Barbara Hansen, a native of Edmonton, Alberta, received her Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from the University of Toronto studying with Pierre Souvarin and accompanying with John Coveart and Anton Kuerti. She also has an ARCT in Piano Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music. As a teenager she attended the Banff School of Fine Arts on scholarship studying piano with Boris Roubakine.

Ms. Hansen resides in Wolfville, N.S. with her husband John, Professor at the Acadia University School of Music. Barbara has a long association with Acadia University as an accompanist, examiner, and a staff member of the Summer Piano Camps. She maintains a piano teaching studio and is active as an adjudicator and an examiner. Barbara is a member of the NSRMTA and the Canadian Federation of Music Teachers.

In 2008, the NSRMTA awarded Ms. Hansen “Teacher of the Year” (the first teacher to receive this honour in Nova Scotia). Many of her students have won awards in local, provincial, and national competitions and several have gone on to Professional Careers in music.

Glenna has taught piano from her New Minas home for twenty-seven years. After a career in nursing, she turned her full attention to music and teaching. Her clientele is made up of students from all age groups, beginner to grade 9 RCM. Glenna believes that music instills discipline and confidence in her students while enriching their lives. She is a firm believer in the concept that music should be fun as well as challenging.

Recognized as a pianist and teacher, Heather Pineo Regan began her formal musical training at the age of nine in Halifax. While studying piano with Margaret Kinsman McCurdy at the Maritime Conservatory of Music she appeared as a soloist with the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra directed by Raffi Armenian. Scholarships and grants from the Nova Scotia Talent Trust enabled her to specialize in piano performance with Gordon Macpherson at Brandon University, where she won the Bachelor of Music gold medal in 1974, and with William Aide at the University of Western Ontario, where she received her Master of Music degree in 1977.

During the years centered around her young family, Heather remained active as a teacher, accompanist and soloist, first in Ottawa and then in Kentville, Nova Scotia where she was affiliated with Acadia University, Centre Stage Theatre, and the Kings County Honour Choir.

In the early 1990s, guided by the internationally acclaimed American pianist William Doppmann, she further developed her solo piano playing, thus establishing herself as a recitalist. Her first CD Claude Debussy: Piano Selections was released in 2000 and was followed by a second CD Robert Schumann: Scenes of Childhood, Op. 15 and Fantasy Pieces, Op.12 in 2002.

Throughout her professional career Heather has been involved in the life of her community. She has served as President of the Nova Scotia Registered Music Teachers' Association (NSRMTA) and the Maritime Conservatory Faculty Association and was on the boards of Musique Royale and the Rotary Club of Halifax. Currently she is President of the Valley Chapter NSRMTA and Vice President of the Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW) Wolfville.

Susan Dworkin is a music educator, vocal pedagogue, and performance artist. Originally from Montreal, she now resides in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Susan maintains a private studio, offering voice and piano lessons to students of all ages. Throughout the year she offers group voice classes and workshops for adults throughout the community. She instructed voice class to music students at Wolfville’s Acadia University School of Music.

Susan founded and directs Short-Order Opera Society, (in its eleventh season) a non-profit opera society dedicated to the advancement of the vocal arts. Each summer, the society produces fully staged and costumed operas for the general public.

Susan has also presented many recitals and concerts and has been involved in numerous musical activities for the Town of Wolfville. Her repertoire is extensive and she is comfortable singing in many languages and styles such as classical art song, opera, Broadway, Jazz and Klez’mir.

With 17 years teaching experience, Susan is constantly providing students with opportunities to perform and excel in their pursuit of singing. She has comprehensive training as a professional singer, teacher, and voice pedagogue.

She is an equally skilled pianist and offers singing workshops and clinics to choirs and groups interested in learning to improve their technique and sound.

Christy Hodder teaches Suzuki Violin to ages 3 and up in the Annapolis Valley and at the Maritime Conservatory of Performing Arts in Halifax. Christy received her Suzuki Training with Ronda Cole in Washington DC and Miami and continues taking training courses at Suzuki Institutes each year. Christy has all of her students regularly performing in the community. The violinists play in small group ensembles as well as in the Nova Scotia Suzuki String Ensemble which she started last year with 45 members and growing.

The basis of the Suzuki program is listening and builds from there to playing by ear and then by note. This pattern of learning mimics how a child learns to speak his "mother tongue" by listening, speaking and then reading. All Suzuki training is with a three member TEAM: the student, teacher and parent all working together. Parents attend the private lessons.

Christy has a group of Senior players called the “Fiddlestickers” that have recently released their first recording called “Pass it On” and are off to ECMAs 2009. This group of performers have their Grade 6-9 RCM exams. Their show is Celtic fiddling, classical, Gaelic song, highland ,ballet and Cape Breton step dance. They have a yearly concert (Nov 28th 2008 this year) and an annual Cape Breton Square set dance each fall with special guests. Christy teaches workshops and summer camps.

With a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Acadia University, 10 years orchestral violin playing and 8 years of Celtic fiddling, Christy has a huge resume full of performing and teaching. This year she is a special guest at the NSMEA in fall 2008 talking about effective group teaching and management.

Marilyn is a parent of 4 grown daughters, three of whom are musicians, and grandparent of two children. Her first job was as a preschool teacher and she worked with other parents to organize preschools and as a volunteer on school committees. She was distracted from teaching for many years while working as a sociologist, regional planner and social researcher, and she returned to teaching in 1990. Her studio specializes in piano lessons, but she also teaches beginners in voice, recorder and violin. She prepares students who wish it for piano examinations through Acadia University or the Royal Conservatory of Music. She started teaching Kindermusik® classes in September 2001. She has worked as an accompanist and associate director for musical theatre productions by youth in Wolfville. She has been actively involved in the Annapolis Valley Music Festival for many years, variously as a parent, board member, teacher, performer, volunteer and accompanist. Marilyn has been enthusiastically teaching Rebekah Maxner's Notekidds Program to beginning piano students since 2005, and highly recommends it to other teachers looking for sound pedagogy and lots of interesting beginner music.

Education

• 2001 – completed Kindermusik International licensed educator training
• 1991 – Bachelor of Music Education, Acadia University
(studied piano for 8 years with Prof. Janice Stephens at Acadia University)
• 1991 – awarded Acadia University Medal in Music
• 1972 – Master of Arts, McGill University
• 1970 – Bachelor of Arts, McGill University

Other professional qualifications:

• Nova Scotia Teacher's License
• Member of the Nova Scotia Registered Music Teacher's Association
• Past-president, Valley Chapter Registered Music Teachers Association

Ronald William Tomarelli, originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, began music studies at the age of six. At twelve he made his first solo appearance on CBC television and later at fifteen gave his first concert tour in the Maritime Provinces. After graduating from the Maritime Conservatory of Music he continued his studies at the University of Toronto and graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree in Performance. Over the years his principal instructors have been Professor Marietta Orlov, Greta Kraus, Stuart Hamilton, Pierre Souvairin and Earle Moss. Extensive study and association with Jeaneane Dowis in New York City led to his professional affiliation with the Steinway Foundation. Mr. Tomarelli became a Steinway Artist in 1980 and still continues to maintain a close association with the Company. From 1988 to 1992 he did post graduate work at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto.
He is also a graduate of the Toronto School of the Alexander Technique with worldwide affiliation. He has traveled extensively conducting lectures and demonstrations of the Alexander Technique as applied to piano teaching and performance.

Mr. Tomarelli is a long time member of the Canadian Music Festival Adjudicators’ Association, (CMFAA), and has adjudicated festivals at the local and provincial levels in Canada from coast to coast in all of the major cities as well as numerous rural communities. In addition, he is a senior member of the College of Examiners and has sat on the Council for RCM Examinations.

Ronald moved to Wolfville Nova Scotia in 2001 to become a full time member of the Faculty of Music at Acadia University. Currently, he teaches Applied Piano, Piano Pedagogy and a new course in Piano Literature which he created that has been successfully accepted into the University Curriculum. He oversees the Piano Proficiency Department, training and supervising new teachers to instruct all Acadia music students whose major instrument is other than piano.

While busy with teaching, adjudicating and examining, he still finds time to perform actively each year, including a concerto engagement of the “Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini” by Sergei Rachmaninoff with the North York Symphony in Toronto (2003), three performances in the Thomas Regan memorial Concerts (2003, 2004, 2005) and most recently three performances of the “Rhapsody in Blue” by George Gershwin with the Acadia Concert Wind Ensemble within Nova Scotia (2006-2007).

In 2007-2008 Ron created and successfully offered a University credit course dedicated to the study of the Alexander Technique.