Executive and Office

President

Ki Adams (St. John's, NL)

Ki Adams, a native of Birmingham, Alabama, is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education (Music Education) and School of Music at Memorial University of Newfoundland. In addition to a graduate degree in Organ (Northwestern University), he has completed specialist diploma programs in both the Kodály method of music education (University of Calgary) and the Orff-Schulwerk (Hamline University). Prior to coming to Memorial University in 1995, he directed the classroom/choral music program at a K-12 school (1974-87) and served as the Provincial Music Consultant with the Department of Education (1987-95). With strong interests in curriculum development and choral singing, Ki continues to play a central leadership role in designing and implementing the music education curriculum for the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador. He has published articles in various music education periodicals, edited journals (Alla Breve and Opus) and proceedings (Phenomenon of Singing Symposium), and served on the writing team for the Arts Education Foundation document for Atlantic Canada.

Keenly aware of the impact and power of professional organizations, Ki has held executive positions with provincial, national, and international music education organizations: President of the Music Council of the Newfoundland and Labrador Teachers’ Association, President of the Avalon Centre of the Royal Canadian College of Organists (RCCO), President of the Kodály Society of Canada (KSC) and, most recently, Secretary-Treasurer of the International Kodály Society (IKS). For the years 2004-2008, he served as one of the national Directors of the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors (ACCC). Passionate about celebrating choral music and bringing choirs and singers to Newfoundland, Ki is a Founding Artistic Director of Festival 500 as well as Co-Director of the festival’s Phenomenon of Singing International Symposium, an integral academic component of Festival 500. In 2004, he was instrumental in beginning a new choral festival in Louisiana - Lift Every Voice: Feliciana International Choral Festival.
To complement his university teaching and leadership activities in professional organizations and festivals, Ki is active as a choral conductor and performer. He is Music Director at St. Thomas’ Anglican Church and recently retired after 14 years as Associate Conductor and Accompanist of Shallaway (formerly Newfoundland Symphony Youth Choir). He is also active as a festival adjudicator, workshop/conference clinician, and jury member for Canada Council.

Past President

Dr. Debra Cairns (Edmonton, AB)

A native of London, Ontario, Dr. Debra Cairns is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is a Full Professor in the Department of Music at the University of Alberta where she co-ordinates and co-supervises the graduate program in choral conducting, teaches undergraduate and graduate conducting, choral literature, and diction for singers. She is also the director of i Coristi chamber choir, an ensemble which she formed in 1994. Both choirs have been heard on regional and national broadcasts of the CBC and are regular national semi-finalists in the CBC Radio Competition for Amateur Choirs; in the 2006 competition i Coristi won second prize in the highly competitive Chamber Choir category.

A recipient of the Sir Ernest MacMillan Memorial Prize in Conducting (awarded by the Canada Council), Debra Cairns has had articles on the music of the Renaissance composer, Palestrina, published in the Choral Journal and Anacrusis, and has had an edition of Palestrina's Missa Ave Regina Coelorum published by Carus-Verlag of Stuttgart, Germany. In demand both nationally and internationally as a workshop and conference presentor, she has given several sessions on her current area of research interest, the relationship of gesture to sound. She serves on many committees both at the University of Alberta and across Canada, and is also active as a clinician, adjudicator and guest conductor across Canada. In April 2002 Debra Cairns was nominated for the Syncrude Canada Award for Innovative Artistic Direction in recognition of her work with i coristi chamber choir.

Secretary/ Treasurer

James H. Hawn (Saskatoon, SK)

James was an English language arts teacher for thirty-two years with the Saskatoon Public Board of Education.  During that time he also taught some music, but was and still is involved in choral and church music, musicals, and drama both in the school system and in the community.  At present he teaches in the Adult Basic Education programme at SIAST Kelsey Campus and is also a sessional lecturer at the University of Saskatchewan. James has been involved with the ACCC for over twenty years and served as Saskatchewan’s representative on the board of directors for many years. At present he holds the office of secretary/treasurer.  James has been involved with singing and choirs for as long as he can remember. 

At present he is conductor of the Saskatoon Chamber Singers, a choir that he sang in for approximately fifteen years.  He regularly directs plays and musicals for one of the local amateur theatre companies in Saskatoon.  Aside from that, he is currently (2008-2009) president of the board of directors of TCU-Place, Saskatoon’s premier arts, entertainment and convention centre and also sits on the board of directors for the Broadway Theatre, one of the few independently owned movie theatres still operating in Canada.

President Elect

Jeff Joudrey (Truro, NS)

Jeff Joudrey (Truro, Nova Scotia) is the founding conductor of the First Baptist Girls Choir (1983) and Halifax Camerata Singers (1986). A native of Nova Scotia, Jeff studied organ at Acadia University and the Haarlem International Academy in The Netherlands before going to McGill University to study with organists John Grew and Raymond Daveluy. His choral music mentors include Canadian conductors Elmer Iseler and Wayne Riddell, and German conductor Helmuth Rilling. Over more than two decades his choirs have established enviable reputations for performance excellence and innovative programming. First Baptist Girls’ Choir has five recordings to its credit and has toured in England, Wales, The Netherlands, Iceland, Finland, Germany, and across Canada. The Halifax Camerata Singers is frequently heard on CBC Radio and were awarded the Galaxie Rising Star Prize in the 2008 CBC Choral Competition. Their third CD, Songs of the Stable: Christmas Music From Canada, was nominated for two awards. Jeff is an enthusiastic supporter of Canadian choral music, and frequently commissions works from both established and emerging Canadian composers for his choirs to premiere and perform. His other passion is working with young singers, and he was honoured by the invitation to conduct the Nova Scotia Youth Choir’s 15th anniversary tour.

In addition to being Director of Music at First Baptist Church, Jeff is Chorus Master of the Symphony Nova Scotia Chorus and is in demand as a guest conductor, choral clinician, teacher, and adjudicator. He has served on the faculties of Dalhousie and Acadia universities as well as the Nova Scotia Choral Federation’s Institute of Choral Conducting. A former director of the Association of Canadian Choral Communities, he also is a former president of the Nova Scotia Choral Federation. He has served on juries for the Ontario Arts Council, the Juno and East Coast Music Awards, and the ACCC.

Chief Administrative Officer

Erin Bustin (Toronto, ON)

Erin Bustin is an emerging arts manager who brings experience, enthusiasm and a lifelong commitment to choral music to her new role as Chief Administrative Officer of the Association of Canadian Choral Communities.

A sought after freelance arts manager, Erin also holds positions as the Acting Director of Development at the Guelph Jazz Festival and the Project Manager of the Weinzweig Centenary Project. Erin has worked in a variety of roles and managed diverse portfolios at nationally renowned organizations, including Soundstreams and the Bridgepoint Health Foundation.

Erin studied at the University of Toronto (Master of Arts, Musicology, 2007) and the University of Prince Edward Island (Bachelor of Music, Voice, 2005) before embarking on a career in arts management. She has been a dedicated choral singer for over two decades. A native of Nova Scotia, Erin attended the Nova Scotia Choral Federation summer camps from the age of 9. She is an alumna of the Nova Scotia Youth Choir and represented Prince Edward Island in the National Youth Choir.

Erin currently resides in Toronto, where she is co-founder and manager of the Toronto Choral Artists and in frequent demand as a soprano section lead for church and community choirs. Erin believes that choral music builds stronger, healthier and happier communities. She is committed to sustaining and enhancing the tremendous legacy of choral singing in Canada and is excited to join Choral Canada!
(Photo: Twin Bridges Photography)

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