Adjudicators
Adjudicators for 2026
Robert Bailey
Band Adjudicator
Robert (Bob) Bailey has taught music for 43 years, working with students of all ages. A great deal of his time has been spent building and maintaining a thriving music program in Camrose, which has earned him much recognition from the provincial music community through awards bestowed upon his musical groups and on him professionally. Consequently, Bob is a sought after guest conductor, clinician, and music festival adjudicator throughout Alberta. Highlights include an Excellence in Teaching Award, guest conductor for the Southern Alberta Junior High Honour Band [2007], recipient of the inaugural University of Alberta Fine Arts Achievement Award (Augustana Campus) [2009], recipient of the Alberta Band Association (Elkhorn) Band Director of the Year Award [2015], honoured with the David Peterkin Memorial Award from the International Bandmasters Fraternity, Phi Beta Mu [2023], and an Award of Merit from the Royal Canadian Legion [2023]. Of special note is Bob’s nomination for a Canadian Juno Award, having been selected as one of five national finalists for the 2024 MusiCounts’ Music Teacher of the Year. He was presented with the City of Camrose Mayor’s Arts Champion Award [September 2024] and most recently the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Alberta (Augustana Campus) [September, 2025]. A member of the Alberta Choral Federation, the International Bandmasters' Fraternity Phi Beta Mu, and the Alberta Band Association, Bob has served on various boards and committees for these organizations as well as several Camrose community arts organizations (including the Camrose & District Music Festival) over the years. Bob plays trumpet in various ensembles in his free time - the Camrose & District Community Band, the Battle River Big Band, and the Simply Brass Quintet. He believes that music is necessary to a well-rounded education, and that participation in music changes lives, promotes community, and benefits students intellectually, socially, and emotionally.
Jennifer’s research examines engagement and agency in music education programs, including informal music learning in a variety of educational contexts, intergenerational singing programs, and language and music development for Newcomer Youth to Canada for which she holds several research grants. Jennifer is also active as a conductor, choral adjudicator, clinician and conference presenter. Her forthcoming edited book, Music and wellbeing in education and community contexts, presents a variety of contributed chapters exploring the intersections of music education and wellbeing.
Dr. Jennifer Lang
Choral Adjudicator
Dr. Jennifer Lang (Ph.D University of Western Ontario) is a Professor of Music Education, Director of Choral Activities, and the Vice-Dean Academic in the College of Arts & Science at the University of Saskatchewan. She is a co-lead for the University of Saskatchewan’s Signature Area in Health & Wellness and serves as the Pillar Lead for Music, Arts, and Wellbeing. She is the organizer of an intergenerational choir, Timeless Voices, the founder and organizer of the uSing uSask Choral Festival, the regular conductor of the Greystone Singers and the Founder and Artistic Director of Aurora Voce. Her choirs recently returned from their guest performance at Carnegie Hall in New York City, and they regularly perform with the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra and other celebrated ensembles and composers. Jennifer has been awarded the University’s New Research Award (2025), the University’s Publicly Engaged Scholarly Team Award (2024), the Publicly Engaged Scholar Award for Research, Scholarly, and Artistic Work in the College of Arts & Science (2023), and the USSU Teaching Award (2020).
Musical Theatre / CCM Vocal Adjudicator
Andrea Timmons
Andrea Timmons is a Calgary-based performer, music director, and vocal coach with a diverse background in classical and contemporary vocal performance. She is currently on faculty with Revv52, where she serves as a vocal and performance coach. Last year she had the honour of performing with Revv52 at the Lincoln Center in New York City as part of the 10th Anniversary of Total Vocal.
Andrea studied Opera at the University of Calgary before shifting her focus to Musical Theatre, graduating with Honours from Sheridan College’s Musical Theatre Program in 2010. Her performance credits include singing backup vocals for The Canadian Tenors, Heart, and Colm Wilkinson, as well as appearing in the internationally acclaimed concert series Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy.
As a music director, Andrea’s favourite credits include Mamma Mia, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Urinetown, and The Mystery of Edwin Drood. On stage, she has been featured in productions such as Songs for a New World, Disney’s High School Musical, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Anything Goes, Mamma Mia, and Oklahoma.
Charles Stolte
Composition Adjudicator
Once described by Classical Music magazine as a musician of “dazzling commitment and versatility,” Charles Stolte, enjoys a richly varied career as a saxophonist, composer and teacher. Canada Council for the Arts, The Alberta Foundation for the Arts and the Royal College of Canadian Organists have all funded multiple commissions of his more than thirty works for organ, guitar, saxophone, horn, recorder, voice, choir, a variety of wind chamber ensembles including Edmonton Saxophone Quartet and Edmonton’s Wind Rose Trio, and two concerti: one for organ and orchestra and another for saxophone and orchestra. CBC radio has broadcast his performances and compositions nationally and his music enjoys performances across North America, in Europe and in Asia. Stolte has presented his own music, and music written for him, at conferences throughout North America and he was a featured composer and performer at World Saxophone Congresses XII and XIII in Montréal and Minneapolis, respectively. He is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre and a former Chair of its Prairie Region. He has also served as President of New Music Edmonton. Dr. Stolte is Professor of Music History, Saxophone, and Composition at The King's University. He has served on the faculties of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Roosevelt University, and the University of Alberta (Edmonton and Augustana campuses). He holds a Doctor of Music degree in Saxophone Performance from Northwestern University, where he was the first Canadian accepted to the doctoral program for study with renowned saxophonist Frederick L. Hemke. Dr. Stolte also holds degrees from the University of Alberta and The King’s University. His teachers include saxophonists Frederick L. Hemke and William H. Street, and composers Howard Bashaw, Malcolm Forsyth, M. William Karlins and Jay Alan Yim.
Dr. Vladimir Rufino
Strings/Fiddle Adjudicator
Brazilian-Canadian violinist Dr. Vladimir Rufino has brought his love of music to stages in South America and Europe as well as Canada and the United States. He holds a Doctor of Music degree from the University of Alberta (Canada), a Master of Music degree and Artist Certificate from Azusa Pacific University (USA), and a Bachelor of Music degree from the Universidade Federal da Paraíba (Brazil). He has studied with Yerko Pinto Tabilo and Charles Stegeman. He has participated in music festivals and symposia in Brazil, Canada, and the United States including the Starling-Delay Symposium on Violin Studies at The Juilliard School.
Vladimir has performed with orchestras in Brazil, the United States, and Canada, on many occasions serving as soloist, concertmaster, and assistant concertmaster. His chamber music experience includes numerous international performances as part of the Quartet Quarta Dimensão, the Camerata Brasílica, the Villa-Lobos String Quartet, and the Vaughan String Quartet. Besides performing the standard classical repertoire, Vladimir has performed and recorded a number of works by Brazilian composers. Vladimir currently performs regularly with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Edmonton, and Okanagan Symphony Orchestra, as first violin of the Vaughan String Quartet, violinist with the ARKO Trio, and with the Amorim-Rufino Duo. In addition to his performance schedule, Vladimir adjudicates for festivals and competitions in Canada and teaches at the MacEwan University Conservatory of Music and Mount Royal University Conservatory of Music.
Trevor Sanders
Guitar Adjudicator
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 (now the Winspear Conservatory), 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 Winspear 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.
Masters of Music – University of Alberta
Bachelor of Music – University of Alberta
Bachelor of Arts –Augustana University College
Janna Olson
Junior/Preparatory Piano Adjudicator
Performing and teaching have provided Edmonton pianist Janna Olson with diverse opportunities to share her love of music in Canada, Europe and the United States. She has studied music with many different musicians in Canada and the US and her degrees include a Master of Music from the University of Alberta. Janna is a versatile and sensitive pianist with extensive collaborative experience. She frequently performs piano duet and duo repertoire as part of the Venn Duo with her colleague Dr. Leanne Regehr. She loves teaching as a sessional instructor at The King’s University while also maintaining a thriving private piano studio with students ranging from 5 to 75 years old. She is on the faculty of the Gordon Institute for Music Learning and is passionate about connecting piano pedagogy with research on how the musical mind works. Janna is in demand as a festival adjudicator and enjoys travelling and meeting teachers and young pianists in many communities in Canada. She presents workshops and clinics for piano teachers and specializes in audiation based learning and rhythm development. When she is not at the piano, Janna spends time outside hiking, skiing and playing disc golf.
A sought-after chamber musician, Jani has appeared with the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, members of Bang on a Can All-Stars, Eighth Blackbird, and New Music Detroit as well as members of the Chicago and Detroit Symphony Orchestras. Performances across North America include the Chan Centre for the Arts (Vancouver, British Columbia), the Banff Centre for the Arts, Detroit Symphony Center, Detroit Institute of Arts, the Ravinia Festival and the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago) and at various educational institutions including the New England Conservatory, Indiana University, and Northwestern University among others. Jani has appeared in 8 professionally released recordings and can be heard on the New Amsterdam label, Tzadik label and Çedille Records among others.
Jani studied in Canada with Wendy Guimont, Allen Reiser, and Lorraine Ambrose at the Vancouver Academy of Music and graduated from the University of Michigan under Arthur Greene and John Ellis. She has served on faculty at the Fresh Inc. Summer festival, the Interlochen Summer Arts Camp, the Piracicaba International Piano Festival in Brazil, and most recently at the Conero International Piano Festival in Italy. Prior to her appointment at the University of Calgary, Jani served on faculty at the Baylor University School of Music from 2017-2021 where she was recognized as an OVPR Rising Star for her potential for research and early-career development.
Jani Parsons
Senior Piano Adjudicator
Praised for her “combination of tenderness and vivacious energy” (San Francisco Chronical) and “sheer virtuosity” (LA Splash), Canadian pianist Jani Parsons has established herself as a musician of warmth, brilliance, versatility, and vivid expression. An active soloist and chamber musician, Jani is the founding pianist of Latitude 49, a mixed chamber ensemble recently in residence at Princeton University and the co-artistic director of the Sound Atlas Festival. Jani joined the faculty at the University of Calgary School of Creative and Performing Arts as the newly appointed Associate Professor of Piano and head of the piano program in 2021.
As an avid performer and supporter of living composers, Jani has worked directly with many composers including Steve Reich, Christopher Cerrone, John Zorn, Stacy Garrop, Marc Mellits, Roshanne Etezady, Augusta Read Thomas, Jared Miller and Shulamit Ran and has premiered upwards of eighty new solo and chamber works. She is especially enthusiastic about featuring a wide array of “classics” and undiscovered masterpieces in her programming that spans from pre-Baroque to newly inked works.
She was Music Faculty at the University of Alberta’s Campus Saint-Jean from 1999 to 2012 and was on staff at Concordia University of Edmonton from 2006 to 2016 as a voice instructor, Manager and Program Coordinator of Concordia's School of Music. Mireille was a member of Edmonton's professional choir Pro Coro Canada for many years and from 2016 to 2019, their Executive Director. She was also a member of the Edmonton Arts Council board from 2018 to 2024. Mireille continues to act as a consultant for not-for-profit organizations. Mireille is the vocal pedagogue and alto vocal coach for the Edmonton Metropolitan Chorus and has conducted the Women’s Chamber Choir of Edmonton Metropolitan Chorus in 2023 and 2024. She teaches voice privately and works with students of all levels and stresses the importance of being able to read music, vocal technique grounded in physiology, and ultimately the joy of communicating through song. Mireille's students are active singers in the community, and many have continued their vocal studies in classical voice and musical theatre in post-secondary institutions across Canada and the United States. As well as enjoying adjudicating, she is a member of ARMTA (Alberta Registered Music Teachers Association), NATS (National Association of Teacher of Singing) and is an Affiliate Member of the Association for Body Mapping Educators.
Mireille Rijavec
Classical Vocal
Mezzo-soprano Mireille Rijavec has been heard on the CBC as a soloist and has appeared with Pop Goes the Opera, the Alberta Baroque Ensemble, the Richard Eaton Singers, Pro Coro Canada, the Edmonton Metropolitan Orchestra, among others. Theatre being her first love, Mireille has found a number of ways of involving song in theatre works, such as her cabaret Brie, Baguette and a Broad that she has been presenting for 15 years, and a number of collaborative works such as A Most Beautiful Deception, a play based on the poetry by Melissa Lacroix and Lost in Montmartre, a play about a fictional wake for Érik Satie, all presented at the Edmonton Fringe. Mireille has a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of British Columbia.
