Artists
Explore Our Sound
Meet the diverse artists that make up the Chor Leoni family. We are grateful to work with the best of Vancouver, and you can meet them all here.
Composer in Residence
Marie-Claire Saindon
Marie-Claire Saindon is a Franco-Ontarian choral composer with a penchant for vivid imagery and a great affinity for setting text. Her experience while studying music at McGill University and Université de Montréal ranges from accompanying dancers, to scoring films, to fiddling in a team of folk musicians on a historical steam train.
Based in Montreal as composer-in-residence for Chœur Adleisia, she runs creative choral/vocal composition workshops, scores films, and teaches fiddle. Recipient of multiple composition prizes, her choral works are published with Boosey & Hawkes, Hal Leonard, Cypress Choral Music, and her film scores can be found on documentaries hosted by CBC Gem and Radio-Canada.
Collaborative Pianists
Ken Cormier
Ken Cormier is a pianist equally at home in the classical, pop, and jazz genres. Upon completion of his classical studies at the UBC School of Music, his professional career began with 3 seasons as repetiteur with Vancouver Opera. He then moved into the world of professional music theatre, first with the Livent Company, and more recently with Vancouver’s Arts Club, in whose productions he continues to work regularly as keyboardist, arranger, and musical director. Ken has been with Chor Leoni since 1998. He makes his home in Burnaby with his wife Lisa and their two wonderful children.
Tina T. Y. Chang
Described as a “scintillating player” (Opera Wire) whose “…pianism was a wonder,” (Opera Canada), pianist and coach Tina Chang is currently on the music staff at Vancouver Opera, and recently at Wexford Festival Opera in Ireland. Based in Vancouver, she has been involved with various arts organizations, including Arts Club Theatre, Chor Leoni, Sound the Alarm Music Theatre, City Opera, and Against the Grain Theatre. She holds her own private studio, and has held adjunct positions at University of British Columbia and Dalhousie University. Find out more about Tina at www.TinaChangPiano.ca.
Voice Instructor
Jeanette Gallant
Dr. Jeanette Gallant has a doctorate from the University of Oxford and has held positions at the University of Reading (UK), Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts (HKAPA), Red Deer College (Alberta), the University of Windsor (Ontario), and various Oxford Colleges (UK). Specializing in vocal physiology, she is well known for rehabilitating damaged voices using various embodied vocal techniques.
Dr. Gallant has prepared choirs for various international conductors and is in high demand as a festival adjudicator. She has provided professional development opportunities for Singapore’s Ministry of Education, various U.K. choral societies, the Vancouver School Board, the B.C. Choral Federation, the VSO, and the B.C. Registered Music Teacher’s Association.
An accomplished ethnomusicologist, Dr. Gallant has published her work internationally, her most recent article being in the Yale Journal for Music and Religion. She has given talks for Elektra Women’s Choir’s Cultural Conversations Series and presented papers at the Canadian Network for Arts and Learning Conference, Podium 2018, Society for Ethnomusicology, Simon Fraser University, and the Sing Network’s International Symposium on Singing and Song II.
As an administrator, Dr. Gallant has served as the Artistic Director and conductor of Hong Kong’s first sing-a-long “Messiah”, Artistic Director of the Whistler Classical Music Festival, Vice President of the Vancouver Chamber Choir, and is involved in various community engagement projects.
MYVoice Conductors
Jonathan Krueger
An enthusiastic high school chorister, concert band member and accompanist, Jonathan Krueger always had a performance to attend. During high school, he studied piano with Dr Betty Suderman. He graduated in 1999 with a Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Victoria, where he studied clarinet with Patricia Kostek. Jonathan began his teaching career at Pacific Christian School in Victoria where he conducted five bands and four choirs. In 2009 he moved to Abbotsford, where he now lives with his wife and two sons, Nicholas and Nate, and joined the Fine Arts Department of North Surrey Secondary School, where he teaches choral music, concert band and vocal jazz. Jonathan is a keen student of the Kodaly method of music education and enjoys the challenge of working with students whose voices are developing. His award-winning choirs continue to inspire young musicians wherever they perform.
Melodie Langevin
Melodie is the Director of Choirs at Seycove Secondary, a vibrant school nestled in a cozy town residents affectionately call “The Cove” in North Vancouver. An avid chorister herself, Melodie discovered a passion for conducting while completing her Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Manitoba. She studied with soprano Valdine Anderson and sang under Dr. Elroy Friesen and with several other ensembles in Winnipeg including Camerata Nova, an innovative ensemble that performs early, contemporary, and Indigenous-infused repertoire.
Carrie Taylor
Carrie studied music at the University of Mary in Bismark, North Dakota and the University of Victoria in Victoria, BC, obtaining her Bachelor of Music and Professional Teaching Certificate. She has also studied at the Banff School of the Fine Arts.
Carrie has been teaching in the public school system for 32 years. She began her teaching career in Coquitlam and is currently teaching in Burnaby, where she enjoys teaching both band and choir. Carrie has also been the coordinator for the B.C. Provincial Honour Choir for the past several years and is one of the Directors of Vivo Children’s Choir.
Carrie, her husband Brent, and their three boys Evan, Aksel, and Grayson live in New Westminster.