Dr. Marta McCarthy, Conductor, is an Associate Professor at the University of Guelph, where she has been directing the choirs and teaching musicianship, pedagogy, and research since 1995. She is a graduate of Westminster Choir College of Princeton (M.Mus), the Royal Conservatory of Music (ARCT, piano performance) and of the University of Toronto (B.Mus, B.Ed., Ph.D.). Honours include the 1999 Elmer Iseler Conducting Fellowship, an Ontario Volunteer Service Award, and being named a member of the June Callwood Circle of Caring and a Woman of Distinction for Arts & Culture. Her Chamber Singers garnered 1st place of Collegiate choirs in Canada’s 2011 National Competition for Amateur Choirs and 3rd place in the 2012 Mosbach International Chamber Choir Competition in Germany. Her choirs also performed at Canada’s national choral symposium, Podium 2002 and 2012. In 2014 Marta conducted the prestigious Ontario Youth Choir, in 2015, the first Ontario Youth Alumni Choir and in 2017, the New Brunswick Youth Choir. She was President of Choral Canada (2014-2016), and as Past President, continues to serve Canada’s national choral community.This workshop will introduce participants to a broad range of repertoire representing Canada’s cultural heritage, including our indigenous people, British and French settlers, and more recent immigrants.Drs. McCarthy and Rensink-Hoff will share highlights of this rich and varied repertoire, as well as insights about how Canada’s multicultural demographic and geographical diversity has inspired profound artistic growth and nurtured cultural diversity. Believing that Canadian choral works echo the vibrancy of the people, the professors will trace recent trends and influences on Canadian choral writing, while identifying elements that continue to characterize the distinctiveness of the Canadian choral art form.The presentation will also offer sources of Canadian choral repertoire, to provide delegates with the resources necessary to acquire and perform Canadian choral works for ensembles of a wide range of ages and levels of ability.The year 2017 marks the 150th anniversary of the confederation of Canada; at the same time, Canada celebrates an artistic and cultural heritage of more than one thousand years, beginning with our indigenous people and augmented over the centuries by those who have made Canada their home.This cultural mosaic has produced a rich and varied repository of choral music.The presentation will focus on composers and repertoire that illustrate the distinctive characteristics of Canadian choral music, and offer sources of Canadian choral repertoire, featuring a variety of important Canadian publishers, as well as the Canadian Music Centre - the foremost hub of musical activity across the country - to provide delegates with the resources necessary to acquire and perform Canadian choral works for ensembles of a wide range of ages and levels of ability.

Dr. Rachel Rensink-Hoff, after many years as Assistant Professor of Music and director of the choral program at McMaster University - where she also taught courses in conducting, vocal- choral pedagogy and music education – joins the faculty of Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, in July 2017. She was conductor of the McMaster University Choir and founding conductor of both the Women’s Choir and Chamber Choir. She is a graduate of The University of Western Ontario, the Eastman School of Music Conducting Institute, the Voice Care Network of St. Johns University, Minnesota, the University of Toronto, and Calvin College, Michigan. Rensink-Hoff is the 2014 winner of the prestigious Leslie Bell Prize for Choral Conducting awarded by the Ontario Arts Council. Her Women’s Choir was awarded first prize in Canada’s 2015 National Choral Competition for Amateur Choirs, broadcast on national radio. Past-President of Choirs Ontario and Vice- President of Programmes for Choral Canada, she works frequently as guest conductor, adjudicator, conference presenter and workshop clinician across Canada.