Artistic Director

Howard Dyck is Artistic Director and Conductor of the Grand Philharmonic Choir and Consort Caritatis. He is well known to music lovers across Canada as the host of Choral Concert and Saturday Afternoon at the Opera on CBC Radio Two.

Howard’s conducting career has taken him to ten countries on three continents where he has conducted, among others, the Arnold Schoenberg Choir of Vienna, the Mozarteum Orchestra (Salzburg), the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra and Obretenov Choir (Bulgaria), the Kunming Symphony Orchestra (China), and the State Symphony Orchestra of St. Petersburg.

Educated in Canada, the United States and Germany, Howard has received numerous honours for his contributions to musical culture, both nationally and internationally. In 1996 he was awarded honorary Doctor of Laws degrees by the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University as well as the Ontario Choral Federation’s Distinguished Service Award. In 1999 the Yunnan Arts Institute (Kunming, China) named him Honorary Professor of Music. Howard was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2000 and in 2002 he was awarded the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal

Youth and Children's Choirs
Our Conductors
After graduating from the Faculty of Music at The University of Western Ontario, Nancy Tanguay received her Bachelor of Education from the University of Ottawa and studied piano and accompanying with Denise Riviere, Greta Kraus and Damjana Bratuz. Her passion for choral music developed through her work as accompanist for The Ottawa Central Choir and the Ontario Youth Choir, where she had the opportunity to work extensively with Barbara Clark and Brian Law. She has since attended conducting workshops and seminars with Jean Ashworth-Bartle, Wayne Riddell and Doreen Rao.

In addition to teaching senior elementary school English and Music for the past 23 years, Nancy has also been a sessional lecturer in choral conducting at Wilfrid Laurier University and was the founding director of the Zion Community Children's Choirs. She is active as a clinician, has often appeared as the guest conductor for the Waterloo County Board of Education annual Kodály Festival and was the musical director for the School for the Performing & Visual Arts at the Centre in the Square in July, 2000. Nancy has been the director of the Kitchener Waterloo Philharmonic Youth Choir since 1997.

Susan Watt
Susan Watt is a teacher with the Waterloo Region District School Board. She has an Honours Bachelor of Music Degree from Western, in Music Education, and an Associateship in Piano Performance from Western Conservatory. For more than 20 years, Susan taught music in a variety of schools in Kitchener and loved the many varied experiences that came with this job: running choirs, staging musicals, organizing trips, planning music camps, and bringing the love of music to her many students. She was also actively involved with musical organizations at the local, provincial and national levels and has given workshops at a variety of conferences at all of these levels.
Robert Wilkie
Robert Wilkie is a native of Halifax, Nova Scotia. He started his musical studies with the Canadian composer, Alex Tilley and proceeded to McGill University where he completed a Bachelor of Music in Composition and Music Education. He completed his teacher training at Dalhousie University and earned his Master of Music degree at the University of Calgary under the tutelage of the master pedagogue, Lois Choksy, the leading exponent on the Kodaly method of teaching music.

Accompanists

Dan Durksen is the Rehearsal Accompanist for the Grand Philharmonic Choir. He traces his love of choral and vocal music to his experience in the Mennonite Church where he spent much of his early life. He also enjoyed the vocal sounds of Lois Marshall, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf and other great singers, which his father brought home in record format from the public library.

He began piano lessons in St. Catharines, Ontario, practising on a school instrument that his parents had purchased for one dollar. After graduating from Brock University, he continued his piano studies with Irmgard Baerg and Leonard Issacs in Winnipeg, and then went on to study with Ronald Turini at the University of Western Ontario in London, where he graduated with a graduate degree in Accompanying and Chamber Music.

Sean Simpson currently attends Wilfrid Laurier University and studies Political Science. He has been a member of the Philharmonic Youth Choir since its beginning 12 years ago. He has studied voice with John Tute and Kevin Bradshaw and currently studies organ with Dr. Peter Nikiforuk. Sean is currently Director of Music at St. Anne's Roman Catholic Parish in Kitchener.

He has been a guest soloist for the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, Te Deum Singers, and Renaissance Singers, and has sung the National Anthem for many sporting teams and events ... including the Toronto Blue Jays, the Canadian Olympic Hockey Team, and for the Scott Tournament of Hearts.

Elena Klyucharova is a scholarship winner of the “New Names” competition; she took 3rd prize in the All-Ukrainian Chopin Competition and was awarded the diploma prize at the First International Competition for Young Pianists in Memory of Vladimir Horowitz (1995). She made concert trips to the United States in 1991 and 1996, and to France in 1994.

In addition to her experience as a performer, Elena is a qualified piano teacher, accompanist, and chamber musician. Since her arrival in Canada in 2002, she has been teaching and accompanying the Kitchener Waterloo Philharmonic Chamber Singers as well as vocal students and faculty at Wilfrid Laurier University. She has performed for the K-W Chamber Music Society, at Centre in the Square (Kitchener), Roy Thomson Hall (Toronto), Maureen Forrester Hall (Waterloo), and River Run Centre (Guelph). In 2003 she was featured on Rogers Cable TV.

Cheryl Duvall
Cheryl Duvall began her studies privately in Oshawa with Jane Piersma and Anna Laird before attending Wilfrid Laurier University. In 2006, she completed a BMus with distinction in both Piano Performance and Music Theory. Currently, Cheryl keeps a busy performing schedule as the accompanist of the Grand Philharmonic Children's Choir and the Addison Women's Choir. She also performs regularly with the Impulse choir in St. Catherine's, and as a soloist, chamber musician and accompanist for singers and instrumentalists throughout Kitchener/Waterloo.