About the Children's & Youth Choir Conductors
Andrea de Boer-Jones
is an active music educator, choral clinican, choral and voice
adjudicator, and musician. Over the past 10 years she been the Director
of Vocal Music in several private schools across Ontario and Quebec,
and conducted children and youth choirs at Albert College, Trinity
College, and the Senior CISMF Choir at Roy Thompson Hall. Currently Ms. de Boer-Jones leads the Junior/Intermediate music program at Hitherfield Prepatory School, and the choir at Wellington Hall Academy.
As a singer, she maintains an busy performance schedule as a member of the Elora Festival Singers (EFS) . This season’s EFS schedule is highlighted by a exciting Western Canada performance tour and two recordings.
In recent years, Ms de Boer-Jones has been a core member of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, a guest soloist featured in several shows with the popular Words and Music series in Cobourg, and played lead musical theatre roles in “Cabaret” and “Into The Woods.”
She is thrilled to be conducting the Grand Philharmonic Children’s Choir.
Gordon Burnett
brings a wealth of experience to his role as conductor of the Grand
Philharmonic Youth Choir. Since 2001, he has been the conductor of the
University of Waterloo Choir. He has also conducted the Milton Choristers, the Jubilate Singers, the Royal Conservatory of Music and the choir at St. Andrew’s Church in Guelph.
Since 1995, Burnett has performed regularly with Tactus, an eight-person vocal ensemble that specializes in repertoire of the European Renaissance. He has also performed with the Elora Festival Singers, the Elmer Iseler Singers and Tafelmusik Chamber Choir.
Mr. Burnett has built the membership of the University of Waterloo Choir from 50 to close to 100 singers over the last nine years. Choir audiences have also grown steadily since he became conductor.
The University Choir has successfully produced many full-scale large works with orchestra including Vivaldi Gloria, Bach Magnificat, Handel Messiah, Mozart Requiem and Schubert Mass in G. Theme concerts have included Paul Halley’s Misa Gaia, Circlesong (a work based on Native North American writings) by Bob Chilcott and works by many Canadian composers including premiers by Barrie Cabena, Robert Evans and Boyd MacDonald.
