Frédérique Vézina

Luke Bell

Celebrated for her warm voice and sense of dramatic immediacy, Canadian soprano Frédérique Vézina has performed with many opera companies including the Canadian Opera Company, Washington National Opera, and the opera companies of Vancouver, Montreal, Edmonton, Calgary, Victoria and Quebec.

A native of Montreal, Mrs Vézina's formal studies include a B.Mus from McGill University and post-graduate studies in Opera from The Juilliard School of Music. She is also an alumna of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio and Festival International d'Art Lyrique d'Aix-en- Provence. The recipient of a significant Canada Council Career Development Grant in support of her two-year residency at The Juilliard School of Music, she is also grateful for the J-B-C Watkins and Bernard- Diamant prizes awarded to her by the Canada Council for the Arts.

Mrs Vézina has collaborated with internationally renowned conductors and orchestras. She was featured by Opera Companies in Canada and abroad and also illustrated herself on the Recital and Oratorio stage throughout her career.

After several years teaching voice at Western University, she has been on the Voice Faculty of the University of Toronto since 2013. Mrs Vézina enjoys serving as adjudicator and master class clinician. Her students have performed with young artist programs and professional opera houses in North America and Europe. 

Mrs Vézina is also privileged to be a contributor for the Opera Canada magazine. 
 

Pianist Luke Bell was born in Belleville, Ontario. He completed a Bachelor of Music in piano performance at the University of Ottawa, where he studied with Stéphane Lemelin and David Jalbert, and a Master of Music and Graduate Diploma in piano performance from McGill, where he studied with Ilya Poletaev. 

Luke is active in the contemporary and Canadian music scenes. Recent performances include the Grieg Piano Concerto with the Quinte Symphony, concerts in the eastern and southern US with the Rosemont Trio (of which he is a founding member), a recital at the Prince Edward County Music Festival, a recital in New York City with cellist Josh Morris, and a debut solo recital at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. 

Luke has collaborated with several important Canadian and international musicians, including oboist Vincent Boilard, clarinettist Sean Rice, violinist Amy Hillis, bassist Ali Kian Yazdanfar pianists Stéphane Lemelin, Brigitte Poulin and Frédéric Lacroix, sopranos Elizabeth McDonald and Hélène Brunet and renowned baritone Gino Quilico, as well as Juno Award winning composer Marjan Mozetich. 

Luke is passionate about contemporary and Canadian music, and has given premieres of many compositions of student and professional composers. He has also appeared at the Westben Festival Arts Theatre in Campellford, Ontario, and at the Music and Beyond Festival in Ottawa. Luke has participated in summer music programs in Canada, the United States and France, and in masterclasses with pianists including Janina Fialkowska, André Laplante, Robert McDonald and Malcolm Bilson. Luke currently resides in Montreal working as a collaborative pianist and chamber musician, and maintains a separate career in the digital marketing industry.

Garry Page

Mr. Garry Page holds Honours music degrees in Trumpet Performance, Academics and Teaching from the Birmingham Conservatoire of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, England.

He immigrated to Canada in 1997 at which point he became a member of the Stratford Festival Orchestra. He has performed as soloist at Toronto Centre for the Performing Arts, Roy Thomson Hall, and Massey Hall, River Run Centre, Guelph and in the U.K., at Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Buckingham Palace, Clarence House, Kensington Palace, and Symphony Hall,
Birmingham. Mr. Page is the founder and Principal Trumpet of the award-winning Brass Pages Quintet and trumpet and organ duo Page Two. Academy, Juno nominated and winning recordings include numerous soundtracks for the motion picture and video game industries, Ubisoft, EMI, Decca, Hyperion, CBC, Sony, and Naxos classical discs, pop, jazz-fusion, Latin and blues for Blue Note and Verve. Mr. Page has broadcast for national and local radio stations in the U.K., Europe, Asia, U.S. and Canada with appearances on BBC, Central, Global, NBC, CBS, PBS, ABC and CBC television networks as well as BBC and CBC radio.

Mr. Page is an award-winning music educator who has had articles on music published by the Royal Conservatory of Music, Conservatory Canada, Associated Board of the Royal Schools of
Music, The WholeNote and has written music critiques for local and national newspapers. He is active as a freelance performer, teacher, adjudicator, clinician, university lecturer, and examiner. Mr. Page has also received an Education Community Service Award for twenty years as the Royal Conservatory of Music Centre Representative for Stratford, Ontario.

For eight years, Mr. Page was tutor of brass at Kingsway College School, Etobicoke and was Director of the KCS Kool Cats Jazz Ensemble. He has served as interim Head of Music for Greenwood College School, Toronto. For over a decade he has served as the On-Site Director of Lake Field Music Camp formerly CAMMAC Ontario at Lakefield College School each August. Mr. Page is also Director of the New Horizons Band of Toronto’s Concert Band, an ensemble specifically designed for adult pedagogy and performance.

On numerous occasions Mr. Page has conducted the Conference of Independent Schools Music Festival All-Star Jazz Band Symphonic and Wind Ensemble at Roy Thomson Hall and is enjoying his fifteenth year association with St. Andrew’s College, Aurora, currently serving as Director of Bands with the SAC Jazz Band and SAC Wind Ensemble and Director of the St. Andrew’s Academy of Music. In April 2022, Mr. Page made his debut at Carnegie Hall, New York, representing Canada, with the St. Andrew’s College Wind Ensemble and Pipes and Drums.