Home

Deborah Griffin — Choir Director
  • Music Specialist Teacher with the Toronto District School Board - 21 years
  • Piano Associateship, Royal Conservatory of Music - private piano teacher for eight years

Ms. Griffin has extensive vocal music teaching and choral experience. Her large school choirs performed at Massey Hall, Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto Centre for the Arts, the Kiwanis Festival, etc. In her teaching career, she attended a large number of workshops and conferences both as participant and presenter. Ms. Griffin also wrote music curriculum and directed many musical plays, including a whole-school production of "Carnival of the Animals" in 2001.

Halyna Popenko — Piano

Halyna Popenko holds Diplomas Cum Laude in Piano, Theory, History and Musicology from the State Music College and State Music Conservatory in Lviv, Ukraine. Ms. Popenko has over thirty years of teaching experience in piano, theory, solfeggio and musicianship. A dedicated and understanding teacher, she enjoys working with musicians of all ages and levels. Halyna’s goal is to discover and develop the musical potential of each of her students.

Ongoing professional development includes studies in Piano Pedagogy with Dr. Janet Lopinski at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and Theoretical studies with Mr. Joe Ringhofer at the Phoenix Conservatory

Jamie Ruben — Guitar

Majored in jazz performance in the Humber College music program. Between 2000 and 2003 he toured extensively in North America and Europe with his jazz trio (Ruben’s Exotic Ranch), featuring his own original compositions. Mr. Ruben is experienced in improvisation, composition, performance and ensemble work, and performs blues, reggae, pop, rock, funk both solo and in a variety of bands around the world. Mr. Ruben has participated in several jazz festivals throughout North America

Amanda Penner — Violin

Amanda Penner is an orchestral and chamber musician and holds a Bachelor of Music degree in violin performance from the University of Manitoba and an M.A. in viola performance from the University of Toronto.

As a performer, Ms. Penner has a wide range of interests and experiences. She has played most recently for Orchestra London, Sudbury Symphony Orchestra, Canadian Sinfonietta, and Feu Noire String Quartet. Her abilities also include improvising, arranging string parts and recording as a session player for various singer-songwriters, electronic musicians and bands, as well as Multibeat Music and Ivory Storm Productions.

As a teacher, Ms. Penner is trained in the Suzuki method, and taught at the Huntsville Suzuki School, where she taught private and group lessons, chamber music, outreach music programs in the schools and theory. She has just recently moved back to Toronto where she is continuing her teaching career in her own studio and in a variety of music schools.

Andrea Budgey — Recorder

Andrea Budgey received a BMus (Dalhousie) and an MMus (Toronto) in oboe, and has performed as a chamber and orchestral musician in Toronto since 1983. She is a founding member of the SINE NOMINE Ensemble for Medieval Music, in which she sings and plays recorder, harp, violin and percussion. Ms. Budgey has taught recorder in a school-board after-school programme, and has also coached recorder, oboe, fiddle, and voice privately.

Marjorie Wiens — Choir Accompanist

Marjorie Wiens holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Waterloo Lutheran University (now Sir Wilfrid Laurier University) and an ARCT from the Royal Conservatory of Music where she has been on the faculty. An experienced piano instructor, Ms. Wiens currently teaches in her own studio and is an active piano accompanist with the Toronto School Board, participating in festivals, workshops and many school music programs.

Ms. Wiens is also an accompanist for church events, voice studios and intrumentalists and is a long time member of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. Marjorie Wiens believes strongly in the value of music education as a means of enriching children's lives.