2022 ADJUDICATORS

BALLET & MODERN DANCE

Sarah Brewer Clowes 

   Sarah has taught in BC for over 39 years and has guest taught in Europe, America and across Canada. She is a ballet teacher at Harbour Dance Centre and regularly guest teaches throughout the Lower Mainland, most notably for Joanne Pesusich’s The Source Dance Company. 

   Sarah formerly served as the Assistant Ballet Mistress to the Professional Program in Banff, a sessional faculty member at SFU, a senior faculty member at Main Dance Place, a senior ballet teacher with Spiral Dance Co., a contemporary and senior ballet teacher at the Tri-City Dance Centre, and ballet teacher at K & S Dance.

    Sarah has been choreographing professionally for over 30 years. She holds her specially designed Injury Prevention/Mental Health and Wellness workshops for dancers as well as to mentor young professional dancers and teachers on their journey.  

   Sarah danced professionally with the Munich Ballet, Northwest Florida Ballet, the Banff Festival Ballet and The Vancouver Opera. As an independent performing artist, from 1989 to 2016, she worked with esteemed choreographers including Gioconda Barbuto, Cori Caulfield, David Earle, Naomi Lefebvre, Crystal Pite and Wen Wei Wang. Sarah loves the passionate expression and empowering artistry that sharing dance as a teacher, choreographer and performer can offer.

STAGE DANCE 

Jen Morris

    Jen is an accomplished, award-winning teacher and choreographer.

   She has worked in a wide range of the performing arts including dance, theatre, film, modelling and adjudicating.  She is proud to have spent many years training and competing at the national level throughout Canada and the United States with an abundance of acclaimed teachers.

    In 2003 Jen moved to Vancouver to attend the theatre program at SFU’s School for Contemporary Arts and spent the next decade immersed in the British Columbia acting community while also nurturing her flourishing teaching career throughout Vancouver and the Lower Mainland.  Jen is a certified CDTA, CDMA and RWID teacher who has built her reputation on creating fun and innovated pieces. She brings her passion for dance to every class she leads while striving to instil each student with strong technique, grace and discipline while always remembering the importance of fun and laughter. 
    Jen has had the great honour to train, mentor and inspire countless students over the years, many of whom are now teachers, choreographers and professional dancers around the world. Recently, Jen returned from Asia where she was invited to be a guest faculty member at Ho Chi Minh City’s Dancentre Vietnam.

Instrumental

TBA   

JUNIOR PIANO

Carter Johnson

  Praised for his sensitivity and artistic depth, Carter Johnson has established himself as one of Canada’s most exciting young pianists. Most recently, he was the first prize winner in the 2021 International Stanislaw Moniuszko International Competition of Polish Music as well as the first prize winner of the 2020 Valsesia International Competition. In 2018, Johnson won the top prize in two of Canada's most important competitions, winning both Grand Prize in the OSM Manulife Competition as well as first prize in the CMC Stepping Stone competition.

   He has performed with orchestras including l’Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, l’Orchestre Métropolitain, the Orchestra of the Americas, and the Victoria Symphony Orchestra, and his playing has been broadcasted by Medici TV and Radio-Canada.

     Johnson holds a BMus from the University of British Columbia under Mark Anderson, and an MM from the Juilliard School under Matti Raekallio and Joseph Kalichstein. 

     Johnson is currently completing an MMA at the Yale School of Music with Wei-Yi Yang. He lives with his wife Hannah and their sons Preston and Ambrose in New Haven, Connecticut where he is active as a performing artist and teacher.

Senior Piano

Greg Caisley

   Dr. Greg Caisley completed his Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Keyboard Collaborative Arts at the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles, working with Dr. Alan Smith. Earlier studies included two years of Aufbaustudium in Germany, as well as special studies and concerts in Vienna, Banff, and throughout the US. Since moving to Vancouver in 2006, Dr. Caisley has worked and performed for many music institutions around Vancouver, including the Vancouver Academy of Music, City Opera Vancouver, and UBC. In addition, he has made several CD albums, tours, and even music videos across western Canada. He has collaborated with some outstanding musicians over his career, including Martin Katz, Heinrich Schiff, Michael Uhde, Elly Ameling, Kevin Fitzgerald, Robert Höll, Tracy Dahl, Ruth Golden, Rudolf Janzen, and Hans Hotter. 

    Dr. Caisley has taught both solo and collaborative piano for 15 years in his private studio. In addition to his career as a performance artist and piano teacher, Greg  has worked extensively as a vocal coach and répétiteur. He has worked for opera companies, and coached over 50 classically trained singers. 

   Dr. Caisley has a career spanning almost 15 years as the Music Director in three major United Churches in the Vancouver Region.

Speech & dramatic arts

Mike Stack

   Mike is a Vancouver-based teaching artist, adjudicator, performer and director with over 30 years of professional experience. 

   As a performer he has worked with many of the city’s companies, including Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival, Arts Club Theatre, Axis Theatre, Touchstone, Ruby Slippers, Pi Theatre, and the Vancouver Playhouse, among others.  
   Mike has been fortunate to have had the opportunity to tour with theatre productions throughout North America as well as overseas to Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, and Israel.  His extensive experience with young people includes 15 years as coordinator of the Young Shakespeareans Summer Workshops program at Bard on the Beach, director for Theatre Temp at Templeton Secondary in East Vancouver, student performer coordinator and director with Mortal Coil Performance Society’s Stanley Park Hallowe’en Ghost Train, and guest director with Smithers Secondary.  Since 2002 he has led ongoing Shakespeare workshops throughout the Lower Mainland for the Homelearning community. 
   Mike is a multiple Jessie Richardson Theatre Award nominee and recipient, and a graduate of the Studio 58 Professional Theatre Training Program at Langara College.

Strings & guitar

Tyson Doknjas

     Campbell River native, Tyson Doknjas, is an active freelance violinist and private teacher in Victoria. He is a member of the Victoria Symphony and performs with various groups on Vancouver Island, including Pacific Opera Victoria, Victoria Baroque, Pacific Baroque Festival, and Aventa Ensemble.

     He studied violin performance at the University of Victoria with Sharon Stanis of the Lafayette String Quartet. Tyson has participated in various orchestral programs across the country, including the National Academy Orchestra in Hamilton, Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute in Toronto, and Symphony Orchestra Academy of the Pacific in Powell River.

     In addition to playing in various orchestral ensembles, Tyson performs concerts with his wife, co-member of Sombrio Duo, for those isolated from the arts community with the help of the Health Arts Society.

     As an avid music educator, Tyson worked as a string mentor through the University of Victoria where he worked at grade schools across the greater Victoria region. He also was a coach for the Sooke String Academy as well as a teacher for the Harmony Project in Sooke, BC. On multiple occasions, he has also served as a string sectional coach for the Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra.  

Voice 

Kevin Zakresky

   Kevin is a vocalist, choir director and orchestral conductor from Vancouver. He teaches singing at the Vancouver Symphony School of Music and tours the world as a conductor for the National Geographic Symphony, Zelda Symphony of the Goddesses, Heroes Symphony and others. In Vancouver he directs the Players & Singers Ensemble as well as the Vancouver Women’s Chorus.

    Past jobs include teaching positions at SFU and Douglas College, Assistant Conductor of Chor Leoni Men’s Choir, director of the Pacifica Singers, and Conductor of the Prince George Symphony Orchestra. He received his Doctorate from Yale University in 2012.