ADJUDICATOR BIOGRAPHIES

Marlene Finn - PianoA native of Ottawa, Marlene Finn earned her Doctor of Musical Arts in Performance from the Université de Montréal.An active teacher, adjudicator and performer, Marlene is a faculty member at the Conservatoire de musique du Québecin Gatineau where she has been serving as Professor of Piano since 1986. Her duties have also included teaching musicand piano literature, collaborative piano as well as coaching chamber music ensembles. Prior to her position at theConservatoire, she has taught at Queen’s University in Kingston and at the Université de Montréal. A highlyappreciated pedagogue, she is regularly invited to give master classes and adjudicate competitions and exams acrossCanada. Many of her students have been the recipients of prestigious awards and scholarships and have been acceptedin the finest music schools in the United States and in Europe.

Her piano teachers have included Dr. Natalie Pépin and the late Yvonne Hubert in Montreal as well as Martin Caninin New York. She has participated in numerous master classes and piano seminars in the United States and in Europewhere she had the opportunity of studying with Paul Badura-Skoda, Jorg Demus, Leon Fleisher, Bela Siki andMenahem Pressler among others.

Marlene has performed as a soloist, collaborative pianist and chamber musician in Canada, the United States and inEurope and has been heard on CBC and the SRC. Since 2001, she especially enjoys her collaboration with pianist andcolleague Pierre-Richard Aubin. They regularly perform four-hand and two piano repertoire, including transcriptionsof major orchestral works.

Donna Garner - VoiceToronto based Singer/Actor/Musician Donna Garner was raised on a dairy farm near Stratford, Ontario as the youngestof thirteen children in a home filled with music. Her classical musical studies took her to Western University, TheUniversity of Toronto and to the AIMS Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria.

Donna works as an actor, a singer, a pianist and multi-instrumentalist. Her performing has taken her across Canada,the U.S. and Austria in such roles as Baruška in Once The Musical, Thea in Two Pianos, Four Hands, Vi Petty inBuddy: The Buddy Holly Story, Fräulein Schneider in Cabaret and Fairy Godmother for Disney, to name a few.

When not on stage, Donna is in demand as a voice specialist for masterclasses, lectures, adjudicating, private voicelessons, repertoire coaching, accompanying, and as a Music Director. She has been a member of the College ofExaminers for the Royal Conservatory of Music since 1997 and is on the Voice Faculty for the prestigious SheridanCollege Musical Theatre program.

Corey Gemmell - StringsCorey Lyle Gemmell, violinist, is a native of Hamilton, Ontario. He has distinguished himself as a soloist and chambermusician with performances in Canada, Germany, the United States and China. Concerto appearances includeperformances of such works as Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, Mozart’s SinfoniaConcertante, Beethoven Triple Concerto, Beethoven Violin Concerto, Sibelius Violin Concerto, Brahms ViolinConcerto and Brahms Concerto for Violin and Cello. 20th Century solos with orchestra include Mozetich’s Affairsof the Heart for Violin and Orchestra and Vaughn Williams’ The Lark Ascending.

Mr. Gemmell is concertmaster of the Mississauga Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Hamilton Orchestra and theScarborough Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also performed in this role with the Boris Brott National AcademyOrchestra, Toronto Mendelssohn Choir Orchestra, and Esprit Orchestra. He performs frequently with the TorontoSymphony Orchestra and the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra.

Corey Gemmell was concertmaster for the fall CBC television production of Over the Rainbow with Sir Andrew LloydWeber. He has performed as concertmaster for a number of musicals including recent productions of Beauty and theBeast,the Hugh Jackman Show and Next to Normal and has worked with such pop icons as Hugh Jackman and ChantalKreviazuk. Mr. Gemmell was concertmaster for the 2010 production of Miss Saigon at the Four Seasons Centre andthe 2009/2010 production of the Sound of Music at the Princess of Wales. He is also active in commercial studio workin Toronto and has recorded for numerous movies and commercials.

Mr. Gemmell can be heard on compact disc in recordings of sonatas by Brahms, Ravel, Robert A. Baker, David Eagleand Hope Lee. He was one of the contributing artists to record the Royal Conservatory of Music’s newly releasedviolin syllabus on compact disc.

Much in demand as a teacher, Mr. Gemmell’s students have distinguished themselves at provincial and nationalcompetitions. He is presently on faculty at the Western University, the National Music Camp of Canada and is amember of the Royal College of Examiners.

Martha Gregory - Rising Star and Shield CompetitionsMartha Gregory was born in Rochester, New York where she studied violin, piano and voice at the Hochstein Schoolof Music, Eastman School of Music and Roberts Wesleyan College. Her Conservatory and University classes includedchamber, choral and orchestral work and she enjoyed many years playing with the Rochester Youth Orchestra and theHochstein Symphony. To help pay for all this, she worked in the offices of the schools which gave her the basis forher festival work. Martha also spent many years accompanying Suzuki classes, voice students and ballet classes.Inspired by her first voice teacher, Lois Gilbert, Martha always knew her passion was teaching.

After moving to Canada, she established a private studio in Pickering, Ontario that she still maintains. She currentlyperforms with the Ontario Philharmonic Orchestra and is principal violinist with the Hamstrings of Durham Trio. Shehas been an active freelance performer in classical voice, music theatre, violin and piano.

Martha has been involved with music festivals for the last 28 years and has been Executive Director of the PickeringGTA Music Festival for 15 years. She is in her 7 th year as President of the Ontario Music Festivals Association andhas enjoyed adjudicating all across Canada. Adjudicating has become her new passion and she is inspired by theperformances and feedback from all of the people she has met throughout Canada.