Tamar Simon - Voice and Speech Arts
Heralded for her “clear vibrant tone” (Opera Canada), Tamar Simon is an Armenian-Canadian soprano based in Montréal, Québec. She has been featured in many leading roles, including Adina (L’elisir d’amore), Musetta (La bohème), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), and Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), which she performed in Highlands Opera Studio’s 2021 production. Tamar has sung as a soloist with Vancouver Opera, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Okanagan Symphony Orchestra, Toronto City Opera and Burnaby Lyric Opera.
Tamar has also been seen on international stages, including appearances as Zerlina (Don Giovanni) in Kona, Hawaii and as Calisto (La Calisto) in Sulmona, Italy. She sang the role of Clorinda (La Cenerentola) with the Lunenburg Academy of Music and reprised the role later that summer with the Brott Opera Music Festival. Tamar is a District Winner and an Encouragement Award Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and she is a graduate of the University of British Columbia’s Master of Music program.
Tamar continued her vocal and art song studies in Austria after receiving the Johann Strauss Foundation Scholarship, which sponsored her study at the Internationale Sommerakademie Mozarteum. She is currently pursuing her Doctorate of Vocal Arts at the University of British Columbia
Dennis Colpitts -Instrumental
Dennis Colpitts is a graduate from the Department of Music, University of British Columbia, 1976. He has taught music in the Lower Mainland and Okanagan at all levels of the school system.
Mr. Colpitts has been second chair in the horn section of the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra for 23 years and plays regularly with the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra. He also plays trumpet in the Fish On Five Brass Quintet and the Okanagan Jazz Festival Big Band.
Dennis retired in 2011 after 34 years of teaching, but keeps busy by volunteering in the schools and working with the Okanagan Symphony Youth Orchestra.
Joanne Gibson Menzies - Dance
Joanne has been dancing for most of her life, with a teaching career spanning over 40 years. Her training spans from England to Los Angeles, California, with a repertoire that includes ballet, modern, contemporary, jazz, tap, and National dance. She is a graduate of Ryerson Polytechnic University/Canadian College of Dance in Toronto, where she obtained her Royal Academy of Dance Teacher Credentials in ballet and her ISTD credentials in Modern and National Dance. She holds the Licentiate designation with the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dance, London, in ballet and the Advanced Teaching Certificate RAD. She is an experienced adjudicator and producer of dance productions and dance festivals.
Joanne has taught in Toronto and the Lower Mainland for the past 40 years at various schools, as well as her own, and currently runs the ladies’ dance group, Dance Divas, in Abbotsford. She has danced professionally in Toronto with Dance Breakers, Folk Ballet Theatre, and Capricho Español. Joanne also holds her Pilates Level One Certification and a 200 Hour Yoga Teacher qualification, as recognized by the International Yoga Alliance. She currently guest teaches at various schools in the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley areas and resides in Abbotsford with her husband and two grown children, Cale, her son, and Marissa, her daughter.
Paul Dykstra - Piano
Paul Dykstra has been a performing artist in North America for over 35 years. Musically nurtured and trained in Canada, in Edmonton and at the University of Alberta with Helmut Brauss; his subsequent ventures took him to Northern BC and Alberta, and then to the US, where he lived for 20 years. American performance credits include recording with clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, performances of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with Abendmusik Philharmonic in 2016, and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto #1 with the Great Bay Philharmonic in 2018. Further concerto collaborations have included Beethoven’s Fourth Concerto with the Prince George Symphony, and Mozart’s Concerto for two pianos with the Granite State Symphony in New Hampshire. Paul has frequently participated in chamber music collaborations with renowned New England artists, and in many solo concerts in Canada and the United States.
Paul was a finalist in the American Prize Concerto Competition 2017. He has toured with NYC Living Arts Company in performances of Gershwin’s “ Porgy and Bess “ in the US and Trinidad, and played keyboards for the disco band Tavares’ reunion in Atlantic City. Other endeavours of note include his engagement as Musical Director for the opera “Grace” by Roger Rudenstein in Boston. After relocating to his native Canada in 2020, he now resides in Kelowna and continues an active musical career, including performing, mentoring, teaching, arranging, and musical collaborations of all kinds. Paul is on the Faculty of the Kelowna Community Music School, and is a member of the College of Examiners of the Royal Conservatory. He has been, and continues to be, active as a Festival Adjudicator throughout North America.
