Frances recently graduated with her Doctorate of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting from the University of Toronto. Her doctoral dissertation—Improvisation in Choral Settings—was subsequently awarded the Outstanding Dissertations Award by Choral Canada in 2018.

Currently, Fran works as a choral educator with the Halifax Regional Arts program. As a choral composer, Fran’s works can be found on the Cypress Choral Music website including Winter Proverbs TTBB, which was awarded first prize in Chor Leoni’s inaugural C4 competition. Other published works include several contributions to Volume Five of the Teaching Music through Performance in Choir series (2019), an article for the book The Choral Conductor’s Companion (2020), and an article in Anacrusis (2024), Choral Canada’s national publication, which reflects Fran’s new path of inquiry as a certified Alexander Technique teacher.

As a choral clinician, Fran has been invited to work with choirs from across Canada, serving most recently as the guest conductor of the Saskatchewan Youth Choir in March 2024.

Fran is thrilled to be working with the Aeolian Singers, and looks forward to upholding the organization’s high standards of choral artistry and innovative story‑telling.

A member of the Aeolians since 1989, her fellow choristers were instrumental in her decision to study piano and voice at Dalhousie University where she received her Bachelor of Music degree in 1997. There she studied choral conducting and sang with the Dalhousie Chamber Choir under the tutelage of Dr. Walter Kemp and enjoyed performing and singing in the Opera Group with Professor Gregory Servant. She also studied composition with composer Professor Laura Hoffman.

Joanne taught voice and piano privately from 1998 through 2004 in the Halifax area, and in 2005 was appointed the Assistant Conductor of the Aeolian Singers under previous director Jackie Chambers. She has enjoyed being a part of the artistic team playing such a supportive role for various conductors as well as opportunities to arrange music for the choir.

Now blissfully retired, Joanne wishes to continue supporting the Aeolians in any way she can and also spend lots of quality time with her partner Denise and their little 12-year-old Frenchy.

Ria’s main interest has expanded from classical performances towards pedagogy, performing multi-genre and cross-genre music and incorporates such freedom in her teaching and collaborative performances. At her attendance at Domaine Forget, Shandelee Music Festival, Bowdoin Music Festival she had the opportunity to study with Yonghee Moon, Philip Chiu, John Forconi, Chiharu Iinuma.

Her passion for collaborative piano playing continues this year.

Before marriage and two kids, Jenny was a professional theatre stage manager for 10 years, working across the country for theatres such as The Stratford Festival, The Shaw Festival, Neptune Theatre, The Atlantic Theatre Festival, The Banff Centre and many more. After that whirlwind career, she transitioned into a career of event management, which she is still involved in today. In 2010, she took a break from professional work to be home with their little kids. Her family spent the next eight years in the USA living in Seattle, Washington, Santa Cruz, California and Twin Falls, Idaho as her husband Dan built his career in science. Luckily in 2018, they had an opportunity to move home to Halifax and be closer to family and friends again. After all that traveling, it’s clear that there is no better place to live than Nova Scotia!

Jenny will be reaching out regularly to update audiences on the exciting news of the choir, opportunities to get involved with the choir, and where to find out more about concerts and upcoming events. Jenny strongly believes this is a choir like no other and is in the process of evolving and setting a new bar for excellence in choral music for Nova Scotia. Under the incredible creative direction of Heather Fraser, the Aeolian Singers are on their way to redefining what choral singing can be, for audiences old and new.