We are pleased to introduce our adjudicators for 2024
Mireille Rijavec – Voice Adjudicator
Mezzo-soprano Mireille Rijavec has been heard on the CBC as a soloist and has appeared with Pop Goes the Opera, the Alberta Baroque Ensemble, the Richard Eaton Singers, Pro Coro Canada and the Edmonton Metropolitan Orchestra, among others. Theatre being her first love, Mireille has found a number of ways of involving song in theatre works, such as her cabaret Brie, Baguette and a Broad that she has been presenting for 15 years, and a number of collaborative works such as A Most Beautiful Deception, a play based on the poetry by Melissa Lacroix and Lost in Montmartre, a play about a fictional wake for Érik Satie, all presented at the Edmonton Fringe.
Mireille has a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of British Columbia. She was Music Faculty at the University of Alberta’s Campus Saint-Jean from 1999 to 2012 and was on staff at Concordia University of Edmonton from 2006 to 2016 as a voice instructor, Manager and Program Coordinator of Concordia’s School of Music. Mireille was a member of Edmonton’s professional choir Pro Coro Canada for many years and from 2016 to 2019, their Executive Director. In June of 2018, she was elected to the Edmonton Arts Council.
Mireille continues to act as a consultant for not-for-profit organizations. Mireille is the vocal pedagogue and alto vocal coach for the Edmonton Metropolitan Chorus and has conducted the Women of Edmonton Metropolitan Chorus in 2023 and will again in February 2024. She teaches voice privately and works with students of all levels, from children to adults and stresses the importance of being able to read music, healthy vocal technique grounded in physiology, and ultimately the joy of communicating through song.
Mireille’s students are active singers in the community, and many have continued their vocal studies in classical voice and musical theatre in post-secondary institutions across Canada and the United States. Mireille is a member of the CMFAA (Canadian Music Festival Adjudicators Association), ARMTA (Alberta Registered Music Teachers Association), NATS (National Association of Teacher of Singing) and is an Affiliate Member of the Association for Body Mapping Educators.
David Lum – Instrumental and Band Adjudicator
David Lum is a graduate of the University of Toronto (Mus. Bac. /Ed. 1988, B. Ed. 1990) and completed the Graduate Diploma program in Wind Conducting at the University of Calgary in the summer of 2001. He is a past conductor of the Scarborough Schools Symphonic Band and Wind Symphony. David served as the Conductor of the Northern Ontario Music Festival Honor Band from 2008-2011 and is a past conductor of the Toronto Youth Concert Winds, and Assistant Conductor of the Toronto Youth Wind Orchestra. In June of 2016, David was featured as a Guest Conductor for TYWO’s 25th Anniversary Tour of New York City, culminating in a performance at Carnegie Hall. Having served on the board of the Ontario Music Educators’ Association (OMEA) from 2000 to 2015, David initiated the creation of the Awards and Scholarships Committee in 2004, serving as Chair of the committee until 2014. A Past President and Founding Director of the Ontario Band Association (OBA), David currently serves as President of the Lambda Iota chapter of Phi Beta Mu International Bandmasters’ Fraternity. Other professional affiliations/memberships include the Canadian Band Association, and the Canadian Music Educators’ Association (CMEA). In 2009, David received an Honorary Life Membership from the Ontario Band Association, and in May of the same year, was awarded the Keith Mann Outstanding Band Director Award at MusicFest Canada’s “The Nationals”. In December 2012, he was inducted as a Laureate of the Legion of Honor for the John Philip Sousa Society. In November 2022 David was awarded an Honorary Life Membership to the Ontario Music Educators’ Association. An active adjudicator and clinician, David has worked with students from across Canada and the United States. In December of 2022, he served as judge for the Senior Band class of the 2022 CBC Canadian Music Class Challenge.
In February of 2021, David retired from the Toronto District School Board after a 30-year career with the TDSB. During that time, he was Band Director at Bliss Carman Senior Public School and Curriculum Leader of Music at Agincourt Collegiate Institute. Currently, David is the Course Director of the Music Qualifications Course (J/I/S) for the Faculty of Education, and teaches the Low Brass studio for the School of Arts, Media, Performance and Design at York University.
David is a Conn-Selmer Educational Clinician.
Janna Olson – Piano Adjudicator
Originally from Three Hills, Alberta, Janna Olson holds degrees in church music and piano performance and a Masters in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Alberta where she studied with Janet Scott-Hoyt. She is also certified in Piano and Early Childhood Music with the Gordon Institute for Music Learning.
Performing, adjudicating, and giving workshops have provided diverse opportunities for her to share her love of music in Canada, the United States and Europe. Janna currently resides in Edmonton teaching privately and as a sessional instructor at The King’s University. She is on the faculty of the Gordon Institute for Music Learning and is passionate about connecting piano pedagogy with recent research on how the musical mind works. She enjoys playing chamber music and frequently performs piano duet and duo repertoire. An outdoors enthusiast Janna spends time hiking, skiing and most recently learning to play disc golf.