2025 Wendy Brook Music Festival Concert of the Stars. March 19 @ A.L Horton School
2025 Festival Adjudicators
Mhairi Berg - Speech arts
Mhairi Berg is a multi-faceted artist who has enjoyed a successful career as both a performer and educator within music and theatre. Mhairi holds an MA in Music Theatre Performance from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She has won Sterling Awards for Ride The Cyclone (SatCo/Uniform Theatre) and for her original score composition for Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play (You Are Here Theatre/Blarney Productions), and is an award winning improviser. Theatre credits include her original Sterling nominated musical Morningside Road (Morningside Road Productions), The 11 O’Clock Number, Die Harsh (Grindstone Theatre), The Matrixx, Gatsby’s Cabaret, Alison Wunderland (Spotlight Cabaret), Cinderella and Matilda Jr. (Festival Players).
Aside from performing, Mhairi works professionally as a vocal coach, director, theatre educator, choreographer and musical director and has had the pleasure of working with vocal students of all ages in the styles of classical, pop, and musical theatre. She has been a theatre educator for Theatre Alberta’s Artstrek, the Citadel Theatre, Choir Alberta, as well as many schools across Alberta. Mhairi brings a unique pedagogy to her students that has been inuenced by the diverse music education she has received globally. She has used her training as a coach and adjudicator across the province and hopes to continue to inspire young performers for years to come. She encourages artists to never stop educating themselves within their art, to develop their own style, and to bring their voices forward.
Thomas (Tom) Spila - BAND Performance
Tom Spila, a graduate of the University of Alberta, recently retired after having taught music at the Elementary, Jr., & Sr. High School levels for a total of 44 years. The last 39 of those were spent at Camrose Composite High School, where the music program consisted of concert and jazz bands, mixed chorus, chamber choir and vocal jazz, as well as beginner and advanced guitar.
Student groups under his direction have been recognized at regional, provincial, and national levels. He has been the director of the Camrose & District Community Band since its inception in 1983, is a past recipient of the Tommy Banks Award from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, was presented with the Vondis Miller Legacy Award in 2004, and is a member of the International Bandmasters Fraternity: Phi Beta Mu – Mu Alpha Chapter. He has been recognized for his work by Alberta Education, the University of Alberta (Augustana Faculty), the Alberta Band Association, the Alberta Choral Federation, the City of Camrose, the Alberta Government, and the Governor General of Canada. In 2017 and 2024, he directed the Southern Alberta Jr. High School Honour Band for the Alberta Band Association.
Mr. Spila has been active as an adjudicator, guest conductor, workshop clinician, and has served on the boards of the Alberta Band Association and Choir Alberta. Most recently he was recognized by the Alberta Band Association with an Honorary Lifetime Member Award. He is honoured to have been invited to be an adjudicator for this year’s Wendy Brook Music Festival and looks forward to working with everyone.
Mireille Rijavec - Voice
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 on the 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 was their Executive Director. She was also a member of the Edmonton Arts Council board from 2018 to 2024. 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’s Chamber Choir of Edmonton Metropolitan Chorus in 2023 and 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.
Katherine (Katie) Tilbury - Piano Performance
Katherine Tilbury is an expressive pianist who is passionate about collaborative piano and youth education. Born and raised in Lacombe, Alberta, Katherine began studying piano at age five. She completed her Bachelor of Music degree with a concentration in piano from the University of Alberta, where she studied under Dr. Patricia Tao, and holds a Music Diploma in Piano Performance from Red Deer College.
Katherine is a versatile pianist and has studied contemporary, jazz and classical repertoire. She maintains an active private piano studio with over twenty-five students and is extremely passionate about music education. This dedication is shown not only through teaching studio lessons and masterclasses, but through her positions at The King’s University and Concordia University where she works with instrumentalists both in studio classes, and as a recital partner. Through her work as a freelance soloist and collaborator, Katherine has enjoyed playing wonderful works of choral repertoire with choirs in Edmonton, including Kapella Kyrie Slavic Chamber Choir, Edmonton Children’s Choirs, A Joyful Noise Choirs, and the Archbishop Jordan Choirs. Her most recent projects include acting as Music Director for Archbishop Jordan High School’s senior production of Little Women and Repetiteur for Pop Goes the Opera's production of Suor Angelica in 2022. When she isn’t at the piano, you can find Katherine in her painting studio.
Melody Kostiuk - UKrainian Arts
Melody has been an educator for 40 years. She graduated from the University of Saskatchewan
with a B.A. and B. Ed with a major in Ukrainian and minor in music. She completed a Master of
Education from the University of Alberta in second language teaching and learning. She was a
teacher in the Ukrainian bilingual program at Peter Svarich School and Father Kenneth Kearns
School in Elk Island Catholic Schools. After leaving the classroom, Melody worked with Edmonton
Public Schools as a bilingual consultant and completed her career in education working as the
Senior Manager for International Languages in the Curriculum Department at Alberta Education.
Throughout her teaching career she also taught music and directed several choirs. Melody has sung
in several vocal ensembles and has been a chorister with Viter Ukrainian Folk Choir for the past 15
years.