Mrs. April Waterbury holds two degrees from the University of Calgary. The first being a Bachelors in Music, specializing in flute studies and secondary music education (2007). The second, she received her Bachelors of Education in the Masters of Teaching Program (2009). In the summer of 2006, she completed advanced studies in France at the Barbara Krakauer School of Music, private flute lessons throughout Italy, and completed a conducting workshop at the Interlaken International Conducting Summit in Switzerland. With a strong passion for music and education, Mrs. Waterbury began her teaching career in 2002 as a private flute and voice instructor, volunteered for an after school music club program at Lycee Louis Pasteur school, and later taught with the Bands of Calgary for twelve years, where she worked with the Calgary Stetsons Show Band and the Calgary Stampede Showband as their flute instructor, woodwind coordinator, and flute choir director. For well over a decade, April spent her free time volunteering for various music executive boards such as the Alberta International Band Festival, Calgary Association for the Development of Music Education, Alberta Winds, and donated her time to teach private flute and voice lessons to families in need. For the past seventeen years, April Waterbury has been a proud concert band, jazz band, and choral teacher. Serving for three years in the Calgary Catholic School District, twelve years at Cochrane High School in the Rockyview School Division, and is currently in her second year as the Grade 9 and Senior High School Music Director at Webber Academy. Outside of teaching, Mrs. Waterbury spends time with her husband and their three beautiful young children, and is extremely close with her family and friends. Her hobbies include cycling, yoga, pilates, photography, and enjoys performing with the Alberta Winds wind ensemble

Melissa Braun is a passionate voice teacher, music educator and community builder.

As a voice teacher, Melissa aims to help each student develop the skills and technique they need to express freely in a range of styles. She loves exploring tools that allow students to communicate narrative, character and emotion and delights in the moment when students feel they have truly conveyed meaning through their music. 

She is the founder and principal of the Squamish Academy of Music where she has successfully been fostering community and collaboration since the academy opened in 2010. As Artistic Director for the Broadway or Bust Performing Arts Program, Melissa has directed hundreds of young performers in musical theater productions. When she’s not teaching in the private studio, she is often found in the theater as a director, performer, or audience member. 

Melissa holds a Bachelor of Music in voice from Wilfrid Laurier University and a Bachelor of Education from OISE University of Toronto.  She is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, the British Columbia Teachers Federation and the SpeakEasy Cooperative and is a Gold Medal RCM teacher. She is honoured to share her approach to music education and her knowledge of the singing voice as a clinician and adjudicator throughout Western Canada.

Canadian classical guitarist Brett Gunther has been active for over 25 years, with a varied and dynamic musical career. Known for “exciting performances, thoughtful interpretations, and sensitive musicality” (thisisclassicalguitar.com) Gunther has appeared on stages throughout Western Canada as a soloist and chamber musician. He has performed with notable Canadian acts including virtuosa guitarist Iliana Matos, renowned flutist Jiajia Li, and the Calgary Festival Chorus. To date Gunther has released three albums: Distant Shores (2024), An Idea (2017), and Guitar Music (2012). The recordings explore a wide range of music including favourites from the repertoire, hidden gems, and contemporary compositions.

Brett Gunther is in demand as an educator. He is a regular adjudicator at festivals across Canada including Hamilton Guitar Festival, Ontario and British Columbia Provincial Music Competitions, and the CMC Canadian Music Competition. He has been an examiner with the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto since 2019. A passionate advocate for classical guitar in the community, Gunther is Artistic Director of the Classical Guitar Society of Calgary and Director of the annual GuitarFest West classical guitar festival.  He holds Masters and Bachelors Degrees in guitar performance from the University of Calgary.

Beyond the classical guitar world, Gunther has been featured on five commercial releases with The Buzzing Bees, Beija Flor, and SAVK. His work with these bands includes radio performances on CBC, CKUA, and CJSW and playing to an audience of thousands at the Calgary Folk Festival.

Takumi Rodgers is an emerging musician and cellist with a passion for performance and collaboration. Takumi begun cello at age 9 through a school music program before accelerating his studies in Brisbane, Australia with Lynne Backstrom at 11. He graduated from the University of Calgary’s School of Creative and Performing Arts with a Bachelor of Music in 2025 under the guidance of acclaimed pedagogue Beth Root-Sandvoss. Other significant past instructors include Luis Claret, Mark Rodgers, Brian Manker, among others. He currently studies with various instructors around Calgary and is continuing his learning with the Mount Royal University Conservatory Advanced Performance Program.

Takumi has been various opportunities and scholarships during his time in Calgary, participating in Calgary ProMusica’s 2024-2025 Dick Matthews Young Artist Development Program as the cellist of the Glacier String Quartet where his ensemble received world-class coaching from artists in the Pavel Hass Quartet and Jupiter Quartet among others. Recent accolades include winning the 2025 RBC Concerto Competition and performing with the CPO, as well as being the recipient of various generous scholarships and bursaries.

Ben Senyk is a drummer, audio engineer, and electronic music producer based in Calgary, Alberta. Ben is an alumni of the Chinook School of Music (CSM), first taking piano lessons there at a young age before gravitating towards drums. In addition to studying at CSM, Ben was involved in several ensembles during his youth: the Calgary Stampede Showband Drumline (2017–2019), the Calgary Youth Orchestra (2019–2020), and the Lord Beaverbrook and Central Memorial High School bands (2016–2019). 

Ben holds a Bachelor's Degree in Jazz Percussion from Humber College in Toronto. There, he primarily studied jazz drums, music production, and audio engineering. His teachers included Justin Gray, Marito Marques, Mike Downes, and Larnell Lewis. In his final year at Humber, Ben studied immersive audio, learning to produce and engineer for a 12-speaker surround sound environment and produced a music EP featuring himself on drums. 

Ben's current creative work combines improvised drums with electronic music. Using drum triggers and custom Max/MSP programs he builds himself, he improvises across acoustic and electronic instruments simultaneously. Professionally, Ben works as an audio engineer for music, film, and podcasts out of Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver.

Tigran began his piano studies at the Tchaikovsky Academic Music College at the Moscow State Conservatory and the Gnesins Russian Academy of Music, studying with Professors Gayane Hakhnazaryan, Natalia Trishkina, and Denis Burstein. He was actively involved in Moscow’s concert scene as both a soloist and collaborative pianist.

From 2010 to 2012, Tigran competed in several international piano competitions, winning First Prize and a Special Prize at the Città di Barletta competition in Italy, Second Prize at Renaissance in Armenia, and performing at Opus Yvelines in France.

In 2015, he moved to Canada to study with Professor Alexander Tselyakov at Brandon University, where he earned a Master of Music in Piano Performance, graduating with a gold medal. While at Brandon, Tigran collaborated with leading Manitoba musicians, including Catherine Wood, Kerry DuWors, and Leanne Zacharias. He won the MRMTA Piano Competition in 2016 and. As the winner of the 2017 Concerto Competition, Tigran performed Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto with the Brandon University Orchestra. In 2016, he toured with Alexander Tselyakov across Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and in 2017, appeared at the Brandon Clarinet Festival performing with Tory Okwabi (St. Cloud State University).

He has since performed in concerts across Alberta, British Columbia, Russia, Mexico, and the United States. In 2019, he appeared at the 15th Pender Harbour Chamber Music Festival alongside some of Canada’s leading musicians. In 2021, he joined Calgary’s Mountain View Festival (Artistic Directors: Charles Foreman and Kathleen van Mourik), performing in the Isolation Point Project concert series. That same year, he was also named a finalist in the Vancouver International Music Competition.

In 2025, Tigran completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance at the University of Western Ontario with Leslie Kinton and Brett Kingsbury.