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Tracey Clarke-Rankine B.Mus., ARCT, RMT.
Director: Guelph School of Music
Suzuki Piano
 Tracey was born in Toronto, Ontario and grew up in a rich musical environment. Classical music was always being played and discussed in the home.
Tracey received her Bachelor of Music from the University of Toronto, her Associate Diploma (ARCT) and the Orff Teacher Certificate from the Royal Conservatory of Music as well as Suzuki Piano Teacher Training for Books 1-6 through the Suzuki Association of the Americas.
In her career as a music teacher to people of all ages and levels for over 35 years, Tracey has taught piano, rudiments, Orff and early childhood music. Her first love is the piano. She feels that it is a privilege to share her love of music and mentor her students as they develop their skills in piano.
Tracey first discovered the Suzuki Method when her children were taking Suzuki piano lessons in their French Immersion school in Richmond Hill ON in 1991 and she was so intrigued by the method that she decided to pursue Suzuki teacher training and teaching the Suzuki method.
Her piano students are provided opportunities to participate in solo and chamber music performances, conservatory examinations, Ontario Registered Music Teachers Association (ORMTA) competitions and the Kiwanis Music Festival where they achieve excellent results.
An active member of ORMTA for over 25 years, Tracey received the ORMTA Special Teacher Award in 2004 and has been President of the Guelph, Kitchener-Waterloo and North York Branches. She is also a member of the Suzuki Association of the Americas the Suzuki Association of Ontario.
Tracey enjoys spending time with family and friends, practising piano and yoga, walking our local trails, supporting the fresh- local and slow- food movements, her book discussion group, CBC radio and carrying on the family tradition of listening to classical music at fortissimo levels!
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Owen Bloomfield M. Mus
Piano, Composition, Theory, Harmony.
 Owen Bloomfield (1971) was born and grew up in Dryden, Ontario where he received his early music education through his mother and community choirs. He completed his Master of Music in Composition at the University of British Columbia with Keith Hamel. His Bachelor of Music is from Wilfrid Laurier University where he studied with Peter Hatch and Glenn Buhr. He also earned a diploma in music from Cambrian College in Sudbury, Ontario.
Mr. Bloomfield's works have been performed by a wide variety of ensembles and soloists in Canada, the United States and Europe. Performers he has worked closely with for commissions include soprano Natasha Campbell, clarinetist Tilly Kooyman, pianist Christopher Bowlby and guitarist Kevin Ramessar. He is a founding member of the interdisciplinary ensemble SlanT as well as tranSpectra, a group dedicated to the performance and composition of music using the Bohlen-Pierce tuning system. His piece Wanderer for Bohlen-Pierce clarinet duo is the world's first for that instrument and has been performed around the world including the first International Bohlen-Pierce Conference in Boston and Microfest in Amsterdam. The piece has been expanded to include movements for voice and Tenor BP Clarinet, again an instrumental first.
Mr. Bloomfield has collaborated twice with Yukon writer Lawrie Crawford on the interdisciplinary stage projects Variations on Gestalt and Tilt!. These works have been performed in Vancouver, Whitehorse, Kitchener and Guelph. He has also had readings by the Penderecki String Quartet, Trio Phoenix and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
He is an instructor of piano, theory and composition at the Guelph School of Music, music director at St. Matthias Anglican Church in Guelph and a certified Music Together Instructor. Along with his work in the community, Mr. Bloomfield has composed for amateur groups including the North Dumfries Children's Choir, the Dryden Community Choir and Chancellors Family Choir in Dryden, Ontario for whom he has written an extended cantata. He currently resides in Cambridge, Ontario.
For more information about Owen Bloomfield, please visit his website: owenbloomfield.com
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Margaret Zak M. Mus
Violin
 Margaret is Assistant Concert Master with the GSO, and a founding member of the orchestra. Trained as a musician and teacher, she has been a professional violinist and teacher in her home country, Poland, and in Canada. She has a Masters Degree in Musical Arts and Pedagogy with specialization in the violin from the University of Wroclaw. During her years in Poland, Margaret successfully trained students for admission to Warsaw University, and many of them have become prize winners in Polish national music competitions. Margaret has worked professionally with various orchestras in Poland, Switzerland, Germany, and Russia.
Since arriving in Canada in 1996, she has developed professional associations involving local musicians, playing with quartets, and with the G.S.O. She also teaches the violin to students of all ages at the Guelph School of Music. Five of Margaret's Canadian students are recipients of the Royal Conservatory of Music Silver Medal. Besides music, she has traveled extensively through Europe and the Middle-East during her summers, and enjoys Nordic skiing during winters. Her teaching philosophy involves a living relationship of give and take, and of mutual support and learning. To Margaret, music is an amazing blend of discipline and imagination brought to life by the strings of the violin.
Margaret's passion for music and dedication to teaching are an inspiration to all who know her. As a teacher, her students have been prize winners in many Polish national competitions and as a player she is the former member of an acclaimed European chamber orchestra.
She is currently Assistant Concert-Master in the Guelph Symphony Orchestra and was recently a member of the Kitchener Waterloo Chamber Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra of Nations.
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Heather Fleming B.Mus
Chair: Vocal Music
Voice, Recorder, Rudiments.
 Heather studied recorder with Shannon Purves-Smith at Wilfrid Laurier University where she earned her B.Mus. and also received a minor in Geography. While at WLU, Heather sang in the Chapel Choir under the direction of Jan Overduin where she was a frequent soloist and also played and sang in the Baroque Ensemble under Michael Purves-Smith. She studied voice with Ronald Beckett, Canadian composer and director of the acclaimed ensemble Arcady. She has also taken lessons with counter-tenor Daniel Cabena and soprano Stephanie Kramer.
As a performer, Heather sings soprano in the esteemed Parish Choir of St. John's Anglican Church in Elora, directed by Noel Edison. She has been singing for over 6 seasons with the Elora Festival Singers and was the soprano section lead with the Guelph Chamber Choir, directed by Gerald Neufeld. Heather is one of Arcady's most prominent performers, President of the Board of Directors and has recently been appointed Assistant Director. She is embarking on a career in conducting and is directing the choir at Wellington Hall Academy in Guelph.
Heather has participated in numerous CD recordings including one with the Elora Festival Singers that was nominated for a Grammy. She has had the opportunity to work with some of the world's finest conductors performing in cities across Canada and the USA as well as in Germany, Greece, and England. Heather was featured on TVOntario's Studio 2 On Stage program, playing music of Ronald Beckett and appeared on Breakfast Television with the Elora Festival Singers. In 2012, Heather won the $500 Art Vogt Scholarship for a singer demonstrating excellence in performance and dedication to sacred music.
Heather is the Coordinator of the Kiwanis Music Festival of Guelph. She has been a vocal coach, guest clinician and soloist for various ensembles. Heather has been teaching voice, recorder, and theory since 1999 and conveys her enthusiasm, creativity and love of music to her students, many of whom have achieved top marks in RCM exams and music festivals.
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Leila Simpson B. Mus
Chair: Piano
Piano
 Leila was born in Moscow in 1968. She graduated from the Russian Music Academy in 1994 and was awarded Concertmaster, their highest qualification.
For four years she worked with a traveling Russian ballet theatre. She moved to England in 1999 where she gave private piano lessons, worked with choirs, ballet and tap schools as an accompanist, and played with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
Upon moving to Spain she held a position with the Lady Elizabeth School. From 2001-2004 she taught 55 students at the school, aged 6 to 18, and taught several private students, including adults. All of her students who were selected for exams with Royal Academy of Music achieved Merit and Distinction.
She has accompanied school choirs in music festivals in Milan and the Hague. She is comfortable with both classical and popular music. Leila has an excellent record as a piano teacher with an excellent rapport with her students.
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Shelley Hanson Terry M. Mus
Chair: Instrumental Music
Saxophone, Flute, Suzuki Flute, Clarinet, Oboe, Recorder, Rudiments.
 Music has been a significant part of Shelley's life since the age of five. Her musical journey has taken her from her birthplace in Charlottetown, PEI to New Brunswick, where she received her Bachelor of Music (Saxophone) at Mount Allison University, then across Canada to Victoria, BC, where she completed a Masters in Woodwind Pedagogy at the University of Victoria (Saxophone, Flute, Clarinet, Oboe, Bassoon). Her education, performance and teaching opportunities on different instruments and in different musical styles have provided her with a wealth of musical knowledge and experience to offer her students.
Shelley's approach to teaching is to work with the students' abilities, goals and interests to establish a solid foundation in rhythm, reading and musical expression. Students are given the opportunity to prepare and perform several styles of music in solo, small and large ensembles, while preparing for school performances, exams, festivals and auditions.
Shelley has been teaching Suzuki Flute since 2009. She relates very strongly to the Suzuki philosophy, particularly since becoming a mother to her two boys. She will continue to expand her musical knowledge by pursuing further Suzuki training in order to provide a rich musical education to young music students and their families.
Over the past few years teaching Rudiments has been a positive, enriching experience she is pleased to share with her students. Through private, semi-private and small classes, her students have achieved exceptional results while gaining a further understanding of the music they are learning in school and in their private voice and instrumental lessons.
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Linda McConnell B. Mus.
Suzuki Piano
 Linda joined the faculty of the Guelph School of Music in September 2007 as a Suzuki piano teacher. Like successful Suzuki students, Linda grew up in the environment of a musical home. Playtime often involved dancing to classical music being played on the stereo and she always loved singing in choirs.
After a childhood of studying piano with Royal Conservatory of Music teachers, she graduated with a Grade 10 certificate and furthered her studies to complete a Bachelor Music with Distinction degree at McGill University in Quebec. During her McGill years, Linda was introduced to the Suzuki philosophy.
Intrigued with the Suzuki movement, she returned after years of teaching piano traditionally and began her Suzuki teacher training, completing all levels with some of the finest Suzuki Teacher Trainers. Committed to the Suzuki philosophy, Linda continues her ongoing personal and professional development and believes wholeheartedly in parents as partners. Now a seasoned Suzuki teacher, Linda has been teaching the Suzuki Piano Method since 1995.
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Martin Anderle M.Mus
Piano, Classical Improvisation, Composition, Harmony, History, Analysis, Counterpoint.
 Martin was born in Germany and studied at the famous universities of music in Vienna, Austria and the Mozarteum in Salzburg. He received his degree as a certified piano teacher and diplomas in piano, organ as well as orchestral and choral conducting. He completed his Masters of Music in organ in Vienna. He has studied with pianist Harald Ossberger, organist Alfred Mitterhofer and the renowned orchestral conductor Michael Gielen. After finishing his studies, Martin also started to compose. A CD with his meditative piano compositions was published in four editions. He has performed on the piano in Europe, North and South America.
Martin started to play piano at the age of five and later learned to play the cello. Martin's great passion is improvisation at the piano. His improvisations are in various classical styles, sometimes a cross over of popular and classical music, and also meditative music with the elements of different continents.
Martin began to teach piano at the age of sixteen and is familiar with various teaching methods. Martin loves to teach his students about the music of Austria, help them to experience the beautiful piano compositions of many centuries and teach them to create their own music.
He was at the faculty of the Community Music Schools in Diessen, Germany and Langley, British Columbia where he taught students of all ages and levels. In August 2011 Martin moved to Guelph, as he accepted the position of Music Director at Dublin Street United Church. There he plays the organ and directs the church choir both in the Sunday services and at the concert series of the church. Martin's musical experience also includes orchestral conducting and working as a piano accompanist.
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Olga Zeidel M.Mus
Piano, Suzuki Piano
 Originally from Ukraine, Olga grew up in a musical environment with her mother and father teaching accordion and piano. After finishing music school, she decided to pursue a career as a pianist. Olga completed studies at Lviv Music College, obtaining an Artist-Teacher Diploma with Honors. Later she obtained her Master’s degree in piano performance from Lysenko Conservatory of Music in Lviv, Ukraine.
In 1995, after winning the Toronto Ludkevych Competition and receiving a scholarship, Olga moved to Canada. During this time, Olga performed in chamber ensembles and as a soloist, and accompanied singers, violinists and cellists. Olga worked as a piano teacher at the Robert’s Center for the Performing Arts in Richmond Hill and accompanist for the Vesnivka Choir, TrypTych Productions, Toronto and the International School for Musical Arts.
She has participated in numerous master classes with well-known pianists Alexander Slobodyanik and Mykola Suk, among others. From 2003- 2011 Olga taught at the Bermuda School of Music. She performed as an accompanist for the Bermuda Music Festival and Bermuda Festival Orchestra.
She has studied the Suzuki pedagogy with Carol Bigler and Jane Kutcher in Kingston, Ontario, receiving certification on Book 1 & 2.
Olga has been teaching for more than fifteen years. She enjoys working with students of all levels.
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Page last updated: September 21, 2011
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