Jenny Crober Artistic Director, Conductor

Jenny Crober, MusBac, B.Ed. (UWO), has been an accompanist, coach and teacher for 32 years. She studied piano with Gwen Beamish, and choral conducting with the legendary Deral Johnson. Ensembles she has performed with include the Canadian Opera Company, Toronto Operetta Theatre, and the Orpheus Choir of Toronto. She has worked with several conductors, including Elmer Iseler, Lydia Adams, Brainerd Blyden-Taylor and Eleanor Daley.

She has had a versatile musical career, including accompanying, coaching, teaching, conducting and choral arranging. Several of her choral arrangements have been premiered by The East York Choir, in collaboration with renowned guest artists, including jazz guitarist, Michael Occhipinti and percussionist and drummer, Ray Dillard. Jenny has also performed with and composed for modern dancers, as well as the vocal jazz sextet, Union Station, heard on CBC Radio. She accompanied singer, Patricia O’Callaghan on the critically-acclaimed classical/cabaret CD, Youkali (which received a “Critic’s Choice” review in Billboard Magazine), and for several videos for Bravo TV.

Jenny worked with the renowned British composer, Bob Chilcott (as well as composers, Stephen Hatfield and Stephen Chatman) during the 2002 National Choral Conference, “Podium”, and, at his request, accompanied his choral workshop recently held in Toronto. For several summers, she has conducted both children’s and adult choirs (including African and Jazz Choirs), as well as coaching and accompanying at CAMMAC, now called Lake Field Music (in Lakefield, Ontario). She will be returning there for their Jazz Week program this summer, as conductor for their “Choir For All” and their Children’s Choir, and as accompanist and coach. Jenny has been invited to participate as guest conductor, coach, rehearsal accompanist and chamber clinician with several groups, including the TDSB Cabaret Ensemble, CAMMAC, the High Park Choirs, the Riverdale Youth Singers, and as a weekly coach with piano and vocal students at Earl Haig Arts High School.

She was the accompanist for two recent TDSB massed choir projects: the Spring Festival Concert, held at Massey Hall, and a performance featuring conductor, Lori-Anne Dolloff, several local choirs, and a drummer/dancer from Nunavut. Jenny accompanies the choirs at Frankland Community School, Earl Grey Senior Public School and Withrow Public School, and is Assistant Conductor with both the Toronto Choral Society and the North 44 Vocal Ensemble, Geoffrey Butler, Conductor.

Elizabeth Acker Accompanist

Elizabeth Acker received her B.A. from York University. She studied piano with Gladys Angley, Edna Hawkin, Slavka Dimitroff, and James Anagnoson; harpsichord with Michael Kearns; and jazz with Jon Gittens and Frank Falco. Versatile in many musical styles (classical, musical theatre, jazz and contemporary music), Elizabeth is well known for her work as an accompanist, chamber musician, instrumental coach, adjudicator and teacher, and has taught both Suzuki and traditional methods for over 30 years. She has also recorded for film, TV and ballet.

Her credits include touring as Assistant Music Director for the Broadway cast of Those Were the Days, Music Director for Tarragon Theatre’s A Country in her Throat, keyboardist for Phantom of the Opera, appearances on CBC Radio, at Premiere Dance Theatre and Glenn Gould Theatre, with the Talisker Players, Arraymusic, the Esprit Orchestra, the Niagara Symphony, the Severn Players, as well as many recording engagements, including the CD, Magic Breath, featuring songs for soprano and piano by Canadian composer, Helen Medeweff – Greenberg.

Recently, Elizabeth has been indulging her love of chamber music with summers at “Heaven”, an affiliation of professional musicians, and on the faculty of the Vermont Music and Arts Centre, a camp for chamber musicians.

Penelope Dale Soprano Lead, Soloist

Penelope Dale holds a diplôme d’études supérièures, and a concours, à l’unanimité du jury in vocal performance from the Conservatoire de Musique du Québec à Montréal, as well as a Diploma in Education (Music Specialist) from McGill University. Her principal voice teacher was Madame Marie Daveluy, of Montreal, Quebec.

Ms. Dale has performed as a soloist in live performances for Radio Canada, in opera and in concert. She is a former faculty member of The Royal Conservatory of Music, where she taught voice and sight singing. Penelope was a compiler of The Royal Conservatory of Music Voice Syllabus, 2005 Edition, and the Voice Repertoire Series, Third Edition, and has authored articles for the Royal Conservatory of Music Newsletter, Music Matters. She conducts voice examinations for The Royal Conservatory of Music, and has been a member of the College of Examiners of The Royal Conservatory of Music since 2005. Ms. Dale is also in demand as a festival adjudicator, and has adjudicated at numerous festivals in Ontario and in Manitoba, including the Windsor Kiwanis Music Festival, the Pickering Music Festival, the South Simcoe Arts Council Music Festival, and the Winnipeg Music Festival. In 2008, she founded The Treblemakers chorus (a non-auditioned singing group for amateur singers, aged 45+), which she still conducts today.

Penelope’s students have been received enthusiastically in festivals, competitions, vocal examinations, and university and high school entrance auditions. Graduates from her private voice studio have been accepted into vocal study programmes at universities throughout Ontario, such as the University of Toronto, the University of Western Ontario, McGill University, McMaster University, and Wilfrid Laurier University. Current students have been awarded placements at the Etobicoke School of the Arts, Claude Watson School of the Arts, and Cardinal Carter School of the Arts. Her students have received Silver Medals for attaining the highest mark in all of Ontario and Quebec in their voice examinations at The Royal Conservatory of Music, and numerous scholarship awards from the Davenport Music Festival, the Newmarket Music Festival, and the Kiwanis Music Festival.

Penelope Dale has received many awards for her singing, including first prize at the CIBC National Music Festival. She is a member of several professional organizations, including the Canadian Music Festival Adjudicators’ Association (CMFAA), the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), (past Vice- President, Special Projects – Ontario chapter), and the Ontario Registered Music Teachers’ Association (ORMTA).

Martin Houtman Tenor Lead, Soloist

Tenor Martin Houtman is a versatile performer who has sung music spanning the Middle Ages to contemporary. Originally an instrumentalist (oboe, piano, violin) he began singing in early music ensembles, but later studied opera at the Opera School at the University of Toronto. Operatic roles he has performed include Monteverdi’s Orfeo at the Aldeburgh Festival in the U.K., Vitek in Janacek’s The Makropoulos Case with the Vancouver Opera, the Hauptmann in Berg’s Wozzeck in Banff and Montreal, and Giuseppe in Verdi’s La Traviata with Opera Ontario.

His oratorio performances include appearances as a soloist with Tafelmusik, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Bach-Elgar Choir of Hamilton, the Toronto Chamber Choir, the Mississauga Choral Society, and with the Ottawa Valley Festival in Handel’s Messiah and Solomon, Haydn’s Creation, Mozart’s Requiem and Mass in C Minor, and Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang. Recent engagements include roles as tenor soloist in a performance of Stainer’s Crucifixion at Yorkminster Park Baptist Church, in Toronto, and the Durham Philharmonic Choir’s performance of Gounod’s St. Cecilia Mass, in Oshawa.

In contemporary music, Mr. Houtman has participated in many premieres, including Christos Hatsis’ Kyrie and David Mott’s Creation: A Jazz Oratorio; in new opera, he sang in James Rolfe’s Rosa, and was Donald Smith in Chan Ka Nin’s Iron Road, both with Tapestry New Opera Works; he also sang several roles in Alexina Louie’s TV opera, Burnt Toast. He also has performed with Arraymusic, Soundstreams Canada and the Esprit Orchestra.

Bryan Estabrooks Bass Lead, Soloist

Bryan Estabrooks, originally from Ottawa, is a Toronto-area baritone. He studied with Laurence Ewashko in Ottawa, followed by Dr. Darryl Edwards in Toronto. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto, and received his Master of Music from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, under the tutelage of Stephen Lusmann.

Bryan has performed with Opera Lyra Ottawa, Tapestry New Opera Works, Toronto Operetta Theatre, Opera in Concert, and Michigan Opera Theatre in roles such as Maximilian in Candide, the Marquis in Dialogues des Carmélites, Major Murgatroyd in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Patience and the role of Escamillo in Carmen.

Bryan has also performed as a guest soloist with the Jackson Symphony Orchestra, Ottawa Valley Music Festival, Mississauga Choral Society, as well as the Peel Choral Society, producing one of their Christmas albums; he is involved in pre-production for Peel’s forthcoming pops album. Bryan was most recently a soloist for David Mott’s Creation, a Jazz Oratorio. He recently performed the role of Pilatus in the Bach Consort’s performance of the St. John Passion, under the direction of Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin. He is also a member of the new vocal group, ‘I Quattro’.

Bryan and his brother, Jonathan have recently launched ‘The Estabrooks Brothers’, a pop/big band/soul duo, with appearances on Rogers Television and Ottawa’s AChannel Morning. The duo recently played to two capacity crowds at the NAC Fourth Stage, in Ottawa. (www.estabrooksbrothers.com)