Choir Leadership
David Ambrose, Artistic Director
David Ambrose has served as Artistic Director for Mississauga Festival Choir since 2006. An award-winning conductor, singer and director, he is equally accomplished in choral music, musical theatre and opera. David is a graduate of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music, where he specialized in Voice and Conducting, studying under such distinguished teachers as Sir David Willcocks, Raffi Armenian and MFC Founding Conductor Lori-Anne Dolloff, and was the inaugural winner of the Elmer Iseler National Fellowship in Choral Conducting. Raised in Mississauga, David is currently a high school music teacher at Etobicoke School of the Arts, teaching Vocal Music and and conducting several choral ensembles including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra Pops choir and the award-winning WoCo women's choir, David also works as the Director of Music at Runnymede United Church, is active as a choral music clinician and will be directing the Mississauga Symphony’s production of Carmen in April 2017.
Dan Ryan, Assistant Director, Bass Section Lead Dan Ryan holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Toronto where he studied conducting with Dr. Hilary Apfelstadt, Dr. Lori-Anne Dolloff, Ivars Taurins, and voice with Peter Barnes, singing in the MacMillan Singers. He also studied with Bob Anderson at Cawthra Park, singing in the Chamber Choir and performing in annual musicals. While at Cawthra Park, Dan began teaching privately and has continued to teach for the past six years, focusing especially on changing voices. Continuing his work with changing voices, Dan directed a small group of young men in the Timothy Eaton Memorial Church Choir School last year called Top2Bottom. The group was awarded Gold at the North York Music Festival in April. Dan returned to the Queensmen of Toronto last year as Director, having previously spent a year as Associate Conductor. He enjoys working with this strong group of men on an array of repertoire and looks forward to another successful season. Dan is also returning to the Mississauga Festival Choir and Mississauga Festival Chamber Choir for his fourth season as Assistant Director and Bass Lead under David Ambrose, whom he enjoys collaborating with. Dan is entering into his fifth year as Bass Lead at Kingsway-Lambton United Church. Having served as a resource to Kingsway-Lambton's Worship Review Initiative and Worship Committee he is putting plan into action as Worship Leader for monthly services and weekly Wednesday Worship. Dan shares his passion for meaningful worship while introducing music in a new light. Glynis Ratcliffe,
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Bob Anderson, Conductor, Resonance and Raising Voices
Bob Anderson holds Bachelor of Music and Education Degrees from the University of Western Ontario, where he studied choral conducting with Deral Johnson, and a Master’s Degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Cincinnati. He performed with the Elmer Iseler Singers for four seasons, and his choral arrangements and compositions are published with several Canadian publishers. He taught in the Peel District School Board for 25 years, joining the staff of Cawthra Park Secondary School in 1999, retiring in 2016.
At Cawthra Park SS, Bob taught vocal and instrumental music in the Regional Arts Program and conducted the Cawthra Park Chamber Choir, which has performed with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Cirque du Soleil, the Elmer Iseler Singers, Mississauga Festival Choir, U. of T.’s MacMillan Singers, at Festival 500, and at the Toronto Vocal Arts Festival. In 2013 the choir performed at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto with The Rolling Stones. He also conducted Cawthra’s 350-voice concert choir, “The Ritz”. In 2015, Bob was invited by Choirs Ontario to conduct the Ontario Youth Choir, a one-week program of intensive choral training for high school and university students from across Ontario. Yvonne Choi, Accompanist, Resonance
Building on her Bachelor of Music under the guidance of Leslie De'Ath from Wilfrid Laurier University, Yvonne Choi has completed her Masters in Collaborative Piano Performance under Lydia Wong from University of Toronto. She has been the recipient of multiple scholarships for outstanding music performance, including the Richard Kehn Scholarship, the Ken Murray Scholarship, and the Penderecki String Quartet Prize.
Yvonne has performed with Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Kitchener Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, Mississauga Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Chinese Orchestra, and Cambridge Symphony Orchestra, as well as performing in Masterclasses for world class musicians such as Barbara Hannigan, Lawerence Lesser, Michael McMahon, the Penderecki String Quartet, and the Chiara String Quartet. She maintains an active teaching studio and is a sought-after private studio accompanist for all instruments. Andrea Grant, Accompanist
Andrea Grant is a full-time member of the music staff of University of Toronto’s Opera Division,
the Head of Music Staff for Wexford Festival Opera, a member of the music staff of Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and a faculty member of Highlands Opera Studio 'Opera as Theatre’ program. Andrea received her BMus (Hons) in Piano Performance from Wilfrid Laurier University, a Master of Music degree in Collaborative Piano from University of Western Ontario, and a Diploma in Operatic Performance from U of T. Sabrina Santelli-Perez,
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