2017 Adjudicators
Heather Fraser
Choirs (Community)
Heather Fraser is a dynamic and energetic choral music educator hailing from Nova Scotia. She is Artistic Director of the Annapolis Valley Honour Choirs and incoming Artistic Director of the Aeolian Singers (Halifax). Other engagements have included the Halifax Regional School Board All City Music Honour Choirs, resident conductor of the Nova Scotia Youth Choir, and the Thomas’s Preparatory School Choirs and Choral Society (London, UK). She has also prepared choirs for Symphony Nova Scotia, including a recording project with the CBC.
As a clinician, Heather has presented for the Nova Scotia Music Educator’s Association, the Nova Scotia Choral Federation and has adjudicated for Choir Alberta, New Brunswick Competitive Music Festival and the Atlantic Music Festival. She is active with the “Perform NS! Artists in Residence Program,” conducting workshops across Nova Scotia on choral methods for both students and teachers.
Believing strongly in the power of choral music to create and build community, Heather is privileged to serve as Program Director for the Nova Scotia Choral Federation, developing and coordinating programs to meet the diverse needs of Nova Scotia singers. She also sits on the Advocacy and National Youth Choir Committees for Choral Canada.
Heather began her conducting career while in Montreal, as apprentice for Iwan Edwards and Concerto Della Donna. She was Apprentice Conductor of the 2010 National Youth Choir of Canada under Victoria Meredith, has studied at the Westminster Choir College Summer Institute with Charles Bruffy, and last fall was the Conducting Fellow with Julia Davids and the Canadian Chamber Choir. Most recently she was honoured to be a part of the Emerging Conductor program of Pro Coro Canada with Michael Zaugg.