Guest Artists

Robert Cooper, guest conductor

One of Canada’s leading conductors of choral music, Robert Cooper is Artistic Director of Chorus Niagara, the Orpheus Choir of Toronto, the Opera in Concert Chorus and the newly formed BlackCreek Festival Chorus.

Robert has conducted symphony orchestras in Halifax, Winnipeg, Edmonton and London, Ontario; the Ottawa-based Thirteen Strings; opera companies in Victoria, Ottawa and Winnipeg; leading choirs across Canada; major Festivals such as St John’s Festival 500, Festival of the Sound, Stratford Festival, Algoma and Guelph Festivals; many provincial youth choirs; and productions for Toronto Operetta Theatre. For over 20 years he was a guest lecturer and conductor, Faculty of Music, University of Toronto. In addition he has been a regular member of the Jury for the international choral competition Let The Peoples Sing, adjudicated the 2010 World Choral Games in Shaoxing, China, and will participate in the Cincinnati 2012 World Choral Games. Acknowledged as an innovative programmer, Robert has premiered works by many Canadian and international composers.

As a superb choral trainer and conductor, Robert Cooper provided strong artistic leadership to the Toronto Mendelssohn Youth Choir for 22 successful years. He has had the honour of conducting both the National Youth Choir of Canada and the Ontario Youth Choir, and made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1997 for a Celebration of Canadian Choral Music.

After 31 successful years bringing fine vocal and choral music to all of Canada as Executive Producer of Opera and Choral Music for CBC Radio Two, Robert now pursues a full-time conducting schedule. He has served as President of both the Ontario Choral Federation and the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors, sat on the Board of Directors of Chorus America, and is currently on the Advisory Board of the International Federation of Choral Music. Recently awarded the St. Catharines’s Trillium Arts Award, for excellence in the arts, Robert Cooper is also the recipient of both an Honorary Doctorate from Brock University and the Order of Canada for his significant contribution to the Canadian choral community.

 

Edward Moroney, organ and piano

A graduate of the University of Toronto in composition and vocal music education, Edward Moroney studied with John Beckwith, Derek Holman, Oskar Morawetz and Lloyd Bradshaw. As a boy chorister at St. Michael’s Cathedral Choir School, he studied organ with Victor Togni, and latterly with Charles Peaker and Douglas Bodle at the University of Toronto. Edward is a former organ scholar of St. Chad’s College, Durham University (UK), holds diplomas from both the English and Canadian Royal Colleges of Organists, and is a fellow of several learned societies and British music colleges.

Edward was the founding accompanist of the Canadian Children’s Opera Chorus, and for many years was the accompanist of the Toronto Mendelssohn Youth Choir (TMYC), the Opera in Concert Chorus and the University of Toronto Women’s Chorus. Edward accompanies the TMYC and St. Michael’s Cathedral Choir School on three CDs, and has played for many distinguished choral conductors, including Robert Cooper (25 years), Elmer Iseler, Lloyd Bradshaw, John Rutter and Robert Sund, both in concerts, tours and broadcasts. At the University of Toronto, he was the only studio accompanist for the legendary voice teacher Irene Jessner.

Edward continues his eclectic career as an organist-choirmaster, accompanist and music educator in Toronto. Currently, he is the accompanist of the Orpheus Choir of Toronto, and has been the organist-choirmaster of St. Andrew’s Anglican Church since 1998.

In 1973, Edward Moroney was awarded the inaugural Leslie Bell Choral Conducting Scholarship. He was awarded the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002 (Canada), and is a Knight of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jersusalem (KHS), Holy See (2010).