Lorinda van Wyk is a South African Canadian choral conductor and educator based in Waterloo, Ontario. She is the Director of the Woodstock Choralaires and a student in the Doctor of Musical Arts program at Western University’s Don Wright Faculty of Music, studying choral conducting with Dr. Mark Ramsay.
She received a Performance Diploma in Musical Theatre, a Postgraduate Teaching Certificate, an Advanced Diploma in Choral Conducting, and a Bachelor of Music Honours in Choral Conducting while living in South Africa. She also completed a Master of Arts in Community Music at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada.
Lorinda’s article on reconciliation through music, “Rocking Reconciliation: Karen Zoid’s Model of Reconciliation for a Post-Apartheid Generation”, is published in the ICCM Journal, Transform. Her presentation “Singing South Africa” will be included as part of Roots 2024, the provincial conference for the Ontario Music Educators’ Conference.
Lorinda has worked as a classroom teacher (Science, English, Afrikaans, Creative Arts), choral conductor for primary and high schools, and as the piano convenor and vice chairperson for a local Eisteddfod in South Africa. She frequently provides language coaching to choirs performing South African repertoire. She is passionate about choral education for all ages and levels and has a fondness for programming recent, and socially relevant repertoire.
Susan Barta
Accompanist
Susan Barta was raised in Salford and studied piano with Letabeth Ranney. Learning to play the cello at Victory Memorial Public School and Ingersoll District Collegiate Institute, she went on to obtain music and education degrees from the University of Western Ontario.
For over 20 years, she taught vocal and instrumental music at Hickson Central School. In addition to her role as Accompanist for the Woodstock Choralaires, she is also Music Director at Trinity United Church, Ingersoll.
