Zimfira Poloz, Artistic Director of the Toronto Children’s Chorus, has been awarded the King Charles III Coronation Medal, a distinction that is given to recognize significant contributions to the recipient’s community and across Canada.
The Medal was announced by the Prime Minister in May 2023, and commemorates the Coronation of His Majesty King Charles III as King of Canada.
Along with Poloz, six other recipients of the King Charles III Coronation Medal have ties to the Toronto Children’s Chorus (TCC), and have worked to help build and develop choral music in Canada and beyond.
Zimfira Poloz is an award-winning conductor, director, educator, adjudicator & clinician. She has dedicated her practice to children and their voices in choral music, and is known for cultivating excellence in singing, along with distinctive programming and staging. She first studied music and earned her credentials in her native Kazakhstan. There, she founded the country’s first choir school. In Canada, she is previous Artistic Director of the High Park Choirs (now YVT), and Hamilton Children’s Choir, where she has been named Honorary Artistic Director. She is a lecturer at the UofT Faculty of Music, where she teaches Vocal Pedagogy for Young Choirs. Zimfira is the Canadian Representative on the Interkultur World Choir Council, a Board Member of the World Alliance of Children’s Choirs, and an Advisor for the World Youth and Children Choral Artists’ Association.
Six other choral music leaders and recipients of The Medal have close ties to TCC.
Jean Ashworth Bartle founded the Toronto Children’s Chorus in 1978 at the invitation of Sir Andrew Davis. She led TCC for 29 years as a conductor, mentor and teacher, and her contributions have already been recognized with multiple awards that include the Leslie Bell and Sir Ernest MacMillan prizes in conducting, the Roy Thomson Hall Award (1985) for her contribution to the musical life of Toronto, the Order of Ontario and the Order of Canada (1998), and several others.
Musician, award-winning conductor, and internationally respected educator Elise Bradley has devoted her career to the choral arts. Her career began in New Zealand before leaving for Canada, including directing the award-winning New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir. She was named a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) by the Queen in recognition of her services to Music in 2018.
Dr. Darryl Edwards teaches at the University of Toronto as well as coaching the TCC, and teaching engagements across Europe, Asia, and South America. He is the Artistic Director of the Centre for Opera Studies (COSA Canada), where he works with young singers to prepare them for careers and leadership roles in the singing arts.
Canadian composer Ruth Watson Henderson earned diplomas from the Royal Conservatory of Music, and studied composition privately with Oskar Morawetz, Samuel Dolin and Richard Johnston. She went on to study piano performance at the Mannes College of Music in New York City. She became a concert pianist, and then the accompanist for the Festival Singers of Canada, under Dr. Elmer Iseler, for several years. That’s where she first developed her talent for compositions for voice, and wrote for several choirs over the years, including TCC.
Cassie Luftspring was a member of TCC under Founding Conductor Jean Ashworth Bartle, and went on to become a composer, conductor, singer and teacher. Recently named as the incoming Artistic Director of Elektra in Vancouver, BC., Cassie is the Artistic Director of the British Columbia Girls Choir, and Director of Choral Studies at the Vancouver Academy of Music.
Heather Wood is a graduate of the Banff School of Fine Arts, and a talented arts manager. She has managed national competitions at CBC Radio’s Music department, and has served as a Board member of Turning Point Ensemble, Vancouver, and Elektra, Vancouver. Under her tenure, TCC gained international recognition. She oversaw 19 international tours as well as producing award-winning recordings.
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