Adjudicators
Voice - SANDRA MARGOLESE
Sandra Margolese is a Canadian writer, singer, songwriter, voice actor, and vocal coach. A graduate of Wilfrid Laurier University, she has performed and instructed in multiple genres, from musical theatre, classical, and operetta to country, pop, and jazz. Sandra’s three-decade career includes over five years in the Toronto production of The Phantom of the Opera, and roles in multiple musicals with Drayton Entertainment and Theatre Aquarius. During her 13 years in Dubai, she sang with jazz ensembles for corporate events, including at Emirates Palace, recorded audiobooks, radio and TV ads, and was honoured to adjudicate many musical theatre productions at The American School of Dubai. She’s the creator of Finding Your Voice, coaching people of all ages to communicate and connect with their unique vocal instrument to speak with clarity and confidence.
Sandra’s one-act jukebox musicals, produced by Smile Theatre, have toured seniors’ facilities and long-term care homes across Ontario. As an emerging author, Sandra writes uplifting, witty, and warm stories with characters served up like her martinis—lightly shaken with a twist!
Her latest original song, Destiny, is available on all streaming platforms.
Piano - ASHER IAN ARMSTROG
Asher maintains an active concert career: notable recent engagements include solo recital performances at the Penderecki Academy in Krakow, the Royal College of Music in London (UK), the Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto), and as a concerto soloist with the Washington-Idaho Symphony Orchestra (as well as the North York Concerto Orchestra and the Mozart Players of Toronto).
A passionate, committed teacher, Asher is on the Piano Faculty of the University of Toronto where he is a Lecturer of Piano and Chamber Music. Asher also serves on the Piano Faculty at York University in north Toronto. Prior to these appointments, Asher served as an Assistant professor of Piano at the University of Arkansas, and he has taught at several other institutions, including the Interlochen School for the Arts.
Asher serves as an adjudicator and masterclass clinician at many festivals and competitions throughout North America, and internationally, and is also a proud member of the Royal Conservatory’s College of Examiners. As a performer and scholar, Asher’s principal focus is to advocate for women’s music, and his work has been published by Cambridge University Press’s Nineteenth Century Music Review, Tempo, as well as Clavier/Piano Magazine, American Music Teacher, the European Piano Teachers Association Piano Journal, Canadian Music Teacher, MTNA’s E-Journal, the Kaprálová Society Journal, and others.