Hugh joined the NSO as CEO in September of 2016 and has led the organization through an expansion of programs and concerts as well as a rebranding. Prior to joining the NSO, Hugh worked in communications with the Provincial Government of Newfoundland and Labrador and in marketing with Stratos.
In his private life, Hugh is active in the arts community as a member of Newman Sound Men’s Choir and is on the board of directors of Shallaway. He is also an active volunteer at the Anglican Cathedral of St. John the Baptist.
Hugh and his wife Valerie live in St. John’s, and are the proud parents of Claire, Emmajane, and Anthony who are all actively involved in music.
Jennifer Brennan began her career as a music teacher in Happy Valley Goose Bay. After 34 lovely years, Jennifer retired from teaching in 2017 to join the NSO administrative team as Education and Community Outreach Coordinator.
She has sung as a soloist and chorister, and spent 10 years directing a church choir at St. Teresa’s Parish. A former Board member for the Newfoundland Symphony Youth Orchestra (now Calos), Jennifer currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Tuckamore Chamber Music Festival where she is Festival Volunteer Coordinator.
In her spare time, Jennifer loves to travel and take long walks with her husband, Bob. They have two sons Timothy and Mark, who are both wonderful musicians.
Maria joined the NSO as Marketing & Development Manager in June of 2023 after being a longtime volunteer of the NSO since 2014. Prior to joining the NSO, Maria worked with many clients in the non-profit, government, and tech sector at a local marketing agency in St. Johns.
In her private life, Maria volunteers as co-chair of the Youth Engagement Working Group with the City of St. John’s as they oversee the implementation of the Youth Engagement Strategy and provide ongoing advice and guidance on how to best engage youth on City matters.
A native of St. John’s, NL, violinist Dominic Greene completed a Master of Music degree in violin performance at the University of Toronto, in the studio of Erika Raum. While in Toronto, Dominic performed with various ensembles, including the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra, University of Toronto Baroque Ensemble and the Sneak Peek Orchestra. During his final year of study at U of T, Dominic was privileged to have been given the opportunity to play as concertmaster of the University of Toronto Symphony, Opera and Baroque Orchestras, under the direction of Uri Mayer, Sandra Horst and Ivars Taurins, respectively. His time at U of T also gave him the opportunity to perform in masterclasses with Jonathan Crow, Jeanne Lamon, David Stewart, Tim Ying and Marie Berard. In addition, Dominic has been an active freelance performer and teacher across the Greater Toronto Area.
Prior to his studies in Toronto, Dominic attended Memorial University of Newfoundland, where he completed a Bachelor of Music degree in Violin Performance with Nancy Dahn. During his time at Memorial, Dominic played violin and viola with the Memorial University Chamber Orchestra, assuming roles of concertmaster and principal viola, and was a regular member of the first violin section of the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra, sitting as assistant concertmaster for the 2011-2012 season. During his studies at Memorial, Dominic was the inaugural recipient of the Dorothy and David Peters Scholarship for Music Performance at Memorial University. He has participated in summer music programs, including the Tuckamore Chamber Music Festival, the Scotia Festival of Music, the Orford Festival and the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute. Dominic is also a regular member of the orchestra for the Opera on the Avalon Festival in St. John’s, for which he has played as concertmaster.
Dominic is currently the assistant concertmaster and personnel manager of the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra, and serves as a string coach for the Newfoundland Symphony Youth Orchestra, of which he is the former assistant concertmaster. He also enjoys a dynamic teaching career, maintaining a busy private violin studio, and is an active instructor with the Suzuki Talent Education Program of St. John’s. In addition to orchestral performance and teaching, Dominic enjoys freelancing around the city of St. John’s and surrounding areas, and can be seen performing as half of the Saltwater Strings Duo, along with friend and colleague, Brett Vey. Saltwater Strings performs in a variety of styles including folk, pop, rock and jazz.
Steve Power has been involved in the St. John’s music industry for over 20 years. He has performed with a variety bands and musicians all over the province. He has been onstage with the NSO many times including singing the songs of Michael Bublé and has performed backup vocals for shows featuring Jody Richardson, Kelly-Ann Evans and Mark Murphy. Steve is also regularly featured with “BS Entertainment” performing shows all across the island with Sandy Morris and Brian Way. When Steve is not onstage, he can often be found behind the scenes in particular, as the Production Manager of the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra. His love of computers and technology has fueled his interest in everything from lighting and sound, to photography and video editing.
Jenny Griffioen is a pianist and teacher based in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Originally from Guelph, Ontario, she moved to Newfoundland to study music at Memorial University. She completed a Bachelor of Music in piano performance with Kristina Szutor, and a Master of Music in piano performance and pedagogy with Tim Steeves. Since graduating, Jenny has been working as a collaborative pianist and per-course instructor at MUN, as well as teaching privately and freelancing in the wider community. She enjoys performing with musicians at all levels, from the youngest children in the Suzuki string program to university music students and professional musicians. Jenny’s role in the NSO began as an orchestral keyboard player and has now expanded to include work behind the scenes in the orchestra library.
In 2015, Janet retired from a long career in the trust and estate world. While she has always found time to volunteer, she knew it would not be difficult to find interesting and rewarding things to do with my time in retirement! Volunteer groups she has been involved with in recent years include being a part of the Juno’s, NL Folk Festival, The Brier, Tuckamore Festival, the Anglican Cathedral, Choral NL, and the NSO.
Tom’s family has been associated with the NSO since the 1960’s. Tom sees the NSO as the core organization for arts in Newfoundland and Labrador – this makes contributing by serving on the board even more valuable. In his day job, he is President of Wedgwood Insurance in St. John’s and Chief Operating Office of the Magnes Group in Oakville, Ontario. He resides in St. John’s with his wife Lori and Maltese, Scottie.
Ian lives in St. John’s with his 3 teenage children. He is the President of the independent insolvency and restructuring firm Janes & Noseworthy Ltd. and is a partner with Noseworthy Chapman, Chartered Professional Accountants.
Ian is primarily focused commercial and consumer insolvency. Over the past 25+ years, Ian has provided restructuring services to banks, government agencies, private companies and consumer debtors. He also serves a small group of accounting and tax clients and provides assistance to entrepreneurs buying and selling businesses.
He has served as a national executive member and has chaired numerous national committees for the Canadian Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Professionals (“CAIRP”). Ian is also the past president of the NL Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Professionals. CAIRP awarded Ian it’s Ketih G. Collin’s Award for service to the profession. Ian is one of only 10 trustees ever to have received this award.
Prior to joining Noseworthy Chapman/Janes & Noseworthy, Ian was a NL-based partner, the Atlantic Canadian financial advisory director of operations and the consumer insolvency national service line leader for a Big 4 accounting firm. Ian also spent 2 years as CFO of a publicly traded, seafood processing and marketing company earlier in his career.
An active volunteer in the community, Ian is a Paul Harris Fellow (Rotary), a past president of the Rotary Club of St. John’s and a past chair of the Historic Sites Association of NL, a former board member of Viasource (an incubator for entrepreneurs starting up small businesses) and has served with numerous other groups and committees.
Paul McDonald, is a senior partner in the St. John’s office of the Atlantic Canada law firm Cox & Palmer, where he practices primarily in the area of estate planning, estates and trusts. Paul has been a supporter of the NSO for many years, and he and his wife Lucinda continue to take the same season tickets (in Row H) he first purchased in 1992! In 2002, the Canadian Bar Association (NL) conferred on Paul its Distinguished Public Service Award, for outstanding contribution to community service. Paul and his family live in St. John’s.
Doug lives in St. John’s with his wife Elizabeth who is a member of the PCNSO. Doug is a lawyer practising as Counsel with Cox & Palmer where he works primarily in corporate and taxation law. He is also a Bencher of the Law Society of Newfoundland and Labrador and is currently a director of the St. John’s Board of Trade. Since 2013, Doug has also been a public representative on the Newfoundland and Labrador Council of Health Professionals.
Conor Stack has been a member of the NSO’s Board of Directors since 2019. Conor was previously a member of St. Michael’s Printshop’s Board of Directors and has a great appreciation for Newfoundland’s arts community and its organizations. Conor graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Memorial University in 2009 and from the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University with a Juris Doctor degree in 2012. Since 2019 Conor has primarily worked as Realtor with Royal LePage Property Consultants though he remains a practicing lawyer licensed by the Law Society of Newfoundland and Labrador. Conor lives in St. John’s with his wife and two young daughters and enjoys playing hockey, hiking and spending time with his family.
Jess is the owner of ethree Consulting, an organizational effectiveness consultancy that specializes in helping organisations handle the ‘tough people stuff’ like developing strategy and culture, leading change, increasing engagement levels, driving workforce performance, improving leadership skills and more. With a background in business, HR and neuroscience, Jess leads the ethree team helping companies engage, enable and empower their people. In 2019 Jess started a second business, ethree Online that develops and delivers custom online and virtual training for all sizes of organization.
Hailing from Great Britain, Jess has lived and worked in 4 countries. She moved to Canada in 2005 and settled in Newfoundland in 2007. She lives in Torbay with her partner, Mike, two stepchildren, Liam and Logan and dog, Molly. Jess has been a supporter of the NSO for many years and is particularly passionate about the new opportunities that digital performances and online technology create for the orchestra.
Heather came to the board through her involvement with the Philharmonic Choir with whom she has sung since 1996. She served as NSO Chair from 2013 to 2017. She also served as Executive Producer of the NSO Gala from 2006 to 2017. She is a strong supporter of many arts organizations and in 2012 was named NL Arts Council Patron of the Arts.
Michelle’s love of music began when she begged her parents for piano lessons at age 11. Her parents relented and she later went on to graduate from Memorial with a Bachelor of Music. She subsequently attended Dalhousie Law School is presently the Director of Regulatory Compliance with RSA Canada. Michelle is thrilled to have an opportunity to blend her musical roots and professional experience her capacity as a board member of the NSO.
Michelle lives with her husband Gary and three children in Logy Bay.
Andrea Rose enjoys an active role in the ongoing development of music and music education at local, national, and international levels as a musician, educator, researcher, and organizational leader. Andrea holds undergraduate degrees in music and music education from Memorial University, and a Masters in Music and PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Andrea was a music educator for ten years at Holy Heart High School in St. John’s, and since 1990 a professor of music education at Memorial University. Recently retired, Andrea continues much of her work at Memorial University in her role as Honorary Research Professor. She has been the recipient of several awards including the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal, MUN President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching, and the designation of 3M National Teaching Fellow by the Canadian Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. She was recently awarded the Canadian Music Educators’ Professional Award as Honorary Life Member.
Andrea performed as a violinist with the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra and Sinfonia for over 30 years. She has served in leadership roles with a variety of organizations including the International Society for Music Education, Canadian Music Educators’ Association, Debut Atlantic, Action Canada, and Teach for Canada. She is currently Director of Higher Learning with The Canadian Music Educators’ Association. A past Artistic Director of FESTIVAL 500 Choral Festival and founding Director of The Phenomenon of Singing International Symposia, Andrea is the Co-Founder/Director of The Singing Network (TSN), an international collective of individuals and organizations interested in singing and song. The TSN creates and hosts musical, educational, and scholarly events locally and around the world.
Andrea is delighted to be serving on the NSO Board of Directors to support and help grow this amazing and important organization in Newfoundland and Labrador… and beyond!
Alana Walsh-Giovannini received her early education in Montreal and North Carolina and returned to her birthplace of St. John’s to attend Memorial University where she received an undergraduate degree in Psychology and further studied Guidance and Counselling under the Masters of Educational Psychology program. Alana spent 30 years working on the Burin Peninsula in various capacities of educational psychology and guidance. She is past president of School Counsellors of NL (SCAN) and previous director for NL of Canadian Guidance and Counselling Association (CGCA). She has co chaired two national conferences in St . John’s during her tenure as director for CGCA. Alana has served on the Burin Peninsula Health Care Board and, chaired the Burin Peninsula Heritage Run Tourism Board, St. Lawrence Heritage Society and chaired numerous youth leadership events and high school theatre. Currently, Alana is co-chair of Belles With Balls NL, a registered not for profit charity that has raised over $200, 000 for Ovarian Cancer Research and Education in NL, a community partnership with Memorial University.
Alana’s passions include her family, theatre, music and travel. Alana and her husband Bob have three fabulous children and are proud grandparents to 6 amazing grandchildren.
Growing up in St. John’s, playing piano and clarinet, Aimee benefitted from the local arts community and knows the importance of organizations like the NSO to our province. Aimee has had many special evenings over the years both in the audience, and on the stage, at the Arts and Culture Centre and at D.F. Cook.
Aimee graduated from Memorial with a Bachelor of Music degree, and went on to study law at the University of Toronto and public health at the University of British Columbia. Aimee is legal counsel and health policy analyst with the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association.
Robert Decker is a well-known and respected member of the Newfoundland and Labrador business community. Initially working as an environmental specialist in the Oil and Gas sector, Robert transitioned approximately ten years into the Real Estate industry, and he is now a Principal of the Moore Decker Dunn team at ReMax Infinity, one of the leading real estate concerns in Newfoundland and Labrador and Atlantic Canada. Robert’s previous Board work has seen him serve with Royal Newfoundland Yacht Club, Young Adult Cancer Canada and Stella’s Circle.
Jennifer Massey may be familiar to some of you already as she and her spouse and children are frequent attendees at NSO concerts. Jennifer is a Partner in the St. John’s office of KBRS, and Leader of the KBRS Executive Search Practice in Newfoundland and Labrador, focusing primarily on the post-secondary education sector. Prior to joining KBRS, Jennifer was Associate Vice-President of Western University, and previously held senior leadership positions at Queen’s University, Baylor University and Memorial University, where she was Dean of Student Life. She holds a Ph.D. (Geography) from Queen’s University, and degrees in that same discipline from University of Illinois – Urbana and King’s College London, as well as professional certificates in Business Management and Leadership from Western University.
Jing Xia is a professional guzheng artist and ethnomusicologist based in Newfoundland, Canada. Born and raised in Hunan, China, Xia started to study the guzheng at six years old and has degrees in Music Performance (B.A.), Arts Management (M.A.), and Ethnomusicology (Ph.D.). Xia is the winner of the 2022 MusicNL Award “Rising Star of the Year,” the 2022 Artist in Residence at Lawnya Vawnya, and the winner of the 2023 ECMA Award “Roots/Traditional Recording of the Year.”
Xia’s music has no boundaries. As a performer of all styles, her musical journey on the guzheng has encompassed a wide range of musical genres from Chinese traditional/folk music to intercultural ensembles, fusion bands, improvisation, and beyond. Xia has played with various musicians and musical groups, including guzheng virtuoso Mei Han, the trad-rock band Shanneyganock, and Vancouver Intercultural Orchestra. In 2018, she world premiered The Congruent Place, in collaboration with the Regina-based composer Clinton Ackerman at the Sound Symposium XIX. In January 2023, Xia world-premiered Jubilant Entanglements, a guzheng concerto by well-known composer Andrew Staniland with Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra. Xia has been active in the music scenes in North America and performed in diverse musical events, including Newfoundland Folk Festival, Nashville Chinese New Year Festival, and Vancouver International Jazz Festival. Moving her tradition into the future, Xia funded the Light Wind Ensemble, a pioneer Chinese ensemble in Newfoundland, and XIA-3, a fusion experimental band, with a repertoire ranging from Chinese classics to post-rock music.
As an educator and scholar, Xia has been teaching music for more than a decade and has given informative lectures, workshops, and performances at universities and conferences around the world. Her research focuses on the diasporic experience of professional Chinese instrumentalists and their intercultural and transnational music-making in North America. Xia has worked in many cultural organizations, including the Currently Arts Society (Vancouver), the Research Centre for the Study of Music, Media, and Place (St. John’s), We Care Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador (St. John’s), the Center for Chinese Music and Culture (Murfreesboro), and the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings (Washington D.C.).
Karen Bulmer is a versatile tuba player, educator, and writer. She is active as a tuba soloist and improviser and has performed her original one-woman show, Girl Meets Tuba, which chronicles her on-again off-again relationship with the tuba, in venues across Canada. Her radio piece, Joined at the Lip, which first aired on CBC’s Outfront in 2001, continues to be featured at radio festivals around the world, most recently at the Copenhagen Radio Cinema. Karen has presented at the annual inter-disciplinary ideaCity conference in Toronto and has recorded and performed with some of the finest classical, folk, and pop artists in Newfoundland.
In recent years, Karen’s research and creative interests have expanded to include the exploration of various mind-body practices and their particular relevance to musicians. Her unique Mind/Body Tools for Musicians program combines mindfulness with movement and self-regulation strategies to help musicians access a greater sense of their innate capacity for expression, presence, and resilience. Karen is also the creator and host of the Music, Mind, and Movement Podcast, a show that explores holistic approaches to music training and performance through in-depth conversations with educators, health professionals, somatic practitioners, and more. To listen to the podcast or to find out more about Karen’s work, including tips and tools to implement in your own practice, visit her website: www.musicmindandmovement.com
Karen holds a Bachelor of Musical Arts from the University of Western Ontario, a Professional Studies Diploma from the HARID Conservatory, and both a Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts from Yale University. Karen trained in meditation facilitation under the mentorship of Michael Stone and is a certified yoga instructor with additional training in biomechanics, anatomy, and movement for trauma.
