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ORMTA Staff
TREASURER
Dr. Lori Lynn Penny
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Dr. Lori Lynn Penny operates an independent studio near Ottawa, teaching all subjects of music theory at all levels. She is a long-standing member of The Royal Conservatory’s College of Theoretical Examiners, marking rudiments, history, harmony, and analysis examinations. She is also a co-author of RCM’s Celebrate Theory series, from preparatory through level 8.
Lori Lynn has a BMus in Elementary School Music, a DipFA in Music Education (specializing in the Kodály Method), an MA in Music Theory, and a PhD in Education (specializing in Teaching, Learning, and Evaluation), with research centered on the topic of Music Theory Pedagogy.
Lori Lynn joined the Edmonton Branch of ARMTA in 1992, transferring her membership to the Ottawa Region Branch of ORMTA in 1998. Having served the ORB Council as Treasurer since 2002, she is excited to become Treasurer of ORMTA’s Provincial Council.
Dr. Sandra DiCienzo
SECRETARY-REGISTRAR
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Sandra has been teaching for over 20 years and maintains a full-time music studio in Niagara Falls. She teaches private piano lessons, theory, history, pedagogy, and the Music for Young Children® Program. She is an examiner for Conservatory Canada, workshop clinician, and is the principal organist/pianist for St. Patrick Church. Sandra has graduate and undergraduate degrees in piano pedagogy research, musicology, and piano performance.
289-501-1301
COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR
NOTES EDITOR
TECH SUPPORT
Alessandra Matthews
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Alessandra began piano lessons at a young age and participated in music festivals, recitals and competitions for many years. She holds Elementary and Intermediate Piano Pedagogy certificates from the Royal Conservatory of Music and an Audio Production and Engineering Diploma from Metalworks Institute. In 2026, Alessandra completed the Piano Technician Academy’s Piano Tuning and Repair Course. Currently, Alessandra serves as ORMTA’s Communications Coordinator. Aside from her piano studies, Alessandra has also enjoyed learning guitar, bass, ukulele, and flute. She teaches piano in Newmarket and in her spare time enjoys creating charcoal portraits and drawings, and playing board and video games with family.
ORMTA Board of Directors
Tania Granata
BOARD CHAIR
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Tania began her musical studies at the age of 4 in Ottawa, studying with Sonia Pescatore. She excelled through the various young performing arts clubs and participated in local, provincial and national competitions, winning many top prizes, awards and scholarships. She continued her studies at the University of Ottawa, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Music and Modern Languages. She also earned the Associateship of the Royal Conservatory of Toronto in Piano Pedagogy and is passionate about musical education. Tania also studied vocal accompaniment with the Manhattan School of Music in NYC.
She has performed as a soloist, accompanist and chamber musician for many organizations and as an invited quest at the Italian Embassy and the National Arts Center. She has collaborated with many internationally renowned musicians and composers such as Nancy Telfer, Stephen Chatman and Christopher Norton who called her “a musically sensitive player that is a true artist.” After completing her studies, she was asked to come on as Faculty at Camerata Music, a unique teaching studio in the Westboro area of Ottawa.
Tania was responsible for bringing Contemporary Showcase back to the National Capital Region where she was the Centre Coordinator for 15 years. She is Past President of the Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Registered Music Teacher’s Association and also chairs the annual Canada Music Week auditions and recitals. She also had a two year term on Provincial Council for ORMTA. She is the Past President of the Ottawa West Junior Music Club as well its Chair of the Audition and Programming Committee, a title she held for 10 years.
As well as teaching privately, Tania teaches the Music for Young Children program; she is a certified Music for Young Children Teacher Trainer and has traveled across North America training teachers on the MYC philosophy. She has given workshops at various piano pedagogy conferences across North America as part of her passion for instilling a love of music in young children. Tania has also been a judge for the past 18 years in the world’s largest composition festival which is held in Ottawa as part of the Music for Young Children program.
Tania has accompanied for various instruments as well as at ballet studios throughout Ontario and Quebec, with a focus on accompanying for voice students and professional singers. In 2012 she was the Musical Director for "You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown." In 2015, she was the pianist for the touring production of "La Bohème" through Ottawa’s Bytown Operantics, Toronto’s Opera by Request and Sudbury’s Theater Cambrian series. In 2018 she was the accompanist for Suzart’s “James and the Giant Peach” production. In 2016, she co-founded the South Ottawa Performing Arts Collaborative (SOPAC) with her business partner, Ottawa-born soprano Morgan Strickland. Tania is Co-Artistic Director or SOPAC and has taken on the role as Producer for 5 seasons of operas. SOPAC is part of Ottawa’s opera scene since their first season including a hugely successful double bill production of Puccini’s “Suor Angelica” and Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci”, Massenet’s “Cendrillon” to name a few. Tania has also been the Co-Creator, Artistic Director and Music Director and accompanist for 6 seasons of SOPAC’s musical theater summer camps where they have put on fully staged productions of "Frozen" and "Aristocats" to name a few.
Tania maintains a very active accompaniment schedule as well as repetiteur. She has just begun her second season as accompanist for Musica Ebraica in Ottawa.
Susan Blyth-Schofield
VICE CHAIR
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A former performer in lyric theatre in Canada, the US, and Europe, Susan has always been passionate about teaching and has maintained a private vocal studio for close to forty years in Ottawa, Toronto, Brussels, Geneva, and London, England. Her students have ranged from professional performers (classical and musical theatre singers, actors, and dancers), to aspiring high school students, to amateur performers. Susan joined Carleton Music as a performance instructor in 2002 and has directed their Musical Theatre Ensemble (now the Lyric Theatre Ensemble) since its creation in 2013.
She holds a Master’s in Performance Studies from City University and the Guild Hall (London, England), a Bachelor of Music in Performance from The University of Toronto, and is an Associate of The Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto. I addition to being a member of ORMTA she is an emeritus member of The National Association of Teachers of Singing. In addition to her teaching, Susan is also a sought-after vocal adjudicator and gives frequent workshops and master classes on vocal technique, acting for singers, interpretation, performance anxiety, and stress awareness and relaxation.
Joyce Co
DIRECTOR
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Joyce began studying piano at a young age and went on to learn saxophone in high school, eventually focusing on saxophone performance during her undergraduate degree. She received her Honours Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Education from Lakehead University in 2013 and went on to obtain her Master of Arts (with a focus in Ethnomusicology) from York University in 2016.
Joyce has taught saxophone, piano, theory and music history to students of all ages in the Greater Toronto Area and Thunder Bay for 12 years. Her research focus during her Masters examined the relationship between music education and social justice, and she continues to be passionate about making music education accessible for every child. She is currently an elementary teacher with Lakehead Public Schools in Thunder Bay.
Patricia Baker
DIRECTOR
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I have been an ORMTA member since 1990. I have been an active member of the Oshawa and District branch since joining ORMTA and the treasurer for the branch since 2017. I have been teaching for 40 years. As well as teaching from my home I was actively involved with aquatics as a supervisor with the Town of Ajax and then the Aquatic Director for the Boys and Girls Club of Durham. Currently I am a supply Educational Assistant with my local school board.
My husband and I have three adult children and a granddaughter. We like to spend family time at our cottage during the summer.
I look forward to working with all members of ORMTA Provincial Council.
Kirsten Carlson
DIRECTOR
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Kirsten Carlson has been teaching flute and recorder in her private studio for thirty years. Kirsten completed a Bachelor of Music at Carleton University (studying flute with Cathy Baerg and composition with Deirdre Piper and Patrick Cardy) and a Masters of Music in Composition at the University of British Columbia (studying composition with Stephen Chatman). She is active as a chamber musician, playing with flute quartet Opus Four as well as other ensembles. In addition to teaching and performing, Kirsten works as the Administrative Coordinator for the Washington State Music Teachers Association.
Kirsten has been an active volunteer most of her life, having been involved with a wide variety of organizations, and is honoured to be part of the ORMTA Provincial Council.
Kamara Hennessey
DIRECTOR
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Kamara pursued part-time studies in 1996 at McMaster University’s School of The Arts, and graduated with a B.Mus. (Hon.) degree in 2003. During those years she maintained her active volunteer role as a trained facilitator with Bereaved Families of Ontario, Burlington-Hamilton. Through the organization’s bereavement programs she provided one-on-one (telephone / in person) and group support to families who lost a child/children (at any age). In addition to her volunteer work at BFO, and during her undergraduate music studies, Kamara was hired by her teacher-colleague, Francine on a part time basis at the McIsaac School of Music, Hamilton to teach piano at the elementary and intermediate levels to gain further experience in pedagogy.
In 2003, accepted the paid part-time role as the Coordinator of Volunteers and Programs to collaborate with the Executive Director in administrative and community outreach duties.
After graduating, Kamara applied for membership status in ORMTA and its affiliate Hamilton-Halton Branch in 2004. In September of that year she was approached to join the branch’s executive committee as the Recording Secretary, and have stayed on that platform serving in different roles over the years where needed, and to date. In her first term as branch President in 2014, H-H ORMTA hosted the bi-annual Provincial Conference in Burlington. She was part of the Hospitality Committee to support branch member and Conference Chair, Andrea Battista.
In that 2004 year Kamara also decided to pursue private lessons on soprano and alto saxophones at Long & McQuade Lesson Centre, Burlington ON. Following through with her teacher’s advise, she joined the Burlington Concert Band in 2008. She is currently the Past President. From 2004-2010 her volunteer service as the collaborative pianist with the Hamilton-Halton Chinese Choir (HHCC) allowed for the opportunity to be an integral part of that organization’s planned cultural events and fundraising initiatives.
In her private K.H.Piano Studio, Kamara facilitates students (youths-active seniors) at the Beginner to Late Intermediate levels in Piano and Theory. Achieved her certificate as an Ultimate Music Theory teacher and is recognized in UMT “Elite” Educator Program; contributed in GSG “Power of Why” 5 part book series. Also acquired a certificate in the Royal Conservatory of Music Artist Education Foundation Course.
Pre-deceased by her husband (d:1989) and young daughter (d:1994), one of Kamara’s many blessings is having her surviving son, daughter-in-law, and 3 grandsons (ages 14-7) in her life.
Dawn Toombs
DIRECTOR
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Dawn began her piano studies in Belleville with Kathleen Rennie. She left piano studies for a while to pursue a Bachelor of Commerce degree at Queen's, but music has always been there for her. Living in Hamilton, and then in Goderich, she resumed her studies. This culminated in the honour of receiving the Cora B. Ahrens Pedagogy Award at the ORMTA Convention in Timmins in 2002.
As a member of the Hanover-Walkerton Branch ORMTA, Dawn has managed the awards program since 1995. She assumed the role of Secretary in June 2016, and was President of this Branch from 2017 to 2021.
Today Dawn has an active studio. Her greatest pleasure comes from developing a life-long love of music in her students. She also belongs to the Huron Hand-bells group.
Jo-Anne Westover
DIRECTOR
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Jo-Anne Westover began her piano lessons at 10 years old. By the age of 15, she was in Grade 10 piano, studying at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, and went on to complete her ARCT in Pedagogy and Performance, winning the Katharine Sinclair prize for History. She credits her piano teachers Simone Lesley, Laurie Evan Fraser, Earle Moss, Leslie Kinton and Joseph Macerollo for their contribution to her learning and success.
Jo-Anne’s goal is to provide as many learning opportunities for her students as possible. Mock exams, master classes, trips to the opera, and various festival and performance opportunities are just some of the ways that Jo-Anne has given her students confidence in themselves and their abilities. Many students under her care have gone on to win medals and scholarships for their achievements. Every year for the past 15 years, she has been honoured to have her senior students chosen to compete at the Provincial Level, in which many of these students have won the top awards for their level. In 2018, Jo-Anne was voted by her peers to receive an award from the Ontario Registered Music Teachers Association (OCTA) for her teaching.
With a little encouragement and guidance, students rise above and exceed what they think is possible. Jo-Anne’s hope is that the lessons learned from her teaching will help students achieve great things in whatever field they choose.