Judges 2011
Ray Roper
Founding member of the 70’s rock band, Stonebolt, Ray Roper is now a producer in Vancouver.
James Kasper
James Kasper is the founder and producer of the Vancouver Island Music Awards, which ran from 2002 to 2007 and will return in 2011. He is the producer and host of the Wild Orphans Arts & Culture program on CFUV 101.9FM, and the director of 27 Angels Creative, an artist management company. Kasper is also a recording artist with four albums and five Canadian tours to his credit. In 2008, he received an ‘M Award’ for ‘Hardest Working Person in Local Music.’
Yanik Giroux
The Yanik Giroux Performing Arts Studio
Trained singer-actor-dancer, Yanik is a graduate from the University of Montreal (B. Mus-Voice Performance), the Canadian College of Performing Arts and the Chemainus Theatre Acting Internship Program.
He has been working for several years as a private voice & piano teacher (Yanik Giroux Performing Arts Studio), vocal coach, music director and accompanist for many companies across Canada and has been teaching musical theatre at Boston Dance Collective, Canadian College of Performing Arts, Victoria Dance Connection, Dansko Studios and Kaleidoscope Performing Arts Studio. He is currently music director for the Victoria Male Voice Choir.
Stage Credits include performances with the Montreal Metropolitan Orchestra (Turandot), Theatre North West (Dancock’s Dance, Portia White, All Shook Up), Chemainus Theatre (Hello, Dolly!, Sherlock Holmes), Langham Court Theatre (Jacques Brel), Belfry Theatre (Urinetown), Pacific Opera Victoria (La Traviata), Butchart Gardens (Showtime!, Love Matters) and Kaleidoscope Theatre (Aladdin, Scrambled Feet, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe) to name a few.
He participated in national and international tours and music festivals across Canada and in Europe. While focusing on theatre music and the performing arts, his voice work has many influences including the SLS Technique and the different mentors in Toronto, San Francisco and NYC.
Yanik is a member of NATS, National Association of Teachers of Singing and an ATCL—Associate of Trinity College London (UK). www.yanikgiroux.com
Wynn Gogol
A sought-after producer/mixer and innovative recording engineer, Wynn Gogol has more than sixty CDs to his credit, as well as a 2010 M Award for Favourite Record Producer. Artists that Wynn has worked with include: Harry Manx, Beuna Buya, James Keelaghan, Mestre Barrao, Sonic Doom, Steve Marriner, Emily Braden, The Drawls, Sarah Noni Metzner, Outlaw Social, Lulo Reinhardt, The Stomp Club, Niel Golden, Sara Marreiros, Honeyloaf, Yiddish Columbia State Orchestra and many others. Wynn began touring in the late nineties with jump blues masters, The Jump Daddies. He’s played keyboards and udu in Harry Manx’s road band, funky Hammond organ with Groove Fly, and regularly performs and records on upright bass. Wynn also plays acoustic and electric lap slide, banjo and accordion and produces recordings for International Guitar Night, one of the world’s longest running mobile guitar festivals. Wynn’s book ‘The Artful Songwriter’ will be available Summer 2010.
Marlene Abney
Marlene Abney is a freelance choreographer, director and dance instructor based out of Victoria for the last 20 years. As a young adult professional dancer, she performed on stage, film and television. For the last several summers, Marlene directed, choreographed and co-produced the popular song and dance revue Love Matters for the Butchart Gardens. Her training includes scholarship studies with some of the top performing arts schools in the country which led her to embrace teaching full time. Marlene has owned two successful dance studios in both Toronto and Victoria. She has garnered many awards for her choreography which includes Victoria Danceworks Festival Rose Bowl for Musical Theatre 2010. Marlene enjoys teaching locally and as a guest teacher. She is very proud that many of her students successfully go on to professional performing careers in dance, musical theatre, cruise ships as well as film and TV.
Caroline Spence
Local Singer Songwriter and Independent Music Supporter
Caroline Spence has been part of the Canadian independent music scene for the past number of years, playing numerous festivals and shows alongside other great artists like Ember Swift, Melissa McLelland, The Gruff, Chris Belsito, Shauna Major (Ana Winter), Tom Hooper (Grapes of Wrath) and Melissa Ferrick, amongst others. Caroline’s hello EP was produced by Michael Jack (Bono, Rush, Jann Arden, The Trews, Big Sugar and more). Hey Gemini, the single from the hello EP, won the Great Canadian Talent Search sponsored by Canadian Musician Magazine.
Caroline's music has received regular play on college and CBC radio. Caroline has been interviewed on Rogers Cable, Global, CTV and various college radio stations about her band, and various music projects that she has been involved with. Caroline was also a winner of the Island Music Awards Live Performance of the Year, as well as being a regional finalist in the Mazda Music Tour where her band, Crimson Star was touted as one of Canada’s top 12 “indie bands to watch”. Her band was also invited to showcase at NewMusicWest in Vancouver. For the past year, Caroline has been working on a new music project with fellow songwriter and long-time band mate, Adam Basterfield (also keyboardist for Canada's Most Authentic Pink Floyd Tribute, Pigs), along with band mates Taylor Charles and Michael Ross. This project is set for release summer 2010.
Caroline has long been a supporter of community arts and artists. Aside from her interest in music, Caroline has worked as an expressive arts therapist running many theatre and creativity projects both in Victoria and Ontario. She got her creative start in theatre with over eight years of training at both Bastion and Kaleidoscope theatre schools in Victoria and moved on to appear in local TV and stage. A move to Ontario to train as an expressive arts therapist also saw Caroline start her work as a singer-songwriter and become a core member of the eclectic TorontoIndieMusic collective, as well as work as a respected actor, director and stage manager in numerous community theatre projects. Aside from working tirelessly on many creativity, performance and theatre projects to help young people, she has also donated her time as an organizer and/or musician to various charity fundraisers in both Ontario and BC. Back in her hometown of Victoria for the past few years, Caroline has continued to be an enthusiastic supporter of other musicians, volunteering her time on numerous projects to help other local artists, especially with business, web and marketing support. Caroline was also one of a small group of local musicians who started the Cornerstone Collective to help support each other and other independent musicians in the community by sharing industry knowledge, skills, training, peer support, mentoring opportunities and networking. Caroline is honoured to be included as a judge for the Victoria Idol contest in support of PEERS.
Diane Pancel
Diane Pancel is a seasoned artist, performer and songwriter, drawing inspiration from her Portuguese/Hungarian background to give her music a strong sense of international soul.
This dynamic vocalist is an active member of the Victoria performing arts community. Diane’s first love is the theatre where she has performed in such shows as Love Matters, Cabaret at the Met, The Songs We Sing, and for two years was a featured singer in the Butchart Gardens’ Showtime.
Involved in the jazz & blues scene, she has worked and shared the stage with such artists as Louise Rose, Morry Stearns, Misha Tsiganov, Tobin Stokes and the late Linton Garner. She also was 1st runner up to the Canadian National Singing Competition which gave her the opportunity to work and record in Nashville with such artists as fiddle player Rob Hajacobs.
Diane’s performances range from across Canada and the United States. She recently returned from a very successful series of engagements in New York City where she sang at the Metropolitan Room and the Birdland Nightclub, two of NYC’s favourite cabarets.
She has also been singing many radio commercials and voiceover works from across Canada, Unites States and Europe. To date, you can hear her in over 200 radio jingles!
Diane’s current album, Introducing, is playing on CBC Radio One and receiving rave reviews. She is currently producing a one woman show that will be touring Canada, United States, and Europe in the spring of 2011.
