2025 Comox Valley Band & Choir Festival Adjudicators
Scott LeitheadConcert Choir Adjudicator
Scott Leithead is the founder and Artistic Director of both Edmonton's Korora Choir Association and TIME Association. He has been invited to conduct provincial and state honour choirs on twenty-nine occasions and he has presented workshops in North America and beyond. Notable appearances include adjudicating the Tampere International Festival in Finland and conducting the Ellison Canadian Honour Choir nine times since its inception. He has adjudicated both the Choral Canada National Competition for Amateur Canadian Choirs and the Kathaumixw International Choir Festival (2014, 2016, 2023, 2025). Under his direction, Korora was the winner of both the 2015 CBC National Competition for Canadian Amateur Choirs and both the 2015 and 2016 Canadian National Music Competition. In the summer of 2019, Korora was invited to perform at the IFCM World Choral Expo in Portugal, where they represented Canada on the world stage. Also in 2019, Korora was featured on an episode of CTV's "The Amazing Race Canada". This season Korora is thrilled to be performing with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra in 13 concerts.
Scott has a passion for music from southern Africa, and he has been invited to work with choirs in South Africa and Namibia on numerous occasions. In 2008-2009, Scott was on sabbatical in Namibia where he worked with the Mascato Youth Choir and many other choirs in southern Africa. Scott's passion for innovative and unique choral music experiences has shaped the direction of the Korora Choir Association. In February 2023 he conducted the ISSEA Mass Choir in Johannesburg South Africa featuring international schools from across the African continent.
Scott was awarded Choir Alberta's top honour, the Richard S. Eaton Award, in 2015. He also received Edmonton's Salute to Excellence award in 2016. He has also been awarded the Syncrude Award for Innovative Direction.
Dr. Wendy ZanderConcert Band Adjudicator
Dr. Wendy Zander is the Instrumental Music Education Specialist and Director of the Symphonic Band at Brandon University. As a Professor in the School of Music, she also teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Instrumental music education and conducting.
Zander (McCallum) was the Lead Writer of the Manitoba Grade 9-12 Music Curriculum Framework, publishes in the journal Canadian Winds, and is a regular contributor to the publication and recording series Teaching Music Through Performance in Band and Teaching Music Through Performance in Beginning Band. A former President of the Manitoba Band Association (MBA) and Canadian Band Association (CBA), she is both an Educational Clinician with the Conn-Selmer Division of Education and a Teaching Affiliate with Brandon University's Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Technology. She has presented to school districts and provincial music education conferences, College Band Directors National Association regional conference, and The Midwest Clinic. Zander is Faculty Advisor for the Brandon University Student Music Educators Association (BUSMEA), an organization that designs and delivers the annual Da Capo professional development conference, and she hosts "Avenues: Exploring Band and Jazz Methods," a summer professional development event for teachers.
Zander investigates areas related to rehearsing and learning, conducting, and the rehearsal of instrumental literature as a meaningful source of doing, knowing, and understanding in the music classroom. She is presently engaged in research related to the Wind Recording projects of her mentor, Eugene Migliaro Corporon. Wendy lives in Brandon, Manitoba with her baseball-playing and music-making sons, Rory and Anders.
Kathie Van LareConcert Band Adjudicator
Kathie Van Lare received her B. Mus. ("With Distinction"), Teacher Certification and Dip. F.A. in Wind Band Conducting, all from the University of Calgary. Born and raised in Calgary, she has been teaching music in the Calgary area for 35 years, and though now retired, she continues to be active as a guest conductor and adjudicator throughout much of Western Canada for both concert and jazz bands. She also currently serves as the Musical Director for the Foothills Music Society Concert Band, the Westwinds Music Society Gold Jazz South, and the Calgary Women's Jazz Orchestra.
Kathie has participated on various committees for the Alberta Band Association, the Alberta International Band Festival, and JazzYYC. She is currently Vice President of the Band Masters Fraternity, Phi Beta Mu and is the Past - (Co) President of Women Band Director's International, Alberta Chapter. She has presented at the Manitoba Music Educators Conference, Calgary Teachers Convention, JazzYYC's Tune In, Tune Up, Conference as well as the "Women Led" Jazz Symposium in Winnipeg. She has also taught at the Calgary Regional Summer Band Workshop and the International Music Camp at the International Peace Gardens.
Through her affiliation with WBDI-Alberta Chapter, Kathie also serves as Co Organizer of "Girls in Jazz", a program created in Calgary in 2013 to encourage and support women of 'all ages and stages' in furthering their study in jazz, with the ultimate goal of creating gender parity on professional jazz stages of the future.
Besides music, Kathie enjoys woodworking, horseback riding and is an avid baseball fan. Go Cardinals!