Meet this year’s Adjudicators & Masterclass Instructors for COPAFestival 2025!
Festival
Adjudicators
Dance
Jennah Paron
Ballet, Modern & Contemporary
Stage Dance: Jazz & Lyrical, Hip Hop, Acro, Musical Theatre, Tap
Jennah Paron’s career in the dance industry has evolved into a beautiful balance of performing opportunities, managerial roles, higher education, choreographing, adjudicating, and teaching. Jennah’s love for dancing began in September 2012, and she has trained extensively in jazz, ballet, lyrical, modern, contemporary, tap, hip hop, and jazz-funk. Jennah is honoured to have represented Team Canada West at the IDO World Championships for ballet, jazz, and modern, in Poland, in December of 2017. In 2020, Jennah signed her first of two annual contracts with Motives Dance Company in Edmonton. Amidst the pandemic, the company took numerous opportunities to further their training, choreography and teaching skills, and expand their performance repertoire. Passionate about learning and teaching, Jennah began to participate in various professional development opportunities across Canada. Her credentials include ADAPT Dance Teacher’s Certification, Progressing Ballet Technique Certification, and CanFit Pro Certified Group Fitness Instructor Specialist Certification. Her academic knowledge makes her stand out in the dance industry. In December of 2022, Jennah completed her Bachelor of Arts in Sports, Recreation and Tourism with a sports management minor. Her educational background includes an in-depth study of sport/recreation sociology, psychology, and kinesiology. Jennah’s post-secondary education has allowed her to take courses such as: advanced topics in the profession of coaching, the study of dance for children, philosophy of leisure, adapted physical activity, and more!
Currently, Jennah is the Women’s Indoor National Team Coordinator at Volleyball Canada. This role has provided her the opportunity to work alongside some of the top athletes, coaches, and support staff in the world! Additionally, Jennah teaches dance to the figure skaters at Connaught Figure Skating Club in Richmond, BC. The skaters are dedicated to expanding their movement vocabulary from the grassroots level to the international level, in Jennah’s weekly classes. She believes her passion for sport, physical activity and dance thrives because of her post-secondary education, and current experience landscape.
With many years of dance industry-related administrative and teaching experience under her belt, and the ability to apply her scholarly knowledge, Jennah co-launched The Dance Initiative in 2020. The Dance Initiative has allowed for Jennah and her business partner Aidan to take action in the dance community and bring together dancers from across the province of Alberta for shows, workshops, and masterclasses. Currently living in Vancouver, Jennah and Aidan keep a close connection to students, colleagues, and competition owners in both Alberta and British Columbia.
Outside of the studio, Jennah can be found watching sports documentaries with a fresh bowl of popcorn! Jennah believes that dancing builds confidence, promotes creativity, and brings meaningful joy to others. She hopes to continue exploring the many aspects of the dance industry from an administrative, performance, and leadership standpoint.
Music
Arne Sahlan
Piano
Arne Sahlén has performed to acclaim at hundreds of recitals, concerts and fund-raising events in Canada and beyond. From his Kimberley BC studio he teaches piano, theory and pedagogy in person and online. His students win many awards and go to study at renowned institutes, then take professional positions of esteem. He was for twenty-five years a piano examiner, and worked intensely on repertoire selection for syllabi and publications of the Western Board of Music, the Royal Conservatory of Music, and Conservatory Canada. He has adjudicated piano and composing at some 125 music festivals to date, and for two decades served as a Visiting Music Professor at Cambodia’s Royal University of Fine Arts.
Sahlén’s early training was in Prince Rupert and Prince George BC with Phyllis Hankinson, then Elizabeth McGillivray. He graduated in Piano Performance with Distinction from the University of Victoria, in the class of Robin Wood FRAM, and in Pedagogy at the Victoria Conservatory of Music studying with Winifred Scott Wood LRSM. He earned the Victoria Medallion and Rose Bowl, the BC Provincial Senior Piano Championship, the Royal Conservatory ARCT Gold Medal and Helen Tough Murray Scholarship, a Banff School of Fine Arts scholarship for year-long study, and many other awards. He has initiated, carried forward and/or completed ten projects to bring grand pianos into performance sites. From a family line long devoted to human service, he received the Governor General’s Caring Canadian Award in Year 2000 for tireless arts and humanitarian volunteering.
Sample responses to Sahlén’s work: You are brilliant, and your brilliance extends far beyond music. / Your skillful teaching and your warm, caring presence were inspiring. /…fluid pianism and warm tone illuminating the music superbly. / Thank you for being a terrific adjudicator… your work is brilliant. You are positive yet honest, and your insights into the music are first-rate.
John Thompson
Strings & Chamber Orchestra
After serving as Principal Viola in the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra for over forty seasons, during which time he performed as a soloist with the orchestra on many occasions, as well as pursuing an active chamber music career as a member of such ensembles as the Calgary Philharmonic String Quartet, the Alberta Chamber Players and Kensington Sinfonia. He regularly played with visiting artists such as the Orford String Quartet, the Allegri String Quartet, Henri Temianka, Miriam Fried, the Bow Quartet and many more.
He has always had an enthusiasm for working with youth, as a teacher at the Mount Royal University Conservatory and the University of Calgary. John also enjoyed his association with the Calgary Youth Orchestra and the Conservatory Strings, as conductor and music director and a chamber music coach and coordinator for the Academy programme at MRUC.
Many of his students have received honors at local, provincial and national competitions and a number of his students may be found performing with professional orchestras across North America.
John is regularly invited to adjudicate across Canada at festivals and competitions at local, provincial and national levels while continuing to be active as a violist in a variety of settings.
He has been honored with an Alberta Achievement Award and a Distinguished Teaching Award from Mount Royal University for his services to young musicians.
Voice
Mireille Rijavec
Voice
Mezzo-soprano Mireille Rijavec has been heard on the CBC as a soloist and has appeared with Pop Goes the Opera, the Alberta Baroque Ensemble, the Richard Eaton Singers, Pro Coro Canada, and the Edmonton Metropolitan Orchestra, among others. Theatre being her first love, Mireille has found a number of ways of involving song in theatre works, such as her cabaret Brie, Baguette and a Broad that she has been presenting for 15 years, and a number of collaborative works such as A Most Beautiful Deception, a play based on the poetry of Melissa Lacroix and Lost in Montmartre, a play about a fictional wake for Érik Satie, all presented at the Edmonton Fringe.
Mireille has a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of British Columbia. She was Music Faculty at the University of Alberta’s Campus Saint-Jean from 1999 to 2012 and was on staff at Concordia University of Edmonton from 2006 to 2016 as a voice instructor, Manager and Program Coordinator of Concordia’s School of Music. Mireille was a member of Edmonton’s professional choir Pro Coro Canada for many years and from 2016 to 2019, their Executive Director. She was also a member of the Edmonton Arts Council board from 2018 to 2024. Mireille continues to act as a consultant for not-for-profit organizations.
Mireille is the vocal pedagogue and alto vocal coach for the Edmonton Metropolitan Chorus and has conducted the Women’s Chamber Choir of Edmonton Metropolitan Chorus in 2023 and 2024. She teaches voice privately and works with students of all levels, from children to adults and stresses the importance of being able to read music, healthy vocal technique grounded in physiology, and ultimately the joy of communicating through song. Mireille’s students are active singers in the community, and many have continued their vocal studies in classical voice and musical theatre in post-secondary institutions across Canada and the United States. Mireille is a member of the CMFAA (Canadian Music Festival Adjudicators Association), ARMTA (Alberta Registered Music Teachers Association), NATS (National Association of Teacher of Singing) and is an Affiliate Member of the Association for Body Mapping Educators.
Hotel
Hotel Zed Kelowna is generously offering a 20% discount to our festival participants. Use the promo code “COPAF20” for bookings between February 24th and April 30th, 2024. Please note that room availability is subject to change, and guests are responsible for their own booking and payment.
To Book Online:
- Visit the direct booking link here
- Select your room and complete the booking process.
To Book by Phone:
- Call 1-800-663-0298
- Mention you are booking at Hotel Zed Kelowna with the “COPAF20” rate.
- Choose your room and provide booking dates.
- Provide your details to complete the booking.
To Book via Email:
- Email matt@hotelzed.com
- Mention you are booking at Hotel Zed Kelowna with the “COPAF20” rate.
- Include your first and last name, check-in and check-out dates, phone number, and email address.
Location: 1627 Abbott St, Kelowna, BC V1Y 1A9
Hotel Zed is conveniently located in downtown Kelowna, one block from Okanagan Lake.
For more details, please visit Hotel Zed Website
ASPIRE
Gala & Reception
The Central Okanagan Performing Arts Festival warmly invites you to ASPIRE: Gala & Reception.
A vibrant evening, recognizing the exceptional talents of our region’s top performing artists. Experience the joy of achievement with young performing artists from the festival in the first half of the show, and local professional performing artists in the second half, demonstrating what our youth can ASPIRE to become!
Event Date:
2025 Date coming soon…
Location:
Mary Irwin Theatre & Reception Area
Rotary Centre for the Arts
Tickets Available Here
Dress Code:
Semi-Formal Attire is preferred
Schedule
5:00pm – Doors
Enjoy performing arts vendors, photo booth, cash bar & light refreshments, and pianist!
6:00pm – Show begins
Festival Highlights in Dance, Music, and Voice
7:00pm – Intermission
7:15pm – Scholarships & Medals announced
7:30pm – Special Guests
Professional Performances in Dance, Music, and Voice
8:30pm – Show concludes
We extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who supports our Gala. A special acknowledgment goes out to the sponsors, performing artists, teachers, and parents for their invaluable contribution.