Timothy Shantz is accomplished as both conductor and tenor soloist. He has performed as soloist and choir member with the Carmel Bach Festival since 2008 as well as the Lucerne Festival Academy. Recent solo highlights include Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine with the Carmel Bach Festival, Handel’s Solomon with the Alberta Baroque Ensemble and Richard Eaton Singers, Haydn’s Die Schöpfung with the University of Alberta and a staged production of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo. Shantz has performed Bach’s St. John Passion (Evangelist) at the Rockefeller Chapel in Chicago and Handel’s Messiah with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra. He has sung in ensembles under the direction of Pierre Boulez, Frieder Bernius, Paul Goodwin, Paul Hillier, Andrew Megill, John Poole, Leonard Ratzlaff, Daniel Reuss, Robert Shaw, Richard Sparks, Jon Washburn and Bruno Weil.

As conductor, Shantz is Artistic Director of Spiritus Chamber Choir and Chorus Master with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. His choirs are recognized for their warmth, clarity of sound and diverse programming. His studies culminated in a Doctor of Music degree from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where his dissertation focused on the unaccompanied choral work Sun-Dogs by James MacMillan.

Marilyn Engle

Canadian pianist Marilyn Engle began her early studies in Canada before going on to earn undergraduate and graduate degrees from The Juilliard School with teachers Ilona Kabos and Adele Marcus. Subsequently, she pursued graduate studies in musicology from New York University while also studying with Jeaneane Dowis. In Europe, she worked with Peter Feuchtwanger and Nikita Magaloff. She is currently completing her PhD at NYU, focusing on the area of rhetorical theory as it applies to musical performance. After winning numerous provincial competitions, Ms. Engle received national Canadian exposure as winner of the CBC Competition. She subsequently won several other competitions, including the J.S. Bach International Competition, the Music Teachers’ National Association Competition, and was a winner in the Washington International Competition. Performing widely on radio and television, Ms. Engle has given numerous solo and chamber recitals, and appeared as a soloist with orchestras, in North America, Europe, Israel, and the Orient. She is heard frequently in concert and on radio with the chamber ensemble Aubade, of which she was a founding member. Ms. Engle is a professor of music performance at the University of Calgary and is also involved in the Mount Royal College Academy program. A visiting professor at Oberlin College Conservatory, she has also been a faculty member and performer in Oberlin’s summer program in Casalmaggiore, Italy. Ms. Engle has regularly given classes and residencies at the Glenn Could Professional School, the University of Toronto and New York University. During the summer, she is also a performer and faculty member with he International School of Musical Arts and Niagara Chamber Music Festival. In 2001, Ms. Engle joined the performing faculty at the Academie Franco-Americaine/Music Studies Abroad program in Vaison-la-Romaine, Provence. Her compact disc, dances, dreams, desires. . . is scheduled for release in the near future.