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Laurie Matiation
Laurie Matiation
Originally from Brandon, Manitoba, Laurie is currently Artistic Director of the Academy and Advanced Program at Mount Royal University Conservatory - a world class program specifically designed for students who wish to work on their performance skills and self confidence.
Laurie is also a passionate teacher, and believes that all can work towards achieving their goals and dreams with proper guidance, inspiration and support. She conducts workshops and clinics, and is one of the founding members of HornFest, an annual horn workshop. She is teacher of horn at Mount Royal University Conservatory and the University of Calgary.
Laurie began her professional career in 1978 as second horn of the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, and joined the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra in 1983. In June of 2019, Laurie retired from the Calgary Phil after 41 years of service in the orchestra business. She is excited about her next musical journey and adventure, and will continue to support and be an advocate for the Arts community and music education in the schools.
When not working, Laurie enjoys cooking, gardening, and spending as much time as possible outdoors walking and hiking!
Heather Wootton
Heather Wootton
Heather has been a member of the horn section of the Calgary Philharmonic since 1993. Before coming to Calgary, she was a member the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, the Stratford Festival Orchestra, and maintained an active and varied free-lance career about southern Ontario.
Born in Provost, Alberta and raised largely in Ottawa, Ontario, Heather received a Bachelor of Musical Arts and an Artists’ Diploma in Performance from the University of Western Ontario and continued her studies with the Orchestral Training Program of the Royal Conservatory and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada. Her main teachers at that time included Robert Creech and Eugene Rittich.
Further studies included summers at the Keystone Brass Institute in Colorado, the Kent/Blossom Festival in Ohio studying with members of the Cleveland Orchestra and performed as Principal Horn of the the Festival Orchestra of the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. Heather has enjoyed studying with such artists as Richard Solis, Gail Williams, Bill Klingelhoffer and Phillip Farkas.
From 2001 - 2008, Heather was guest soloist and horn instructor at the “Summer Music on the Shannon” music festival then based in Limerick, Ireland.
Heather is an avid chamber musician and was a founding member of the chamber ensembles Rosa Selvatica and Altius Brass. She loves to teach, is a sought-after clinician and finds great joy in helping students of all ages discover music and the horn.
In January of 2016, she helped launch the Calgary Philharmonic’s Sistema-inspired “PhilKids” after school music program. In the role of Lead Teaching Artist, she led a dedicated and passionate team helping children, who wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity, learn to play an instrument and explore all the benefits that music can add to our lives.
Miranda Canonico-Cairns
Miranda Canonico-Cairns
Miranda Cairns joined the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra in 2016. She holds an Artist Diploma from the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Ontario, where she studied with Andrew McCandless. Prior to attending the prestigious conservatory she completed an undergraduate degree at Sir Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario with Anita McAlister.
Before moving to Calgary, Miranda was an active freelance musician in Toronto. She has performed with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, and the Niagara Symphony Orchestra. Chamber music holds a special place in her heart and Miranda has performed with the True North Brass Quintet, as well as the Toronto Brass Quintet. Cairns is also no stranger to the ballet and orchestra pit, having performed with the world-renowned Bolshoi Ballet company on tour to Toronto.
Originally from Courtice, Ontario, a small community an hour east of Toronto, Ontario, she began playing trumpet at the age of 11 and started private lessons when she was 15 years old. Miranda is now happy to pass on all she has learned and enjoys teaching.
Samantha Whelan Kotkas
Samantha Whelan Kotkas
Born in Canada, raised in Africa and educated in Calgary and Houston, Samantha Whelan Kotkas has been praised for creating truly unique and totally engaging experiences for young audiences. She is an award-winning producer, storyteller, trumpet player and teaching artist who has traveled internationally as a creative consultant and performer. Her creative efforts have focused on combining her love of music and the outdoors with her desire to enhance arts education in Canada. In June of 2018, she was very honoured to be asked to serve as the "Distinguished Graduate" at the University of Calgary’s convocation ceremony.
In conjunction with her active career as a performer, Samantha is the education advisor for Calgary Pro Musica and a teaching artist for the National Arts Centre of Canada (NAC) where she finds the cross-cultural work she does with Walter MacDonald White Bear, as part of the Arts Alive Program, very meaningful. She has written outreach and music teaching guides for the NAC, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.
Samantha just completed writing and producing 'Wandering with Wonder': an immersive outdoor musical storytelling experience with original live and recorded music, story, puppetry and dance which was successfully premiered to a sold-out audience in September 2021 at the Leighton Arts Centre and then made into a film by the Red Deer Symphony Orchestra with full orchestrations in October 2022. This film was awarded the Best Musical Film for 2023 by the Alberta Media Production Industries Association and featured in the season finale of the Red Deer Symphony Orchestra's 2023 season. For more information about Samantha please visit her website at www.samanthawhelankotkas.com
Nikki McCaslin
Nikki McCaslin
Nikki DoBell McCaslin is an active trombone player and teacher living in Calgary, Alberta. She has been the Principal Trombonist in the Red Deer Symphony Orchestra since 2017 and is on faculty at the Mount Royal Conservatory. She is the former the Instructor of Trombone at East Carolina University and The University of North Carolina Pembroke. Originally from Minnesota, she holds a bachelors degree in trombone performance from Boston University and a masters degree from Arizona State University. Nikki has performed and recorded with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, the Carolina New Music Initiative. She has performed with the North Carolina Opera, Carolina Brass, the Phoenix Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Albany Symphony and is a former member of the Fayetteville Symphony and Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestras.
Hana Hubley
Hana Hubley
Hana Hubley is an active performer and dedicated musician, who’s passion extends to teaching and higher education. She is a freelance tuba player based out of Calgary, Alberta, and holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Lethbridge. During her studies, she found a love for performing electronic pieces, and works by female and other underrepresented composers. She primarily studied with Dr. Nick Sullivan, but has also learned from instructors from across the globe. Including Øystein Baadsvik (NAM), Velvet Brown (Penn State), Pierre Beaudry (OSM), Peder MacLellan (VSO), and Tom McCaslin (CPO).
Upon graduating from the University of Lethbridge, Hana was incredibly honoured to be the recipient of the 2023 Faculty of Fine Arts Gold Medal, and was tasked with leading the ULethbridge Wind Orchestra for all four convocation ceremonies. Since then, she has taken a role within her alma mater’s Strategic Enrolment Team, honing in on her fervor for post-secondary and music education.
Hana’s love for wind band music has led her to play with many local ensembles, including: Southern Winds Wind Orchestra, Calgary Wind Symphony, and the Alberta Wind Symphony. Notably, she will be a featured soloist in an upcoming Calgary Westwinds Wind Orchestra concert, performing the Gregson Tuba Concerto.
While balancing her career in higher education, Hana frequently conducts low brass clinics for middle school and high school bands and works as a private tuba/euphonium instructor in Calgary and the area. In March, she will be a clinician for the 2025 Soho Sound Virtual Canadian Junior Honour Band; teaching students from grades 6 to 9.
When not honking on her instrument or busy with work, you can find Hana pumping iron at the gym, playing video games with friends, or curling up with her current book obsession & sipping on sleepytime tea.
Juliane Gallant
Juliane Gallant
New Brunswick-born conductor Juliane Gallant is the Resident Conductor of the Calgary Philharmonic. She has appeared as guest conductor with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Victoria Symphony, PEI Symphony Orchestra, Okanagan Symphony Orchestra, Kingston Symphony Orchestra, and Symphony New Brunswick, and as assistant and cover conductor with many orchestras and opera companies across Canada.
Initially a collaborative pianist, répétiteur, and vocal coach, Juliane began her conducting career in opera. She has led productions of Carmen, La bohème, Tosca, Eugene Onegin, La Traviata, Don Giovanni, and numerous others, both in Canada and in the UK. In 2021, she made her Royal Opera House debut in Mami Wata in collaboration with Pegasus Opera.
Juliane is a graduate of the National Opera Studio, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Conservatoire de musique et d’art dramatique de Montréal, the University of Ottawa and the Université de Moncton. She is an alumna of Tapestry Opera’s Women in Musical Leadership Fellowship.
Aine Kay Sison: Marketing Design
Aine Kay Sison: Marketing Design
Born on a small island in the Philippines, Aine Kay and her family immigrated to Canada when she was only a year old. Despite not growing up in a musically inclined household, Aine Kay was exposed to music at a young age and started playing the piano in elementary school. Her orchestral journey truly took off in junior high, where she began playing the tuba, an instrument nearly as large as she was at the time. Despite her petite stature of four feet eleven inches, she quickly excelled on the over-sized instrument, proudly claiming the title of the world's most vertically- challenged tuba player.
In the last year of her undergraduate degree, Aine Kay sparked an interest in percussion and ethnomusicology. She enrolled in the second instrument study course, where she had the opportunity to study under
Dr. Chris Sies. This newfound passion has led her to study percussion for over a year now.
Aine Kay graduated from the University of Calgary in 2023 with a Bachelor of Music degree in Tuba Performance under the tutelage of Tom McCaslin. Currently, Aine Kay is pursuing her Master of Music degree at McGill University.
When she's not busy “oom-pah-ing” or dreaming of percussion greatness, Aine Kay can be found at her second home – the local animal shelter. After a long day of practice, you'll often find her chowing down some delicious Korean fried chicken.
Sonja Sward: Organizer
Sonja Sward: Organizer
Born into a musical family, Sonja started taking music lessons at the age of 5. Initially starting on piano, she also added violin, trumpet, voice, and french horn to her musical repertoire by age 13. During high school, she struggled with deciding what to pursue in university until her mother mentioned a career in music; after all, what were all the years of lessons for if not to have the option of pursuing music as a career! After deciding to pursue a career on French Horn, Sonja started studying at the Mount Royal Conservatory with Laurie Matiation in 2019, and joined the Calgary Youth Orchestra and the Mount Royal Academy for Young Artists the following year.
After being accepted to the Bachelor of Music program at the University of Calgary in 2021, Sonja continued to study with the MRU Academy. Now as a 4th year student, Sonja has had the opportunity to play with the University of Calgary Wind Ensemble, Brass Choir, Chamber Choir and Orchestra. In her 4 years of university she has played principal and section roles in over 22 concerts with these ensembles, and played as a guest performer with Altius Brass, Red Deer Symphony Orchestra, St.Giles Orchestra, and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra.
Through the MRU Academy, Sonja has played in masterclasses with Johanna Lundy, Valerie Whitney, Kurt Kellan, Jeff Nelsen, Maxwell Stein, and most recently in a masterclass sponsored by Calgary Pro Musica, Eric Reed from Juilliard. Other major performances Sonja has participated in include Terry Clark’s Mental Preparedness in Music presentation in January 2023 and the RBC Foundation/Calgary Phil Concerto Competition as one of four winners in March 2024, where she played the first movement of the Gordon Jacobs Horn Concerto.
When she is not playing her days away on stage or in a practice room, Sonja trains as a competitive horseback rider and travels to competitions between concert seasons. Her most recent endeavour is the organization of Celebrating Girls in Brass 2025, where she hopes to educate and inspire the next generation of talented young women to pursue careers in brass music.
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