Megan Benjafield - OSA Adjudicator

Megan Benjafield is a passionate educator whose teaching career spans 25 years across three school boards. She has taught in the TLDSB, TDSB and HWDSB covering courses in strings, band, voice, music theatre, jazz studies and contemporary music studies. Most notably, Megan spent a decade on faculty at Etobicoke School of the Arts, was lead teacher for the HWDSB Tier 2 Secondary Strings program and served as a sessional faculty professor at McMaster University, teaching strings methods. 

Megan has also shared her passion and experience with peers, providing professional development to music educators and teacher candidates. She has presented at OMEA, the WRDSB, Western University MESA, the TDSB and for Long and McQuade.

Currently, Megan is proud to be the Conductor for the Hamilton Philharmonic Youth Orchestra's Concert Orchestra, is the Music Education Manager for the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, sits on the Board of Directors for Orchestras Canada, and gives clinics, workshops and adjudicates throughout Southern Ontario.

Tanya Charles - OSA Adjudicator

Tanya Charles, a Hamilton, Ontario native with roots in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, has performed across North and South America and the Caribbean. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Performance from the University of Toronto and an Artist Diploma from the Glenn Gould School at the Royal Conservatory of Music. 

She is the concertmaster of Montreal’s Ensemble Obiora, which she has led since its founding in 2021. A recent highlight was her solo performance for the Canadian premiere of Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 1, conducted by Samy Rachid of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Tanya is also a violinist and Outreach Coordinator with the Odin Quartet. 

Her performance credits include concertmaster and soloist roles with the Colour of Music Festival Orchestra and its Virtuosi Ensemble in South Carolina, and associate concertmaster with the Gateways Festival Orchestra in New York. She has also played with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, and National Ballet Orchestra of Canada. Tanya is currently performing in the Mirvish Production of Disney’s The Lion King, on violin and viola, in Toronto and also brings her vibrant musicianship to the Toronto-based mariachi ensemble, Viva Mexico Mariachi. 

A passionate educator, adjudicator, and clinician, Tanya has led workshops and masterclasses in Saint Vincent, Guadeloupe, and Mexico, as well as across Canada. She is on faculty at both the University of Toronto and the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Oscar Peterson Program

Trish Howells – OSA Adjudicator

Trish Howells is a violinist , adjudicator and music educator of 38 years in Toronto. Beginning at the age of 11, Trish studied violin privately with Professor Ivan Kowaliw, the director of the Mykola Lysenko Ukrainian Music Institute, in Toronto. She continued her studies with both David Zafer and Andrew Dawes at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto.

Trish’s music education career had her teaching string classes from grades 4 to 12. Most of her career focussed on teaching strings and choral music at the middle school level.  

In retirement, Trish has continued studies in art history at the University of Toronto. She is actively playing with Orchestra Toronto and Hart House orchestra at U of T. Trish’s passion for chamber music has her participating in the Toronto Summer Music Chamber Academy at the Royal Conservatory of Music, as well as playing chamber music with friends.

When Trish isn’t studying, playing, or traveling, she is busy advocating for public music education, as well as fundraising for humanitarian causes.

Humberto Ramirez – OSA Adjudicator

Humberto Ramírez is a Colombian violinist and educator. He holds a Master’s Degree in Violin Performance and a Performer Diploma from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University–Bloomington, as well as a Bachelor’s Degree in Violin Performance with a minor in Chamber Music from Juan N. Corpas University in Bogotá. He is currently pursuing a DMA in Violin Performance at the University of Toronto, where he serves as Prof. Mark Fewer’s teaching assistant.

Humberto previously served as Director/Dean of the Music Department at Universidad del Norte, where he coordinated the Barranquilla International Chamber Music Festival and the EuroCaribe Concert of Cátedra Europa. He has collaborated with renowned artists and ensembles, including Carlos Vives, Monsieur Periné, and the Colombian National Symphony Orchestra.

Emma Schmiedecke - OSA Adjudicator

Praised for her “huge musicality, depth of interpretation, and technical expertise” (Manhattan International Music Competition), cellist Emma Schmiedecke has established herself as a vibrant interpreter of both the classical and contemporary cello repertoire. As guest soloist, Emma has performed with the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic, and Bravura Philharmonic, and she has performed as principal cellist of the Hollywood Film Music Orchestra for Disney Music at Carnegie Hall, the Opera Company of Middlebury Orchestra, OrchestraOne NYC, the Pronto Musica Chamber Orchestra, the Canadian Golha Orchestra, and the Canadian Studio Orchestra, as well as with the American Symphony Orchestra, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, the Opera Italiana Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de l’Agora, and L’Orchestre symphonique régional de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue. She has performed in masterclasses for Steven Isserlis, Colin Carr, Raphael Wallfisch, David Geringas, Leon Fleisher, and Arnold Steinhardt, among others, and as a chamber musician, she has been mentored by artists including Ida Kavafian, Levon Chilingirian, Daniel Phillips, Scott St. John, Mark Fewer, Duo Concertante, the Gryphon Trio, and the Shanghai Quartet. Emma has appeared at Ottawa Chamberfest and Big Lake Chamber Music Festival with the Continuum HATCH Contemporary Ensemble, Stratford Summer Music, and has been a visiting artist at The Banff Centre, the Centre d’Arts Orford, the Toronto Summer Music Festival, Domaine Forget de Charlevoix Chamber Music Festival, Tuckamore Festival, Vermont Mozart Festival, Atlantic Music Festival, the Heifetz Institute, the Round Top Festival Institute, the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute, the NYU Steinhardt String Quartet Seminar, and the Oxford Cello School in Oxford, England.

Select awards and prizes include a Silver Medal in the Professional Category of the 4th Manhattan International Music Competition, the Temerty Family Foundation Scholarship, the George Martin/Hans Thatcher Clark Scholarship, the Christopher Bunting Scholarship, the Mai Why and Peter Levitt Graduate Scholarship, the Clive Allen Fellowship, the Ingeborg and Angela Kramer Award, a McGill University Graduate Dean’s Award, and first prize in the Bravura Philharmonic and Bergen Philharmonic Young Artist Competitions. A strong advocate for contemporary music, she has worked closely with composers Joan Tower, John Corigliano, George Tsontakis, Ana Sokolovic, Susan Botti, Stacy Garrop, Linda Catlin- Smith, and Kevin Lau, and has performed with the Da Capo Chamber Players, the American Composers Orchestra, the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, 21C New Music Festival, the Ligeti String Quartet, the Canadian Composers Orchestra Digital Generations Project, Slow Rise Music, the JAM Orchestra, Fifth House Ensemble, Against the Grain Theatre Company, Novarumori Ensemble, and the Contemporaneous New Music Ensemble in multiple world premieres and at the Mostly Modern Festival. 

An active chamber musician, Emma is co-founder of Duo Caprice with oboist/English hornist Luka Marcoux and is a core cellist of the ensemble Bang Bang Strings. A dedicated teacher, Dr. Schmiedecke is a lecturer in contemporary chamber music and strings at the University of Toronto, is a guest chamber music coach at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music, serves as a board member for the Canadian Artist Network, and maintains an active schedule as an adjudicator and clinician, most recently for the Canadian Music Competition, the Toronto International Music Festival,  and the Ontario Strings Association. She was a teaching artist in cello for the Orchestra of St. Luke’s Youth Orchestra & Music Education Program and Sistema Toronto, and has been a chamber music coach at the Phil and Eli Taylor Performance Academy for Young Artists at the Royal Conservatory of Music. Emma received her Doctor of Musical Arts in Cello Performance from the University of Toronto, and obtained both a Master of Music and Graduate Diploma in Cello Performance from the Schulich School of Music of McGill University. She also holds an Artist Diploma from the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music, a Bachelor of Music from the Bard College Conservatory of Music, and a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from Bard College, all magna cum laude. Her primary teachers include Peter Wiley, Matt Haimovitz, Joseph Johnson, Yegor Dyachkov, Desmond Hoebig, Andrés Diaz, Sophie Shao, Luis Garcia-Renart, André Emelianoff, Bjørn Bantock, and Jonathan Spitz. She plays a 1918 Italian cello “Tutto” by Puglisi of Catania.