Choir Members

Born and raised in Vancouver BC, Nick is delighted to be returning to Laudate Singers for his fourth season after a brief hiatus. He has been singing and performing music since elementary school. During his undergraduate studies at McGill University, he sang with the a capella ensemble New Earth Voices and with the light opera company McGill Savoy Society. He trained for several years under Matthew Chittick (M.Mus; Calgary Opera) as a classical baritone.

Nick returned to Vancouver in 2011 to study medicine at the University of British Columbia, during which he served for three years as Artistic Director of the UBC Medicine Choir and sang for three seasons with the Vancouver Peace Choir. Personal favourite repertoire since joining Laudate has included Charpentier’s Te Deum, Vivaldi’s Magnificat, and the Romancero Gitano suite by Carlos Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

When not singing, Nick works as a geriatric psychiatrist and researcher based in Vancouver and at the University of British Columbia.

Jessica has an extensive choral background, singing with numerous ensembles over the last ten years. Recently, she has been singing in the Christ Church Cathedral Choir since 2021 and with the Laudate Singers since 2018. Jessica completed her Bachelor of Music, Honours Music Education (2018) at Western University. She also holds a Diploma of Music (2014) and a Certificate in Conducting (2015) from Capilano University, as well as her Level I Certification in ORFF Methodology (2014) from the BC ORFF Chapter. When Jessica isn’t singing, she works as an Associate Executive Director. 

Born and raised in Stuttgart, Germany, Nathan Kaleta began developing his love for music at the age of 7 with piano lessons. Inspired by his father’s musical career at the Stuttgart State Opera Chorus, he joined his first choir at age 11 and has been a passionate choir singer ever since. During his studies, he was part of Stuttgart’s Academic Choir and performed many concerts, including Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Orff’s “Carmina Burana”, Brahms’ “Deutsches Requiem” and Mendelssohn’s “Elijah”.

After moving to Canada, he contacted Lars Kaario for an opportunity to continue his musical journey on a new continent. Nathan is very excited and honored to be a part of Laudate Singers this season and is looking forward to creating beautiful music together with all these wonderful and talented singers.

Having graduated from Capilano University with a Classical Music Diploma in trumpet, piano and voice, Preston currently studies at the University of British Columbia and is actively working towards finishing his Bachelor of Education in Music; sharing his enthusiasm for music with other unanimous individuals.

Passionately ambitious and driven about anything he does, Preston first started his musical training on piano at around age 5, setting off his continued involvement in the music community at a very young age. Throughout his high school years, he attended the Sarah McLachlan School of Music; while there, he took part in the choirs, studied piano, music theory and began taking voice lessons. Upon graduating high school Preston began his studies at Capilano University, deciding to further expand his musical knowledge and pursue trumpet as his main instrument, which he began learning at age 8. While continuing his education with the trumpet, piano, and singing, he loves being active in the music community, taking part in various groups, churches, and semi-pro choirs.

Eager to have joined Laudate near the end of the 2015/16 season, he looks forward to singing with other like-minded musicians under the direction of Lars Kaario once again.

This is Amy’s second year with the Laudate Singers and she is looking forward to singing with Lars and the wonderful singers in the choir.

Choral music is an important part of Amy’s life. Amy has sung in many choirs, including the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, the Mendelssohn Singers, the Vancouver Bach Choir, Pandora’s Vox and Espiritu. Amy is also a church musician and has been choir director, cantor, organist at various Catholic parishes. She was a Board member at Choral Canada and is currently a Board member of the BC Choral Federation.

Amy is an actuary by profession and is a pension consultant who works with organizations to help them manage their pension arrangements for employees.

Andrew has been studying music from a very young age, starting with the piano when he was 5 years old. He began singing and taking voice lessons when he was 12 and has since been singing in churches and choirs. Moving from the Okanagan in 2011 to study the drums, Andrew has been singing bass in various choirs on the North Shore. After recently graduating from Capilano University with a Bachelor of Music in Jazz, Andrew is excited to be returning to Laudate Singers this season as he hopes to continue to spread the joy of music as he moves to the next chapter in his life.

Originally from Calgary, Caroline has been singing since childhood, along with studying piano and, briefly, flute. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics at the University of British Columbia, and her PhD from the University of Waterloo. She balances her love of choral singing with her career as an infectious disease researcher. She has sung with the Vancouver Bach Choir, the Grand Philharmonic Choir in Kitchener with Howard Dyck, Montreal’s Orpheus Singers and the Collegium Musicum of London Chamber Choir. She is excited to have joined Laudate Singers, and particularly enjoys Laudate’s diversity of repertoire. 

Mark De Silva grew up in a musical family, sang in choirs and played the violin in orchestras and chamber ensembles at school and universities in England. He was a member of choral ensembles in the UK, the USA, and Canada, performing in concerts, tours in North America, Europe and Asia, recordings, radio broadcasts, and performances at Festival Vancouver and Early Music Vancouver Bach Festival. Mark had voice teachers, coaches and mentors in Canada including George Roberts, Bruce Pullan, Peter Butterfield and Selena James. He is an alumnus of the Vancouver Cantata Singers and the Vancouver Chamber Choir, and he is delighted to return as a member of Laudate Singers during their 30th Anniversary Season. 

Mark has appeared as a guest soloist with ensembles throughout BC, in oratorios including Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, St. Matthew Passion, St. John Passion, Mass in B minor, Magnificat, Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, Mozart’s Requiem and Ariel Ramirez’s Misa Criolla. 

Sylwia Karwowska comes originally from Wroclaw, Poland where she received her music education. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Music from the Karol Lipinski Academy of Music in Wroclaw. She also holds an Associate of Royal Conservatory of Music diploma in voice performance. Her diverse repertoire includes opera, oratorio-cantata, art song and choral music. She performs with  Opera Pro Cantanti in Vancouver. She has sung the leading roles including the title role in “Norma” by Vincenzo Bellini, Abigaille in G.Verdi’s “Nabucco”, Lady Macbeth in Verdi’s “Macbeth” and Lucia in “Lucia di Lammermoor” by G. Donizetti. Currently she is preparing to sing the role of Violetta in G.Verdi’s “La Traviata”.

Oratorio-Cantata and Opera are Sylwia’s greatest passion, and she is very happy to have a go in other genres of music. She used to sing in a group called Shades of Hue led by Toshi Jackson, performing a variety of musical styles including Classical, Soul, Oldies, Motown, Pop, Country, Jazz and Broadway.

In addition to performing she teaches voice, piano and cello at Tri-City School of Music in Port Coquitlam.

Her love for family is very important and the values she teaches her family shine through her gift of music.

André Luiz Machado is a classical singer and an award-winning composer of music for film, games and the concert hall. He has been working internationally within film and visual media, writing music for projects in the UK, USA, Canada and award-winning Brazilian films. In 2018 he won Best Score at the Los Angeles Film Awards and was also nominated for the Crystal Pine Award at the International Sound & Film Music Festival, in Croatia. André Luiz Machado has a master’s degree in Composition of Music for Film and Television at the University of Bristol (UK), and a bachelor’s degree in Singing and Composition at the Federal University of Goiás (Brazil). He immigrated to Canada in 2020, and decided to make Vancouver his new home. He joined Laudate Singers in 2021 and he is very pleased to be its composer in residence from 2021 to 2023.

Choral Singing has long been a passion. I recall a fun bus ride from Creston to Trail during my
elementary school days in the mid 1960’s, destination a choral festival. Soon after I spent an
inspirational season singing in the Nelson Boys Choir with Amy Ferguson. The passion was
rekindled at UBC where I sang in several ensembles including University Singers and Chamber
Singers. The remaining 45 years or so have been spent singing with many wonderful choristers
and conductors, notably Canata Singers in the 1990’s with James Fankhauser and Laudate
Singers most years of the 2000’s with good friend Lars Kaario.

Having long since retired from corporate life, I and my wife Cathleen spend time wandering the
many local parks observing and photographing birds, spend time with family, tend to the garden,
and periodically escape city life to familiar haunts in the B C interior and on Vancouver Island.

From an early age, Catherine has been performing as a choral singer and as a soloist. Her music studies started in Toronto, Ontario at the Royal Conservatory of Music and since moving to Vancouver in 1992, she has studied under Lars Kaario, and she has been coached by Geordie Roberts, Ray Nurse, Ellen Hargis, and Doreen Oke through Early Music Vancouver’s Baroque Vocal Program at the University of British Columbia. Catherine’s love of Renaissance and Baroque repertoire led to several self-produced successful solo recitals and concerts with Baroque instrumentalists through Early Music Vancouver. She has also performed with the Greater Vancouver Historical Dance Society as a soloist. Recently, she was a participant in the Canadian Renaissance Music Summer School founded by Greg Skidmore and studied under Lucas Harris, Julian Gregory and Sharang Sharma.

Catherine was a member of the acclaimed Laudate Singers for 18 years and she is excited to return to sing under Lars Kaario for the choir’s final season. She was a principal singer for most of her time with Laudate.  She has performed as a soloist with Laudate and in collaboration with many instrumental groups including members of the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, The Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra and La Cetra. Recordings include A Baroque Christmas and Celtic Journey.

Catherine was also a proud member of Elektra Women’s Choir under Morna Edmundson for three years and she was the soprano section leader for 5 years for the Vivaldi Chamber Choir under Edette Gagne. Catherine continues to sing Compline services as a section lead at Christ Church Cathedral under Rupert Lang.

Catherine’s love of teaching and exceptional reputation has resulted in a thriving private voice studio for over 19 years in North Vancouver where she holds annual master classes and recitals for her students. www.ccvoicestudio.ca

Originally from Marseille, France, Lou received a Master’s degree in Music Therapy from Paris-Descartes University. She also holds a Master’s degree in Teaching and Education from ESPE Paris. Following an opportunity to move to Canada, she obtained her MT-BC and MTA status, her Teaching Certificate and joined ET Music Therapy as well as VSO School of Music as Music Therapist and Faculty member. Trained percussionist, pianist and singer in the Music Conservatory of Marseille, she has been a member of various orchestras, bands and choirs in Paris, France and Calgary, Canada. Singing being essential in her life, she is thrilled to join Laudate Singers this year to pursue her passion. When not practicing music, Lou is enjoying her new life in Vancouver, hiking, climbing, swimming, exploring as much as she can. 

Maureen is very pleased to return to Laudate Singers after nearly 10 years off pursuing other adventures.  A North Vancouver native, she’s been singing in choirs since early childhood.  Life-changing  experiences with BCMEA Honour Choirs and post-secondary ensembles such as the University of Victoria Chamber Singers and UBC’s University Singers cemented choral music as being central to her life and identity.  More recently, Maureen has had the pleasure of experimenting further with vocal jazz, another genre close to her heart, and exploring a wide variety of musical styles with the former vocal ensemble Sound Eclectic.  A lover of nature, she spends a good deal of time hiking, running, gardening, paddleboarding, and doing yoga in this beautiful corner of the world.  In addition, Maureen is a Secondary Teacher of English and Social Studies and the mother of two high-energy boys.  

Soprano Veronica Roenitz grew up in Vancouver singing for church chamber choir and chorus, specializing in Renaissance polyphony and Gregorian chant. After graduating from UBC Engineering Physics, she balances her love of music with an active international career as a satellite ground system integration and test engineer. She has sung with Belle Voci, MOTET, Vancouver Bach Choir, Capilano Festival Chorus, and Washington Choral Arts Society in DC, and attended the Tallis Scholars Summer Schools in UK and US. Veronica is honoured and excited to sing with Laudate Singers and Paragon Singers this season.

Growing up in the midst of the dawn of the early music movement in the 60-ies in the Netherlands, Kees has been playing recorder since age 6, organ and harpsichord since age 16 and has been singing since age 60.

After high school he pursued a career as a scientist and studied theoretical physics at UC Santa Cruz. After a post-doc in Israel he dropped out of science to study composition at UBC Vancouver, after which he dropped back into science and has been a student again and later faculty at UBC Vancouver in Computer Science where he worked on digital sound and computational physics.

He has been playing Persian ney for 30 years and has been performing and teaching traditional Persian music for 15 years in Vancouver and occasionally abroad, but is currently retired from the ney and has recently revived his recorder technique.

He is honoured to be given the opportunity to sing with Laudate in their final season with a group of such experienced and professional singers after only 5 years of singing lessons. His ultimate goal is to sing all the vocal works by J. S. Bach.