2019 Tempo Festival Adjudicators

Band

Nancy Nowosad received her musical training in Saskatchewan and holds an Associateship Diploma in Piano Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music and a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from the University of Regina. Her teachers have included Dorothy Bee and Dr. Lyell Gustin. She also studied both saxophone and flute and has been involved in a wide variety of bands and ensembles as a performer, clinician, and conductor.

     Nancy has enjoyed a diverse musical career, combining private teaching with performing, accompanying, adjudicating, and various organist and choir director positions across Canada and while living in Germany and England. She now lives in Winnipeg, where she maintains a busy schedule as a teacher of piano, saxophone and theory, as well as an adjudicator, workshop/masterclass clinician, and Royal Conservatory of Music examiner. She is an active accompanist and organist and plays keyboard in a 17 piece “big band”. Nancy conducts the Associated Manitoba Arts Festivals’ Adjudicator Training course and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Winnipeg Music Festival. She has held various Provincial Executive positions with the Manitoba Registered Music Teachers' Association and is a member of the Canadian Music Festival Adjudicators' Association and the Royal Canadian College of Organists.

Piano 

Tracey Regier Sawatzky is currently Instructor of Music in piano at both Canadian Mennonite University and Providence University College.  She has been an avid piano and theory instructor over the last twenty years, maintaining large teaching studios in Winnipeg, Edmonton, Champaign, Illinois, Bluffton, Ohio, and Paraguay.  She has also developed a career adjudicating and accompanying a variety of soloists and choirs.  Tracey earned her Hons. B.Mus. with high distinction in Piano Performance from Wilfrid Laurier University.  Tracey’s students have achieved top honours with the Royal Conservatory of Music in piano and theory examinations and have won at the Piano Concerto Competition held annually by the University of Manitoba Preparatory Studies.  

     At Providence, Tracey teaches piano and keyboard skills, coaches instrumental ensembles and is the administrator for the Providence Performing Arts School.  At Canadian Mennonite University, Tracey teaches piano as well as teaches keyboard skills and piano through the Community School of Music.  She is an active member of the Manitoba Registered Music Teachers Association, the Canadian Music Teacher’s Association, and is an active adjudicator with the Associated Manitoba Arts Festivals.

     When Tracey is not teaching or accompanying, she spends her time travelling, gardening, and being with her husband, David, and daughter Mikayla.

Dance 

Rebekah Jones is trained in ballet, jazz, tap, musical theatre, modern, character and pointe and completed the 3-year Teacher Training Program at The Royal Winnipeg Ballet. She currently teaches at KickIt Dance Studio in Winnipeg and Cooks Creek Dance Academy in Oakbank. She is also a founding director of the Springfield Theatre Company in Oakbank, MB, and she has directed and choreographed all 8 of their productions to date. 

     As a performer, Rebekah has appeared at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre (Billy Elliot: The Musical), Rainbow Stage (The Wizard of Oz, Mamma Mia!) and other local theatre and Fringe productions. She has also had the honour of performing for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, and even in DisneyWorld. 

     Rebekah also works as a choreographer and has had her work seen throughout Winnipeg and the rest of the country. She was the Apprentice Choreographer for Les Misérables at Rainbow Stage and has choreographed for Celebrations Dinner Theatre/Jubilations Edmonton and Calgary, Westgate Mennonite Collegiate, Mennonite Collegiate Institute and was the tap choreographer for the Bubble Guppies Live national tour. She has also apprenticed and assisted many Winnipeg theatre companies. Rebekah is also the Assistant Director of the Winnipeg Studio Theatre StudioWorks program with Brenda Gorlick and Kayla Gordon.

Vocal/Choral

John Wiens has many talents - a skilled musician with a long career that has spanned across Canada and abroad. Born into a musical family in small – town Manitoba, John aspired to be a musician from an early age.  He studied violin at the age of four and sang in choirs throughout his childhood. He holds degrees in Violin, Voice, and Conducting, from CMU, McGill, and the University of Sherbrooke respectively.

     A dynamic conductor hailed for “awe inspiring” (Winnipeg Free Press) performances, John has cemented his reputation as one of Canada’s finest chamber choir conductors. He is the artistic director and co-founder of Polycoro Chamber Choir, a co-curator of Camerata Nova, and begins a new post as Director of Music of the renowned professional chamber choir at St. John’s Anglican Church, Elora in May 2019.

     John has appeared on stages across the world, pursuing an innovative path and known for an uncommonly wide repertoire. John’s inquisitiveness often results in the performance of new music, and music from before 1700. His conducting career has ranged from Belgium to Morocco to Montreal and Winnipeg.

     When not performing, John is in more and more demand as a clinician, adjudicator, and juror, participating in these activities as often as his schedule will allow. He is honored to work with and support new talent. He loves spending his spare time with his wife and sons in the kitchen or outdoors, and he is an avid fencer.