2021 – 2024

ED HENDERSON

President

Ed Henderson is a composer, arranger, orchestrator, guitarist, musical director, music publisher and music producer in theatre, film, recording and on the concert stage. His compositions include all the music in his solo guitar CD Intimate ; Drowned Out, a 12-minute work for Vancouver InterCultural Orchestra and Laudate Singers (2011); Alight, a 12-minute solo guitar commission (CMC/Dance Centre); 11 National Anthem Orchestrations (VANOC at the 2010 Olympics); Star Song (Elektra Women’s Choir); Fuente Ovejuna, a theatrical score for the Stratford Festival; and Birdsong, a 45-minute piece for choir and tar [Iranian guitar] (Vancouver Chamber Choir and Amir Koushkani,). His TV productions include A World ChristmasTell It on the Mountain and Chasing the Tango High (Bravo! TV), Race of the Century (CTV) plus about 20 documentaries (Vision, Knowledge, etc.).His album productions include the JUNO Award-winning El Camino Real for Ancient Cultures; The Miracle of Christmas and A World Christmas (Vancouver Chamber Choir); Feet First music from the stage show starring Jeff Hyslop; and JUNO-nominated, and West Coast Music Award-winning Endless for Silk Road. Henderson also plays with Chilliwack and Tangissimo, and as a session player in Vancouver. He performs solo guitar concerts, or with other musicians (including Leon Bibb, Ann Mortifee, and Paul Horn).Ed Henderson  has served as a board member of the Vancouver Musicians’ Association, the Screen Composers Guild of Canada, and (SCGCTheatre Under The Stars. He’s an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre (CMC) and a member of the Canadian League of Composers (CLC).

CHERYL LINK

Vice-President

Cheryl Link has worked administratively and creatively in almost every aspect of the music business for more than 23 years. Beginning at FACTOR, and then holding positions at Page Music (music label/distributor), Lacquer Channel (music mastering), BMG Music Publishing, and Casablanca Media, she moved to peermusic in 2005. Cheryl has actively worked to promote the careers of songwriters and artists for her entire professional life. She’s also held positions on the Board of Directors of NDN Talent Collective (bridging the gap between the Indigenous arts community and the mainstream industry), The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, CARAS, and on the Programming Committee at the Canadian Music Publishers Association.

VICTOR DAVIES, C.M.

Past-President

Composer, pianist and conductor Victor Davies studied conducting with Pierre Boulez, and has received a composition degree from Indiana University. At home in the concert hall, theatre or recording studio, Davies’ music is heard around the world – live, via recordings, and through film and television (he won a Gemini Award for Best Documentary Score in 2002). His works range from music and lyrics for 600 songs for the CTV children’s series Let’s Go! and The Rockets, to jazz concertos for organ, piano, and violin, to his major oratorio for soloists, chorus and orchestra, Revelation. His many theatre works include a rock opera, (Beowulf); the musical Especially Bab;; The Big Top commissioned by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet ( including a TV special aired worldwide); , and an opera, Transit Of Venus. Davies has scored in a variety of styles for CBC, the NFB, CTV, Global, and many independent productions. He has also composed and performed with his own “third stream” jazz group. Davies has conducted the Winnipeg, Edmonton and Kitchener-Waterloo symphonies, and is the conductor of his own film and television scores. He was musical director and composer for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1999 Pan American Games. He has served as President of the Canadian League of Composers, and as a board member of both the Canadian Music Centre and the Screen Composers Guild of Canada.

DR. JOHN BURGE

Secretary-Treasurer

John Burge is a classically trained composer and pianist, having received degrees from the University of Toronto (BMus and MMus) and British Columbia (DMA).  He has composed a large body of instrumental and vocal music in all genres including opera.  Many of his orchestral works such as Snowdrift, The Canadian Shield and Rocky Mountain Overture, are regularly performed by orchestras across Canada and internationally.  His string orchestra work, Flanders Fields Reflections, as recorded by Sinfonia Toronto, received the 2009 Juno Award for the Best Canadian Classical Composition. Since 1987, has been teaching at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, where he is a full professor and for a number of years was the Director of the School of Music (now named the Dan School of Drama and Music). A passionate advocate for Canadian music, he was an executive member of the Canadian League of Composers from 1993-2007 (holding the position of President from 1998-2006).  He has also served on a number of boards in the Kingston area including being a founder board member of Cantabile Choirs of Kingston and a past chair of the Music at Port Milford Summer School and Festival based in Prince Edward County.  In 2014 he was inducted as a Fellow into the Royal Society of Canada for his contributions to composition and arts leadership in Canada.

MARC OUELLETTE

Ex officio

Marc Ouellette holds a music composition degree from McGill University and underwent further training with Hermann Max in Switzerland, and with Ennio Morricone in Italy at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana. Dividing his time between composing, producing and conducting in many musical genres, Ouellette has won a SOCAN Award and was nominated for Gemini and ADISQ Awards. Over the years, he has written music for several movies, children’s television programs and various independent circus numbers. As an arranger, producer and conductor, he has contributed to concerts and recordings featuring such diverse artists and groups as Isabelle Boulay, Pierre Lapointe, Roch Voisine, The Tea Party, and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. He has served as a board member of the Société professionnelle des auteurs et compositeurs du Québec (SPACQ) and of la Société du droit de reproduction des auteurs compositeurs et éditeurs au Canada (SODRAC) in the early 2000’s and was respectively President of both of them. He also sat as board member of the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame (CSHF) and served as President of the SOCAN Foundation from 2015-2018.

FRANNIE HOLDER

Frannie Holder is a Montreal composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist. A member of the pop/hip-hop band Random Recipe and of the electro folk band Dear Criminals, this multi-talented artist began her music career in 2007. Focussed on live performances, Random Recipe rapidly embarked on an international career (Canada, the U.S., France, Belgium, Italy, Iceland, Mexico, Chile, Panama, Colombia, Brazil, Australia), while Dear Criminals adopted a multidisciplinary creative approach and undertook a series of collaborations with the theatre community (<em>Les Lettres d’amour – </em>Québec/Rouen), modern dance (<em>TRAPPED, Things are leaving quietly, in silence</em>),<em> </em>opera (<em>SeX’Y –</em> Opéra de Paris), digital art (<em>STEREOSCOPIC –</em>Québec/Berlin)<em> </em>and film (<em>Fatale-Station, NELLY</em>). The music they wrote for the feature film<em> NELLY </em>earned them the Iris Award for Best Original Music at the 2017 Québec Cinéma Awards. Besides her musical group activities, Frannie Holder signed the musical design of Geneviève Pettersen’s <em>La déesse des mouches à feu</em>, a theatre production staged by Montreal’s Théâtre de Quat’Sous in 2018, as well as the musical design of Kevin Jean’s <em>La Poursuite du Cyclone</em>, a modern dance production performed in Paris, France, in February 2019.

SATE

SATE is a Toronto artist who combines blistering gritty blues with dirty rock. As the daughter of Canadian blues/jazz singer &amp; theatre pioneer Salome Bey, SATE’s unique sound evolves from the culmination of a lifetime spent fully immersed in music. Combining empowering messages and a soul-shaking live show, she has quickly built a reputation as an artist impossible to ignore. Known for delivering repeated electrifying performances, she continues to wow audiences around the world in North &amp; South America, Asia, Australia, and Europe.

MARK JOWETT

Mark co-founded the Nettwerk Music Group in 1984. He has helped to oversee the company’s creative affairs, as well as the company’s overseas operations and Nettwerk’s publishing division. From its small origins in the 1980s, Nettwerk’s publishing division went on to represent Canadian artist as Sarah McLachlan and the Great Lake Swimmers, Ria Mae, Banners, and Mother Mother, as well as such international artists as Sinead O’Connor, Squeeze, MFDoom, and many others. In the last few years Nettwerk’s publishing arm has become a more boutique publisher, with the hope of serving a smaller group of writers very effectively.

Beyond his responsibilities at Nettwerk, Mark is presently on the Canadian Music Publishers Association (CMPA) Board and the head of its Programming Committee, and has been on the FACTOR Board and the head of its Programming Committee, as well as on the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) Advisory Committee.

Mark’s love of music is not only reflected in having been in the industry for almost 40 years; he has continued to play in bands of one kind or another the whole time. He is now a cellist in the Vancouver Philharmonic Orchestra, and is the VP of the Orchestra’s Board. He also plays in a Vancouver based quartet.

DIANE PINET

Diane Pinet is founder and president of Bloc-Notes Music Publishing since 1985. Her vast experience in publishing as well as various other aspects of the industry (booker, show producer, etc.) has given her a solid knowledge of the music business.She is currently on the board of directors of MPC, (Music Publishers Canada), NMC (Studio Bell) and several other associations. She was previously on the executive committee of CMW, and for many years on the Board of Directors of SOCAN, the SOCAN Foundation, the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and most recently CMRRA.

Often referred to by its writers as innovative, Bloc-Notes Music is known for its privileged ties in Canada and abroad. Bloc-Notes has won several Felix Awards (equivalent of Juno Awards) for Publisher of the Year, SOCAN awards and has received many gold and platinum records, and most recently in May 2021, the Music Publishers Canada’s Life Achievement Award. Its repertoire of writers has written hits for the likes of Céline Dion, Faith Hill, Garou, Marie Mai, SOMMM and many others. Since its beginnings, the company’s roster has constantly topped the charts.

GILLES VALIQUETTE

Gilles Valiquette is a singer-songwriter with 13 albums to his credit. He has won six BMI/SDE Certificates of Achievement and five SOCAN Awards for his successful songs, including Quelle belle journée, La vie en rose, Samedi soir, Mets un peu de soleil dans notre vie and Je suis cool, which was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.

 

Originally a guitar accompanist, he was associated for a long time with the first hits of Richard and Marie-Claire Séguin (Le train du Nord) as well as those of Jacques Michel (Pas besoin de frapper, Chacun son refrain, Dieu ne se mange plus).

 

During his professional life, Gilles Valiquette has sat on several boards of directors, including those of the Société professionnelle des auteurs et compositeurs du Québec (SPACQ), the Society for Reproduction Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers in Canada (SODRAC), the Fondation MUSICACTION, the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC), Alliance NumériQC, and the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN), which he chaired for several years. In 2008, Gilles received the Eddy-Marnay Award from the SPACQ Foundation for his involvement in the cause of music creators, and recently, the SOCAN Special Achievement Award for his entire career.

 

Under the umbrella of the Harold Greenberg Fund (HGF), Gilles also chaired the MaxFACT committee, supporting music video production, from 2003 to 2015.

 

As a record producer, Gilles Valiquette has been responsible for the artistic and technical direction of artists as varied as Richard Séguin, Plume Latraverse, Gilles Rivard, Alexandre Zelkine, Nicole Martin, Daniel Lavoie and Patrick Norman, whose Christmas album was recently certified gold. He also designed the Computer-Assisted Sound Design college program and is one of the founders of Musitechnic Formation in Montréal.

 

Gilles was also part of the first Québec version of the rock opera Starmania and was the artistic director of the Canadian participation in the Benson & Hedges International Fireworks Festival, where Canada won its first Jupiter Trophy.

 

After curating the exhibition Les Beatles à Montréal at the Pointe-à-Callières Museum, Gilles launched the book C’est fou mais c’est tout – Un parcours discographique des Beatles au Canada, published by Éditions de l’homme, as well as the album P.S. I Love Uke on DEP/Universal. His first collection, Histoires de chansons, is part of the Chansons et monologues collection published by Éditions VLB.

 

Gilles Valiquette can be found regularly on television, on stages here and elsewhere and at conferences throughout Québec.

AGILE GRIFFITH

A creative mastermind are the words that can be used to describe Toronto’s Agile. A DJ, producer and songwriter; his style is as diverse as the city he represents. His proven ability to captivate a crowd has made him one of the country’s most sought after DJ’s earning the notoriety to play across Canada, the U.S and the Caribbean. As a producer Agile has worked alongside power players Nas, Melanie Fiona, Dwele, Kardinal Offishall, Method Man, Jully Black, Ivana Santilli and Glenn Lewis to name a few.

 

Agile’s success is unprecedented. He is a Stylus DJ Award winner, NXNE Rising Star Award winner, five-time Juno nominee and a five-time MuchMusic Video Award nominee. He is a member of the hip-hop super groups BrassMunk and Big Black Lincoln where he acts as DJ & producer.

GLENN MORLEY

Glenn Morley is a Toronto-based composer, conductor, and musical director with an extensive background in music for theatre, live events, concerts, television, and film media. With credits for more than 2,000 television episodes, he has won three Gemini Awards. His compositions are heard in numerous programs: The Nature of Things, Royal Canadian Air Farce, Freaky Stories, Man Alive, Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards, and Twice in a Lifetime. Morley was the music supervisor for ABC/Disney’s The Music Man and Martin & Lewis (Emmy nomination), and garnered a Genie Award nomination for his score to Red Green’s Duct Tape Forever. He has produced and orchestrated the Gino Vanelli album Canto album, Alfie Zappacosta’s album Start Again, and songs for many others.

 

He has functioned as composer/musical director for more than 80 stage productions, both in Canada and abroad, including the Stratford, Shaw, and Blythe Festivals. He created the score and sound design for the Sound and Light Show on Parliament Hill (2005-2009), and was musical director for the re-opening ceremonies for Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum, and for The Canadian Songbook for the Luminato Festival. Morley has had his works performed by orchestras across Canada, and he frequently conducts/produces recordings for other composers. He has appeared frequently as an expert witness representing SOCAN members in Copyright Board television and cable tariff hearings.

 

He is a founding member and past president of the Screen Composers Guild of Canada.