Board of Directors

Before embarking on a singing and teaching career, Sherwood Park native and Fort McMurray resident Cara Brown spent 10 years working in business and in the legal field. In 2003 she received an Artist Diploma in Performance from the University of Western Ontario. Her opera engagements have included the roles of Contessa in Le Nozze di Figaro, Nedda in Pagliacci, Micaëla in Carmen, Despina in a concert version of Cosi fan Tutte, and the Dew Fairy and the Sandman in Hänsel and Gretel.

Cara also teaches private voice lessons in her home. She has been a vocal coach, director and performer on various projects, and has performed a wide range of repertoire in recitals and concerts. Ms. Brown has also adjudicated and been a guest clinician for music associations throughout Alberta.

She began her musical journey over 30 years ago in Sherwood Park, participating in school choirs and the John Hugh McDonald Singers, and studying voice with Dr. Marilyn Kerley and Sherry Nott. Cara is passionate about Music Education, and looks forward to the growth and success of AMEF.

Sandi has lived in Bentley, Alberta for the past 5 years, hailing from Ontario. She has had vast experience participating on Executive Boards and volunteering. She has worked with Community Services of Bentley, Family and Children’s Services of Norfolk, Norfolk Music Arts Festival, Scouts Canada as a Service Team Leader, Norfolk Board of Education and the Norfolk Agricultural Society (Arts Department). 

She is at ease setting policies and establishing strategic direction, and is looking forward to the anticipated continued growth of AMEF. She also has 3 beautiful daughters and 4 grandchildren that fill her life with joy.

John Reid (saxophones, flute, clarinet, percussion, vocals, composer) has been leading his own jazz groups since 1974 when (at the encouragement of teachers Phil Nimmons and Oscar Peterson) he formed a quartet at the first annual Banff Centre Jazz Workshop to make a Jazz Radio Canada broadcast.

After playing with local rock bands in Calgary, he turned professional in 1970 with the 25-piece show group Stratus Faction that toured North America and did TV shows for CTV and CBC networks. He also toured with territory funk bands in the ’70s before completing his Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Calgary in 1979.

He has recorded two commercially available compact discs: Island Shuffle (1993) and Caravan (2003). The John Reid Quartet performed at the Havana (Cuba) International Jazz Festival in December of 2002.

John Reid is the full-time Prairie Regional Director of the Canadian Music Centre in Calgary, and Artistic Director of the Jazz Is Society of Alberta. He has done a radio show weekly for 22 years; from 1981 to 1991 he hosted the weekly Jazz Space and Jazz Spectrum programs on CJAY 92 FM in Calgary and since 1988 he has done the weekly program The Canadian Music Centre Presents on CJSW 90.9 FM in Calgary. Reid has taught Jazz History on an annual basis as Sessional Instructor at the University of Calgary since 1984. He teaches a new course at U of C that he founded called "The African Effect in Music."

Reid is a Master of Arts degree candidate at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, and his thesis topic is Dexter Gordon.

Timothy Anderson has worked on the boards of Pro Coro Canada, Cantilena Consort Society, Alberta Playwrights Network, Boyle Street Community League, and he was chair of the strategic planning committee of the Writers Guild of Alberta. He has a certificate in Voluntary Sector and Arts Management from York University as well as degrees in journalism/political science (Carleton), music/voice performance (Ottawa) and creative writing (UBC). Timothy  currently teaches writing at Grant MacEwan University and the University of Alberta, although his first university teaching experience was teaching music at the University of Ottawa.

His performing career has included traditional and contemporary opera, musical theatre, oratorio and recital repertoire across much of Canada and in New York, Singapore and Hong Kong. His discography includes the Polygram Canadian Highlights Recording of Phantom of the Opera, We Belong to God produced by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Mrs. Widder’s Soiree Musicale: Toronto 1844. He has had many radio and television broadcasts, including winning the inaugural BookTelevision reality TV show based on the 3-Day Novel. He began giving private music instruction more than 30 years ago, but extended runs required by his performing career made it difficult to ethically maintain a studio. He lives in Edmonton with a writer, a cat, two dogs, and a lot of musical instruments.

Christine Ernst is a private voice teacher in Calgary. She has a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance with Distinction from the University of Calgary, attended the Pedagogy of Art Song course with the Vancouver International Song Institute at the UBC School of Music in 2008, and participated in advanced pedagogy studies with Richard Millar at his Institute of Vocal Studies at the University of Lethbridge in 2004.

 Christine was on the faculty of the Mount Royal Conservatory Vocal Academy, an enrichment program for young singers, at Mount Royal University from 2007-2010. She has adjudicated vocal festivals in Alberta and B.C. Christine has sung with a variety of choirs including the Enchor Chamber Choir in Calgary. She is an active member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and a strong supporter of Contemporary Showcase Calgary.

A native of southern Alberta, Robert George graduated from W.R. Myers high school in Taber, then studied at the University of Lethbridge and the University of Calgary. He holds Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Education and Master of Music degrees, and a graduate Diploma of Fine Arts in Wind Band Conducting. Mr. George has also completed course work toward a PhD at the University of Arizona.

Mr. George has been an active professional musician in orchestras, chamber music, church music and jazz for over thirty years. He has performed in Canada, the United States, and Mexico, and is in demand as a clinician, adjudicator and guest conductor. He has taught at the University of Calgary, University of Lethbridge and Lethbridge College as well as public school music programs in Calgary, Lethbridge and Coaldale, and has served as Music Director in various churches for over twenty years. He has also been on the Alberta Band Association Board of Directors; as a member at large, and then as Treasurer.

Robert George has been principal bassoonist for the Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra since 1993. He instructs music classes at Lethbridge College, where he also directs the Chinook Community Orchestra, the Lethbridge College Community Winds, and the Lethbridge College Community Choir. He also maintains a private music studio of woodwind, theory and voice students, including some who have gone on to distinguished careers in music. During the past decade, he has become increasingly involved in research regarding musician health and injury prevention.

Robert is married to Magdalena George, a neo-natal nurse at Lethbridge Regional Hospital. They have three children, Catherine, Laura and Allison. When not making music, he likes to participate in several sports, especially cycling, basketball, racquetball and golf.

Maura Sharkey-Pryma has enjoyed teaching voice and performance artistry to young and emerging singers since 1991. From her private home studio and her studio at the MacEwan Alberta College Conservatory of Music in Edmonton, she trains ambitious singers in classical, musical theatre, song interpretation, and extensive breathing and vocal techniques in the Bel Canto method. In addition to sharing her expertise in vocal production and technique in her private studios, Maura also shares her knowledge as a vocal adjudicator at various provincial music festivals.

Besides teaching privately, Maura has enjoyed a professional operatic career within Canada, as well as the international stage. An enthusiastic critic wrote of Sharkey’s performance as, “an exuberant Canadian mezzo soprano ... shows herself comfortable in all the registers, bursting precision and engraves resonance.” Her operatic credits include the principal role of Cinderella in La Cenerentola (Vancouver Opera Touring Ensemble); Mercedes in Carmen (Edmonton Opera Association and Manitoba Opera); Dorabella in Cosi Fan Tutte (The Opera Project) and The Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors (Opera NUOVA).

On the concert stage, Ms. Sharkey-Pryma has appeared with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, the Edmonton Chamber Orchestra, and collaborated with Juno award winner the late Malcolm Forsyth and the University of Alberta Orchestra in Elgar’s The Music Makers.

Maura is the 1998 winner of the Western Canadian Metropolitan Opera Council Auditions, a two-time award winner of the Johann Strauss Scholarship (1997, 1999), and recipient of the Anne Burrows Foundation Scholarship (2001). She also was proud to represent Canada at the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Belgium in 2004.

Maura is a proud member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), Canadian Actors’ Equity Association (CAEA) and Canadian Music Festival Adjudicators’ Association (CMFAA). She is honoured to serve on the AMEF Board of Directors, and is eager to further the goals of the Foundation.