High Park Choirs Staff
Zimfira Poloz
Artistic Director
Sheldon G. Rose
Accompanist
Marina Filippova
Accompanist/Early Bird Choir Director
Margaret Stanfield
Training Choir Conductor
Josh Grossman
Choir Manager
Zimfira Poloz
Artistic Director
Zimfira Poloz is a highly respected conductor, educator and adjudicator with a distinguished international reputation. She has been decorated with numerous awards in her long career, including the Honoured Representative of Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan Award, the city of Hamilton's V.I.P. Award, and more recently, the Leslie Bell Prize Award for Choral Conducting from the Ontario Art Council . She is invited regularly to serve as clinician for festivals, lead workshops for educators, and jury International Choir Competitions, including the renowned Choir Olympics.
Zimfira first established her musical credentials in Kazakhstan, founding the country's first Choir School. The school provided an outstanding music program that grew to employ 35 music teachers with an enrollment of 450 children. In addition to her duties as Principle of the school, she also served as Artistic Director and Conductor of the school's Concert Choir, "Koktem". It is through Ms. Polozís strong leadership, vision and musical expertise that "Koktem" attained top international choral status and was a recurring prize-winner in choral competitions and festivals around the world.
Now making her family home in Toronto, she continues to work tirelessly with educators and children alike. Immediately upon her arrival to Canada, her boundless energy and passion for music were in evidence, first as a member of the artistic staff for the Toronto Children's Chorus and later as vocal coach at St. Michael's Choir School. At present, Zimfira is the Artistic Director for both the Hamilton Children's Choir and the High Park Choirs of Toronto (the children's choir in residence at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto). In addition to her global travels as clinician and conductor, Zimfira still continues to teach, lecturing on 'Vocal Pedagogy for Young Choirs', at the University of Toronto.
Sheldon G. Rose
Accompanist
Sheldon began piano lessons at age 10 and, a year later, enrolled at St. Michael’s Choir School in Toronto. Upon graduation he went on to earn a Bachelor of Music degree (Theory and Composition) from the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto and later continued supplementary studies at the Gaelic College in Cape Breton and the Julliard School in New York. Sheldon also has extensive choral experience, serving as Director of Music and Organist for more than a decade at St. Clare’s Church (Toronto), as Choirmaster for the Appleby College Chapel Choir (Oakville) and as piano accompanist to the Oakville Children’s Choir for 7 seasons.
He is currently the accompanist for the High Park Choirs, the Children's Choir-in-Residence at the University of Toronto. A veteran of many recordings and tours, his personal highlights are performances at Festival 500: Sharing the Voices (Newfoundland, Canada), International Choral Competition (Budapest, Hungary), the Choral Olympics (Bremen, Germany), and the American Choral Director’s Association National Convention (Los Angeles, California). Sheldon has also written many choral compositions for treble choirs, many of which have been performed by the High Park Choirs, and some of which have been published by Kelman Hall (Waterloo) and Rythmic Trident Music Publishing (Vancouver).
Marina Filippova
Accompanist/Early Bird Choir Director
Marina Filippova was born and grew up in Almaty (Kazakhstan), where she received her Ph. D. in Music Theory at the Music College and Almaty State Conservatory.
For 17 years she worked with the singing choir school (Almaty) as a teacher of solfegio, theory and history of music and piano. Ms. Filippova has several special programs of her own for solfegio and theory . She took part in International Choir Festivals and Competitions with the Children’s Choir "Koktem" (founded by Zimfira Poloz) in Russia, Germany, Hungary and Austria.
Since settling in Canada in 2004, Marina has been a theory and piano teacher at the Mississauga School of Music, as well as an accompanist for the High Park Choirs – Training and Children’s Choirs.
Margaret Stanfield
Training Choir Conductor
Margaret Stanfield has spent her adult life working with young children in music. Margaret earned her music degree at Durham University in England but emigrated in 1970 to take a position with the Toronto Board of Education as a High School music teacher. Within a few years she moved to teach younger children in the Toronto Elementary system and has, for close to thirty years, provided countless youngsters throughout Toronto with a broad range of marvelous musical experiences.
Margaret has continued to broaden her own musical understanding with courses in both Kodaly and Orff pedagogy and to develop her skills as a Choir Leader. She has conducted numerous choirs from small Chamber Choirs to huge city-wide Elementary Choirs, including a two year term with the High Park Children’s Chorus from 2002 to 2004.
Her talents led to the emergence at Howard Public School of award winning choirs, especially at Kiwanis, but also to the development of a music programme that provided students and parents alike with tremendous joy and pleasure. The school’s biannual Gilbert and Sullivan operettas became a tradition that the entire school community happily participated in. The parents even persuaded her to lead a Parent Choir for a number of years. During her tenure at Howard Public School Margaret was nominated for the Teacher of the Year Award.
Despite retiring two years ago, Margaret has returned to the Toronto Board of Education as a mentor coach and has taken a number of beginning teachers under her wing. She is in demand as both a workshop presenter and a choral conductor. Margaret is returning to the High Park Choirs where she will rekindle the musical relationship that she began with Zimfira a number of years ago.
Josh Grossman
Choir Manager
Choir Manager Josh Grossman is a graduate of the University of Toronto’s Jazz Performance Program and has performed in big bands under the direction of Phil Nimmons, Paul Read, Ron Collier and Paul Ashwell. He has performed in a variety of jazz and classical ensembles including a 2000 performance as part of the Hamilton All-Star Jazz Band at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. Josh is the founder, Artistic Director and conductor of the Toronto Jazz Orchestra and has also conducted the North Toronto Community Band and the Hart House Jazz Ensemble at the University of Toronto. Josh has been on faculty at either Scarborough Music Camp or Music by the Lake (both with the Toronto District School Board) since 1999 and has been the Artistic Director for the Markham Jazz Festival since 2006; for four years he was Performance Manager for The Glenn Gould School at The Royal Conservatory of Music.