Testimonials
What People Are Saying About the High Park Choirs
"As always I am utterly impressed with Zimfira's boundless energy and dedication to young singers."
-Melanie Hazell, choir parent and Executive Vice President, Hazell and Associates
"It was a delight for us to have your choir's involvement in our concert. We were very grateful for your involvement and have heard so many positive comments about that evening. I very much appreciate your musicianship and the high quality of the High Park Chamber Choir."
-Kerry Stratton, Conductor, Music Director, Toronto Philharmonia
"I would like to express my delight with the new Artistic Director for the High Park Choirs. This choir will always be very close to my heart as I started it in October of 1986 and continued as Artistic Director until spring of 2002. I was joined by my husband, Dr. Errol Gay, as co-conductor, and both our daughters, Heather and Erin, served as choristers. After we left, the choir went through a transition for two years. Then Zimfira Poloz accepted the position of Artistic Director and in two short years brought the choir to an enviable position in the choral community. She is a thoroughly professional musician-educator, teaches each chorister to sing to his or her fullest vocal ability, and performs music of the highest quality. Her own energy is quite astounding and the joy she brings to her teaching and performing is mirrored on the faces of her devoted choristers. I am absolutely and wonderfully pleased that High Park Choirs has this remarkable woman at the helm of the organization. They could not be in better hands. I urge everyone to give her full support in order to realize the "High Park" dream!"
-Ann Cooper Gay, Artistic Director, Canadian Children's Opera Chorus
"I first met Zimfira a number of years ago when she was observing the Toronto Children’s Chorus, having moved to Canada from Kazakhstan. As a TCC camp accompanist, I often had the chance to converse with Zimfira, and never ceased to be touched by the passion she felt for both the music and the children.
Since then, I have had the good fortune to hear choirs trained by Zimfira, and have always been highly impressed by their rich, sonorous, flowing tone, their beautiful arching musical phrasing, their attention to text, and their complete involvement with the piece they are performing.
More recently, I sat in on a rehearsal that Zimfira was doing, in order that I might work with the choir on some of my compositions that they were going to be performing in Spain. When she began warming up the choir, I was mesmerized. Her knowledge and pedagogy of the voice was astonishing, and her interpretation of not only my works, but works in other languages and styles, was exceptional. In addition, her ability to engage the choristers for two hours (no easy task!) was a sight to behold.
As one can see from her CV, Zimfira is highly qualified and respected in the choral field. Many of her numerous honours have come from places other than Canada; in fact, this is one of many reasons why I feel confident in writing this letter of recommendation for Zimfira."
-Eleanor Daley, Director of Music, Fairlawn Heights United Church
"It's such a joy to behold a choir in which each singer becomes the music they are singing. And a conductor who directs not just the music but the color of the sound! Such a director is Zimfira Poloz."
-Malcolm Dalglish, internationally acclaimed choral composer
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Zimfira Poloz brings not only the choral traditions and expertise of Europe, but Asia as well, where she founded her own music school. But not only has she all this training and leadership experience in the traditions of the 'old world', she is more forward-thinking, open-minded and child-centered than most of the educators and musicians of the ‘new world’. I believe that Ms. Poloz is a leader of exceptional ability and an educator of exceptional sensitivity. I have met choral directors whose work I respect but whose rehearsals do not entice me as a singer. But I'd sure like to sing for Ms. Poloz, and the looks on her singers' faces tell me that they like it too. I have seen many choirs and choir directors in many countries, and I will stand on your coffee table in my dress shoes and say that what is happening with Zimfira Poloz is something special, something gorgeous, and anybody who supports what is happening will be well, well rewarded.
I am going to try and put a great deal of admiration into a few nutshells:
ONE: I have never met anybody whose artistic and technical knowledge of the human voice compares with Zimfira. When she gives me the how and the why behind her concepts and her approach, I sit back and think to myself, "This is IT". At the same time her knowledge is never "ivory tower". Everything relates directly to the human singer and the human experience of singing.
TWO: Zimfira is like that rarest of birds, the master ballet teacher who also has people skills. Her background, which draws in the knowledge and traditions of Europe and Asia as well as North America, gives her a virtuostic breadth of understanding and rigorous technical control, yet her approach puts the singer first and never makes choristers feel that it is their job to submit and obey if they are to receive the salvation of their teacher's knowledge. When Zimfira had her own choir school in Kazakhstan, a school that operated on the highest pedagogical and musical levels, she did not hold auditions, which is a tribute not only to her attitude towards young people but also to the powerful efficacy of her teaching, which could take a diffident or unpromising voice and lead it to success.
THREE: You are, of course, looking for somebody who not only has musical and educational expertise, plus a genuine compassion for young people (in which many a person with educational expertise is sorely lacking!), but also somebody who has experience with the administrative side of running a large enterprise: somebody who can understand the big picture even as they tend to the needs of the individual child. Zimfira understands the big picture very well, as is evidenced not only by her success with her own choir school, but with her success with the ensembles she has recently fostered, where she has raised both musical standards and chorister motivation by leaps and bounds, a situation that requires the highest level of musical and pedagogical excellence and personal commitment, plus the know-how to make the most of every opportunity, to fully exploit every resource, and to get parents, board members and sponsors behind her.
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-Stephen Hatfield, internationally acclaimed Canadian choral composer
"The High Park Choirs demonstrates an exceptional musicality that transcends the ordinary treble voice/children's chorus aesthetic. The High Park Choirs sings with an extraordinarily beautiful tone quality and an exciting and artistically informed musicianship that resonates beyond their years. This ensemble wows us --one and all!"
-Doreen Rao, Ph.D., Elmer Isler Chair in Conducting, Director of Choral Programs, University of Toronto Faculty of Music
"Anúna and I were very lucky to catch a performance at Festival 500 in Newfoundland of High Park Choirs under Zimfira Poloz. The level of artistry and originality was breathtaking. Technically the group were excellent, but it was in the unselfconscious performance of complex and contemporary work that that High Park Choirs singled themselves out as one of the most original choral voices today."
-Michael McGlynn, Musical Director, Anúna
"I will warmly recommend the operation grant for the high quality work, which Zimfira Poloz nowadays makes in Canada as a choral conductor. She is an exceptionally talented conductor/educator and a brilliant representative of Canada in the Worldwide movement of children`s and youth choirs."
-Professor Erkki Pohjola, Founder/conductor of Tapiola Choir (Finland) 1963 - 1994 (Unesco Prize in 1996), Founder of Songbridge
" Quiero con este escrito manifestar mi gran admiración hacia la excelente directora de coro y, sobre todo, gran persona, Zimfira Poloz. He tenido el placer de conocerla en varios festivales, el primero de ellos en el Certamen Coral de Tolosa (País Vasco- España), en donde consiguió con absoluta autoridad el PRIMER PREMIO por delante de coros del mundo entero.
With this letter, I would like to express my great admiration for the excellent choir director, and moreover, the wonderful person, Zimfira Poloz. I had the pleasure of meeting her at various festivals, the first one at Certamen Coral de Tolosa (Basque Country, Spain), where she won, with absolute authority, the first prize.
Es una directora habitualmente invitada a impartir cursos y preparar coros en muchos países del mundo. Compañeros directores de coro, me han confirmado su gran capacidad musical y más importante, su gran capacidad DINAMIZADORA. Trabajar con coros infantiles es realmente muy complicado y además, hacerlo con el altísimo nivel con que lo realiza Zimfira Poloz, puedo decir que está solamente en posesión de algunos "elegidos".
She is a director who is constantly invited to teach courses and prepare choirs in many countries all over the world. Collegues, other directors of choirs have confirmed her great musical abilily, and more importantly, her energy. Working with children is very complicated and to be able to do this at the high level that Zimfira Poloz does, I can say that she is truly of "the chosen ones".
La directora de los coros Hamilton Children's Choir and High Park Choirs of Toronto (Canada) ha significado para mí una gran transmisora de energía. El pasado mes de Julio de 2008, tuve la fortuna de trabajar con sus coros en el FESTIVAL 500 celebrado en St. John’s (Newfouland). Yo debía trabajar canciones en idioma vasco y mi gran sorpresa fue que cuando trataba de explicar la pronunciación y significado del texto, los niños me miraban con cara de extrañeza, pues conocían perfectamente las obras de memoria, tanto música como texto. Solamente una profesional de gran nivel puede llegar a obtener este resultado.
The director of Hamilton Children's Choir and High Park Choirs of Toronto (Canada) has meant for me a great transmission of energy. In July of 2008 (i think they mean 2007, but I’m just copying) I had the pleasure of working with her choirs in the FESTIVAL 500, celebrated in St. John’s Newfoundland. I was teaching songs in the basque language and to my great surprise, when I tried to explaining the pronounciation and meaning of the words to the children, the looked at me surprised, as they had the music and the lyirics perfectly memorized. Only a professional of such high levels is able to achieve such results.
Quizás pueda añadir más ejemplos, pero creo que con lo que he comentado queda claro que entre los 20 mejores preparadores de coros infantiles del mundo, se encuentra Zimfira Foloz, según mi criterio.
I could probably add more examples, but I believe that with what i have said it is clear, that among the 20 best choirs of the world, Zimfira Poloz is without a doubt to be found.
Deseo que Zimfira Poloz pueda continuar con su trabajo y recibir la ayuda necesaria para que pueda obtener en el futuro más éxitos tanto a nivel nacional como a nivel internacional y continúe transmitiéndonos toda su sapiencia y sensibilidad de la que estamos muy necesitados.
I wish that Zimfira Poloz is able to continue her work, and to receive all the help she needs to achieve more success in the future on both the national and international scene and to continue sharing her knowledge and sensibility that we all need."
- Javier Busto, Choir Conductor, Composer