Leadership
Laurie Evan Fraser
Artistic Director – Conductor
Born in Troy, New York, Laurie Evan Fraser first came to Canada as a scholarship student at the Royal Conservatory of Music, studying piano with John Coveart, organ with Clifford McAree and voice with George Lambert, Lillian Weichel, and William Perry. Ms. Fraser then became a faculty member of the Royal Conservatory, teaching piano and theory. She has performed as a collaborative and solo pianist, chamber musician, vocal soloist and conductor.
Her choral work has included several church positions: Soprano Soloist and Section Lead at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church and Forest Hill United Church; Organist and Choir Director at Davenport-Perth United Church; Music and Choir Director at First Unitarian Congregation of Toronto where she also chaired a continent-wide conference of choral directors and other church musicians. Ms. Fraser has a long history of collaboration with other choirs, spearheading choir exchanges including the sponsorship of the Canadian tour of Coro Anthem, an award-winning Italian choir. She is a freelance musician who works with various children’s choirs, maintains a teaching studio, and continues to enjoy performing, adjudicating, and leading workshops on various facets of music.
Hye Won Cecilia Lee
Accompanist
H.W. Lee is a diverse freelance musician based in Toronto, Canada. Currently working at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto and Glenn Gould School, Royal Conservatory of Music, Ms. Lee is an artist on all three major keyboard forms: piano, harpsichord and organ. In 2009, Ms. Lee attended all three collaborative pianist internships at the Banff Centre of Arts performing solo, chamber and orchestral keyboard music. Ms. Lee received her DMA Piano degree at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with Paul Barnes and Nicole Narboni; her DMA studies generously funded by the Hixon – Lied Scholarship and Creative Activity Grant. Ms. Lee studied with Lynda Metelsky at University of Toronto (BME, 2004). At University of Kansas, she studied with Jack Winerock and Robert Koenig at University of Kansas (MMus, 2006). Additionally, she studied organ and harpsichord with Douglas Bodle, Eugene Gates and Michael Bauer, clavichord with Gerhard Erber (Hochschule für Musik, Leipzig), and attended master classes for fortepiano with Bart van Oort. In addition to performing, Ms. Lee is also an active recording engineer, working with the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto and on various freelance projects. She is also a regular contributor to www.ludwig-van.com/toronto, a Toronto based classical music website.
Ayako Ochi
Assistant Accompanist
Born in Nara, Japan, Ayako Ochi studied piano and music theory at the Washio Music School in Nara with Kyoko and Takayoshi Washio. She played piano with the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra at the Washio Music School’s 20th anniversary concert. During high school, she joined a choir that she also conducted for one year. During medical school at the Kansai Medical University in Osaka, she played keyboard in a jazz-fusion group.
After Ms. Ochi became a pediatrician, she continued with her musical activities outside work. She studied jazz piano with Atsuko Hashimoto and played keyboard for an amateur rock band, Brain Masters, and piano for a pop music ensemble, Seasonal Workers.
In 1997, Ms. Ochi came to Toronto as a research fellow and in 2001 became a staff Neurophysiologist at The Hospital for Sick Children in the Division of Neurology. She joined the Upper Canada Choristers in 1998 and has been studying piano and music theory with Ms. Laurie Evan Fraser. She recently passed the ARCT exam in piano performance at the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM).
Board of Directors
2021-2022
Laurie Mace, Chair
Jacqui Atkin, Founding President
Bill Dawson
Donald McKay
Joanna Ebbutt
Laurie Evan Fraser, ex officio