Contemporary Showcase Toronto 2025

Originally from Ottawa, Fiona Jane Watson is a Toronto based pianist who is in demand both as a solo and collaborative artist. Ms. Watson champions both the standard and contemporary repertoire and has premiered several solo and chamber works across Canada. She holds an ARCT from The Royal Conservatory of Music, and was awarded several scholarships in her post -secondary education. Ms. Watson holds a Bachelor in Piano Performance from McGill University, the Advanced certificate in Performance from the University of Toronto and a Masters in Performance and Pedagogy from The Glenn Gould School (through Thompson Rivers University). Ms Watson has studied at the Banff School of Fine Arts, the Orford Arts Centre and the Adamant School. Principal teachers include Sandra Webster, Tom Plaunt and Marietta Orlov.

Ms. Watson has performed in master classes for celebrated musicians that include André Laplante, Angela Hewitt, Jane Coop, John Perry and Marc Durand. She has recently given recitals at the McMichael Gallery of Ontario, Gallery 345, The Canadian Music Centre, the Richard Bradshaw Ampitheatre at the Canadian Opera Company, the Tenri Cultrual Institute of New York, and the Arts and Letters club of Toronto. She was recently a contributor and advisor to the 2022 piano syllabus.

Ms. Watson combines her love of performing with teaching and is a member of the College of Examiners for The Royal Conservatory of Music. She is also a frequent adjudicator across North America in all levels of piano.

Amelia Yates, D.M.A., is a pianist, adjudicator, and instructor from Hamilton, Ontario. A graduate of the Doctor of Musical Arts program at the University of Western Ontario, Dr. Yates’s research focusses on the solo piano music of Canadian composer Ann Southam. In addition to performing as a soloist, Dr. Yates also enjoys collaborating with others and has extensive experience playing for choirs (including Western University Chords and Myriad Ensemble). As an in-demand adjudicator, Dr. Yates has had the pleasure of adjudicating at music festivals across Ontario.

Dr. Yates teaches piano lessons from her home studio, AGYPiano. Her goal is to help students perform, understand, and enjoy music thoughtfully, healthily, and artfully. She is also passionate about applying teaching approaches that nurture students’ mental health and empower them to think critically and independently. Dr. Yates’s students have received awards for both composition and performance at the local, provincial, and national levels, and frequently achieve First Class Honours and First Class Honours with Distinction standings on their conservatory examinations. Graduates of AGYPiano have gone onto study music at the University Level.

Before receiving her doctorate, Dr. Yates also earned an ARCT diploma in piano performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music as well as a Bachelor of Music Honours Music Education and a Master of Music in Performance and Literature from the University of Western Ontario. She had the privilege of studying performance with Dr. Leslie Kinton, Dr. Brett Kingsbury, and John-Paul Bracey, and pedagogy with Dr. Diana Dumlavwalla and Dr. Christine Tithecott.

Dr. Yates is a member of the Royal Conservatory of Music’s College of Examiners and enjoys conducting exams across Canada. She has held positions on the board of the Hamilton/Halton Branch of the Ontario Registered Music Teachers’ Association and the Hamilton Music Festival and continues to support these organizations as a volunteer. She is also honoured to support the Association of Canadian Women Composers as an Associate member.

When she is not performing or teaching, Amelia enjoys spending time with her husband Daniel, a musician and lawyer, as well as practicing yoga, playing with her bichon frisé named Theodore Albert, and watching her favourite show: Downton Abbey. Amelia is looking forward to a quieter performance season ahead as she and Daniel await the arrival of their first child in January 2026.

Canadian soprano Adrianne Pieczonka has sung on the world’s finest opera and concert stages for over 35 years. 

Raised in Burlington, Ontario, she studied at the University of Western Ontario and University of Toronto. After winning several international singing competitions in Europe in 1988, she became a member of the Vienna Volksoper in1989. In 1991, she became a member of the Vienna State Opera where she has sung over twenty roles. 

Adrianne has appeared at La Scala, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Opéra de la Bastille Paris, Bavarian State Opera, Los Angeles Opera, San Francisco Opera and the Metropolitan Opera in New York among many others. She has sung opera and concerts at the world’s leading summer festivals including Glyndebourne, Salzburg, Bayreuth, Edinburgh and the Proms Festival in London. 

In 1988 Adrianne made her operatic debut in Toronto, singing a small role in Boris Godunov with the Canadian Opera Company. She has performed regularly in Toronto with the COC for the past three decades. 

She has sung under many of the world’s leading conductors including Sir Georg Solti, Riccardo Muti, Claudio Abbado, Zubin Mehta, Daniel Barenboim, Sir Colin Davis, Christian Thielemann, James Levine,  Kirill Petrenko and Richard Bradshaw among many others.

As a recitalist Adrianne has performed internationally – most recently singing Schubert’s Der Winterreise in Madrid and a solo recital at the Vienna State Opera, with pianist, Wolfram Rieger. 

Adrianne received a Dora Award for her portrayal of Sieglinde in Wagner’s Die Walküre at the COC in 2004. In 2007 Adrianne received the title of “Kammersängerin” from the Austrian government. This award recognizes outstanding achievement by performing artists in Austria. 

In 2008 she was named an Officer of the Order of Canada and in 2013 she was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2014 she was the recipient of the Paul de Hueck and Norman Walford Career Achievement Award. 

In 2019, Adrianne was appointed Chair in Voice at the Glenn Gould School at the Royal Conservatory of Toronto.  She gives regular masterclasses at Canadian universities and mentors young artists with the Canadian Opera Company and the Montréal Atelier Lyrique. Adrianne acted as Jury President for the CMIM in June 2025 (Concours Musicale International de Montréal)