Gwenna Fairchild-Taylor
Mentor, Music Alive
Canadian soprano and teaching artist Gwenna Fairchild-Taylor believes in the power of music as a catalyst for community building and social change and strives to make sure everyone has access to creative experiences. Recent performance highlights include the Vaughan-Williams Sea Symphony (Hart House Symphony), Sieglinde in a scene from die Walkure (Boston Wagner Institute) Mozart Requiem (Dalhousie Collegium Cantorum), premieres with the Artsong Collaborative Project, and workshops with Fawn Chamber Creative and Good Mess Opera Theatre.
Gwenna regularly conducts choirs, adjudicates at music festivals, runs teaching artistry and community engagement workshops, and consults on curriculum and programming for universities, opera companies, and other nonprofits. As a teaching artist, Gwenna has written and facilitated community music programming for over 30 organizations across Canada and the United States.She wrote the curriculum and continues to consult for and teach “Learning English Through Song,” a program run by The Corporation of Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall that facilitates language learning and community building for newcomers through singing. Gwenna is on faculty at Community Music Schools of Toronto and is the Associate Conductor of the Surrey Place Chorus.
Gwenna is a graduate of the Opera Omaha Holland Community Opera Fellowship and a recipient of an Encouragement Award at the 2020 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (Nebraska District). She holds an M.Mus in Opera (University of Toronto) and a B.Mus in Voice Performance (Western University). Learn more about Gwenna and her work at gwennafairchildtaylor.com