Alice Hietala (she/her) – Artistic Director
Alice Hietala is a choral musician and passionate queer community activist. After earning a Bachelor of Music Education from Wetern University and Masters of Choral Conducting from Memorial University, she founded Spectrum Queer Choir, the first LGBTQ community choir in Newfoundland and Labrador. Based on her experience as a choral artist and queer woman, Alice has lead workshops and presentations exploring LGBTQ choral voices with such groups as Camp Eclipse:OUT in the Woods, TEDx St. John’s, The Canadian University Queer Services Conference, The Connect Conference, Egale OUTShine Youth Conference, and has had the honour of working with St. John’s Pride, Planned Parenthood – NL Sexual Health Centre. Pursuing a career as a community worker, Alice recently completed a diploma in Social Service Work at George Brown College and now works with young people struggling with houselessness in our community. Alice seeks to empower queer voices, to nurture our choral culture, and build spaces of empowerment, celebration, and support through music.
Mado Christie (they/them/theirs) – Pianist
Mado Christie is a collaborative pianist, chamber musician, and vocal coach. They have performed in all of these different capacities across North America. Born in Toronto to musician parents, Mado has been surrounded by music their entire life. They studied with acclaimed pianist Peter Longworth and went on to pursue their undergraduate degree in Piano Performance at the University of Toronto in the studio of Marietta Orlov. Following that, Mado completed their Masters in Vocal Accompanying at the Manhattan School of Music, where they studied with Kenneth Merrill. Mado moved to St. John’s in 2017, and has since then had the pleasure of working as a collaborative pianist with students at Memorial University’s School of Music, as well as collaborating with many other musicians and arts organizations in the city.