Terence Dawson

Pianist Terence Dawson centered his teaching career at The University of British Columbia, where he taught piano, chamber music and collaborative studies for 33 years, 9 of which was as Chair of the Keyboard Division and 19 as Keyboard Division Coordinator. He retired in 2024 with the designation of Professor Emeritus. He is well respected as both teacher and performer, and has given solo and chamber performances with numerous musicians and ensembles across Canada, the USA, England, Asia, including concerto appearances with the Vancouver Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and the CBC Curio Ensemble. He has recorded for CBC radio, television, and on commercial discs. Dr. Dawson has served as a jury member for the Canadian Music Competition, the Canadian Federation of Music Teacher’s National Piano Competition, the Canada Council and numerous music festivals. An engaging lecturer, he is known for his many workshops for branches of the RMTA and affiliated national events for the CFMTA , master classes at colleges, universities and studios across Canada.

Jarred Dunn

Jarred Dunn captivates audiences in Europe, North America, and Australia as a recitalist, chamber musician, and concerto soloist. He is heard on CBC/Radio-Canada, Classical 96.3, Radio France, FranceMusique, WWFM, WQXR New York, and elsewhere. A Laureate of the Lithuanian Chopin (First Prize, Concerto Award), Hoffman, Vitti, Zinetti, and Rome International Competitions, he records for Lexicon and ATMA labels. His recording Górecki’s World of the Piano was nominated for the 2025 Prix Opus Modern/Contemporary Album of the Year. He has collaborated with pianists Anna Górecka and Maria João-Pires, cellists Marc Jaermann and Jessica Korotkin, and the Atma Quartet.

He gives lectures and master classes at Juilliard, Peabody Prep, Mannes, Oberlin, Royal College, Guildhall, Mannes Precollege, SMU, Vilnius Conservatory, among others. He is Artistic Director of Kallmünz Summer Piano Festival, teaches at numerous summer programs, and is a juror of national and international competitions. He is the author of Górecki’s Solo Piano Music (Bloomsbury) and numerous articles. He regularly gives lectures at research conferences and has received many awards for his scholarly, artistic, and pedagogical achievements. He studied with Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń, Anna Górecka, Andrzej Jasiński, Dorothy Taubman, Jacob Lateiner and Yoheved Kaplinsky, and later worked with Andrei Gavrilov and Maria João-Pires. For more information, visit www.jarreddunn.com.

Meagan Milatz

Meagan Milatz, pianist, is winner of the prestigious 2025-2028 Mécénat Musica Prix Goyer and the 2024 Prix Opus “Discovery of the Year”. She is “a remarkable pianist with a seemingly limitless palette of expression” (Le Devoir). Meagan regularly shares the stage with top international musicians including Andrew Wan, concertmaster of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Stefan Dohr, Principal Horn of the Berlin Philharmonic, cellist Matt Haimovitz, and mandolinist Avi Avital. Meagan is co-artistic director of HausMusique since 2022, along with cellist Cameron Crozman.

Awarded the 2024 Prix Choquette-Symcox by Fondation Jeunesses Musicales Canada, Meagan’s recent engagements have included performances with Olivier Charlier, Michel Michalakakos, Cho-Liang Lin, Peter Hanson, Olivier Charlier, Pablo Hernán Benedí, Steven Dann, and tubist Øystein Baadsvik, among others. Internationally, Meagan has performed at the New Ross Piano Festival in Ireland in 2023 - the first Canadian musician to be invited - as well as at the Edeta Arts International Chamber Music Festival where she appeared in concert in Spain with violinists Wolfgang Redik in 2024 and Kai Gleusteen, concertmaster of the Orchestra del Gran Teatre del Liceu of Barcelona, in 2022. Meagan recently embarked on a 2024 European recital tour with cellist Cameron Crozman in Italy, France, Malta, and Portugal.

Meagan has appeared as a soloist alongside orchestras such as the Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon, Sherbrooke, and McGill Symphonies. Meagan was top prize winner in the Shean Piano Competition, CFMTA National Piano Competition, and Canadian Music Competition, and the recipient of a Sylva Gelber Music Foundation Award. Her performances are regularly broadcast on CBC/Radio-Canada.

Meagan has a recording contract for nine albums of solo and chamber music with ATMA Classique. She recently recorded an album of music for fortepiano and natural horn alongside Louis-Pierre Bergeron, released in December 2023. For the 2019/2020 season, Meagan undertook a 50-concert, Canada-wide tour alongside violinist Amy Hillis as the duo “meagan&amy”, winners of the first-ever Pan-Canadian Partnership Recital Tour offered by Jeunesses Musicales Canada, Debut Atlantic, and Prairie Debut.

Meagan began her studies in Saskatchewan and holds a Master’s degree from McGill University. She is grateful to her teachers and lifelong mentors Cherith Alexander, Ilya Poletaev, Philip Chiu, and Tom Beghin with whom she was greatly privileged to study the fortepiano. Enthusiastic about helping the next generation of young musicians, she is a passionate faculty member of the “Session sonates violon et piano” of Camp Musical du Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean. Meagan lives in Montreal where she loves biking, reading outside whenever possible, and enjoying the occasional tasty pastry. www.meaganmilatz.com

Nicole Presentey

Native of Ottawa, Nicole Presentey began studying the piano at age four.  She made her recital debut several years later in Ottawa and then in Toronto at Heintzman Hall and the Royal Conservatory of Music where she was a full scholarship student. She made her orchestral debut at age twelve performing Mozart Piano Concerto K271 with the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra.  Recipient of numerous prizes in Canada, she went on to compete successfully in several international music competitions, including the prestigious Royal Overseas League Competition which gave her the opportunity to play at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London as well as the honour of being presented to Queen Elizabeth II. Her performances as a soloist, chamber musician and duo pianist have been heard in this country, the United States, Europe and Scandinavia.  Radio-Canada, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Radio Italia have recorded her concerts for broadcast, and she has made numerous television appearances on several Canadian networks.

After receiving her early musical training in Ottawa and Toronto, Nicole Presentey entered the Vincent d’Indy School in Montreal at age fifteen and graduated with a BMus specializing in piano performance, which was followed by graduate studies at the Université de Montréal.  Her teachers included Yvonne Hubert, Natalie Pepin, Beveridge Webster and Sister Kathleen Devlin. She also participated in master classes with Monique de la Bruchollerie, Guido Agosti, Bela Nagy, Luiz de Moura Castro, Helena Costa, Konrad Wolff and Gyorgy Sebok. In 1979 she was invited by Maria Curcio, renowned pupil of Artur Schnabel to study privately with her in London, England. With the support of the Canada Council, she remained with Curcio for three years, perfecting her art until family circumstances required a sudden return home. The unexpected passing of her father catapulted her into the world of high-tech, and she became CEO of the family business, a successful company operating in the field of information security and meteorological instrumentation.

Her performances are now rare but sought after, and have elicited praise from critics such as Jacob Siskind: “Presentey seemed at one with the spirit of Schubert…giving the melodic lines a sense of effortless freedom rarely encountered, making the drama under the surface of the melodies bubble and ferment without disturbing the line… These were performances of the very highest calibre, musically and emotionally…soaring effortlessly far above the general level…spontaneous music-making of the very highest order.” Eric Dawson described her performance of the Grieg Piano Concerto at the National Arts Centre at age sixteen: “She took an overplayed warhorse and returned to it all the sparkle and verve we had forgotten it contained. Her playing was beyond praise. Every movement spoke of her involvement with the music and her command of the most difficult passages was nothing short of amazing. She has all the presence and style of the great romantic artists we now can only read about.”

Currently living in Ottawa, Nicole Presentey maintains an active private piano studio. In 2001 she joined Carleton University’s School for Studies in Art and Culture: Music where she is an Associate Piano Performance (Classical) Faculty Member. In 2003 she founded and continues to direct the Carleton University Chamber Music Ensembles. Taking into account the wide-ranging repertoire offered by the Carleton University library, her ensembles present twice yearly concerts featuring music from the 16thcentury to the present day, with an emphasis on stylistic integrity, historical understanding and natural expression. Regular inclusion of new work by up-and-coming young composers is an ongoing goal of the program.

Her chamber music background is wide-ranging and began at an early age. She studied cello with Joyce Sands and performed for a number of years with the Ottawa Board of Education Orchestra where she was on first desk. The OBE recorder ensembles gave her years of performing experience in the baroque repertoire playing tenor and bass recorder. Her studies in chamber music were furthered during her university years where she also gained experience in vocal accompaniment and coaching. Studying under Maria Curcio, the renowned coach of Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten and partner of Elizabeth Schwarzkopf allowed her to further expand her understanding of the role of the pianist in vocal ensemble playing. Upon her return to Canada in 1982 she formed a piano trio including partners John Gaszi and Pavel Symczyk-Marjanovic. Upon the sudden passing of John Gaszi, violinist Evelyn Chadwick joined the trio and the ensemble gave numerous concerts in the NCR. She has also performed over the years as a duo pianist with several notable partners, including Claude Labelle with whom she gave concerts for the CBC in the late 1990’s and most recently in 2018 at Chamberfest with James Parker. In 2019 she was involved in recording “Escape”, a cello sonata composed and performed by Anita Pari for a CD that was sponsored by Carleton University and performed at Chamberfest 2019.

In 2016 Nicole Presentey was designated a Royal Conservatory Certified Teacher, specializing in elementary, intermediate and advanced piano. She is a member in good standing of the Ontario Music Teachers Association, Ottawa branch, as a bilingual teacher of piano, solfege and theoretical subjects. Part of her extensive practice is devoted to reducing muscular pain and stress caused by overwork and misunderstanding of the mechanics of piano-playing. Her ongoing goal is to assist students gain freedom in music-making.

Nicole Presentey is sought after as an adjudicator and clinician, soloist, collaborative pianist and chamber musician.  Many of her students have pursued graduate and post-graduate studies in music, achieving successful careers as soloists, orchestral musicians, chamber players, composers and teachers. For her numerous students, many of whom achieved the highest national recognition of excellence but who chose to pursue other careers, the love of music continues to sustain and nourish them and their children, hopefully adding to the audience of the future.

Nicole’s involvement with Ottawa Chamberfest as an Artistic Advisor fulfils her desire to support and nurture young talent and in 2007, she initiated and continues to produce Rising Stars, a component of the annual festival that showcases up and coming musicians from the National Capital Region. Many alumni who received their start on this important local platform have gone on to pursue careers on the national and international scene.

A graduate of the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute, Nicole has performed as continuo on numerous occasions in various Toronto venues and continues to pursue further studies in early music.