Heather McGuire runs a private music studio in Edmonton, Alberta where she teaches all levels of piano, theory, harmony, and music history. Heather also works as an examiner for Conservatory Canada and festival adjudicator. As a pianist, she continues to perform solo and collaborative repertoire with a special interest in 20th-century music.

Heather graduated from her Master of Music degree at the University of Alberta in May 2020 where she studied under Dr. Jacques Després. She focused her graduate studies on contemporary piano music, performing many 20th and 21st century works and completing the research portion of her degree on the benefits of teaching contemporary pieces at beginner and intermediate levels. Previously, Heather received her Artist Certificate and Bachelor of Music from Lakehead University where she studied with Dr. Evgeny Chugunov. Heather has also had the privilege of briefly studying with other prominent pianists including Jacques Rouvier, Gwendolyn Mok, Eve Egoyan, and Richard Raymond.

Heather has received many accolades for her academic and performative work, including the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship for her focus on contemporary Canadian works and the Johann Strauss Award which allowed her to study at the Mozarteum University in Austria. Heather also received the Steinway Top Teacher Award for 2022 and 2023.

In her spare time, Heather volunteers on the ARMTA Edmonton Branch Executive and with her local church. She also enjoys many hobbies including gardening, cooking, reading mystery novels, and hiking in the Canadian Rockies.

Miriam Mahood is a RCM Examiner who exams extensively throughout Canada & the USA. Since Covid she has remotely examined over 900 candidates from Shanghai, Hawai, Texas, Georgia, California, New York, Rhode Island, Florida, Washington, Colorado, New Mexico, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Arizona, Connecticut, Maryland, & Illinois, in addition to those in Canada. Ms. Mahood has adjudicated regularly for the Alberta, Saskatchewan, & British Columbia Music Festival Associations, her most recent festivals being Ft. McMurray, Red Deer, Grande Prairie, Whitecourt, Wetaskiwin, & Vermilion. 

Ms. Mahood is a graduate of the Mozarteum, Salzburg, Austria (Konzertdiplom), Universities of Saskatchewan & Alberta (B Mus. & M Mus.) & holds the ARCT from the Royal Conservatory of Music, & the Associate & Licentiate from the Western Board of Music. She has been employed by such institutions as Alberta College, The Banff Centre, Universities of Alberta & Manitoba, Western Board of Music, Winnipeg Bible College, & has served as Music Director, Organist, & Choir Director in various Churches, most recently at St. Georges Anglican. For many years she was Scholarship Chair, & served on the Ball Committee, of the Johann Strauss Foundation. 

Ms. Mahood runs a successful Piano Studio dedicated to student success. Her hobbies are hiking, languages, ballroom, & travel.

Elizabeth Raycroft, soprano, trained in Edmonton, Houston and in Vienna.  She has performed with Edmonton Opera and many local symphony orchestras, and worked with world renowned conductors and directors.  For three years, she performed the role of Mother in Edmonton coOPERAtive’s Christmas performances of Amahl and the Night Visitors. In 2014, Ms. Raycroft performed in the Edmonton Fringe megahit “Propylene Glycol, Maltodextrin, Retinol Palmitate and Other Words I don't Understand Like Love”, which also toured throughout Alberta in June and July 2015.  In 2019 performed the role of Signora Naccarelli in Walterdale Theatre’s “The Light in the Piazza”.  More recently, she has performed at the Edmonton Fringe Festival with Pop Goes The Opera in Puccini’s Suor Angelica and Il Tabarro, and this past summer at the Judge in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial by Jury.  She is an avid performer of new music, performing the World Premiere of “Four Songs, Op.15” by Joseph Lai. She regularly shares her experience and knowledge in masterclasses, workshops and through adjudicating festivals throughout Western Canada.  Her students consistently excel at local, provincial, and national festivals. Many of her students have performed with the Edmonton Youth Orchestra, have performed in local, provincial, and national musical theatre productions, with the Edmonton Opera, and in international opera houses. She maintains an active and full studio at MacEwan’s Alberta College Conservatory of Music and is recently retired from The King's University College where she taught voice, diction, theory, history and vocal pedagogy.