Adjudicator Biographies

Please find the biographies for the 2025 Provost Music Festival Below.

Speech

Adjudicator: Cheryl Adma

Cheryl is a professional actor, playwright, and improviser who has spent upwards of twenty years in the performing arts. As a previous student of the Speech Arts and Drama Program at Mount Royal University, she is excited to be back to inspire students in a similar fashion, teaching a full roster of private students and group classes. Cheryl has trained at the Company of Rogues and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Drama and English from the University of Alberta. Her scripts have been produced for the New Works Festival and the Collaborative Faculty Development Conference at the U of A, and she has been awarded the Frank Bueckert Prize for playwriting.

As a speech and drama teacher, she believes in the importance of fostering creativity and finessing technique. Her aim is to create a safe space where students feel they can take risks, celebrate successes, and speak confidently with their unique voice.

Piano

Adjudicator: Ladona ahenda

LaDona Ahenda holds a B.Mus. from UBC and an ARCT Diploma in Piano Performance. She studied the piano with Dale Jackson and Kum-Sing Lee and the pipe organ with John Searchfield. She was the recipient of numerous scholarships and medals, including the Louise McKinney Scholarship and the Tom and Miggsie Lawson National Teachers’ Travel & Study scholarship (Conservatory Canada, 2006).

LaDona moved back to Calgary after her studies in Vancouver and worked as an accompanist in the Academy for Gifted Youth program at Mount Royal Conservatory. This gave her the opportunity to learn from many world-class musicians in a masterclass setting. She also free-lanced as an accompanist for other instrumentalists, choirs, and vocalists, while building a successful private studio as a piano teacher.

LaDona has served on the Executive of the Alberta Registered Music Teachers’ Association (Calgary), and is active in the Alberta Piano Teachers’ Association and the Music Coterie in Calgary, which gives her a chance to perform regularly. She is in demand as a teacher and adjudicator, and has experience as an examiner, writer, and workshop presenter. Her primary focus is her private studio in Calgary where she teaches all levels of piano to students of all ages. Her students have won numerous awards and scholarships over the years for excellence in piano performance and theory exams. Some students have continued to pursue a career in music. The others end up pursuing other career options, but they continue to enjoy a life-long appreciation of good music and the ability to express themselves by making music.

LaDona lives in Calgary with her husband. They enjoy being with their three adult children and their first little grandchild. In their spare time they can be seen on the Calgary pathways with their binoculars, watching the birds.

Vocal

Adjudicator: john tessier

instrumental

Adjudicator: carla gust

Carla Gust began her Fine Arts studies in ballet at the age of 5, in piano at the age of 8, and continued through junior high and high school in choir.  Her studies expanded to concert band at the University of Alberta and her degree in English and Music brought her to her first teaching job with Wetaskiwin School Board teaching English, Language Arts and Concert Band 7-12.  After training in Orff and Kodaly in summer courses, Carla moved to the Edmonton Pubic School Board to each music k-9 at McKernan, and then to teaching Band 7-9 at Westminster Junior High. Throughout her career, Carla has focused on building community through music by directing an adult choir and community band, an inter-school community band in Wetaskiwin, leading various groups on tour, performing at community events and fund-raisers such as the Festival of Trees, the annual Westminster Edmonton General Christmas variety show, the Glenora Community BBQs and feeder school tours in West Edmonton.