Founder & Artistic Director
Carrie Tennant
“What you are doing...is profound, at the level of healing the body, heart, mind and spirit.”
Janie Brown
Founder/Executive Director, Callenish Cancer Retreat Society
Carrie is the founder and artistic director of VYC. For the past 15 years, she has worked primarily with youth, developing leadership and artistry with young singers. Carrie’s choirs have been featured at Chorus America, Podium (Choral Canada), and ACDA National Conferences, and have twice been awarded first place in the National Choral Competition. During her time conducting the Coastal Sound Youth Choir, their popular Indiekör shows were recognized with Choral Canada’s National Award for Innovation.
Currently, on top of her work with VYC, Carrie is an Affiliate Conductor with the Vancouver Chamber Choir, the Canadian representative on the World Choral Council, and a frequent clinician, adjudicator and guest conductor across North America. Carrie is the editor and curator for two choral series: the Vancouver Youth Choir Choral Series (Cypress Publishing), which promotes diverse Canadian voices on the international stage; and the brand new Carrie Tennant Choral Series (Hal Leonard), which features much of the music Carrie and her choirs have performed and loved. In a past life (before she had two small and very lovely children) Carrie also toured, performed and recorded with her husband Scott as a member of Vancouver-based indie pop group, The Salteens.
Artistic Team
Luke McAndless-Davis
Conductor, VYC Junior
Assistant Conductor, VYC & VYC Voices
Assistant Conductor, VYC & VYC Voices
Luke teaches choir and performing arts at Collingwood School in West Vancouver. A graduate of the UBC Music Education program, he directs several school choirs, and has taught at Mulgrave School and served as Assistant Conductor for the Vancouver Orpheus Male Voice Choir and the 2019 BC Youth Choir. Luke has had the privilege of singing and conducting in cathedrals in Prague, London, and Dublin; in Carnegie Hall in New York, and J.S. Bach’s church in Leipzig, Germany. Luke sang with the Vancouver Youth Choir from 2016-2018 and has more recently Co-Conducted VYC Kids. He couldn’t be more excited to be taking on a new role in the VYC family, assistant conducting the Vancouver Youth Choir and VYC Voices as well as co- conducting VYC Junior.
Michelle Hartley
Conductor, VYC Treble & VYC Kids
Michelle began her career as a choral director in 2008, in Halifax, NS. Born and raised in Stephenville, NL, she has taught coast to coast, in the NWT, the USA, England, and France. With a passion for singing, languages and culture, her studies in piano were quick to expand into choral accompaniment and conducting. A graduate of Mount Allison and Memorial University, Michelle also completed a Masters of Music at Westminster Choir College. Since her arrival in BC in 2016, she has been developing a Kodály-based curriculum for students aged 4-18, integrating the method along with the Orff Approach as a certified Kodály and Orff Schulwerk teacher.
Jake Autio
Conductor, VYC Tiny
Jake is a musician educator and French Immersion teacher in Richmond, BC. He has taught kindergarten through seventh grade in public school in BC and is the founder and director of the former BC Kodály Choir and the Spero Children’s Choir at St. Andrew’s Wesley United Church, and currently VYC TINY. Jake has studied Kodály-inspired methods and philosophy in Western Canada, Hungary, and the USA and connects his professional practice
with Kodály’s love and vision for children singing artistically and the collective power of music-making together. Jake is currently working as an intermediate French Immersion classroom teacher and incorporates Kodály’s philosophies and strategies not only to music-making, but also French language development.
Caroni Young
Conductor, VYC Tiny
Caroni is delighted to be part of the VYC family of choirs! She has been singing in choirs since elementary school and hasn’t looked back since! Caroni currently splits her time between Vancouver and Salt Spring Island. She works for the Vancouver School Board as a music educator. On Salt Spring, she directs Viva Chorale! a community choir and is the artistic director and founder of the Makana Youth Choir. Caroni recently completed a Masters degree in Choral Conducting at UBC and is passionate about sharing, teaching, and inspiring a love of choral music at any age. When she’s not directing choirs, you’ll find her aboard BC ferries!
Caitlin Hayes
Accompanist
Originally from Victoria, Caitlin has a Bachelor of Music in classical piano from UVic, and has worked as a pianist, music director, actor and singer all over Canada, from Vancouver to Halifax to Toronto to Dawson City, Yukon, as well as on a cruise ship in the Bahamas. For several years she was based in Toronto, where she was the associate conductor and accompanist of the La Jeunesse Senior Girls Choir (Cobourg, ON) and also worked as a freelance musical director and vocal coach. Since returning to Vancouver, Caitlin has been busy working as an accompanist at Capilano University’s Musical Theatre program, and accompanist and assistant conductor for the adult community choir Burstin’ With Broadway. She also is a music director for local theatre companies. She received a 2016 Ovation Award for Outstanding Music Director, and a Jessie Award nomination for Significant Artistic Achievement for “Closer Than Ever” at the Gateway Theatre. Other recent credits include A Christmas Story (Align Entertainment) , Carrie” and “Grey Gardens” (Fighting Chance Productions) and “Gay’s The Word” and “Fiorello” (APPLAUSE! Musicals in Concert.) She is delighted to be working with Carrie and the extremely talented young people of the Vancouver Youth Choir.
Helen Pei
Accompanist
An active performer and a dedicated musician, Vancouver pianist Helen Pei is a winner of numerous competitions, including the renowned Canadian Music Competition in 2015. In 2016, Helen graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance, and more recently she received her Artist Diploma from the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal studying under the tutelage of Professor André Laplante. Helen’s performance career includes concert appearances across Canada, some of which includes her performance of Saint-Saëns’ Concerto No. 5 with the Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra. While she is actively working in both solo and chamber music, Helen is beyond excited to be expanding her repertoire in choral works as part of the VYC team for this upcoming season.
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