Meet the artistic team

  • ​​Recognized for his unique blend of artistic and administrative leadership, Dr. Brendan Lord is equally comfortable in the boardroom and on the podium. As offstage leader, he is Executive Director of Choir Alberta and Principal of Prairie Arts Management and Consulting. Previously, he has served as Project Director for Podium Conference and Festival and Advisor for Alberta Music Advocacy Alliance. Artistically, he has conducted choirs at all levels including the Calgary Philharmonic Chorus, Spiritus Chamber Choir, Edmonton Public Schools’ All-City Children’s Choir, and Sangkor Women’s Ensemble. He is currently the Music Director of Edmonton’s Greenwood Singers. Between 2001 and 2016, Dr. Lord was a Sessional Instructor at the University of Alberta where he taught courses in the areas of conducting, music theory, and musicianship.

  • Shannon Robertson started singing with the Greenwood Singers in 1987 and assumed the role of assistant conductor not long after. While she currently teaches English Literature at MacEwan University and Athabasca University, she has always protected a place in her life for the joys of choral music. Shannon has studied the piano, and has sung with a number of Edmonton ensembles, including the University of Alberta Mixed Chorus, University of Alberta Madrigal Singers, Ariose, Pro Coro, and most recently the All Points West Chamber Choir.  However, for Shannon, the Greenwood Singers has always been a  constant. Since 1987 she has known it as a joyful gathering of musicians from all walks of life, a space of respite and renewal, in which singers  share their voices and commitment to music making with each other and the wider Edmonton community. 

  • Helen Stuart, BMUS cum laude, is an Edmonton area musician and private teacher. As a private music teacher, Ms. Stuart is a recipient of an “Excellence in Teaching” award from Conservatory Canada, with her students from the greater Edmonton area having received well over 50 provincial Medals of Excellence/Gold Medals for excellence in exam marks.

    Helen’s choral accompaniment career highlights include long-term appointments as the pianist for Greenwood Singers, Ariose Women’s Choir, Archbishop Jordan High School Choirs, Elk Island Catholic Youth Choirs, Edmonton Public Schools Enrichment Choirs, the Faculty of Education Youth Choirs, and the University of Alberta Mixed Chorus. She has worked as the pianist for The King’s University Community Choir, Cantilon Choirs, and the University of Alberta Madrigal Singers. As well, Helen has been a studio accompanist for the University of Alberta Music Department.

    Currently, Helen is the pianist for both Greenwood Singers and the Edmonton Catholic Schools’ All City Junior High Choir; she is the conductor of St. David’s Children’s Choir; and she works in the Administration office of the Edmonton Folk Music Festival.