Founder, Violin + Viola Teacher

Klaudia Thibault

Klaudia Thibault is an experienced violin and viola teacher in Oakville, who regularly prepares students for the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) examinations, festivals and music competitions. She teaches all levels of RCM violin and viola, leads a unique summer violin summer camp and also conducts orchestra classes. Klaudia discovered over the years of playing and teaching how the posture affects the performance and abilities. Klaudia’s strong emphasis on correct posture and optimal set up makes her one of a kind, dedicated and determined teacher.

Klaudia Thibault, nee Mirossayova, studied in Slovakia with Rozalia Varcholova, Anita Mirossayova and in Canada with Amalia Canzoneri and Metro Kozak. Klaudia successfully completed 10 years of violin study in Slovakia (1984-1994: equivalent to Royal Conservatory ARCT) at the Jan Pöschl School of Music in Presov. Then, she graduated from the University of Prešov (Prešovska Univerzita), Slovakia, in 2001. She holds a Master’s Degree in Musical Education and Social Studies. In the latter part of 2001, Klaudia moved to Canada where she sought to become active and has since become established in the music community. She continues her education at strings workshops in USA and Canada regularly. Her strongest pursuit is perfecting student posture to achieve improved performance.

PERFORMING AND CONDUCTING EXPERIENCE

The daughter of a violin teacher Anita and an engineer Stanislav, Klaudia has been an enthusiastic violin player since five years of age, performing as a soloist and a youth classical music orchestra concertmaster since 1987. The youth orchestra “Orchester Jana Poschla in Presov” performed in Eastern and Western Europe, and obtained high marks at national Slovak competitions and international competitions each year. Most memorable was the competition in Neerpelt, Belgium where the orchestra received the golden medal. Klaudia’s mom Anita Mirossayova acted as a conductor of this highly successful student string orchestra.

In 1993, Klaudia joined the Slovak Folk Ensemble ”Sarisancek” and then “Šarišan”, a national music and dance group, traveling and performing on violin for the next six years in nine countries around the world: in Europe (France, Italy, Czech Republic, Ukraine), South America (Brazil) and North America (USA), Africa (Tunisia) and Asia (Malaysia, South Korea). Klaudia was a founder of music section of children folk group “Rozmarija” in Presov. She successfully lead the group of young musicians to become confident in their performance and traveled with them to Finland, Sweden and many other countries in Europe.

While studying at university, Klaudia won a university violin competition in her first year of study. After this, she was the concertmaster of the University Chamber Orchestra “Camerata Academica” for the next four years. In her graduation year 2001, Klaudia compiled and produced a one-hour orchestral educational program for children about the role of different musical instruments in orchestra; in addition to spoken word, she also conducted this 50-member youth university orchestra which performed her program at the Performing Arts Centre (PKO) in Presov, Slovakia to a 600-member audience. At that time, she also conducted a children’s string orchestra of classical music at the Jan Pöschl School of Music in Presov, Slovakia.

Between 2002 – 2013, Klaudia played with the Oakville Symphony Orchestra and it was the first year she was awarded the Oakville Symphony’s Young Artist Award thanks to Ian Morrison who suggested Klaudia take up this opportunity. Klaudia was given a $1500 scholarship for which she was eternally grateful. She met a lot of new friends and fellow musicians during her years with the Oakville Symphony. Klaudia has performed on violin with the Oakville Messiah Orchestra, Dundas Valley Orchestra, Oakville Chamber Orchestra, community orchestras and internal school orchestra at Klaudia’s Music Studio called MagicK. In June 2005, she became a member of the String Quartet. She performs regularly at weddings and occasions throughout the year.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Klaudia was a member of the Oakville Symphony Orchestra’s Community Outreach Committee from 2005 – 2012. This committee introduced very successful series of mini-concerts and a full-orchestra concert for young people. Klaudia donated a quality student violin for seven consecutive years to the Poster Contest of the Oakville Symphony Orchestra as a main prize and the violin was presented to the winner at the full-orchestra concert each year. Each year, the Studio students perform at Retirement Home Residences in the community.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Klaudia started to teach violin at the Jan Pöschl School of Music in Presov, Slovakia in 1997, and has been teaching continuously ever since. In 2002, she established Klaudia’s Music Studio in Oakville. Klaudia educates young students (3 years of age and up), beginners and advanced students of all ages and also offers lessons to adults. She has been successful in preparing students of all ages and levels of experience for Royal Conservatory of Music exams, and Burlington, Hamilton and Toronto music festivals.

Klaudia presents recitals bi-annually in winter and summer, giving parents the opportunity to enjoy their child’s musical progress and allowing students to perform in public thereby building stage-performance skills and confidence. She also organizes teachers concerts each year, designed to inspire. Since forming of String Orchestra MagicK at her school in 2006, she has been an artistic director and co-conductor. She takes immense pride in all its achievements at concerts, competitions and festivals.

Piano Teacher

Heather Olaveson

Heather is a Hamilton-born musician who recently returned to the area after studying at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo and the University of Victoria, where she obtained master’s degrees in English and music composition, respectively. She has been playing piano for over twenty years – as the story goes, when she was six she started talking about taking piano lessons and, when her parents finally got tired of hearing about it, they gave in and signed her up at a music studio. Of course, she’s never looked back!

At UVic, Heather completed her master’s degree in music composition under the supervision of Christopher Butterfield and John Celona, and took every opportunity to take part in collaborative performances, including working extensively with two graduate-level vocal performance majors as an accompanist. During her undergrad at WLU, she studied composition with Dr. Peter Hatch and Linda Catlin Smith, studied piano with Leslie De’Ath, and took courses in piano pedagogy and vocal and instrumental accompanying. In fact, Heather has extensive experience as an accompanist, and while primarily a pianist, she also has experience performing on fortepiano, celeste, and organ.

Heather is currently the Director of Music at Carlisle United Church where she plans and leads choir rehearsals and provides music for Sunday and special services. She has previously taught piano in both studio and private settings, and has fulfilled the role of Teaching Assistant for university courses in musical skills, theory, and history as well as poetry in English. She also enjoys and has experience in working with children and youth, whether in a musical setting, in a community group, or in a local library as a literacy worker. Heather is happy to be able to share her passion for music and her love of teaching with students at Klaudia’s Music Studio, and she believes that making learning fun is a major part of what will foster a love of music in children, encourage the progression of their musical studies, and instil good learning habits that are transferrable into other areas of education.