If the Earth Could Sing at Pacific Spirit United Church

Cassie Luftspring is a conductor, composer, singer, and pianist with a deep commitment to choral artistry. In addition to her role as Artistic Director of Elektra, she serves as Artistic Director of the British Columbia Girls Choir. Cassie has held conducting positions with leading organizations including the Vancouver Youth Choir, Vancouver Children’s Choir, and Toronto Children’s Chorus, and is the former Director of Choral Studies at the Vancouver Academy of Music. As a professional choral singer, she led the soprano section of the Vancouver Bach Choir and has performed with the Vancouver Chamber Choir and musica intima. An award-winning composer, Cassie is a seven-time winner of the Amadeus Choir’s Songwriting Competition. Her works and arrangements have been commissioned and performed by ensembles across North America. She holds a Master of Music degree in choral conducting from the University of Toronto and a degree in piano and composition from Queen’s University. In 2025, she received the King Charles III Coronation Medal.

Stephen Smith is a Vancouver-based pianist, conductor, composer, and arranger. After early studies in piano and organ in his home province, he attended the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England, where he earned numerous awards and distinctions in national and international competitions. Since 1990, Stephen has lived in Vancouver, completing a doctoral degree in piano performance at the University of British Columbia and contributing to the city’s musical life as a performer, teacher, and collaborator. Central to Stephen’s career is his long-standing work with some of Vancouver’s finest choral ensembles. He has accompanied Elektra since 2001, and is also resident accompanist of the Vancouver Men’s Chorus, pianist for the Vancouver Bach Choir, and a frequent collaborator with the Vancouver Chamber Choir and other groups. Stephen’s compositions and arrangements have been commissioned by choirs across North America, as well as the National Youth Choir of Canada, CBC, and the ACDA Women’s Commissioning Consortium. His work appears on dozens of commercial recordings, including his solo album, Kaleidoscope.

Mike Grandmaison is an acclaimed Canadian photographer widely recognized for his striking images of the natural world. His work reflects a deep love of Canada’s landscapes and an eye for the moments of light, weather, and scale that make them unforgettable. Mike’s award-winning photographs have appeared in leading publications and have been featured across books, calendars, cards, and postage stamps. Known for images that capture the beauty and diversity of Canada, Mike brings a distinctive perspective shaped by both science and long experience in the field. He grew up on the Canadian Shield and trained in biology, spending decades working in the biological sciences. That background, paired with a lifelong curiosity about physical geography, informs the clarity and resonance of his work. With camera in hand, Mike has explored the breadth of Canada for over 45 years, creating an evocative body of photography that invites viewers to look closely, slow down, and reconnect with the places that sustain us.

Canadian cellist Jonathan Lo has performed throughout North America and Europe as a soloist and chamber musician, and has appeared as a soloist with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. His chamber music collaborations have led to performances with Geoff Nuttall, Mark Steinberg, Lynn Harrell, Dasol Kim, and Louis Schwizgebel. Additionally, he has worked closely with leading composers of our time such as Osvaldo Golijov, Oliver Knussen, and Shulamit Ran. He regularly performs at Music in the Morning, Music on Main, and with musica intima, Chor Leoni, and the Turning Point Ensemble. He has given masterclasses at the University of Toronto, University of Calgary, and La Jolla SummerFest, and teaches cello and chamber music at the Vancouver Academy of Music.

Percussionist Katie Rife delights in exploring the array of sounds that instruments can make. Based in Vancouver and active throughout BC, Katie is the principal percussionist of the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra and has performed in numerous concerts with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra, Redshift Music Society, Music on Main, and Chor Leoni, among others. She holds a Masters of Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and a Bachelors of Music in Percussion Performance from the University of British Columbia.

Described as a “new music visionary” (National Arts Centre), composer Andrew Staniland has established himself as one of Canada’s most important and innovative musical voices. His music is performed and broadcast internationally, and has been described by Alex Ross in the New Yorker Magazine as “alternately beautiful and terrifying”. Important accolades include receiving 3 Juno nominations, ECMA awards, the 2016 Terra Nova Young Innovators Award, the National Grand Prize in EVOLUTION (presented in 2009 by CBC Radio 2/Espace Musique and The Banff Centre), and the Karen Keiser Prize in Canadian Music in 2004. As a leading composer of his generation, Andrew was recognized by election to the Inaugural Cohort of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists Royal Society of Canada.

Meghan Fandrich is a neurodivergent writer and trauma-informed editor living on the edge of Lytton, BC, a village in Nlaka’pamux Territory that was destroyed by wildfire in 2021. She is the author of Burning Sage: Poems from the Lytton Fire (Caitlin Press). Meghan is an advocate for survivors of climate disaster, for trauma-informed societal change, and for the power of storytelling to foster strength, connection, and healing.

Katerina Gimon is an award-winning Canadian composer whose uniquely dynamic, poignant, and eclectic compositional style has gained her a reputation as a distinctive voice in contemporary Canadian composition and beyond. Her music has been described as “sheer radiance” (Campbell River Mirror), “imbued…with human emotion” (San Diego Story), and capable of taking listeners on a “fascinating journey of textural discovery” (Ludwig Van). In her music, Katerina draws influence from a myriad of places — from the Ukrainian folk music of her heritage to indie rock, as well as from her roots.

Lauren Peat is a Vancouver-based writer, translator, editor, and facilitator. Her debut poetry chapbook, Future Tense (Baseline Press, 2024), is joined by work published in international magazines and featured in choral repertoires across North America. A former high school philosophy teacher, she now leads creative writing workshops in universities, galleries, bookstores, and public libraries, and works in poetry-in-translation as an editor and translator.

Gerda Blok-Wilson, a Canadian composer, conductor, and educator, celebrates the transformative power of choral singing. Guided by the motto "If you can talk, you can sing," she creates accessible music for all skill levels. Since 2018, Gerda has focused on publishing works ranging from musicals to advanced choral repertoire performed by renowned ensembles. As Artist in Residence at St. Patrick’s Regional High School and Artistic Director of the Vancouver Cansing Community Choir, she works with singers of all ages. She holds a Bachelor of Music, Master of Education in Kodály pedagogy and Professional Teaching Certificate.