2025 Festival Adjudicators

BOWED STRINGS – Arthur Arnold

Dutch-born conductor Arthur Arnold is the co-founder and Artistic Director of the Pacific Region International Summer Music Association (PRISMA Festival & Academy) on Canada’s west coast. This annual event attracts world-renowned musicians and international music students from top universities, drawing over 5,000 concertgoers to daily musical events. Arnold also serves as the Music Director and conductor of the PRISMA Festival Orchestra, the premier ensemble at the festival.

Since 2016, Arthur Arnold has led a pioneering musical collaboration with the Tla’amin Nation. Partnering with the Tla’amin Singers and Drummers, the PRISMA Festival Orchestra annually performs traditional Tla’amin songs, featuring solo performances by the Nation’s Singers and Drummers accompanied by a symphony orchestra—a meaningful fusion of cultures. This initiative resulted in an invitation from the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (VSO) to the Tla’amin Nation and Arthur Arnold to perform these culturally significant songs with the VSO during their Path Forward reconciliation concert in 2024.

From January 2012 until his resignation in March 2022, Arnold served as the Music Director of the Moscow Symphony Orchestra (MSO). He resigned in protest of the war in Ukraine and the regime responsible, taking a principled stand against the conflict—the only choice to avoid jeopardizing his beloved MSO. His artistic collaboration with the MSO began in 2004 with concerts in the Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam, evolving into a long and fruitful partnership, frequently touring and being featured at international festivals.

Arnold is the driving force behind The Mosolov Project, discovering lost manuscripts of the repressed composer Alexander Mosolov in Russian libraries. He performed and recorded Mosolov’s Fifth Symphony (1965) and Harp Concerto (1939) in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. The resulting CD, released by Naxos, received the second prize in the prestigious Russian competition Pure Sound. For more information and links to CD reviews, visit The Mosolov Project.

Dedicated to music education, Arnold has mentored over 25 upcoming conductors at the PRISMA Festival and through conducting masterclasses with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra.

Arnold served as the Music Director of the Symphony Orchestra Academy of the Pacific from 2004 to 2011 and as Principal Guest Conductor of the Seoul National Symphony Orchestra in South Korea from 1997 to 2001. As a guest conductor, he has collaborated with orchestras and festivals throughout Europe, Canada, the USA, and Asia.

Arnold studied conducting with Anton Kersjes and Hans Vonk and received additional training from Marcello Viotti, Jean Fournet, and Graeme Jenkins. He studied at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Italy with Myung-Whun Chung and Gianluigi Gelmetti, and with Jorma Panula and Diego Masson in international masterclasses.

Arthur and his wife Kim divide their time between the rugged West Coast of Canada and The Netherlands. In Canada, they enjoy hiking, sea kayaking, and paddleboarding. In 2020, Arthur developed a passion for sheep and wool, spinning, and knitting, specializing in quality wool socks knitted on a vintage sock knitting machine. For more details, visit www.maestrosocks.ca. In Europe, they embark on adventurous road trips to different orchestras, camping in a roof tent on their Volkswagen van. Kim writes about their travels in her blog, WakingUpOnTheRoof.com.

DANCE

Information will be posted soon.

FOLK INSTRUMENTAL – Mike Sanyshyn

Mike Sanyshyn has played in a dazzling array of situations over the years from performing with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra with recording artist Aaron Pritchett and acting as Musical director for the British Columbia Country Music Association Industry Awards to big concert and festival appearances.

Mike is a first call studio musician, well respected fiddle instructor and judge, as an artist he has released 3 CDs and an original book of music.
It’s been quite a career.

Mike is a 3rd generation fiddler following in the tradition of his father and grandfather.

Mike Sanyshyn was born in the beautiful and rugged peaks of Coleman Alberta, in the Crowsnest Pass.

He began playing fiddle at 8yrs old.

Fiddle music became a passion and watching Al Cherny on CBC’s Tommy Hunter Show was a revelation.

At the age of 12 yrs old Mike and his family moved to White Rock, BC. That’s where his opportunities in music began to flourish.

In the midst of learning various styles from Canadian Old Time to Bluegrass, Celtic, Swing and Metis Fiddle, Sanyshyn also studied Classical music for 5yrs which helped him “get the proper technique”.

“Learning to play Classical music has definitely impacted my career in a positive way,” he says.

Mike was named the BC provincial Champion 4 times, placed in the top 3 at the Canadian GrandMasters Fiddling Championships, the best finish ever for a BC fiddler to date.

At the age of 22 Mike was selected to play for Mercury Recording artist Duane Steele in a band hand-picked from across Canada. Their first show was opening for Nashville stars Lorrie Morgan and Sammy Kershaw.

“That was my first introduction to touring and being exposed to big crowds. We also opened for Trisha Yearwood, Terri Clark, Prairie Oyster and many other acts.

“We were on The Rita and Friends Show and had our first appearance on the Canadian Country Music Awards Show. That time was huge for me as it gave me my start on the National scene.”

Subsequent opening spots included Alan Jackson, Big and Rich, Merle Haggard and Shania Twain and he has also graced the stage with Ian Tyson, Randy Bachman, One More Girl, Johnny Reid and Nashville star Luke Bryan.

Mike has been featured on numerous videos for the likes of Aaron Pritchett, Chad Brownlee, Lisa Brokop and Duane Steele.

He’s also performed on television including the Vicki Gabereau Show, Canada AM and Breakfast TV plus various telethons.

Mike Sanyshyn is an Artist, Musician, Instructor, Composer and studio session player and is Canada’s Country Fiddler.

He is well respected in the music community and is known as a mentor for up and coming fiddlers.

His signature sound has been recorded on hundreds of CDs and millions have heard Mike’s fiddle on the Vancouver Olympics segment in Torino introducing Whistler 2010.

It’s a four stringed instrument no longer than your arm but for Mike Sanyshyn its meant 30 years of steady, varied and fascinating work.

Rest assured there are precious few fiddlers, Canadian or otherwise, who can or ever will make that claim.

John P. McLaughlin
Vancouver Province Country/Roots Columnist

PIANO

Information will be posted soon.

SPEECH & DRAMATIC ARTS

Information will be posted soon.

VOICE/CHOIR

Information will be posted soon.

WOODWINDS & BRASS – Walter Matella

Conductor and Music Director of the Powell River Academy of Music (PRAM), Walter Martella is an accomplished pianist, accordionist, and trumpeter. He earned a Diploma in Jazz Trumpet from Malaspina College (VIU), a Bachelor of Music Degree from the University of Victoria, and attended the Banff School of Fine Arts.

Conducting became a significant part of Walter’s life and career when he returned to Powell River to study at PRAM under Don James. He has participated in the British Columbia Choral Federation’s conducting program and has collaborated with world-renowned conductors. He has led noteworthy works like Holst’s Rig Veda for choir and harp, the Messiah, Schubert’s Mass in G, and Vivaldi’s Gloria. He conducts the Academy Chamber Choir, Chor Musica Men’s Choir and the Powell River Chorus as well as currently maintaining a full private teaching schedule.

Walter is a strong believer in the power of music as an important part of community, and has been an adjudicator for instrumental and choral festivals throughout British Columbia. He has recorded six, soon to be seven jazz CDs, performed provincially with many well-known musicians in multiple genres, and continues to be in demand all along the West Coast as a trumpet soloist and jazz pianist.