Directors

Fannie Gaudette

Artistic director

Fannie Gaudette holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours, Music) from Bishop’s University (2001) and a Master of Music Degree in Piano Performance from Université Laval (2004). Her teachers have included Mark Widner, Richard Raymond and Arturo Nieto-Dorantes. She has performed in festivals and master classes with Frank Lévy, Jean Saulnier, Jamie Parker, the Alcan String Quartet, Jean Marchand, and Michel Fournier. Fannie Gaudette has been teaching courses in the Department of Music at Bishop’s University since 2004.  After being accompanist of the Bishop’s University Singers for 15 years, she took over the direction of the ensemble in 2014, her first task being to prepare the choir for a performance of Handel’s Messiah with the Orchestre Symphonique de Sherbrooke. Over the years she developed a passion for arranging and has produces many arrangements for choir including “Petite Suite Québecoise” which was commissioned by Canadian Parents for French and performed by over 400 children from all around the province.  She worked as co-musical director for numerous Bishop’s Musical productions with her colleagues Jamie Crooks, George Rideout, Cory Bowles and Michael Kennard. As a chamber player, Fannie Gaudette performed with sopranos Gail Desmarais, Stephanie Percey, Christine Cadoux, Michèle Gagné, Melinda Enns, violinist Geneviève Beaudry and cellist Anne-Marie Leblanc. Since 2007, Fannie Gaudette also directs the music program at Champlain Regional College.  She is the proud mother of Grégoire and Jérémie who are already looking forward to joining the BU Singers!

Melinda Enns

Assistant director

A native of WInnipeg, Melinda Enns has performed extensively both home and abroad conquering the operatic, oratorio and recital stages. She has appeared as soloist with the Winnipeg, St. Luke’s and Windsor Symphony Orchestras, the Winnipeg Singers, and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra under the direction of conductors including Bramwell Tovey, Helmuth Rilling and Robert Shaw. Other concerts include those in Toronto, Edmonton, Montreal, Charlottetown, Quebec City, Ann Arbor, Detroit, Eugene Oregon, New York City, Paris, Marseille and Aix-en-Provence, France.

Ms. Enns’ long tenure with Oregon Bach Festival Choir under the direction of Helmuth Rilling culminated in two performances in Carnegie Hall as well as concerts in Germany, Poland and Spain. Under the Hänsler label, she has participated in recordings of Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Schubert’s Mass in E Minor, Handel’s Messiah, Dvorak’s Stabat Mater and the Grammy award-winning Penderecki Credo.

Ms. Enns is currently a member of the voice faculty at Bishop’s University in Sherbrooke, Quebec and is the assistant conductor of the Bishop’s University Singers. She maintains an active private teaching studio and is the proud mother of two children. Since her arrival in 2002, she has appeared as soloist with the Amadeus choir of Quebec in performances of Handel’s Judas Maccabeus and Messiah; and with the Sherbrooke Symphony Orchestra in performances of Haydn’s Creation, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. She has also performed for Her Excellency, Adrienne Clarkson, former Governor General of Canada and was recorded and broadcast for CBC Radio-Canada.