Linda Crawford, Artistic Director

Born in Quebec City, Linda studied at the Conservatoire de Musique de Québec and Université de Laval, earning degrees in Vocal Performance and Music Education. Additional studies included conducting and Baroque choral literature at Westminster Choir College and the University of Toronto. She continues to study choral conducting at master classes, most recently with Jean-Sebastien Vallée (Montréal) and Jon Washburn (Vancouver).

Linda is a retired Music and French educator. Her school concert bands attained regional and national gold standings at many festivals, over her 30-year career. She founded the OCDSB Intermediate Music Council, a teacher-based group to support music teachers and to organize music enrichment events for students. In 2004, Linda received the OCDSB Arts Recognition Award for Excellence in Music Education and the promotion of the Arts in Ottawa.

Linda has directed numerous community and church ensembles. She is often invited to offer choral and instrumental music workshops in Ontario and Quebec. In addition to her choral work, she teaches private Music (piano and voice) and French lessons. She is also part of the ELL teaching team for refugee families currently being welcomed to Vankleek Hill.

Linda is passionate about the excellent family of choirs in the GJS organization. She loves sharing the joy of choral singing with the three groups! She is very proud of the dedication and hard work of her Singers, and of the high level of quality they attain, in such a varied repertoire.

Olivia Adams, Accompanist

Olivia Adams is a pianist, teacher, and clinician based in Ottawa, ON. Her musical studies started in her home city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and she still a part of the musical community there. Olivia is a Master’s Candidate at the University of Ottawa in both Music and Feminist & Gender Studies. Her present work is on increasing the inclusionary practices of piano curriculum through the promotion of female QTBIPOC composers. Olivia completed an undergraduate degree in Piano Performance at the Don Wright Faculty of Music at Western University as well as an Elementary Pedagogy Certification from the Royal Conservatory of Music.

She has presented workshops and recitals all over Canada, and in the US and Portugal. Olivia has written for the Canadian Music Teacher magazine, Opus publication, and is a chapter author in the book Hands on Piano. Olivia is also a 2020 recipient of the SSHRC Canadian Graduate Scholarship for her project “She’s Still Sounding: Working towards inclusivity of gender, race, and intersectionality in piano curriculum.” When she is not researching, Olivia loves to perform both solo and collaboratively. She plays in a piano duo with her fiancé Nick Busch in the A&B Duo which has been featured in community concerts, recordings, the Sweetwater Music Festival and in the Ottawa Chamberfest Chamber Pints upcoming season. Olivia also runs a busy piano studio in downtown Ottawa and Orleans.

A choir enthusiast, she has sung in choirs for 18 years and has found great solace and community within the many choirs she has sung with. Olivia has experience accompanying secondary school choirs, soloists, musicals, and most recently the Thames Centre Community Choir. She is extremely excited to be joining the choir community in Ottawa with the Goulbourn Jubilee Singers. When not busy with school or teaching, Olivia enjoys singing in choirs, reading books, and drinking lots of coffee.