Tim received his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Alberta and travelled to Germany, on full scholarship, to study music and voice at the Nordewestdeutsche Musik Akademie in Detmold. Returning to Edmonton, he began what was to become a ten-year teaching position at the Alberta College Conservatory of Music. While teaching at the Conservatory, Tim pursued a number of other education interests including radio and television production and internet programming. This set the stage for a shift in careers to media and events production.
Tim's creative, development, production, management and consulting portfolio is very extensive. It includes: the production of million-dollar events, feature-length documentary films, a campaign which shifted the control of over eight billion dollars in pension funds in Alberta, and hundreds of presentations for departments at all three levels of government as well as for corporations internationally. Additionally, he has produced hundreds of events specifically to provide performance opportunities for young singers.
In 2000, Tim's daughter became interested in music and he left media production and his consulting practice behind to return to teaching voice and performance full time. Today, Tim advocates for the living benefits of vocal, performance and excellence study practices. As a result of his teaching experiences, Tim has begun to write a book called "SongKraft" and now works to promote his SongKraft training methodology. Most notably, Tim continues with his first love, which is teaching people to sing and to perform with joy and excellence.
JENNIFER Y. Y. WONG
Jennifer is the co-founder of SongKraft (corporate) and co-author of some of its workshop elements. She is taking the opportunity SongKraft represents in her life to focus on her own creative objectives and to bring music and movement to the lives of others.
Jennifer exhibited a great interest and affinity for playing music at the piano, completed Grade 10 Royal Conservatory exams at age 17 and withdrew in order to focus her time on post-secondary studies. She pursued a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Psychology and a minor in Sociology from the University of Alberta. She enhanced her studies by applying herself to the Psychology Internship Program in 2001, which provided her with two important work experience placements. The first trained her in front-line crisis intervention and de-escalation, as she worked with youth who were in at-risk situations. She then spent time on staff with a local non-profit organization, which delivered support services to young people in need.
After University Jennifer garnered significant project, event and volunteer management experience as the Program Coordinator of the non-profit youth program she'd worked with previously. She was responsible for overseeing the development of a major youth volunteer initiative in the province. In 2007, she moved to a position with the City of Edmonton as Coordinator of its Youth Council, establishing a deeper knowledge of municipal services and programs, and working with City Council and civic administration to incorporate youth perspectives into programming and policies. It was at this time that Jennifer began to take vocal lessons and returned to her first love, playing the piano.
After two years in the position with the City, and 6 years working in the area of youth programming, Jennifer left the field to explore other avenues that had more to do with creativity and music. She has returned to serious studies in piano, working toward obtaining ARCT certification from the Royal Conservatory, and is also studying jazz and accompanist piano.
SONGKRAFT
