Bio

Stella Claire ter Hart is a Canadian composer, educator, adjudicator, and accompanist. She is the only individual in Canada to have been awarded all four available diplomas from the Toronto Conservatory of Music: piano pedagogy, piano performance, composition, and theory. Her teachers include Mary Murakami  (Estevan), William Moore (Regina), Lyell Gustin (Saskatoon), Robin Harrison (Saskatoon) and Marilyn Engle (Calgary).

From 1997 to 2002 she was the Head of Music at Rothesay Netherwood Private School in Saint John, New Brunswick where she developed their entire music program, directed Junior, Senior and Jazz Bands as well as a Girls Choir, Swing Choir, Young Men’s Choir and annual Musical. Stella left New Brunswick and moved to Ontario where she was accepted into the Toronto Conservatory College of Examiners. She served as an Examiner in the Theory and History Department for over 10 years. She is presently the Artistic Director of the Frontenac Women’s Chorus as well as the Artistic Director for the SATB adult mixed choir, Melodia.

Stella has composed works for orchestra, band, chamber ensemble, solo piano, instrumental solos, and choir. Her works have been performed in many countries including Italy, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, China, and Peru. An unabashed melodist, her musical style is predominantly tonal with subtle nuances of the avant garde. She is a member of the ACWC, Choral Canada and Choirs Ontario, the ACNMP, the IAWM, and SOCAN. Stella lives a quiet life with her husband (a professional artist), and together they maintain an organic apple orchard north of Kingston, Ontario.