JUDGES | Habitat Heartland Ontario's Party for Humanity!

MEET OUR JUDGES

Peter Brennan, founder of Jeans ‘n Classics will lead the judges! Stay tuned for the announcement of the rest of the panel.

Peter Brennan

Born in England, Peter Brennan moved to Canada as a child. Growing up, he was initially heavily influenced by the Beatles, and the love affair with all things musical continued and grew to include everything from Jimi Hendrix to Gilbert and Sullivan.

Peter studied music formally at Western University, but ultimately the lure of a traveling rock band won out. During the '70s and '80s he toured extensively throughout North America, establishing himself as a guitarist and Music Director with a variety of groups. He also became an in-demand producer/arranger with top-ten successes in the UK, producer awards and grants in Canada, and was selected as a Juno Awards judge.

Peter has always loved the sound of a rock band with an orchestra. In the early '90s this dream became a reality for him with the establishment of Jeans ’n Classics. What began as seven scared people assembled for a single concert experiment with an equally nervous orchestra, has grown into an ensemble of thirty people presenting forty-five different pop/rock productions, with over one hundred orchestras worldwide, to some two hundred thousand people annually.

The Jeans ‘n Classics family features some of the finest vocalists and instrumentalists in Canada and the US. Jeans ‘n Classics has also created and developed orchestra shows for a number of headliners of worldwide note, including Roger Hodgson (formerly of Supertramp) and Martin Fry of ABC. While there have been and continue to be magnificent concert and orchestral experiences with Jeans ’n Classics, certainly the April 2009 concert with ABC at The Royal Albert Hall in London, England stands out.

On the home front, Peter is the recipient of the Mayor's Award for the Arts in London, Ontario where he resides, and was named to the Western University, Faculty Of Music “Wall Of Fame” in September 2010. www.jeansnclassics.com

VersaBank is proud to sponsor Peter Brennan for Party for Humanity

Sean Thievin

After many years of struggle to find his way to success as a single dad, Sean Thievin is finally seeing his hard work pay off. Beginning as a volunteer through the Pathways program more than 7 years ago, Sean worked his way from the back room of the ReStore; up to Assistant Manager at Habitat for Humanity ReStore on Adelaide St.

Musically Sean never had any formal training. However, that didn’t stop him from trying to build his own guitar from a tennis racket and old guitar strings as a child. At 16 he taught himself to play guitar. He played rhythm guitar for his first band Foster Child by the time he was 18.

Over the years Sean has added bass and drums to his skill set. This year he is beginning to add in some vocals.

Dan Brodbeck

Dan is a Juno winning engineer, producer, mixer, guitar player, Recording Engineering Professor and Coordinator of the Music Industry Arts program and the Audio Post Production at Fanshawe College.

Throughout the 1990s Dan owned dB Recording Studios in London. During that time he worked with various artists including The Gandharvas, and Garnet Rogers. In 2000, he became a partner at EMAC Recording Studios where he worked with artists such as Headstrong, The Salads, Clockwise, Ana Lovelis, Landon Pigg. In 2003, he worked on the debut solo album Are You Listening by Dolores O'Riordan of The Cranberries. He also contributed to the Cranberries albums Roses, Something Else, and their final album In The End as a guitar player, engineer, programmer, and co-writer. He produced the self-titled debut album of Raven Quinn and Ivory Hours's Morning Light in 2015. In 2017 he co-produced, engineered and mixed Ivory Hours' "Dreamworld" as well as Texas King's "Circles"

In 2010, he won a Juno Award for Recording Engineer of the Year for his work on the songs "Apple of My Eye" and "Be Careful" from Dolores O'Riordan's album No Baggage. In 2017 he was nominated for Record Producer of The Year at the Country Music Association of Ontario Awards for his work on Dani Strong's "Time To Breathe”. In 2009, Dan received the President's Award for part-time teaching for his work in the Music Industry Arts Program at Fanshawe College.

Leslie Higgins

Leslie is a 21 year old Soprano from Uxbridge Ontario. She is currently in her 4th and final year of studying voice performance at Western University's Don Wright Faculty of Music, studying with Rachel Mallon. Music has been an integral part of her life since she was a child. She has been taking private voice lessons since she was 9 years old, and since has completed her grade 10 voice exam and grade 8 piano exam with the Royal Conservatory of Music. She has performed in numerous festivals, concerts and programs across the country, and has had the opportunity to work with many different coaches, conductors, directors, and teachers from across North America.

She also really enjoys musical theatre, and has been performing onstage since she was 8. Some of her favourite roles include Rizzo in Grease, Diana in A Chorus Line, Mary Poppins in Mary Poppins, and Brigitta in The Sound of Music. She first discovered her passion for music while singing in choir, and was fortunate enough to sing with the Ontario Youth Choir for four summers. She also represented Ontario in the 2017 National Youth Choir under the direction of Timothy Shantz. She just performed her first operatic role this summer in Haifax Opera’s production of Offenbach’s ‘Les contes d’Hoffmann’ as Giulietta.

She is incredibly excited to be a judge for Party for Humanity this year, and is looking forward to learning more about the music industry and perhaps sharing some new and different perspectives from her background of predominantly classical music training.

Jim Dunlop

Jim Dunlop, CPA, CA, is a Business Advisor and Partner with MNP. Working out of the London office, Jim delivers a full suite of accounting, tax and advisory services to businesses in a broad range of industries, including sports and entertainment, manufacturing, real estate and the service sector as well as to physicians and dental professionals.
Music Industry Credentials -past and present
• Current- Business Manager/Mentor/Financial Partner of NEW Country recording artist Dustin Bird www.dustinbirdmusic.com
• Member of York Mills Collegiate High School Band (Toronto)
• Member of York Mills Collegiate Choir (Toronto)
• Lead guitarist and lead singer of Rock Band - “The Wombats” in Toronto
• Former Co-Owner of recording studio -EMAC (Electronic Media Arts Corporation) (London)
• Former Co-Owner of Auto Records – a record label whose mandate was to prepare compilation CDs of local artists and promote to radio stations for airplay and to shop for record deals to major labels.
• Executive producer of numerous record/CD projects for various bands and solo artists
• Manager of Michael Dee former morning man at BX-93 (London) and Country Artist
• Composer – “ Song For Amelia “ - Instrumental - received radio play at various stations across Canada
• Member of SOCAN
• Member of CARAS
• Member of CCMA
• Guitar, bass and keyboard player

is proud to sponsor Peter Brennan

for Party for Humanity

is proud to sponsor Sean Thievin

for Party for Humanity

John Kennedy, Siskinds

is proud to sponsor Dan Brodbeck

for Party for Humanity

is proud to sponsor Leslie Higgins

for Party for Humanity

is proud to sponsor

Jim Dunlop

for Party for Humanity

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