Dianne Baird

I was born in St. John’s, Newfoundland where I began studying piano at the age of six. By the time I was seventeen, I had completed the Associate piano examination with Trinity College of Music in London, England and had sung on several radio and television programs.  I have since sung in choirs and as a soprano soloist with the McGill Concert Choir, the Memorial University Concert and Chamber Choirs, Opera Lyra Ottawa, the Cantata Singers of Ottawa, Seventeen Voyces, the Ottawa Choral Society, the Christian Chorale, the Savoy Society, the University of Ottawa Orchestra and Concert Choir, the Avalon Trio, the Ottawa Bach Choir, the Kingston Chamber Choir, the National Arts Center Orchestra, the Sarteano Chamber Choral Workshop Ensemble and Cambridge Early Music.  As a member of the Association of Television and Radio Artists, I also performed recitals together with on-air interviews for CBC radio.  I have performed solo roles in opera and oratorio, in Canada and abroad. 

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I have a keen interest in vocal technique especially the differences between classical and contemporary  singing and am an experienced conductor.  I participated in workshops and conferences in Oberlin with Richard Miller, and in San Diego, Los Angeles, New York City, Salt Lake City, State College, Pennsylvania, Charlotte, North Carolina and in Sarteano, Italy with Simon Carington. I also completed Choral Conducting Graduate Courses at the Eastman School of Music and at the Rod Eichenberger Choral Conducting Workshop in Cannon Beach, Oregon.  I attended the National Opera Association Conference in New York, the Teaching Professor Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, a workshop in the Jo Estill Method of Contemporary Singing in Winchester, Pennsylvania and received Certification from the Contemporary Commercial Music Institute at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia.   

I have over fifty years combined teaching experience as a private voice teacher, school music teacher, choral and instrumental conductor, public speaking coach and university voice professor at Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.  I thoroughly enjoy teaching all styles of music and especially working with singers at the advanced level.  I was the Voice Area Coordinator at Queens from 2010 - 2023 and the Opera Ensemble Director from 2013 - 2017 and again in 2025 - 2026.  I taught Vocal Methods, Choral and Instrumental Conducting, Lyric Diction and Opera Performance. I was the Artistic Director of the Brockville Community Choir from 2017 - 2023 and a member of the College of Examiners for the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto from 2005 - 2025.  I coached public speaking and performance with The Shoe Project at the Writer’s Festival in Kingston and am a retired member of ORMTA, and NOA and a member of ACTRA and the District Membership Director for the Quebec-National Capital Region of NATS.  I am recently retired from Queens after 23 years service and from the College of Examiners, Toronto, with 20 years examining experience. I enjoy adjudicating and have done so for NATS, ORMTA and the Newfoundland Music Festival Association and Ontario Music Festivals Association Provincial Competitions.