Biography
Background
Stella Claire ter Hart is a Canadian composer, educator, adjudicator, choral director and accompanist. She is directly descended from the Italian composer, Tomaso Vitali, and has many other musical family members and ancestors.
Stella was born and raised in the small rural prairie town of Estevan, Saskatchewan. Her mother, Sophia Maria ter Hart-Vittali, worked tirelessly to bring arts and culture to Estevan, helping establish the very first Music Festival as well as the Estevan Arts Council. Stella will never forget travelling three hours on a bus with her mother and other music lovers from Estevan to hear a performance of Swan Lake in Regina, performed by the Regina Symphony and the Winnipeg Ballet. It was the first time she had ever heard an oboe – it was the most beautiful music she had ever heard at her tender age of 13!
Another memorable yet terrifying Estevan moment was being the accompanist’s page turner for a young, relatively unknown singer named Maureen Forrester who presented a concert at a “Stars for Saskatchewan” evening in 1975 at the Estevan High School. It seems that Stella has been page turning and accompanying ever since!
A first generation Canadian, Stella is poignantly inspired by her rich European background which includes French Huguenot ancestors on her father’s side fleeing to the Netherlands in the 15th century to avoid persecution and the loss of her maternal grandmother’s entire Jewish family (over 1200 relatives) in World War 2 concentration camps, among them her 79-year-old great grandfather, and a little seven-year-old cousin, also named Stella.
Education/Work Experience
Stella 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. While growing up in Saskatchewan, she had the privilege of studying with some of the best teachers at the time, including Mary Murakami (Estevan), William Moore (Regina), Lyell Gustin (Saskatoon) and Robin Harrison (Saskatoon). After moving to Alberta, Stella studied with Marilyn Engle (Calgary).
She is a widely sought after adjudicator and has brought her fun and unique interactive adjudicating skills to numerous music festivals in Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland. 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 the annual Musical. Stella 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.
Stella is now a retired member of the College of Examiners, and presently focuses on composition with an emphasis on choral work, chamber and solo instrumental works. She is the Artistic Director/Conductor of the Frontenac Women’s Chorus, Kingston’s first and longest running community Women’s Choir, as well as the Artistic Director/Conductor for the award winning SATB adult mixed choir, Melodia.
Awards/Affiliations
Ms ter Hart is the winner of numerous composition competitions including the Diva Complex Composition Contest, winner of the Pacific International Song Writing Competition, co-winner of the Ruth Watson Henderson Choral Competition and winner of the Lirit Chamber Choir New Music competition. She was a Finalist in the 2023 Japan International Choral Composition Competition and received Honourable Mention in the 2023 Chronos Vocal Ensemble Choral Composition Competition.
She has accompanied some of Canada’s best opera voices including Measha Bruegergosman, Stewart Howe, Cicela Mannson, Bruno Cormier, Monette Gould, and Cindy Townsend. She has been commissioned by CBC Radio 2, Symphony New Brunswick, the Indian River Festival, as well as professional musicians and groups. Stella adores playing for choirs and soloists; she has the soul of a singer and as an accompanist instinctively shadows and enhances the singer’s every breath and phrase. Ms. terHart has conducted choirs and bands and maintained a large, private piano studio for many years.
Stella’s choral compositions have been performed throughout North America and as far away as Australia, Italy, Greece, Hong Kong, China, Spain, Brazil, Peru and the United Kingdom. She is a member of the Association of Canadian Women Composers (ACWC), Choral Canada, and Choirs Ontario, is a member of the board of the Association of Canadian New Music (ACNMP) and is a past member of the National Music Festival Adjudicator’s Association.
She presently lives a quiet life with her husband (a professional artist) and together they maintain an organic apple orchard north of Kingston, Ontario. If you’re passing by, stop in at Loughborough Heritage Orchard for some apple cider and song!