Alumni Wall of Fame 2011
Trudy Bradley, BA (Music)’66, MMus’81
Trudy Bradley taught instrumental and vocal music in secondary schools in Southwestern Ontario, London, England and Ottawa. At Lisgar Collegiate, in Ottawa, she presided over an unprecedented expansion of the string music program with many unique achievements. Both orchestra and string ensemble won top awards at Kiwanis Provincial competitions and performed internationally in England, the Netherlands, Austria, Italy and China. Venues in Ottawa included Rideau Hall, both houses of parliament, foreign embassies and the national museums. A graduating music class worked with composer, John Siddall, to orchestrate his composition for performance by the National Arts Centre Orchestra. The Lisgar orchestra and student composers also performed their works with Espace Musique at the National Gallery.
During her tenure, Lisgar became the first public secondary school in Ontario to offer the Advanced Placement Music course, enabling students to acquire a university music credit. Trudy has been a presenter at professional development days, the Ontario Music Educators Association, and has enjoyed adjudicating. She is an avid mentor to music teachers. Trudy’s reputation as a teacher who energetically encouraged her students to excel, led to her receiving the Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence in 1999. The award was used to commission a work for string ensemble entitled Hope by Patrick Cardy (BMus’75).
Chris Montgomery, BMusA’89
Over his career, guitarist Chris Montgomery has performed at the world-famous Festival International de Jazz de Montreal and worked with such luminaries as Joe Pass, Taj Mahal, Ben Heppner, Sir Simon Rattle, Sarah Chang and Sammy Nestico. He has also produced numerous recordings for RCA Records and EMI Classics. He is also internationally known as a music industry expert and digital music pioneer.
Chris has played a key role in three influential companies that transformed the music industry. He was a Director at Diamond Multimedia Systems – launching the Rio portable mp3 player and a subsequent spinout, RioPort.com. Following RioPort, he joined MP3.com, where he launched the first on-demand music subscription model in 2000 and later became CEO of MP3.com Europe. He has also held senior executive positions at Vivendi Universal, BMG Music and Egon Zehnder International.
Chris was head of EMI Classics North America and vice-president of Global Consumer Digital. He was also responsible for EMI’s iconic catalogue of recordings, which included Maria Callas, Pablo Casals and Herbert von Karajan. Chris also helped lead the launch of The Achievement Program, a U.S.-based music education initiative between Carnegie Hall and the Royal Conservatory.
Chris graduated from Western University with a Bachelor of Arts in Music Education and the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Education. In 1998, he graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a Master of Business Administration in International marketing and strategy. He was appointed a Fellow of the University of Edinburgh in 200. Chris is currently a visiting professor of business and sits on the Advisory Board of the University’s Business School. Most importantly, Chris loves music!
Charlotte Nediger, BMus’79, MMus’83
A native of Southwestern Ontario, harpsichordist Charlotte Nediger is a proud alumna of Western University, and holds a Solo Diploma from Royal Conservatory of The Hague in the Netherlands. She joined the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra as Principal Keyboard Player in 1980 at age 21 and has held that position ever since. She has a background in music research, and works behind the scenes at Tafelmusik as assistant to the music director and as artistic co-ordinator of the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute. As a performer, Charlotte is one of few keyboard players to specialize in orchestral continuo playing. She is also in demand as a concerto soloist, and several concertos are included in her discography of more than 70 recordings. Her playing has been praised for both its brilliance and lyricism; veteran Canadian critic William Littler describes her as "one of the finest exponents of her instrument in the country." Charlotte teaches at the University of Toronto and Glenn Gould School.
Sharon Wei, BMus (Honours Perf) ’00
Sharon Wei was a National Scholar and Canadian Merit Scholar at Western University, studying with Lorand Fenyves and Ralph Aldrich. She continued at the Curtis Institute of Music with Roberto Diaz and Karen Tuttle and at Yale University with Jesse Levine. She has appeared as soloist with many orchestras and has worked with conductors such as James Levine, Kent Nagano, Zubin Mehta and Yuri Termirkanov. She has recently performed with Stratford Civic Orchestra, Orchestra of Southern Utah, Connecticut Valley Chamber Orchestra and Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra. She has been guest principal violist of the Cincinnati Symphony and the Canadian Opera Company.
As a recitalist, Sharon has performed in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and has performed at festivals including the Ravinia Festival, Banff Centre for the Arts, Sarasota, Prussia Cove and the Verbier Festival. She is currently principal of Ensemble Matheus in Paris under Jean Christophe Spinosi, and is the co-founder of the award-winning ensemble Made in Canada.
Sharon has pursued her studies on grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and Chalmers Foundation. Other honors include awards from the Washington International Competition for Strings, Yale’s Viola Prize and the CBC Galaxie Prize. Sharon was awarded a Debut Atlantic tour of the Maritimes as well as a Prairie Debut tour, and was featured in Chatelaine Magazine’s 80 women to watch. Sharon has taught at Yale University and is currently on faculty at Stanford University in California.
