22nd Annual Benefit Concert

Born and raised in Australia, Naomi began lessons at age 3 with the Suzuki method and has been performing and teaching the violin for over 30 years. Naomi holds the Masters in Violin from the University of Calgary and has held the Concertmaster position of Red Deer Symphony Orchestra since 2006.

From 1994 to 2001, Naomi had the opportunity to travel the world as Concertmaster and soloist with the New England Symphonic Ensemble. Solo highlights include the Sydney Opera House, St. Martin in the Fields, Carnegie Hall, Cape Town City Hall, and the Winspear.

After moving to Canada with her husband, Naomi founded a community string orchestra in 2002: Rosedale Valley String Orchestra. Her concerts with RVSO have now raised $120,000 for humanitarian projects around the world.

Naomi is often called upon to adjudicate at festivals and teach at workshops and clinics. She has produced four CD's, one classical, one Celtic and two Orchestral with RVSO. On the side, Naomi runs a small string shop ‘Prairie Violins,' servicing the needs of string students in Central Alberta. In the summer and fall, her husband David and three children are developing their small farm - ‘Aspen Acres,’ growing several varieties of garlic and haskap berries.

Naomi is passionate about playing baroque violin and enjoys collaborating with several organizations, including Rosa Barocca and Early Music Alberta, as interest in period instruments continues to blossom in Alberta. In March 2023, Rosa Barocca was awarded a JUNO for their album ‘Early Italian Cello Concertos’ with soloist Elinor Frey. This was indeed a joyous moment for a new group only 6 years old!

An Alberta transplant hailing from New England, violinist Heather Ensley is presently a doctoral candidate at the University of Oklahoma studying performance with Min-Jeong Koh and Gregory Lee. Her research focuses on the potential of applied music theory to foster autonomous artistry in young students.

Heather has established herself as an innovative and dynamic teacher in Central Alberta where she maintains a small private studio. Heather’s students have won numerous awards at local festivals and have represented Red Deer as delegates to the Alberta Music Festival. They have been invited to solo with the Red Deer Youth and Community Orchestra, the Rosedale Valley String Orchestra, and the Burman University Symphony Orchestra. Graduates of Heather's studio have been accepted to music programs at universities including Brandon University, the University of Alberta, the University of Saskatchewan, and the University of Calgary. In addition to teaching privately, Heather has been Music Director of the Red Deer Youth and Community Orchestra since 2016.

Committed to promoting creativity and connection through music, Heather excels onstage as a collaborator and recitalist, often engaging audiences in a lively and informative lecture recital format.​ From intimate duo partnerships to invitations to perform with larger ensembles, a passion for chamber music provides Heather with an exciting array of performance opportunities. In 2023 Heather toured to Brazil as violinist with the Burman University String Quartet. Past performances include the premier of Canadian composer Cheryl Cooney's fusion opera "It's Coco!," frequent partnerships with pianists Dia Sohyun Park and Cheryl Cooney, and appearances with the Brandon Chamber Players, and OU's Collegium Musicum and Accademia Filarmonica. She has recently given recitals in Red Deer, AB for the First Thursdays Concert Series and in Norman, OK at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art.

Heather holds a Master of Music degree in Performance and Literature from Brandon University where she earned the Gold Medal in Masters of Music for academic achievement as a student of Kerry DuWors. Heather earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Canadian University College (now Burman University) studying under Naomi Delafield and Andrea Neumann.

​Heather is particularly inspired by a deep love for the natural world, good food, and literature. She lives with her husband Josh, their little son Christopher, and cat, Wilson.​

Heather plays on a 2007 Douglas Cox violin.

Since his appointment as Music Director of the Red Deer Symphony Orchestra in 1990, Claude Lapalme has made his mark as a superb conductor, an exceptional arranger and an outstanding Music Director. As a conductor, Paris newspaper Le Figaro has called him “remarkable and superb”; the Toronto Globe & Mail, “assured and highly effective”; the Havana Granma, “surprisingly dexterous, warm and sincere”; the Edmonton Journal, “a breath of fresh air”; and the Calgary Herald, “vigorous and attentive to detail.” A 1991 Laureate of the Besançon International Conducting Competition, he has conducted orchestras around the world, including the Moscow Radio and Television Orchestra as well as numerous ensembles in Hungary, the United States, Cuba, France and the Netherlands. His Canadian credits include the Edmonton Symphony, the Calgary Philharmonic, the Winnipeg Symphony, l’Orchestre Symphonique de Laval, and the Hamilton Philharmonic among others. His own Red Deer Symphony has been featured on several CBC broadcasts, and has collaborated with, among others, Alberta Ballet, Edmonton’s Pro Coro, Calgary’s Early Music Voices and Calgary’s Festival Chorus. The orchestra has also toured the province of Alberta as far north as Fort McMurray.

Claude Lapalme has also been an instructor at Burman University and at both the Universities of Toronto and Calgary.

In 2016, Claude Lapalme founded Rosa Barocca, Alberta’s premier baroque orchestra on period instruments. Rosa Barocca’s debut album, Early Italian Cello Concertos, won the 2023 Juno Award for Best Classical Album of the Year (Small Ensemble).

Mr. Lapalme has become an eminent orchestrator and arranger, having composed orchestra charts for the likes of Ian Tyson and Marvin Hamlisch. His arrangements, noted for the precision of their composition as well as their expressive lushness, have been performed by top Canadian, American and Australian orchestras where they have been called “gorgeous” and “spine-chilling.” His orchestral arrangement of Ian Tyson’s Four Strong Winds, an exclusive composition for the Edmonton Symphony, premiered to a standing ovation by an audience of over five thousand people. He also wrote five exclusive arrangements of Canadian popular songs for the Edmonton Symphony’s “Great Canadian Songbook” project.

For his achievements, Claude Lapalme has received recognition awards from both the City of Red Deer and the Government of Alberta, and was a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Medal.