You’re invited to come and see a brand new line of performances in our Spring 2026 Noon Hour Concert Series! Admission to the building is free, and a sandwich lunch is available for purchase prior to each recital between 11:30 a.m. - 12:15 p.m., with the concerts beginning at 12:15 p.m.
About Brandon Leis
I perform regularly in southwestern Ontario and Michigan as an opera, oratorio and concert soloist, as well as a recitalist. Most recently, I have been a featured soloist with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra, the Renaissance Singers, the Spiritus Ensemble, the Georgetown Choral Society, the Mennonite Mass Choir, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, the International Symphony Orchestra, the Stratford Summer Music Festival, the Scaramella ensemble, the Canadian Chamber Ensemble, the Bach-Elgar Choir and the Guelph Chamber Choir.
I have served as a church musician, choral scholar and church music director for over 15 years, and I have served as an adjudicator and workshop facilitator for amateur musicians.
As an educator/lecturer, I have taught at Eastwood Collegiate Institute, Rockway Mennonite Collegiate, Heritage College and Seminary (Cambridge) and the Kanata Centre for Worship and Global Song at Martin Luther Univeristy College. As a choral conductor, I have served the Menno Youth singers, the Rockway Mennonite Collegiate Senior choir and the Rockway Concert Combo.
About Anna Ronai
I have collaborated with distinguished singers Michelle Breedt, Bernarda Fink and Robert Holl, and instrumentalists Ulrike Anton and Brooks de Wetter-Smith.
I have performed in venues across Europe, North America and China, including the Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall in New York, Gläserner Saal, Musikverein and Schubert Saal, Konzerthaus in Vienna.
Throughout the world, I have maintained vocal and instrumental coaching and accompanying positions at the Vienna and Innsbruck Conservatories, and the Institute for European Studies, also in Vienna, and have played for masterclasses with esteemed artists including Brigitte Fassbaender, Christa Ludwig, Thomas Hampson and Linda Watson.
I am a graduate of the Music University of the Arts Vienna, and hold two masters degrees, one in Piano Performance and the other in Collaborative Piano.
Brandon Leis and Anna Ronai are performing Schuman’s Song cycle, Dichterliebe (Poet’s Love), with sacred lyrics titled, Divine Love, composed by David Gast, a local Kitchener resident. The 16 inspirational poems about the life of Christ mesh meaningfully with Schuman’s music in texture and emotion. David will be introducing the work as to how it all came together.
David Gast
davidgast1@gmail.com
519-404-1330
Education
Bachelor of Sacred Music. ARCT in Piano and ARCT in Singing from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. Master of Fine Arts in Singing from the State University of New York in Buffalo, NY
Experience
• Music Faculty at Ontario Bible College, now Tyndale University in Toronto, 1968 – 1976, teaching singing, music theory, and courses related to church music leadership.
• Missionary in Quito, Ecuador, 1976 – 1982, developing a national training program to assist in the music ministry development of Spanish and Indigenous churches focusing on creativity and worship within their cultural context.
• Pastor of Music and Worship 1982 to 2007 in various churches in Ontario and British Columbia.
Various performances:
Tenor role of Peter Quint in Benjamin Britton’s opera Turn of the Screw. Among many of the art song genre, Dvorak’s Gypsy Songs and Schumann’s Dichterliebe. Initial performance of Divine Love in 1988.
Tenor soloist in Benjamin Britton’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings and soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the Quito Symphony, Ecuador.
Trained the choir and conducted the performance of Handel’s Messiah with the Prince George symphony in 1999, filling in for guest conductor Georg Tintner who had died on Oct. 2. Also trained the choir and sang in a performance of Bizet’s Carmen in Prince George, BC.
Choose Joy—Philippians in Person dramatic monologue, 60 presentations from 2004 to 2015. This can be viewed on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Sj3Y007OEwg