The fall anniversary edition of the CBC Music Class Challenge powered by MusiCounts is open, and the judges for the competition have been announced.
Below, get to know the music educators who will select the best performances in each category.
Lane Osborne
Vocal educator Lane Osborne has taught for over a decade across music programs spanning theatre, choral music and guitar for school boards and community choirs. Osborne has worked for the Hamilton Children’s Choir as an assistant conductor and is currently the director of the GCVI Chamber Choir, a position she has held since its inception. With the GCVI Chamber Choir, Osborne has performed with Foreigner, Susan Aglukark, Wilco and more. She is passionate about combining traditional choral techniques with popular music.
Jamie Hillman
Jamie Hillman is a highly accomplished musician and educator with a wide range of experience as a conductor, singer, pianist and composer-arranger. He holds the Elmer Iseler Chair in Conducting at the University of Toronto, where he serves as the director of choral studies and leads the university’s MacMillan Singers. Hillman is also a senior fellow at Massey College and received the faculty of music’s Teaching Award in 2024 for his excellence and innovation in teaching.
His professional experience includes serving on the faculty of numerous institutions like Boston University and the Longy School of Music. Notably, as a Boston University prison arts scholar, he co-founded a vocal music program for the Massachusetts prison system.
As a conductor, Hillman has premiered works by composers such as Shireen Abu Khader and Sarah Quartel. As a performer, he has sung as a tenor soloist in major choral-orchestral works and as a professional choral singer with ensembles including the Canadian Chamber Choir and the Elmer Iseler Singers. He is also a prolific author and editor, curating the Jamie Hillman Choral series and co-writing pedagogical curriculum with composer Dan Forrest.
Hillman holds a bachelor of music from Western University, where he was inducted into the Don Wright Faculty of Music’s Alumni Wall of Fame, a master of music from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and a doctor of musical arts from Boston University. He was awarded the Leslie Bell Prize for choral conducting in 2012 by the Ontario Arts Council.
Dylan Maddix
Dylan Maddix, originally from Summerside, P.E.I., is an assistant professor of instrumental conducting and community engagement at Memorial University, where he leads the wind ensemble and concert winds. Previously, he headed wind and brass studies at Cambrian College, where he also taught music theory and pedagogy. He has also served on Laurentian University’s conducting faculty.
His education includes a bachelor of music from Mount Allison University, a master of music in trumpet performance from the University of Toronto and a doctorate of musical arts in conducting from Arizona State University.
Maddix is active in music leadership, serving on the Newfoundland and Labrador Band Association’s board. He was also a past chair of the Canadian Band Association. Additionally, he co-hosts The Band Room podcast with Cait Nishimura and leads the Changing Your Pattern conducting podcast.
A skilled trumpeter, Maddix has performed with Sarah McLachlan, Roger Hodgson and others, and has conducted masterclasses at universities across Canada. He has also consulted on music for Netflix’s Umbrella Academy and Global TV’s Private Eyes.
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