A native of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, Kellie Walsh is the newly appointed Artistic Director of Shallaway: Newfoundland and Labrador Youth in Chorus. She is also the founder and Artistic Director of Lady Cove Women’s Choir, and co-founder and Artistic Director Emeritus of Newman Sound Men’s Choir.
Shallaway is an internationally award-winning and celebrated youth choir. Most recently, the senior ensemble received highest marks in the treble youth choir category at the Béla Bartók International Competition (Hungary), and the more than 250-member group recently performed with the National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa).
Lady Cove Women’s Choir just released their second CD, Heart’s Delight. The choir is a two-time winner of the CBC Radio National Competition for Amateur Choirs. In 2008 it won first place in the prestigious Béla Bartók Contemporary Choir Competition (Debrecen, Hungary) and participated in the 9th World Symposium on Choral Music in Puerto Madryn, Argentina in 2011. In 2012 Newman Sound won 1st place in the Male Chamber Choir Category at the World Choir Games in Cincinnati.
Kellie also enjoys a busy schedule as a workshop clinician, guest conductor, and adjudicator, regularly traveling to work with choirs of all genres.
She holds Bachelor degrees in both Music and Music Education from Memorial University, in addition to a Master’s degree in conducting. She serves as an adjunct professor of choral music at Memorial University’s School of Music in Newfoundland. In March 2013, Kellie received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, an award honouring significant contributions and achievements by Canadians.