Elizabeth Sircom

Member, Nova Scotia Registered Music Teachers Association 

ARYO Program Director

Conductor: Introductory Orchestra; Instructor: ARYO Beginner Instrument Clinic

Elizabeth Sircom is a Nova Scotia Registered Music Teacher (NSRMTA) with a private cello studio in Hantsport. She has been the Program Director of the Acadia Regional Youth Orchestra, a strings program for young people based in Wolfville, N. S. since 2019.

As a child, she pursued studies in both cello and piano through the Royal Conservatory, and actively engaged in choral singing. She was a member of the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra while a student at Kings/Dalhousie in Halifax. Her studies of Languages and Fine Arts took her to Paris and then to Le Havre, Normandy, where she married and spent 20 years working as a professional artist and art teacher, with  a focus on portraiture.

She brought her family back to Canada in 2013 and, while continuing to work as a visual artist, resumed studies in cello and cello pedagogy, string methods and chamber music, with Dr. Christoph Both at the Acadia University School of Music.

As a performer, she is a member of the Acadia University String Orchestra, Nova Sinfonia (Halifax) and the Lupin String Quartet, and often performs as a duo with pianist Heidi Jury. She plays regularly for a variety of community ensembles in the Annapolis Valley, including in pit bands (most recently “Into the Woods” (2026), and “Les Misérables” (2025)).

 In 2021 she was awarded the Janet K. Leffek Professional Development Fellowship by the NSRMTA Trust and in 2025 was named the NSRMTA “Teacher of the Year”.

As a visual artist, she is a member of Visual Arts Nova Scotia, and has given many art workshops in Nova Scotia schools. She regularly teaches art workshops at Ross Creek Centre for the Arts in Canning, N.S. She is Provincial Arts Consultant and Board Secretary for Memory Café N.S., an association which offers art and music activities to persons suffering from dementia. https://memorycafens.ca/

A series of her historical busts are on permanent exhibit at the newly opened Mahone Portrait House, in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia. https://mahoneportraithouse.ca/

Keigan Richard

Conductor: ARYO Orchestra; Instructor: ARYO Second Level Clinic

Keigan Richard is the conductor of the Acadia Regional Youth Orchestra, and is a violinist based out of Hantsport, Nova Scotia. Beginning violin lessons at the age of 7, his passion for classical music has followed him in all periods of his life. He is a graduate of the music program at Acadia University, receiving his BA in Philosophy and Music in 2023 under the tutelage of Jennifer Jones. Keigan was the concertmaster of the Acadia University Orchestra from 2019-2023, as well as concertmaster of the NSYO in the 2020-2021 season, and was a founding member of the Conundrum String Quartet. Aside from live performance, he has been honored to lend his sound to various recording projects in genres ranging from folk to punk rock. 

 Aside from his instruction through the ARYO, he is also pedagogically involved with the Valley Music Studio, where he currently teaches private and group lessons. Having previously been entrusted with the ARYO’s Beginner String Clinics and the Beginner Orchestra, Keigan has had the pleasure of teaching at a variety of skill levels in both individual and ensemble environments.

When he’s not teaching Keigan can be found reading, working on his piano and vocal technique, playing pit bands for local theatrical productions, and learning new chess tactics.

Jasmine McMorran

Fiddle Group Instructor since January 2024

Nova Scotia Registered Music Teacher (RMT) in piano and traditional music (fiddle; music researcher and accompanist

Jasmine McMorran holds a Bachelor of Music (piano performance) from the University of Lethbridge and a Masters of Arts (Ethnomusicology; the study of music in a sociocultural context). She is an accompanist for community choirs, and an active and dynamic pianist, fiddle player, researcher, and educator Her studio is located in Cambridge, N.S. and she offers lessons for both piano and fiddle.

​FORMER FACULTY:

Margaret Whitehouse, ARYO Orchestra, 2nd level Clinic, 2023-25

Klorissa Farnsworth, ARYO Fiddle Group 2021-22

Keigan Richard, ARYO Orchestra, ARYO 2nd Level Clinic 2020-2022

Jaya Paquette-Jager , 2nd Level Instrument Clinic, ARYO Fiddle Group 2020-21

Allison Ernst, 2nd level Instrument Clinic, Fiddle Group, ARYO Orchestra 2018-2020

Shawnee Paul, ARYO Fiddle Group 2019-2020

Dr. Gillian Smith, DMA : founding Program Director and conductor of ARYO