Our Team
Alison Kenny-Gardhouse
Founder & President
Alison Kenny-Gardhouse creates inspiring and experiential community-based arts programming throughout North America. As the founder and president of Connexionarts, an arts-in-education consulting firm, she actively consults and teaches for a wide spectrum of performing arts organizations, educational institutions, and teacher groups.
Alison has worked with major arts organizations across Canada and the U.S., including GRAMMY Foundation, San Francisco’s Word for Word, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Opera Lyra Ottawa, Pasadena Symphony, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Winspear Centre|Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. She has developed numerous education products and online multi-media learning collections, and professional learning materials for teaching artists.
Alison led the design and implementation of the Artful Learning school improvement model in schools across America, impacting numerous school districts across America. As a consultant to the Leonard Bernstein Center for Learning, she continues to advise and provide ongoing project support to the model. Other contributions to the field of education include the design and field-testing of the first online integrated-arts course for the Performance Learning Systems, an organization that provides courses for teacher accreditation in North America.
During her recent 10-year tenure as Vice President of Music and Engagement for the Francis Winspear Centre for Music and Edmonton Symphony Orchestra (ESO), Alison developed a wide range of innovative outreach programming. By identifying community needs and aligning them with the vision and mission of the Winspear, and the opportunity of the Winspear Expansion’s new construction, she built a comprehensive set of new programs and revenue streams.
Concurrent with her consultant work, Alison has been an active educator at multiple levels at a variety of institutions. She has worked as a sessional instructor at the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, professor of voice in Musical Theatre at Sheridan College, and as teaching faculty at the Royal Conservatory of Music and at the Toronto District School Board.
A skilled motivational speaker and facilitator, Alison frequently works with leadership teams of performing arts organizations to assess their needs, and design and implement arts-infused programming that fits the needs of the community. She is a regular guest lecturer/presenter at universities and conferences across Canada and has served on the board of Coalition for Music Education, the Advisory Board for Carl Orff Canada, and the International Advisory Committee for the School of Education at Drake University. She is currently a board member for Music Care by Room 217.
Alison is based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Catherine West
Senior Associate
Catherine West has an international reputation as an arts consultant, author, workshop clinician, and course instructor. As Senior Associate of Connexionarts, she has worked with numerous Connexionarts clients including the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Tafelmusik, the GRAMMY’s Leonard Bernstein Foundation, and Opera Lyra (Ottawa). She has authored numerous books and curriculum resources, including co-authoring How the Gimquat Found Its Song for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Let’s Go Mozart and Vivaldi and the Four Seasons for the National Arts Centre Orchestra.
As a consultant, Ms. West has worked with the Victorian Orff Schulwerk Association (Australia), the American Orff-Schulwerk Association, the Bermuda Union of Teachers, Orff China, Carl Orff Vietnam, many school districts and universities, the Ontario Music Educators’ Association, and the Ontario Ministry of Education. She recently co-authored teaching resources for Kuné – Canada’s Global Orchestra. Additionally, Ms. West taught with the Toronto District School Board as a music specialist and Instructional Leader in Music, and also coordinated and taught music AQ courses for the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Education (OISE) and the Faculty of Music.
Over the past decade, Ms. West has led the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Smart Start ™ program, doing ground-breaking work with neuroscientist Dr. Sean Hutchins. They identified the parallel alignment of music teaching strategies and cognitive stages in a young child’s development and field-tested a multi-ages curriculum. Through the pilot stage, they trained teachers and in 2023, they launched the online product, Smart Start ™. A global launch took place the Music and the Mind symposium, with headliner Renée Fleming, the internationally acclaimed opera star. Ms. West continues to act in an advisory role as Smart Start reaches communities around the world.
Ms. West is the recipient of an Honourary Life Membership in Carl Orff Canada for her many years of service to the organization as National Editor of the COC journal Ostinato.
Doug Friesen
Associate
Doug Friesen is currently an Assistant Professor at Wilfrid Laurier University in Music Education and Community Musicand has extensive public school classroom and consultant experience. He recently completed a PhD focused on sound and listening pedagogies, emphasizing critical practitioner research and collaborative inquiry. He has guided teachers, students, musicians, and other interested individuals across Canada and Latin America in utilizing listening and sound to foster creativity and build community and has a particular interest in integrating democratic teaching models inspired by the work of improvisor John Zorn and composer/educator R. Murray Schafer.
Doug is also a performing musician and has toured, recorded, and collaborated with numerous bands and singer-songwriters.
Dr. Susan (Sue) Snyder
Arts-Integration Consultant
Dr. Susan (Sue) Snyder, Principal Member of IDEAS (Inventive Designs for Education and the ArtS), is a career-long arts education leader. She is a teacher, clinician, author, program designer, mentor, and collaborator. Sue holds a Ph.D. in Music Education and Curriculum and Instruction. She has developed research- and practice- informed arts integration philosophy that considers the arts not only for their unique importance in human development, but also as the delivery system for curriculum and social-emotional/mental health/and wellness content.
She is the author of numerous publications, including the Macmillan/McGraw-Hill’s Music and You series. She developed Total Learning, and was the senior curriculum consultant for the US Department of Education’s Ready to Learn Project LAMP (Learning Apps Media Partnership). Dr. Snyder created learning resources such as recordings and movement scarves for students, educators, and families.
She has conducted research to support her philosophy and approach, often targeting underserved groups, communities, and schools. Dr. Snyder is currently working with a multidisciplinary team that connects data and best practices in the arts, education, and mental health/wellness fields. She serves on the Board of Story Tapestries, a not-for-profit organization with a like-minded approach. She is most proud of her continued ability to make instant and sustained magic in and through the arts with children, teachers, and families.