Dr. Janet Brenneman
Dr. Janet Brenneman is Academic Dean and Professor of Music at Canadian Mennonite University, where she teaches music education and conducts the CMU Singers, the CMU Voices SA, and the CMU Festival Chorus. These choirs feature regularly in performance locally, across Canada, on Golden West Broadcasting, and as guest artists of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. During her time at CMU, the choirs have produced several recordings.
Originally from Ontario, Janet has conducted children’s choirs, community choirs, university choirs and taught elementary music education in Ontario, Michigan, and in Manitoba. Active in the Winnipeg music community, Janet was a conductor for Pembina Trails Voices from 2003-2014, where she conducted the boys and high school men’s choirs, and from 2012-2019, she was the conductor of Renaissance Voices, a chamber choir in Winnipeg that specializes in music of the 16th Century. Currently, she is the conductor of the Faith and Life Women’s Chorus, a community chorus of Mennonite Church Manitoba comprised of women from Winnipeg and regions across southern Manitoba.
Dr. Brenneman earned Bachelor and Master degrees in Music Education from the University of Toronto, where she studied conducting with Dr. Doreen Rao and Dr. Elmer Iseler. She completed a PhD in Music Education from Michigan State University, where she had the privilege of studying with conductor Dr. Charles Smith and music education expert Dr. Cynthia Taggart. As a graduate student, she was awarded the prestigious Sir Ernest MacMillan Award in Music Education for her research and scholarship. Her research interests include gender issues in choral music education, rehearsal pedagogy for the boys changing voice, and inclusive language in the choral rehearsal. In addition, Janet has worked extensively with world-renowned Bach expert, Helmuth Rilling, studying Bach cantatas and coordinating the conductor masterclass for the Toronto Bach Festival from 2004-2007. These experiences served her well for CMU’s numerous Bach festivals where Janet conducts CMU choirs, alumni, and orchestra in performance of Bach cantatas. In addition, Janet has enjoyed recent collaborations with the Mennonite Community Orchestra conducting Bernstein, Copland, Elgar, and the MB premiere of Leonard Enns’ This Thirsty Land. Conductor and Master Teacher Doreen Rao has described Janet as a “truly gifted and accomplished conductor and teacher [whose choirs] are a new treasure, rare, brilliant and Canadian.”
Janet frequently embraces the opportunities in the choral music education community across Canada serving as an adjudicator, guest conductor, and clinician. In recent years, Janet worked with choirs from across Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and in Prince Edward Island. In December 2017, she guest conducted the Elmer Iseler Singers and the Amadeus Choir in a performance of Bach’s Weihnachts Oratorium. In 2021, Janet conducted the CMU Festival Chorus and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in their annual performance of Handel’s Messiah.
Janet enjoys a busy family life with her husband John Balsillie and their two adult children, Lydia and Naomi. Each year, the family looks forward to spending time on the Severn River in Ontario at the family cottage.
