Joel Tranquilla
Dr. Joel Tranquilla is a conductor and music educator noted for his versatile musicianship and creative programming. He is the Associate Conductor of the Canadian Chamber Choir and the Director of Choral Activities at Trinity Western University in Langley, BC, where he oversees a program of six choirs and teaches various other courses within the School of the Arts, Media + Culture. Joel has led the TWU Chamber Choir on recent tours to Ottawa, New York City, China, Hong King, Japan, and Taiwan.
In addition to his work at TWU, Joel is currently the Artistic Director of the Valley Festival Singers in Abbotsford and has previously served as the conductor of the award-winning Coastal Sound Youth Choir in Coquitlam. In high demand as an adjudicator and clinician across the country, Joel is a past Guest Conductor of the New Brunswick Youth Choir and the Manitoba Provincial Honour Choir and was the Assistant Conductor of the 2012 National Youth Choir. He was the winner of the 2012 Sir Ernest MacMillan Memorial Foundation Award as well as the recipient of the Emerging Artist Award at the 2013 Ontario Premier’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts. He holds degrees from Mount Allison University, the University of Michigan, and Michigan State University where his doctoral research was in the area of Canadian choral-orchestral repertoire.
Major works conducted include Poulenc’s Gloria, Vaughan Williams’ Hodie, Ramirez’s Navidad nuestra (TWU’s “Christmas at the Chan Centre”), Mendelssohn’s St. Paul (Sea to Sky Symphony and TWU Choirs), Handel’s Alexander’s Feast, Requiems by Fauré and Duruflé (Windsor Symphony Orchestra and Chorus), Bach’s St. John Passion (Masterworks Chorus and Valley Festival Singers), and Allan Bevan’s oratorio Nou Goth Sonne Under Wode (TWU Choirs and Orchestra). Choirs prepared by Tranquilla have appeared under the batons of Robert Franz, Kevin Mallon, John Morris Russell, and Ivars Taurins.
Joel lives in Fort Langley, BC with his wife Meghan and their two children, Everett and Penelope.