News

Kate Steiner, Associate Professor of Music, is a coinvestigator on a successful SSHRC Knowledge Synthesis Grant titled "Cultural Transformation and Societal Need: Chant and Religious Music in Canada and the eastern USA 1600-1950." She is also head of the team responsible for the cataloguing chant manuscripts and fragments in Eastern and Central Canada in the “Digital Analysis of Chant Transmission” (DACT) project, which includes 25 teams, more than 50 co-investigators, collaborators, and scholars around the world. These projects are complementary to each other and create opportunities for teams of undergraduate Research Assistants to contribute.

Grebel alumni stay connected to the College and give back in many ways. Some encourage others to live or study at Grebel, some volunteer at the College, and some are inspired to “pay it forward” by extending the generosity they received to the next generation of Grebelites. 

For Ernie Kalwa, giving back with the Woodwind Award is his way of making sure current students don’t have to choose between music and academics. For Alina Balzerson, supporting both an endowment fund as well as projects, she hopes that students are excited to live away from home and make strong enduring connections. 

Karen Sunabacka
Associate Professor of Music

Karen Sunabacka believes that her work is better when collaborating with her mom and with Elders. For more than a decade, Karen has partnered with her mother, Joyce Clouston, on music compositions. Joyce writes the text in collaboration with Karen, and Karen composes the music. The duo has written instrumental pieces with spoken text, pieces for choir, and pieces for singer and ensemble. They often explore their Indigenous ancestors, and have also written pieces about the Cree Moons, Métis and Mennonite relations, and explorations of family relationships.

Leanne Hill (BA 2008, MA 2009) is a Faculty member at the University College Lecturer of Foreign Language Didactics and University College of Teacher Education Styria, Graz, Austria. Here she trains pre- and in-service teachers in teaching English as a foreign language at the primary level. Hill also conducts and collaborates on research projects related to foreign language teaching education.

Caroline Bordignon (BA 2014) is a contemporary composer and fine artist. Her work explores aspects of colour, light, space, time and how they interrelate in visual and musical expression through synaesthesia.

Caroline has always been drawn to both music and visual art. When considering university options, she chose to study at the University of Waterloo and Conrad Grebel University College, where she pursued a joint honours degree in Music and Visual Arts.

The Music Department is delighted to welcome Sonja Seiler to the Grebel community as the new Music Ensemble and Concert Coordinator. Sonja brings nearly two decades of experience in arts programming, student support, and event coordination, grounded in a deep passion for the performing arts and community building.

At Conrad Grebel University College, Angelica has been the logistical mastermind behind more than 400 musical events over the last 13 years, reaching tens of thousands of audience members. With patience and dedication, she worked tirelessly to book venues, select dates, set rehearsal schedules, create and print programs, sell tickets, troubleshoot, move equipment, mobilize volunteers, communicate with students, and coordinate the front of house. 

At each spring Convocation, the University of Waterloo honours the top graduating scholar with the highest cumulative average in each honours program of study. In the Music Department, combining strong scholarship and dedication to her program, Tiffany Chan has emerged as the winner of the 2026 Music Departmental Award for Distinguished Academic Achievement.

A group of 16 UWaterloo students and Community Gamelan players traveled to Bali, Indonesia in May 2026 as part of a Music and Culture course.