Executive Committee
Kaylene Chan|President
Kaylene Chan is a first-year PhD student in Music Theory. She holds a Master of Arts in Music Theory from the University of Toronto, a Bachelor of Music with Distinction from the University of Victoria and a Diploma of Music with Distinction from Capilano University. She has previously served on the MGSA as Secretary and remains committed in facilitating and leading graduate student concerns and communications to better student life at the FoM. Kaylene’s academic interests are in music cognition, popular music theory and analysis, and the pedagogy of music theory. Her work is supported by a Canada Graduate Scholarship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). She maintains a private voice studio and frequently substitutes as a voice and piano teacher. Outside of academics, Kaylene loves going on walks, eating instant noodles, and spending time with her 2-year-old niece.
Colin Pigeon Edwards|Vice-President, Internal
Colin is a second-year MA student in Musicology. He has a BA from Université de Montréal in Musicologie, where he studied jazz voice as his principal instrument, as well as a DCS from CÉGEP Vanier College in jazz electric bass. Principally a singer, he has extensive performance experience on both instruments in various genres and practices including heavy rock, musical theatre, and live-backed hip-hop. He aims to continue to PhD after finishing his current degree, extending the berth of his focus on Freddie Mercury, queer agency, and collective creative labour. His interests include getting a good night’s sleep, impulsive self-tattooing, and dismantling institutional genre hierarchies. He is also thrust into the position of bootleg trans, working-class, and neurodivergent rights activist due to an urgent and public desire to survive this antagonistic world.
Angela Park|Vice-President, Communications
Angela is entering her second year of the Ethnomusicology MA at the University of Toronto. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and music, with a minor in sociology from the University of Alberta. Now, she is currently focused on studying two research topics; propaganda music in East Asia, more specifically in North Korea, and how sports act in partnership with music in every day life. Angela has also been heavily involved with student governance, previously serving as the Vice-President External of OASIS, the Organization for Arts Students and Interdisciplinary Studies, at the UofA. Here, she facilitated events surrounding EDI (equity, diversity and inclusion), mentorship, and volunteering. She is excited to be serving on the MGSA and is ready to continue advocating for students. Her interests outside of school include reading literary fiction, trying out new cafes, playing competitive dodgeball, and sending postcards.
Jacob Burtenshaw|Treasurer
Jacob is a first year Musicology PhD student whose research centres on music and philosophy in the twentieth century. His research at his alma mater (Newcastle University: MLitt ‘22, BMus ‘20) explored structural analyses of scores in the graphic and textual mediums, the aesthetic legacies of the North American ‘hypermodernists’, and dissected the Fluxus movement as a manifestation of Indirect Communication as proposed by Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. Having served on the Student-Staff Committee (BMus Representative ‘16-18), Postgraduate Board of Studies (MLitt Representative ‘21-22), and Music Society Committee (Marketing Director ‘17-18), his tenureship as Vice-President Financial represents a promising new front for efficient, equitable, and consistent activities within the MGSA
VACANT|Secretary
Could it be you? The secretary is responsible for taking meeting notes, scheduling meetings and booking rooms, and sending meeting reminders to students. Please apply if you are an efficient administrator!
Interested in getting involved with the MGSA without having an official mandate? We are currently seeking Division Representatives from the following programs:
Composition; Music and Health; Music Technology and Digital Media; and Performance (Conducting, Early Music, Keyboard, Opera, and Voice Studies).
For a full updated list of current Division Representatives, please feel free to email mgsa.music@utoronto.ca.
Contact us to learn more about becoming a Division Representative!