General Description
The Boyanna Toyich Leadership in Music Scholarship has been created at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, in honour of esteemed alumnus, incredible teacher and beloved colleague, Boyanna Toyich.
Boyanna’s passionate mentorship enhanced and changed innumerable lives through more than 40 years of teaching. Her sincere wish was to have an ongoing music scholarship that would support students with excellent academic standing who show exemplary commitments to innovation and leadership in the musical arts.
The Boyanna Toyich Leadership in Music Scholarship will be awarded each year to a graduate student who exhibits qualities of leadership, academic engagement, as well as creativity, innovation and community outreach. This scholarship will help students focus on their studies and craft, leading them to success on both home and international stages.
We ask for your support in this worthy project to honour and remember Boyanna.
For more information, please direct all inquiries to info@toyichinternationalprojects.ca.
Recipients
The following recipients of the Boyanna Toyich Leadership in Music Scholarship were selected by the Faculty of Music’s Scholarship and Awards Committee.
2023 - 2024
Marie Haines
“I am so grateful to have been awarded this scholarship! As a student in one of Professor Toyich’s last classes in the 2018-2019 school year, this means so much to me. I can confidently say that she had an impact on every single student she taught, and many of us pursued further careers and higher degrees in music as a direct result of her support.
I am currently a fourth-year DMA student in Piano Performance and Pedagogy under the supervision of Dr. Midori Koga, and my research focuses on humour and irony in Rodion Shchedrin’s solo piano works."
"This year is exciting for me; I am working towards achieving doctoral candidacy, I am now a three-time recipient of the Ontario Graduate Scholarship for my research, and I have taken on several leadership roles within the Faculty of Music; ... President of the University of Toronto Piano Pedagogy Student Group ... [and] ... Departmental Steward with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) ... . I am passionate about these roles as they allow me to contribute positively to the environment in the Faculty of Music and the community."
"I want to thank you again for your support for students like me. I am so honoured to be a part of Professor Toyich’s wonderful legacy, and I deeply appreciate the difference it has made for me to be able to pursue my research, performance, and professional development goals."
2022 - 2023
Kristen Graves
“I am so pleased and honored to have received the Boyanna Toyich Leadership in Music Scholarship for this academic year. Thank you so much for this opportunity, and for your generous support. This year is particularly exciting because I am in the midst of fieldwork for my dissertation … in Oaxaca, Mexico …”
“As I continue pursuing my degree, my ultimate plan is to teach and inspire students to incorporate human rights and justice into their education and life work. This project is pushing me harder than I had imagined, and it is more difficult than I had anticipated, but I am grateful for it every day that I am here.”
2021 - 2022
Kristen Graves
“I am so pleased and honored to have received the Boyanna Toyich Leadership in Music Scholarship. Thank you so much for this opportunity, and for the generous support. This year is particularly exciting because it has featured a few highlights already. I successfully proposed my dissertation to the music department and had it unanimously accepted, and I was then fast-tracked to be allowed to teach my own course on world music this fall (I had 130 students each week!).”
“… (The) Ethnomusicology Department within the Faculty of Music has a unique desire to create positive social change. … This program supports my mission of pursuing music and social justice, and I’m so grateful to you for your generosity, which is the support I need to continue on this path.”
2020 - 2021
Meghan Gilhespy
“It is an honour to receive the Boyanna Toyich Memorial Scholarship. Your generous contribution is greatly appreciated. I am a 3rd year Doctorate of Musical Arts student in Jazz Voice, who studies experimental jazz vocalizing as it relates to the construction of gender and race.”
“… I hope that my leadership skills can someday match those of Boyanna Toyich.”
Donations
Tax deductible donations can be made to the “Boyanna Toyich Leadership in Music Scholarship” in one of several ways:
- By cheque to “Toyich International Projects”, mailed to Lilian Toyich, 20 Prince Arthur Avenue, Suite 8D, Toronto, ON M5R 1B1.
(Note: Tax receipts will be issued for all donations over $50.00.) - By credit card online through the University of Toronto at https://donate.utoronto.ca, select “Faculty of Music” and then “Boyanna Toyich Leadership in Music Scholarship”, or by phoning the Faculty of Music Development Office at 416-946-3580.
- University of Toronto employees can make payroll deductions online through the University of Toronto at https://donate.utoronto.ca, select “Faculty of Music” and then “Boyanna Toyich Leadership in Music Scholarship”, or by phoning the Faculty of Music Development Office at 416-946-3580.
Biography
Boyanna’s musical genius was discovered at age 5 by her kindergarten teacher. At age 13, she was the youngest person in Canada to receive an ARCT diploma.
Her association with the Faculty of Music began at age 16, when she entered as a first year piano performance student. Following graduation, Boyanna worked for the Royal Conservatory of Music and the Faculty of Music for over 40 years teaching piano and pedagogy. She created and taught the Faculty of Music’s acclaimed Performance Skills course, and created the Faulty's first ever community outreach program called the Boyanna Toyich Community Outreach Performance Master class, a weekly class that has run for over 20 years.
Boyanna’s achievements and contributions extended far beyond the teaching institutions. She created and presented workshops, adjudicated music festivals and exams across Canada, and published many music education volumes.
Uniquely innovative in her desire to bring music into the broader community, she organized and produced the Toronto-Rome Monster Concerts, piano orchestras with 20 players at 10 pianos. These popular events first took place in 2003 just outside the Vatican and at the Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome, Italy at the invitation of the Mayor of the Historical Center of Rome. She then successfully twinned the cities of Rome and Toronto and produced the same event in Nathan Phillips Square with both mayors in attendance. Monster Concert success continued with an invitation for the piano orchestra to accompany the horse dressage performance at Toronto’s Royal Agricultural Fair – a first-time ever spectacle!
In order to give university students international educational opportunities, experience and exposure, Boyanna created her own not-for-profit corporation Toyich International Projects (TIP) and in 2008 launched an acclaimed summer music program, RomeSMARTS in Rome, Italy. This program, in partnership with the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto and the University of UPTER in Rome, Italy provided advanced music instrumental and vocal music students an unforgettable educational and professional experience.
Through these inspired and ongoing initiatives as well as a scholarship the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, established in her name, her legacy and contributions to her profession will continue as it is passed on to the next generation. This was her heartfelt wish!
For more information, please direct all inquiries to info@toyichinternationalprojects.ca.