About

The Founder

Debra Wanless is an active piano adjudicator, studio teacher, editor, examiner, music publisher, and composer. She has travelled across Canada and the United States as a pedagogy clinician. Debra holds a Junior Fellowship and Licentiate in piano pedagogy with Northern Lights Canadian National Conservatory of Music; an Associate of Music in piano pedagogy with Western Ontario Conservatory of Music [Conservatory Canada]; and post graduate studies in piano performance, theory and piano ensemble.

Debra is a pedagogy specialist whose students have earned the Cora B. Arhens Award for pedagogy excellence. She is principal and founding member of Northern Lights Canadian National Conservatory of Music and the three-day Piano Pedagogy workshop, Summer Sizzle. Debra has served at the local and provincial levels of the ORMTA, is the founder of the North Wellington Camerata Canada Music Week Festival and worked for many years as music secretary to the Midwestern Ontario Rotary Music Festival.

Her piano solos and ensembles have been selected for performance at festivals across Canada; for inclusion in the New Millennium, Contemporary Idioms, Northern Lights and Making Tracks Series; the Piano Now Syllabus; and reviewed in Clavier Magazine. Debra has edited, revised and written new material for the Leila Fletcher piano course (Mayfair/Montgomery Music), the James Lawless Theory Course (Waterloo Music) and arranges pop music for the ProMusic Company in California. Her  books/materials include two Rhythm Workbooks, Elementary Harmony and Melody Writing,  Let’s Begin, 101 Children’s Pieces, A Jazzy Day, Midnight Jazz , Matinee Jazz, Keyboard Harmony Books 1-3, Classy Piano Pieces, Boogie and Jazz Piano Styles, Groovin’ and What a Wonderful World in Big Note and Intermediate piano solos, intermediate Sacred Jazz Solos, More Sacred Solos, and 12 Christmas Songs.

​Debra’s pedagogy materials (Creative Teaching Understanding Learning Styles and Demystifying Modes) and compositions (solos and ensembles) are also used and performed in Australia, Brazil, China, England, Guam, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland and throughout North America. She is the recipient of the ORMTA Special Teacher Award, the Commemorative Medal for the 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada and finalist for the 2011 Louis Applebaum Award for Music for Young People.

Designer & Publisher

Karissa Harbridge is a graphic designer, music engraver/copyist, and musician from the city of Peterborough. 

Karissa’s musical expertise began in drumming. From church bands to wind symphony and jazz bands, she has performed with many talented musicians over the years. 

At the age of 13, she was accepted into the Arts Program at Thomas A. Stewart Secondary School for percussion. In her last year, she was assigned the role of “Lead Drummer” and oversaw the rhythm section department. Throughout her time at TAS, she was taught music theory and conducted by Vince Abrahamse across multiple bands. 

As a part of that music department, Karissa has competed in local and national band competitions. In one of such, she received the award “Big Band Drummer of the Year” in Canada, as well as an honour award for a drum solo she performed in 2016. 

From 2016-18, Karissa attended Fleming College’s Graphic Design and Visual Arts Program and graduated top of her class. She specializes in book design and logos.

Most of Karissa’s design work has been closely intertwined with the music community. She worked with ORMTA on their logo rebrand, as well as some certificates. She has also worked with Conservatory Canada on the 2021 convocation program and other projects.

Since 2018, she has worked as Andrew Harbridge’s sole graphic designer — working on The Easiest Technique Book… Ever! series, Spectrum: Advancing Repertoire for the Piano, and Classical Repertoire for the Piano books one and two. Additionally, she has designed and engraved all of the repertoire and books under Harbridge Publishing House on SuperScore. 

Karissa has worked with multiple known composers such as Lee Evans, Ian Green, Martha Hill Duncan, and Jenny Walker.

With Lee Evans, she has designed and helped publish nine books, including Mahler's Adagietto from Symphony No. 5 Arranged/Edited by Lee Evans, Two Waltzes for Piano Solo, and Rachmaninoff Art Songs Arranged for Solo Piano - the latter of which she co-engraved with George Litterst.

Karissa has been trained in Finale and SuperScore by George Litterst, of TimeWarp Technologies. She has done extensive engraving for both print and SuperScore ever since.

Composer & Publisher

Andrew Harbridge, ACCM 

Andrew Harbridge, recipient of the Gold Medal of Excellence from Conservatory Canada, is a resident of Peterborough, Ontario. He has taught a large class of musicians in his music studio since 1989. Among his teachers are Mary Zilinski, Peterborough, Ontario (Piano and Theory), Daryl Irvine of Toronto, Ontario (Piano) and Sheila Tyrrell, Peterborough, Ontario (Voice). Along with teaching piano, voice, theory and music history, Andrew is the music Director of Park Street Baptist Church in Peterborough. He has been the organist/choirmaster at numerous churches since 1982 and thoroughly enjoys performing at the keyboard and conducting choirs. Andrew has had many years of experience improvising and playing contemporary piano styles in modern worship settings since 1988. Andrew has won numerous awards including the Cora B. Ahrens Award, The Cultural achievement award presented by Mayor Sylvia Sutherland and the Peterborough City Council, and other prizes in competitions. He is also a composer with many piano pieces published by Wanless Music in thePianozzazzSeries, Novus Via in theCanadian Contemporary Repertoire Series,theNew Millennium Seriesand in theNorthern Lights Series. Almost all of Andrew’s graded compositions are approved for Conservatory Canada’s Contemporary Idioms Examinations.*Andrew has published four of his own series of music books entitledPiano Styles,SpectrumandThe Easiest Technique Book Ever! Seriesand theContemporary Technique and Skillsbooks (all of them with Wanless Music). Each piano repertoire book contains an inviting variety of music styles. They range from Rock, Latin, Blues, Modern Ballads, Neo-Classical, Neo-Romantic and others.Presently, Andrew is an examiner for Conservatory Canada. He has been on the Board of Examiners since 2003 and an E-examiner since 2008.Recently, Andrew’s compositions have been performed on the Carillon of the Peace Tower of Parliament Hill.  AwardsGold Medal of Excellence for the highest mark in Canada on the piano teacher’s examination.The Cora B. Ahrens Award for the highest written examination in the Province of Ontario.The Ontario Registered Music Teacher’s Scholarship (Peterborough Branch)The Cultural Achievement Award presented by Mayor Sylvia Sutherland and the Peterborough City Council. The Sister Music Teacher’s Memorial Scholarship.

 

Music EducationGraduate of Conservatory Canada (formerly the Western Ontario Conservatory of Music established in 1891) with a diploma in piano pedagogy. Studies included piano, voice, harmony, counterpoint, piano pedagogy, and music history. Voice studies included many years of experience in all of the classical languages.