Alumni Profile: Tara Litvack '05 (Pre-U '06)

Music Director

More than a decade after graduating from LCC’s Pre-University program, Tara Litvack is still benefiting directly from her experience. As a music director and educator, she attributes the teaching and leadership skills that she has developed and uses daily to the LCC teachers.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had teachers who were as good as those at LCC,” Ms. Litvack says. “They made you become a thinking, independent person.”

Ms. Litvack credits her teacher, Jonathan Baird, for inspiring her to go into music. At the start of her career, she worked in youth theatre and her approach toward her students was largely based on Mr. Baird’s teaching style. “Since I do a lot of teaching in my career, and am in a position of leadership, much of how I lead a group is based on how he and the other teachers educated us,” she says.

Ms. Litvack is currently with the Acting Up Stage Company, and is the music director for a co-production with the Art Gallery of Ontario. “We’re embarking on a whole new adventure with the AGO, creating new music that will be based on three paintings in the Art Gallery Hall and featuring musical theatre composers from Toronto.”

Throughout her student and professional careers, Ms. Litvack has been acknowledged for her talents and abilities. At LCC, she was awarded the Governor General’s Academic Medal, which recognizes the student with the highest academic average in the grade 11 graduating class. She also received the Eric James Soulsby Scholarship at the University of Toronto, which is awarded to a gifted student upon admission to the first year of a full-time program.

In 2014, Ms. Litvack was selected as the Music Directing Intern at the Shaw Festival, a prestigious honour that offered her a unique opportunity to be mentored by the Festival’s music director.

Ms. Litvack acknowledges the significant role that LCC played in her achievements. “A lot of the work ethic that I have now was developed at LCC,” she says. “Striving for excellence is something that I fostered there.”

Photo credit: Ian Brown