Home Routes HQ

The Board

The Chairperson is Derek Black a twenty five year veteran of the Winnipeg Folk Festival including eight years as its Board president. Imbued with the tradition of the folk revival, Derek plays guitar and sings the old songs with passion.

The board members include Chris White, Volunteer Coordinator at CKCU FM and a fine songwriter; Troy Greencorn, Artistic Director of the Stan Rogers Folk Festival in Canso, NS; Lindsay Jane, excellent and passionate Manitoba songwriter; Robert Lyons of Regina, SK, owner of nightclubs and restaurants, a very decent lyricist and guitar player with an old hand at producing house concerts; Ghislaine Cormier, executive director of Fédération Culturelle de l'Île-du-Prince-Édouard, Grant Simpson guitar/piano player extraordinaire and musical director of the world famous Frantic Follies Vaudeville Revue for the past 30 years and Les Siemieniuk, the general manager of the Calgary Folk Festival and a long time broadcaster producing CBC Radio's Simply Folk.

Executive Producer and Home Routes co-founder, Mitch Podolak also created the Winnipeg and Vancouver Folk Festivals and Winnipeg's West End Cultural Centre.

General Manager and Home Routes co-founder Ava Kobrinsky is a knowledgeable lover of folk music. Co-founder of the Winnipeg Folk Festival and founding General Manager of Winnipeg's West End Cultural Centre, Ava brings a wealth of experience in the arts to Home Routes.

Artistic Director and Home Routes co-founder Tim Osmond has quarterbacked the development of the entire volunteer host component of Home Routes. He has initiated and maintained ongoing relationships, encouraging and coaching presenters on house concert production as well as establishing well running protocols for administration. Tim takes on most of the graphic design duties as well as office tech support! In his spare time he hosts 'Sunday Drive', a bluegrass and old-time radio program Sundays at 4:00 pm on CJUM 101.5 FM. He also plays bluegrass banjo around Winnipeg solo, as a sideman for "Pepper Laing and the Lonestar Killers" and sits in with many other groups in town.

Program Coordinator Selena Bewsky is a skillful professional folk music worker whose contributions in the short time she has been here are remarkable. She gets it! She understands the human and theoretical goals and she quickly assimilated what we are up to. She jumped in with both feet and has single handedly lifted the productive capacity of the staff team. If there were three or more Selena's on any team, the result would include small organizational jobs like the building the Trans Continental Railroad, the advent of flight and the Normandy Invasion. Music is Selena's passion, as a self-professed "ham & egger" musician she can often be found with her guitar or mandolin and a daisy in her hair around the campfire.

Home Routes Classical Artistic Director Mel Braun is a versatile performer, equally at home in oratorio, recital, and opera, always open to new collaborations. He is well-known to Canadian audiences for his many performances and broadcasts of Early Music with Tafelmusik and Opera Atelier, and for his frequent appearances across Canada in the Masterworks of Bach and Handel, which have both been acclaimed throughout the country.
As a teacher, Mel leads the Vocal Program at the Marcel A. Desautels Faculty of Music, a program renowned for its collaborative and holistic approach to training singers. He has seen many of his students go on to significant careers as performers and teachers. Among Mel's many initiatives at the Faculty are the Contemporary Opera Lab, the Professor Bach Project, and Tuesdays in Winnipeg, a venture that brings together high school age boys who love to sing. He has been awarded Merit and Outreach Awards for his efforts.
As a music director, Mel looks after the operatic ensembles at the U of M, as well as working with Winnipeg's Camerata Nova, a choir devoted to exploring new approaches to choral music making. He is much in demand as an Adjudicator and choral clinician, and also enjoys teaching many of the young rock singers that make up Winnipeg's burgeoning Indie Music scene. Mel has a Masters Degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Toronto and a Degree in Church Music from Canadian Mennonite Bible College.