The Board is responsible for the overall strategic stewardship of Silence. The Board provides oversight of the Executive Director to ensure that Silence’s operating performance is aligned with the approved strategy and strategic plan. In performing its role, the Board participates in the development of strategy with the Executive Director and Artistic Directors, delegates to the Executive Director authority and responsibility for operations and reviews the Executive Director’s performance and effectiveness.
Joe Sorbara (they/he). Chair.
Canadian drummer and percussionist Joe Sorbara has spent decades developing a reputation as a dedicated and imaginative performer, composer, improviser, collaborator, organiser, listener, writer, and educator.
A consummate sonic adventurer, Sorbara’s music draws on a vast array of influences, most notably the African American Creative Music tradition. They have performed and recorded with Ken Aldcroft, Anthony Braxton, Jared Burrows, JP Carter, Nikita Carter, Christine Duncan, Paul Dutton, François Houle, Germaine Liu, Joe McPhee, Evan Parker, William Parker, Allen Ravenstine, Clyde Reed, Steve Sladkowski, and Friendly Rich, among many many others. Their own projects include the Joe Sorbara Sextet and The Imperative. Collaborations include duo projects with Paul Dutton, François Houle (SoHo), Thollem McDonas, and Steve Sladkowski, as well as groups Alien Radio, Aurealities, the Imaginary Percussion Ensemble, Never Was, Mars People, and Reliable Parts.
Sorbara is a long-time student of master drummer Jim Blackley. They hold an Honours Bachelor of Fine Arts in Music from York University in Toronto, a Master’s degree in English from the University of Guelph, and they are currently studying toward a PhD in Critical Improvisation Studies. Joe has worked extensively as a workshop facilitator and guest lecturer and began teaching through the School of Fine Arts and Music at the University of Guelph in 2007.
Robert Harris (he/him). Treasurer.
Robert Harris, P.Eng., is co-founder of PEER Group Inc., an automation software firm headquartered in Kitchener. He has played a central role in the company’s growth and was recognized with induction into the Waterloo Region Entrepreneur Hall of Fame.
Bob brings the same spirit of innovation and community-building to his work in the arts. As a founding board member and Treasurer of Silence in Guelph, he has helped foster a thriving space for adventurous music and creative collaboration. A committed amateur musician—returning to the bass clarinet after decades, and subsequently taking up the string bass as his COVID project—he is a strong advocate for artist-centered programming. His contributions to cultural philanthropy were recognized in 2018 with a Mayor’s Award from the City of Guelph, honoring his role in enriching the city’s creative life.
Steve Szigeti (he/him). Secretary.
Steve is musical hobbyist and booster of all things Guelph. When he moved from Toronto in 2022, his musician friends told him that he had to check out Silence, as it was a gem in this city. They couldn’t have been more right and within weeks he began volunteer work in this critically important space. When not volunteering, he is an Associate Professor, Teaching Stream with the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology at the University of Toronto. His research interests include innovative pedagogy, collaboration and the design process. He has extensive industry experience, having served as the Vice President of User Experience and Product Management at Kaypok, Inc. and as Director, Interactive for Teletoon, the television network. Steve has also worked as a consultant with the Danish Consulate, Planned Parenthood of Toronto and the Hassle Free Clinic (Toronto), in addition to media companies and broadcasters such as TVO Kids, Saloon Media, the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.
Daniel Fischlin (-/-). Artistic Director
Daniel has worked as a classical composer, having studied with Alan Belkin, an experienced improviser. He is a founding member of the Vertical Squirrels, an acclaimed quartet whose most recent recording with musique actualle label Ambiances Magnètiques Time of the Sign has been critically received as a ”masterpiece” (featuring Jane Bunnett, Ben Grossman, and Scott Merritt).
He is Research Chair at the University of Guelph and a leading Canadian humanities researcher who has produced important cross-disciplinary work, including some sixteen books with a wide variety of international presses. His most recent books include (with Ajay Heble and George Lipsitz) The Fierce Urgency of Now: Improvisation, Rights, and the Ethics of Cocreation (Duke UP) and a co-authored book with Martha Nandorfy entitled The Community of Rights • The Rights of Community (Oxford UP), the third in a trilogy of books co-written with Martha Nandorfy on rights issues. Daniel has received several major awards for teaching excellence and is to date the only winner from the Humanities of the prestigious Premier’s Research Excellence Award. He is a multiple award winner of SSHRCC grants as an independent researcher and as a core investigator on the MCRI and Partnership Fund grants and is associated with the Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice (ICASP) project and the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI).
Christine Mills (she/her)
Christine has made Silence her second home for several years now; she’s a regular at Morning music, and often collaborates with other Silence denizens in a variety of musical endeavors, usually while downing one of Cathy’s stellar cortados! She plays about a dozen instruments with wildly varying levels of competence. Christine has been a volunteer at Silence for about a year and loves designing posters and other promotional material. In her “other” life, she and her partner Sally play in a couple of bands, raise backyard chickens, and are co-founding members of the social change organization, Transition Guelph. Christine is a transgender woman and also does volunteer work in the LGBTQ community.
Jemma Llewellyn (-/-)
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