Our Team
Who We Are

Linda was fortunate to grow up studying violin, piano, music theory, drama, as well as ballet and other styles of dance. Out of high school, she became a skilled business administrator for the Vancouver School Board and then the Vancouver Principals’ Association. After marrying and starting to raise a young family, she returned to her artistic roots and built a home music studio in Steveston, out of which she taught music. 32 years later, she has grown her business into a full-fledged performing arts school and developed Vancouver’s first fine arts preschool. Linda has been a board member of the Community Arts Council of Richmond for over 20 years and and was Chair of the City of Richmond’s Childcare Development Advisory Committee for 12 years. Today, she publishes and distributes the Kelly Kirby music program throughout Canada and the US and has worked to develop additional materials to further enhance the program.

AWARDS

• 3-time recipient of the Ethel Tibbits Woman of the Year Award
• Richmond Chamber of Commerce Business Entrepreneur Award (2003)
• City of Richmond’s Arts Education Award (2014)
• Richmond Chamber of Commerce Business Leadership Award (2019)

Lily oversees and ensures our business exemplifies our core values through personal interactions, dedications and commitment to every individual who walks through our school’s doors. A love of music and arts started at a very young age for her. At the age of five, she began piano lessons and later on explored many different avenues of art; painting, sculpturing and architecture design. Lily graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Bachelor of Arts, Majoring in Economics. After graduation, she moved to the world’s financial hub, Hong Kong, but quickly found that life in finance was not giving her sentimental fulfilment in her career. In her 5 years abroad, she started tutoring local students in private and public schools from nursery level to grade 12 and found she needed to move on with a career that blended her desire for teaching young children and her love for music and art. In 2009, she moved back to Vancouver and started her life-long career at The Arts Connection. This role has provided her with a career that matched her background studies in Economics and passion for the arts for young children and youth. As a devoted mother of two boys who have gone through basically every single program here, she has seen first hand the true benefits of creating resilient and determined individuals through a well-rounded fine arts academic program. Lily is honoured to work with a wonderful team of creative thinkers who consistently show the same perseverance and never-ending passion for what they do: to nurture, foster and develop young minds.

Adena’s love for the arts is evident in her piano compositions, her drawings and her paintings. Yes, she is Linda’s daughter and yes she began working in the family business when she was 16 years old. There she gained hands-on experience at our Paddington Station Fine Arts Preschool, taught the Kelly Kirby Piano Method and worked part-time in the accounts department. Her passion for early learning led her to a career in Early Childhood Education where she graduated at the top of her class. After taking over management of our daycare location at No 2 Road, Adena and her family moved to the beautiful town of Vernon where she now works remotely as our accounting director, since her second passion is a love of numbers. She enjoys singing for and with her 4-year-old daughter while opening up the world of early learning and the arts to the next generation of our family.

Prior to joining us in 2019, Cindy had an interest in childcare and was looking for a dynamic company with a passionate culture where she could utilize her administrative background and was grateful to find a position here that ticked all of the checkboxes. Cindy initially studied fashion merchandising, business and office management and has a work background in retail management and administration. Recently, she obtained her Responsible Adult Certification. Her favourite part of the job is seeing all of our amazing students enjoying the programs we offer. When not working, Cindy enjoys visiting her hometown in White Rock or strolling around Steveston. One day, she hopes to become a master in baking pastries and to have an extensive collection of beautiful indoor plants. 

Mehernaz has been with us for over six years now and she enjoys working with an awesome group of strong, empowering women. She leads the administrative team and helps with human resources since the school has grown so much since she first started working here. She and the admin team are the glue that binds the different programs together and they bring structure and organization so that registrations and the implementation of programs run seamlessly. Mehernaz is happiest outdoors and you would find her hiking our beautiful rainforest or Coast mountain trails on any given weekend. Her travels have taken her to some fun places including three active volcanoes (Costa Rica and Hawaii), hiking upstream a colourful canyon (Utah) and the Land of Fire and Ice (magical Iceland). 

Coming Soon

Kara Robinson is our wonderful School of Dance Manager and registered Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) ballet Instructor. A dancer since age 4, she has trained in ballet, jazz, tap, musical theatre and lyrical and participated in various dance competitions over those years. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from York University, a Diploma from National Ballet School’s Teacher Training Program, and she’s a registered teacher with the Royal Academy of Dance. During her time at Canada’s National Ballet School, Kara trained under many noteworthy ballet and music instructors including but not limited to: Glenn Gilmour, Teresa Randall, Anuschka Roes and Craig Wingrove. Each year, Kara continues to learn and grow as a teacher through the RAD’s Continued Professional Development Program. She wants to train dancers to excel at their craft while maintaining safe practicing and understanding how to use their bodies safely and effectively through proper training and development.

Ali has been managing the School of Music since 2017, but her first encounter with the Arts Conservatory was as a student in our preschool programming. She started her musical journey at age five and over the years has played the piano, saxophone and accordion. As the accordionist for the Russian Centre of Vancouver (RCC) Balalaika Orchestra, she also performs regularly around the Lower Mainland. Ali considers herself a multi-disciplinary artist: a musician and a 2D visual artist in drawing, painting, digital media, and textiles, holding a fine arts diploma from Langara College. In her free time, she can be found creating, volunteering or hanging out with her cats. 

AWARDS

• Received the Digital Media Artist Scholarship for her course work at Langara (2018)
• Designed the poster and cover for the 2018 Langara Grad Show
• Midsummer Night’s Dream Exhibition Winner