our team

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Nick Veltmeyer, the founder of Aureas Voces, is a scholar of Historical Performance at the University of Toronto, a Junior Fellow of Massey College and the Bevan Scholar at Trinity College. He is a graduate student of Daniel Taylor (voice and directing), Mary Morrison (voice) and John Tuttle (organ and directing). 

Nick is an active composer, writing vocal and choral works, and creatively collaborating with contemporary artists William Robinson (conceptual, mixed media), Kurt Laurenz Theinert (light art), Joel Waddell (sound installation), and Darcy Fraser (videography).

Nick was the Organ Scholar of St. James Cathedral in Toronto, where he was featured as the organist on the choir's 2019 album Gate of Heaven and returns regularly as a guest organist and recitalist. Nick was Organ Scholar under Paul Halley at the University of King's College while studying Sacred Music and Classical Literature. 

He is the recipient of multiple scholarships and bursaries including from the Nova Scotia Talent Trust, the University of King's College and the University of Toronto. Nick has guest directed the University of Toronto's Schola Cantorum and performs regularly with the Theatre of Early Music, Toronto Bach Festival, Opera Atelier, Toronto Chamber Consort, and Ensemble Caprice. 

He has also studied conducting with Ivars Taurins and Jeanne Lamon at Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute, and Dinuk Wijeratne at Dalhousie University, as well as organ performance with Ton Koopman, Jacques Van Oortmerssen and Jean-Claude Zehnder at the Haarlem International Summer Organ Academy in the Netherlands. As an educator, Nick has taught privately (his first piano student is now the organ scholar of the University of King's College) and founded educational music programs at St. Stephen's (Chester, N.S.) and Christ Church (Dartmouth, N.S.).  

Janelle Lucyk is an early music soprano whose collaborative projects are drawing new audiences to the genre. Lucyk is part of a new generation of artists raising the profile of early music across Canada.  Lucyk (soprano) graduated in 2014 with distinction from the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles in Belgium where she debuted Lux Aeterna, written for her and the Brussels Chamber Choir by Jan Moeyaert, and formed Voces Desuper, an ensemble performing in the magnificent Cathédrale de Saints-Michel-et-Gudule, and especially at the Te Deum ceremony for the King and Queen of Belgium. She completed her Masters in Management at Durham University (UK) and won the role of Susanna in Durham Opera’s The Marriage of Figaro for which she was awarded the Best Soloist by Music Durham.

Janelle oversees Musique Royale (est. 1985) and performs across Canada as a soloist with Per Sonatori, Aureas Voces, Theatre of Early Music, Ensemble Caprice, Menestrel and Blackwood Duo.  She recently premiered jazz songs written for her by Peter Togni and works as a soloist under five-time Grammy winner Paul Halley, director of King’s College Chapel Choir, on unforgettable Baroque masterworks.

Thomas Ayouti is a Franco-Iranian performer, stage director and Ph.D. student living in Toronto. After studying early music in the Conservatoire de Rennes (France) and acting in Paris, he worked on theater and dance projects in Paris and Berlin. 

Thomas studied Philosophy and performance studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, and literature in the university of Nanterre. 

His research focuses on aesthetic and philosophy of art, especially related to dance history. He is currently completing his dissertation on the representations of HIV/AIDS in dance and literature in France under the supervision of Professor B. Havercroft in the University of Toronto.

 He is working on the staging of Nick Veltmeyer’s opera project Jimmy and Rosalia.