Zoe Henderson

Zoe is a multi-disciplinary artist and has been a professional arts educator (piano, singing, ukulele, and drama) for over 25 years. Born and raised in Nanaimo, she moved back to the city in the summer of 2023, and opened Nanaimo Young People's Theatre. Before that she had been living in Toronto, Ontario where she worked full-time teaching at various private schools and community centres.

MUSIC: A classically-trained musician (RCM Grade 10 Piano, Grade 8 voice, Advanced Piano Pedagogy), she has been teaching students of all ages for 25 years. She is also an award winning composer and freelance arranger of music for young pianists.

UKULELE: In addition to her classical training, Zoe has a long background in popular music and came to the ukulele about 20 years ago while pursuing gigs as a singer-songwriter in Toronto. (She got tired of lugging her keyboard to venues that didn't have a piano!) Enter the ukulele! Having dabbled in guitar as a child, she immediately fell in love with this charming and versatile instrument. In a desire to spread the joy of ukulele to others, she enrolled in the James Hill Ukulele Initiative Teach Training and have been teaching groups and individuals ever since.

MUSICAL THEATRE: As a trained singer, Zoe found herself cast in alot of musical theatre productions while in theatre school. While, living in Toronto, she got interested in writing and composing for the musical theatre and wrote 3 short musicals for young audiences which she toured to local schools and daycares. One of her musicals. The Stone Princess, received an independent production from another theatre and remounted 10 years later. She loves the interdisciplinary nature of musical theatre and teaching students how to "act the song".

SPEECH ARTS & DRAMA: Zoe is the Artistic Director of Nanaimo Young People's Theatre ( a registered charity) where, in addition to planning the school curriculum, she teaches several classes. Her formal education includes a B.A. (Honours) in Drama from the University of Alberta as well as advanced certificates in Speech Arts & Drama from the Royal Conservatory of Music. Professional experience includes working as an actor in Vancouver (TV commercials) as well as a working as a playwright/director/producer of children's theatre (Toronto).