Carmen Ranta enjoys sharing the beautiful tone and expressiveness of the saxophone by performing many styles of music from sultry jazz ballads to classical chamber music. Carmen developed an appreciation for music at a young age and fell in love with the saxophone with encouragement from her father and also through her high school music program in Edmonton, Alberta. Performing in numerous community bands and orchestras on saxophone and flute, Carmen went on to study classical saxophone, performing in groups and ensembles at the University of Alberta where she earned B.A. and B.A. Special Certificate degrees. She has studied saxophone with Fred Hemke (U. of Chicago), Marvin Eckroth (U. of Alberta), and Julia Nolan (U.B.C.) and is a member of the North American Saxophone Alliance. Carmen teaches music privately and has performed with the Kamloops Big Band, soloist with the Kamloops Thompson Valley Orchestra, and solo appearances in Kamloops and Vancouver. She serves as director of the Sage Sound Singers in Ashcroft and the Desert Bells Handbell Choir in Cache Creek.

Carmen also serves in a diverse array of leadership roles, including locally elected board of education trustee with many years as board chair and regional President of the Thompson Okanagan Branch of the BC School Trustees Association; President of Cache Creek Beautification Society and Communities in Bloom Committee, winning the BC provincial CIB award in 2016; Aquatic supervisor/head lifeguard, lifesaving and swim instructor, aquatic fitness instructor and synchronized swim coach with duet teams earning bronze and silver medals in provincial competition. Carmen served for a number of years as Worship Director of Cache Creek Pentecostal Church, where she composed and arranged many congregational worship songs, led worship teams and youth music programs, and performed on a variety of instruments including flute, saxophone, piano and voice. Carmen is a member of numerous other service groups and in 2016 Carmen received recognition as the Rotary Citizen of the Year for Cache Creek.

Prior to moving to BC and in-between degrees, Carmen worked and competed as a floral designer winning the prestigious Flowers Canada Lorne White design award for BC/Yukon. Carmen is currently earning her Certificate in Leadership and Conflict Resolution from the Justice Institute of BC. Carmen moved to Cache Creek after meeting her husband John Ranta during a trip to BC in 1988. After a brief courtship, they were married. John ran for mayor shortly after and has been Mayor ever since. Carmen has become known as Cache Creek’s ‘first lady’, and together they have four children.

Born in Bulgaria, and a resident of Canada since 1995, Dimiter Terziev holds piano performance degrees from the National Academy of Music in Sofia (B.Mus), Concordia University in Montreal (Graduate Diploma), and the University of Alberta in Edmonton (M.Mus). He has studied under the tutelage of Dr. Stephane Lemelin, Dr. Anna Szpilberg, Prof. Milena Mollova, Prof. Antoaneta Arsova, and other distinguished pianists.

Prize winner at the Chopin National Competition in Bulgaria in 1989, Dimiter Terziev has appeared in numerous piano and chamber recitals in Canada, USA, Bulgaria, Germany, and the Netherlands. He has also performed as soloist of several Bulgarian and Canadian Orchestras.

The artist’s debut disc Colours of Bulgaria: Piano Pieces by Pantcho Vladigerov was awarded Four Stars both by the CBC's Sound Advice and La scena musicale magazine. He has later recorded three more CDs - Nocturnal World, The Beginning and End of Classicism, and Anger and Hope featuring music of various composers from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The discs have been featured on the CBC (Canadian National Broadcast) and other Canadian and Bulgarian Radio stations. Anger and Hope has recently been nominated for the Just Plain Folks Music Award for 2017.

Terziev lives in Kamloops, British Columbia and teaches at his private studio.

"Master of stirring mystery of sound ... His playing constantly moved between poetry and passion."
(Badische Zeitung, Germany)

"He is a musician of deeply reasoned convictions, who already has a well-defined understanding of his own artistic voice. He is a musician who thinks at the piano and who has the gift of communicating his artistic vision in an engaging manner."
(Dr. Stephane Lemelin, Canada)

“Terziev is performing (the sonata op 110 by Beethoven) with such a grace!”
(Tom Allen – CBC Radio, Canada)

“Terziev performed wonderfully. … One-of-a-kind experience”
(Lillooet News, Canada)

Saxophone & PIANO