FESTIVAL ARTISTS

Winner of the 2022 JuNO Award for Jazz Album of the Year (solo), and Jazz Artist of the Year at the 2022 Western Canada Music Awards, Will Bonness was called “one of finest jazz pianists of his generation” by Monk Competition winner Jon Gordon. Will has been active on the international music scene for two decades. At 17, he joined Maynard Ferguson’s Big Bop Nouveau Band for a world tour, which included performances in Europe, Thailand, and the Caribbean. He has since maintained an active international performance career, appearing at major jazz festivals in Canada and the United States, as well as at venues throughout New York and Toronto, including Smalls, Dizzy’s, and the Jazz Bistro. Locally, Will can often be seen performing with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra. Will has four releases to his credit: Subtle Fire (2009), Halcyon (2016), Change of Plans (2020), and Is This a Dream? (2023). He has appeared as an accompanist on over 30 albums, many of which have been nominated for or won JUNO and Western Canada Music Awards. Change of Plans has received international critical acclaim, a JUNO award, and over 2,000,000 streams on Spotify. Will’s new album Is This a Dream?, released in anticipation of his 2023 Canadian Jazz Festival tour, features compositions and arrangements for his new quintet.

Dan Fortin was born and raised in Peterborough, Ontario. His eclectic tastes and stylistic flexibility have led to work with a wide variety of artists in the jazz, rock and pop worlds, including Bernice, The Allison Au Quartet, Queer Songbook Orchestra, Emilie-Claire Barlow, John Southworth, Serena Ryder, July Talk, Devon Sproule, Mike O’Neill, Bryn Roberts, David Occhipinti, Tara Davidson, Harley Card, Michael Davidson, Alex Goodman, and many others. He’s been lucky enough to play at a number of great venues, including Cafe Oto, 55 Bar, Smalls, SFJAZZ Center, the Monterey Jazz Festival, Sunset/Sunside, JazzDock, Jamboree, Jimmy Glass, and Koerner Hall. Dan is a co-leader of the trio MYRIAD3, along with pianist Chris Donnelly and drummer Ernesto Cervini. Together, they’ve released five albums for Alma Records: Tell (2012), The Where (2014 – Juno nominee), Tell ((Chip)) (2015 – Donnelly’s electronic reimagining of their debut record), Moons, (2016), and Vera (2018.) They have undertaken several tours of Canada, the USA, Europe, and Japan, including performances at the Tokyo Jazz Festival and Ronnie Scott’s International Piano Trio Festival (London, UK.) In 2015, Dan released BRINKS, his debut album as a leader on Fresh Sound/New Talent Records. The critically acclaimed record features his long time collaborators David French, Michael Davidson, and Fabio Ragnelli, and includes 10 of his songs. His most recent release is The Latest Tech, an album of music for solo double bass, released on Elastic Recordings, the imprint he started with vibraphonist Michael Davidson. Dan is on faculty at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music, where he teaches bass in the Jazz Studies department.

Originally from Toronto, Ontario, drummer Fabio Ragnelli is a JUNO Award-winning drummer and has been an in-demand sideman performing, recording, and touring with a number of artists over the last ten years. While in New York City (2013-2018), Ragnelli studied with jazz luminaries such as Kenny Washington, Rogerio Boccato, and Nasheet Waits, and became an active member of Brooklyn’s vibrant jazz scene. Ragnelli has toured nationally and internationally, performing at venues such as Massey Hall, The Owl, Koerner Hall, Place des Arts, The 55 Bar, Cornelia St. Café, The National Arts Centre, SMOKE Jazz Club, The Cotton Club in Tokyo, Maison Symphonique, SF Jazz Center, The Blue Note Jazz Club, and has also performed at a number of jazz festivals including Haiti, Halmstad, Monterey, and Montreal, among others. Fabio is the Assistant Professor of Jazz Drumset at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg.

Born and raised in Ottawa, Carson Becke has performed worldwide. A versatile pianist, he is at home as a recital and concerto soloist, chamber musician, and vocal collaborator. Carson studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London, UK, and at Magdalen College, University of Oxford, where he attained a doctorate in musicology. He has shared the stage with Jack Liebeck, Robert Pomakov, Wallis Giunta, Lavinia Dames, Hinrich Alpers, Arnold Choi, Paul Marleyn, and the Ironwood Quartet. As a member of the Dolmen Ensemble, he toured the UK, Malta, Australia, and New Zealand on behalf of the Royal Over Seas League. Carson forms one half of Duo Octavian, a two-piano ensemble that he co-founded with fellow pianist Suren Barry in 2016. Duo Octavian seeks to expand the two-piano repertoire with their own arrangements of various works, and with arrangements and commissions by other performers and composers. Carson is committed to raising awareness about climate change and other environmental challenges through music. He is enacting those ideas through his directorship of the Pontiac Enchanté concert series in Luskville, Quebec where environmental sustainability is one of the cornerstones of its mission. Carson is an experienced composer and arranger; he has written virtuoso piano transcriptions of orchestral music and art songs which appear in his concerts. He is on faculty at the University of Ottawa and is a co-director of the recently founded Hills Winter Music Festival in the Outaouais region. His recordings can be heard on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube.

Daniel Bolshoy is committed to bringing the guitar to the attention of audiences everywhere. He is regularly praised for his friendly and informative spoken introductions, and progressive programming of solo and chamber music. His concert tours take him from prestigious international concert stages to remote villages and house concerts. Daniel has performed as a soloist with over sixty orchestras internationally and across Canada, including: the Mexico City Philharmonic, the Israel Chamber, the Volgograd Symphony (Russia), and the symphony orchestras of New Mexico, Vancouver, Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary, Kingston, Victoria, Okanagan, Saskatoon, Nova Scotia, as well as the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, the Ottawa Chamber, and many others. An avid chamber musician, he has performed at numerous chamber music festival and concert series throughout North America, collaborating with some of Canada’s greatest soloists. Daniel has adjudicated many international music competitions, including the Guitar Foundation of America, the Guitar-Gems festival in Israel, the Tabula Rasa festival in Russia, and the National Finals of the Canadian Federation of Music Festivals. His students have won awards in competitions, and scholarships to leading Universities and Conservatories. Daniel holds a D.M. Degree from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University and teaches at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music at the University of Georgia. Daniel will perform this year in several guitar festivals in the United States and Canada, as well as in Shanghai and Moscow.

Minna Rose Chung is Associate Professor of Cello at the Desautels Faculty of Music. She enjoys an international career in all performance milieus, has taught master classes across four continents, and is a frequent guest artist at music festivals worldwide. Skilled in both orchestral and chamber repertoire, Minna Rose was a member of The New World Symphony, the Chicago Civic Orchestra, and principal cellist of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2007 as a founding member of her New York ensemble, the Pangea String Quartet under the direction of the acclaimed Kronos String Quartet. In addition to academia, Minna Rose maintains a busy performance schedule with her current ensembles which include the Crocus String Quartet, the Desautels Piano Trio, and the Nacka Duo. She is also a core member of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra. Dr. Chung is director of the C-String Collective, a student-led cello/bass ensemble devoted to collaborating with the Desautels composition area in the world premiere of new works written exclusively for the collective. Since 2008, Dr. Chung has been the founder and director of Project Rio, a multi-faceted exchange program for Canadian and Brazilian music professors and students in the teaching and performance arenas. She earned her Bachelor of Music in cello performance at Oberlin Conservatory with Norman Fischer and Peter Rejto; Master of Music at Northwestern University Bienen School of Music (Evanston, IL) with Hans J. Jensen; and Doctor of Musical Arts at SUNY Stony Brook University (NY) with Colin Carr. Minna Rose plays on a French 1776 Chappuy cello.

Alex Conway joined the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra as principal piccolo and second flute in 2018. Previously, she played third flute and piccolo with the Bangor (Maine) Symphony Orchestra. While studying in Boston she has also had the pleasure of playing as a substitute with the Boston Pops and Pops Esplanade Orchestras, and Boston Lyric Opera, as well as the Atlantic Symphony, Cape Cod Symphony, East Coast Scoring, Tanglewood Music Center, Orlando Symphony, and Chicago Civic Orchestra. She was selected as a finalist in the 33rd and 34th annual James Pappoutsakis Flute Competition, winning the Bill Grass Memorial Prize in 2014. Alex has participated in many music festivals, including Aspen, Kent/Blossom, Bowdoin, Domaine Forget, and the International Festival in Nice, France. As Co-Founder and Artistic Director of New England Chamber Players, she dedicates herself to bringing classical chamber music out into New England communities and fostering an appreciation for classical chamber music. She has been honored to study with such esteemed performers and pedagogues as Michel Debost, Kathleen Chastain, Martha Aarons, Elizabeth Ostling, Cindy Meyers and Linda Toote. Alex completed her masters and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees at Boston University where she held the graduate assistantship for woodwind chamber music. Her undergraduate study was at Oberlin Conservatory. Her dissertation was on the flute music of Mieczysław Weinberg. Alex is co-founder of the Manitoba Flute Association and maintains a large studio of flute students.

Camryn Dewar is a passionate and versatile soprano from Stony Mountain, Manitoba, who is currently in a Master of Music (Performance) degree program at Montclair State University in New Jersey, USA, with Metropolitan Opera’s Barbara Dever. Camryn previously completed a Bachelor of Music (Vocal Performance) at the University of Manitoba under Mel Braun. She recently was accepted into the Association of Opera in Canada’s Opera Fellowship. A lover of many musical genres, Camryn’s primary passions are opera and musical theatre, with role highlights including Leonora in Dan Shore’s The Beautiful Bridegroom (Montclair State University Chamber Opera), Suor Dolcina in Puccini’s Suor Angelica (Bel Canto in Tuscany), and Anna Gomez in Menotti’s The Consul (Opera NUOVA). Camryn is a proud member of the Manitoba Métis Nation and aspires to share the stories of Canadian Indigenous women through opera and theatre. She is pursuing this in her upcoming role as Chorus Section Leader in Li keur: Riel’s Heart of the North (Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra), and through a solo recital of repertoire by American and Canadian Indigenous composers at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Camryn is a cultural advisor and acts as an Indigenous youth representative with Manitoba Opera, Opera NUOVA, University of Manitoba Opera Theatre, and Montclair State University.

Liana Fonseca is a Winnipeg-born violinist who began playing at the age of four with the Suzuki Music Program. This spring, Liana graduated from her Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance at the University of Ottawa and will pursue her Masters Degree on full scholarship at the University of Michigan (School of Music, Theatre & Dance) studying with Professor Danielle Belen. In Ottawa, Liana studied with Professors Yehonatan Berick, Timothy Chooi, Michael van der Sloot, Donnie Deacon, and Jean-Hee Lee. Liana grew up playing in the Winnipeg Youth Orchestras and performed as concertmaster and soloist with the Youth Symphony Orchestra. With a passion for orchestral music, Liana has performed under the direction of many conductors including Bramwell Tovey, Raffi Armenian, Tania Miller, and Dinuk Wijeratne. In addition to winning awards in multiple music competitions in both Winnipeg and Ottawa, Liana has attended the National Symphony Orchestra Summer Music Institute, the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra Mentorship Program, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestral Institute in Whistler, the Green Lake Festival of Music, and the Rosamunde Summer Music Academy. Liana plays on a violin made for her by luthier Garth Lee.

Canadian violinist Catherine French, a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1994, has established herself as a versatile and accomplished soloist and chamber musician in addition to her distinguished orchestral career. Ms. French graduated from Indiana University with a Bachelor’s of Music degree and a Performer’s Certificate, then earned a Masters degree from the Juilliard School. Her teachers were Miriam Fried, Felix Galimir, and Joel Smirnoff. Ms. French garnered the grand prize at the Canadian Music Competition, the CBC Radio Competition, and the National Competitive Festival of Music, Canada’s three major music competitions. She has performed as soloist with many leading Canadian orchestras and given recitals throughout North America and Argentina. Ms. French was featured with the Juilliard Orchestra and James de Preist, the Boston Pops and John Williams, and at Carnegie Hall in her debut with David Gilbert. Lauded for her “superbly lyric” playing and her “amazing level of artistry” by Strad Magazine, Ms. French is a dedicated member of the Calyx Piano Trio and Collage New Music. Her avid interest in chamber music has led to performances at the Marlboro, Banff, Portland, Carolina, and Missouri chamber music festivals, quartet tours of Germany and China and annual concerts as part of the Prelude series at Tanglewood and the Curtisville Consortium. Ms. French has recorded for Albany Records and is featured in Donald Sur’s Berceuse for Violin and Piano with pianist Christopher Oldfather.

Principal Cellist of the Winnipeg Symphony Yuri Hooker is well-known for his passionate and soulful interpretations of a wide range of repertoire. His frequent solo appearances have met with critical and audience acclaim: his 2007 Rococo Variations with the WSO was lauded as one of the best classical performances of the decade by the Winnipeg Free Press, and in 2011 The Strad magazine spoke of his performance of Britten as being among the “outstanding performances” of the inaugural International Cello Festival of Canada. An avid chamber musician, Yuri also appears regularly with the Winnipeg Chamber Music Society and Groundswell. As well as performing, Yuri is an inspiring and dedicated teacher whose students are regularly recognized locally and nationally with awards and scholarships. As well as maintaining a private teaching studio, he served as the Sessional Instructor of Cello at the University of Manitoba from 2004-08, and in the summer of 2011 he and Elation Pauls launched the Rosamunde Summer Music Academy for young string players. Yuri holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Brandon University, which he followed with graduate studies under Janos Starker and Stanley Ritchie.

Carissa Klopoushak has made a name for herself as a curious, creative, and versatile violinist. Based in Ottawa, Canada, she is a proud member of the National Arts Centre Orchestra and the Ironwood Quartet. Named Artistic Director of Ottawa Chamberfest in 2020, Carissa programs and oversees a two-week summer festival, a fall-winter concert series, and a suite of community engagement and education initiatives. A passionate collaborator, Carissa has been featured at chamber music festivals across Canada and has toured the country extensively in recital. She is a two-time laureate of the Canada Council for the Arts Musical Instrument Bank Competition and winner of the 2009 Eckhardt-Grammatté National Music Competition. In addition to Ottawa Chamberfest, she founded the Ritornello Chamber music Festival in her hometown, Saskatoon, and co-directs Classical Unbound in Prince Edward County. As a dynamic and fluid musician never limited by genre, Carissa is the lead singer, violinist, and arranger in the Ukrainian turbo-folk band Tyt i Tam (pronounced Toot-ee-tahm). The band has recorded four full-length albums and performed at major Ukrainian festivals across Canada, in Sydney, Australia, and throughout Ukraine. Carissa holds a doctorate in violin performance from McGill University, where she focused on the little-known classical violin repertoire by Ukrainian composers. Her debut solo recording, SOUNDWORLDS, was released in 2016 with Canadian pianist Philip Chiu. When not making music, Carissa can be found spinning vinyl, spending time with Figaro, her cat, or expanding her love of coffee in some little café somewhere.

Glenda Lindgren is currently a Masters student at the University of Ottawa studying under the principal oboist of the National Arts Center Orchestra, Charles Hamann. She received her bachelor’s degree from the Glenn Gould School at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, where she studied with Sarah Jeffrey, principal oboist of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Originally from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Glenda began to play the oboe at the age of eleven, and her interest in classical music grew during high school when she began studying with the principal oboist of the Saskatoon Symphony, Erin Brophey. Glenda has played in numerous ensembles including the Saskatoon Youth Orchestra, the National Youth Band of Canada, and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, which she has participated in four times. She has also appeared as a substitute player for numerous professional groups such as the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra, Regina Symphony Orchestra, and the Saskatoon Opera. Recently, Glenda was a finalist in the 2022 NACO Bursary Competition and was awarded the Evelyn Greenberg Award. When she is not busy making reeds in her free time, she enjoys journalling and digital photography.

Cellist Paul Marleyn tours regularly in North America, Europe and Asia. As a frequent participant in summer festivals including the Prussia Cove, Busan, Festival of the Sound, Domaine Forget, Casalmaggiore, Leicester and Ottawa international festivals, he collaborates with artists such as Boris Berman, Miriam Fried, James Somerville, Paul Neubauer, Marc-André Hamelin, Steven Dann, Joshua Bell, and with members of the Tokyo, Vermeer, St. Lawrence and Hagen quartets. He has appeared as soloist with the London Philharmonia, Belgrade Philharmonic, European Chamber, Winnipeg Symphony, Symphony Nova Scotia, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Thunder Bay Symphony, Vancouver Symphony and Manitoba Chamber orchestras. The Artistic Director of Winnipeg’s Agassiz Chamber Music Festival since 2000, and the International Cello Festival of Canada since 2011, Paul was the cellist in the Borante Trio in the UK from 1990-1997 and in Trio Hochelaga from 2006-2012. He has made several compact disc recordings on the United Records, CALA, ATMA, Signum Classics, CBC and RCA Victor labels. From 1993-7, Paul was principal cellist of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, has appeared as guest principal with the Royal Philharmonic and National Arts Centre orchestras, and has served at professor of cello at the University of Manitoba, and most recently at the University of Ottawa, where he now mentors an award-winning studio of young cellists.

Sam Nadurak is a young cellist and composer born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Sam has studied with Allison Warrian, Yuri Hooker and completed his Masters degree in Cello performance at the University of Ottawa, studying with Paul Marleyn. He is currently playing with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and teaching cello privately. Sam has had the pleasure of briefly working with various well-known cellists such as Ariel Barnes, Richard Aaron, Hans Jensen and more. Sam has found success in local competitions like Manitoba Provincial Music Festival, Winnipeg Music Festival, and has played as a soloist with some ensembles and in theatre shows. Sam enjoys composing for a variety of genres. In 2022, he released his debut album, “Wide Eyed, Tongue Tied” of original songs composed, recorded, and produced by him and has been featured on CBC radio. In 2017, Sam had a composition premiered in the Murau International Music Festival in Austria, and in 2019, he won the thirteen strings composition competition in Ottawa. Sam joined the “Back to BACH” Project in the fall of 2016 and was involved as a member, regional director, and Director of Global Operations for five years.

Versatile Grammy-nominated pianist John Novacek regularly tours the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia as soloist and chamber musician. He studied piano with Polish virtuoso Jakob Gimpel at California State University, Northridge and earned a Master of Music degree from New York City’s Mannes College of Music, studying with Peter Serkin in piano and Felix Galimer and Julius Levine in chamber music. John is a highly sought-after collaborative artist and has performed with Joshua Bell, Renaud Capuçon, Jeremy Denk, Matt Haimovitz, Leila Josefowicz, Cho-Liang Lin, Yo-Yo Ma, Truls Mørk, Elmar Oliveira and Emmanuel Pahud, and the Afiara, Colorado, Harrington, Jupiter, New Hollywood, St. Lawrence, SuperNova and Ying string quartets. He also tours widely as a member of the multi-faceted piano trio Intersection. A tireless advocate for contemporary music, Mr. Novacek has also given numerous world premieres and worked closely with composers John Adams, Kenji Bunch, Gabriela Lena Frank, John Harbison, Jennifer Higdon, George Rochberg, Robert Sierra, John Williams and John Zorn. John’s original compositions have been widely performed and frequently recorded by major international soloists and ensembles. He has recorded over 35 CDs, encompassing solo and chamber music by most major composers past and present. Novacek is regularly showcased on NPR and has recently been featured on the PBS/ Great Performances series Now Hear This, hosted by Scott Yoo. Novacek himself is an active and well-regarded composer whose works have been taken up by many prominent soloists and ensembles and commissioning entities. He was recently appointed to the Piano and Collaborative Piano faculty of The Mannes School of Music at The New School’s College of Performing Arts.

Oleg Pokhanovski is an accomplished virtuosic violinist, pianist, arranger, and music educator currently holding the position of Professor of Violin at the University of Manitoba’s Desautels Faculty of Music. He was a top prizewinner of eight prestigious international violin competitions including the Paganini in Genova, Sarasate in Pamplona and CIEM in Geneva, and was First Prize Winner of the 1990 Scheveningen International Violin Competition. His deep admiration for the great musicians of the past – Heifetz, Hofmann, Rubinstein, Milstein, Kreisler – is evident in his sensitive, passionate style of playing. He has performed in Carnegie Recital Hall, the Grand Hall in Moscow, the Concertgebouw, Knight Hall in Prague, and Place des Arts in Montréal. His solo appearances with orchestra include the Moscow Philharmonic, Moscow Virtuosi, The Hague Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Montréal Symphony, and Winnipeg Symphony orchestras. Oleg is active as a chamber musician and has appeared in the International Virtuosi Series in Germany, the International Music Academy in Kiev, Ukraine, Domaine Forget in Quebec, Centara New Music, Agassiz Chamber Music, Orford and Pender Harbour Music festivals in Canada. He is a Founder and Artistic Director of the “Oleg and Friends” concert series in Winnipeg. Oleg is a member of the Desautels Piano Trio with colleagues Minna Rose Chung (cello) and Judy Kehler-Siebert (piano). He is in demand as a pedagogue and adjudicates music festivals across Canada. Oleg has made over 200 virtuosic transcriptions, to date, for violin and piano, and other instruments and performs them with pianist Scott Meek.

Andrea Ratuski is best known as a music producer and host at CBC in Winnipeg, Manitoba, most notably as host and producer of Northern Lights. She is an award-winning radio documentary maker. From 1985 to 2015, she worked on virtually all of the national and local radio music programs, including Canada Live, In Concert, Tempo, Choral Concert and RSVP. She was also a writer on the CBC websites, Manitoba SCENE, which was devoted to stories about arts, culture and food, and CBC Music, the national music website. She teaches music appreciation classes at Manitoba Conservatory of Music and Arts and the University of Winnipeg PACE program and others. She is a contributing editor of International Taste and Travel Magazine and writes for a variety of publications. Andrea also enjoys hosting musical events, such as the Winnipeg Philharmonic concerts and the Agassiz Chamber Music Festival. Andrea holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Manitoba and a Master’s degree from the University of Michigan.

Leanne Regehr Lee has loved playing piano for as long as she can remember. Graduating with distinction from the University of Manitoba, she earned Bachelor of Music (piano) and Bachelor of Education (senior years choral music) degrees, and has taught music in Winnipeg and Nottingham, England. She is a Manitoba Registered Music Teacher and a certified teacher with the Royal Conservatory of Music for Elementary, Intermediate, and Advanced levels of piano. Leanne is an in-demand teacher, adjudicator, clinician, and collaborative pianist. Enjoying a full teaching studio of motivated and creative students, she strives to create a community where students are supported and challenged to pursue high levels of musical excellence. She has recently expanded her studio to include a pedagogy program for aspiring piano teachers. Leanne performs regularly with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and has collaborated with Karl Stobbe, Gwen Hoebig, Elation Pauls, Tracy Dahl, Andrew Wan, and Paul Marleyn. She is on faculty with the Pembina Trails Voices and Rosamunde Summer Music Academy and is the pianist for Winnipeg’s Festival Chorus.

Michael (Mick) Stirling studied the cello at the guildhall School of Music with Leonard Stehn and Raphael Wallfisch. He continued his studies at the Banff Centre, and with Lawrence Lesser at the New England Conservatory in Boston. From 1989 to 1997 Mick was the cellist of the Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt, Germany. He was also a member of the Raphael Ensemble (string sextet, London) for eight years recording many CDs for Hyperion. In 1997 he joined the Brindisi Quartet in London where he lived and worked for nine years. During this period, Mick played with many chamber music groups and as guest principal cellist with various orchestras including: The Philharmonia Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, and The Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Mick moved to Amsterdam in 2004, and became first principal cellist of the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in the Netherlands the same year. He is a member of Nieuw Amsterdams Peil, The Quimias Trio, and for many years was a regular guest of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Mick recorded the cello concerto by Hindemith (Kammermusik no. 3) for RCA with Marcus Stenz and the Ensemble Modern which won the German Critic’s Prize. His ensemble the Brunsvik String Trio recorded the complete string trios of Beethoven on CD for Zefir records in 2020 and a CD of Mozart’s ‘Divertimento’ in 2022. He has been on the cello faculty of the Amsterdam Conservatory since 2014. Mick’s cello is a beautiful example of the London maker Joseph Hill from 1770.

Karl Stobbe is recognized as one of Canada’s most accomplished violinists. As a concertmaster, soloist and chamber musician, he has been an audience favourite in small settings and large venues alike. His diverse career has included performances of all six Ysaÿe Sonatas for Solo Violin, all sixteen Beethoven String Quartets and all ten Mahler Symphonies. He has been described by the San Fransisco Classical Voice as “an artist with soulful musicianship” and by London’s Sunday Times as “a master soloist, recalling the golden age of violin playing.” Karl has performed in many of North America’s most famous concert halls as a chamber musician, soloist and orchestra director, and has shared the stage with such important and eclectic violinists as James Ehnes and Mark O’Connor. Avie Records’ recording of Karl performing Ysaÿe ‘s Solo Violin Sonatas received worldwide attention, including from Gramophone magazine, which hailed it as “full of spirit and energy...exciting, fearless...” It was nominated for a 2015 JUNO award for best Classical Album: Solo or Chamber Ensemble, and was the winner of the 2015 Western Canadian Music Award for Classical Album of the Year. Karl completed a minor in Violin Repair and Construction while working on his Master’s of Music degree at Indiana University. His passion for the construction and mechanics of the violin is an important part of his professional musical life, and continues to influence his performances and teaching.

Ásdís Valdimarsdóttir comes from Reykjavik, Iceland. Her musical education took her to the Juilliard school where her most influential teachers were Paul Doktor, Felix Galimir and the members of the Juilliard String Quartet. She currently enjoys a happy mix of performing and teaching from her base in Amsterdam. Ásdís was a founding member of the Miami String Quartet, principal viola of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and the violist of the Chilingirian String Quartet for several years. She is now a member of the The Brunsvik String Trio, the Erard Ensemble and the London- based Endymion Ensemble. She has been on the faculty of the Trinity College and the Royal College of Music in London and the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. She currently teaches viola and chamber music at the Royal Conservatory The Hague. Ásdís is very interested in all things related to good body use in order to help herself and her students play the viola more efficiently. Since 2015 she has been a member of the Association of Body Mapping Educators. Body Mapping is a method of preventing physical injuries in musicians that grew out of the Alexander Technique and is an integral part of her teaching. A new edition of her arrangement for viola of the Fantasias for Gamba by G.F. Telemann will be published by the French publisher Billaudot in 2022.

Named one of CBC Music’s “30 under 30” Canadian classical musicians, Paul Williamson is a first prize winner of the piano category of the Canadian national music festival (2014), the Canadian Federation of Music Teachers’ Association national piano competition (2017), and a prizewinner of the WMC McLellan Competition (2020). As soloist, he has appeared with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and the University of Manitoba Symphony Orchestra. He has performed alongside Julian Pellicano, Alexander Mickelthwate, Aiyun Huang, Orli Shaham, and Jim Walker. His festival appearances include the Morningside Music Bridge International Music Festival, the Orford Academy program, the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Hornby Festival, and the Scotia Festival of Music. Paul received his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Manitoba and a Master of Music degree from the Colburn Conservatory of Music, where he continues to study with Fabio Bidini in the Artist Diploma program. His other musical influences include David Moroz and Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Paul is grateful for the support of the BC Arts Council.