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2007-2008 GUEST ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES Shauna Rolston, Cellist appearing on October 26 www.shaunarolston.com
Having been named "Young Artist to Watch" by Musical America, celebrated cellist Shauna Rolston is considered to be one of the most compelling musicians of her generation. Described as impressive, fearless, and provocative - her work powerful, intimate and pure- Shauna Rolston has been captivating audiences with her passion for music since the age of two.
Following her formative studies at the renowned Banff Centre, Shauna earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History from Yale University and a Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music. At Yale, she studied with the distinguished cellist and pedagogue, Aldo Parisot, and served as his teaching assistant. Since Shauna’s New York City Town Hall debut at the age of 16, she continues to perform regularly in major concert venues and festivals worldwide. Recent highlights include recitals in Finland and Iceland during Governor General Adrienne Clarkson’s state visit and at New York’s Lincoln Center, as well as concerto performances with the China Philharmonic, Banff Festival, Winnipeg, Victoria, Vancouver, Toronto and Utah Symphonies.
Gifted prodigy turned masterful innovator, Shauna is an enthusiastic advocate and performer of the music of our time. She has given the world premieres of an astounding number of works written for her. Her CD “This is the Colour of My Dreams”, which features music by contemporary Canadian composers, won Best Classical CD at the 2002 West Coast Music Awards. Her most recent CD “Shauna and Friends” features arrangements of popular favorites for solo cello and an ensemble of 12 cellists by Claude Kenneson. Her latest video “A Pairing of Swans” with prima ballerina Evelyn Hart (directed by Veronica Tennant) was premiered at the 2004 International Moving Pictures Festival, and two of Shauna’s previous videos “smokin fholes” with Squeezplay, and “Words Fail” with dancer and choreographer, Peggy Baker, are featured regularly on BRAVO.
In addition to her busy concert and recording career, Shauna is a passionate and devoted educator. Much in demand as a guest master class instructor, Shauna is also a Professor of Cello and Co-Head of the String Department at the University of Toronto and a Visiting Artist for the Music and Sound Programs at The Banff Centre.
Anya Alexeyev, Pianist appearing on November 16
Anya Alexeyev received her
education at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where she studied with
Dmitri Bashkirov.
She then went on to complete a Performer’s Diploma at the Royal College of Music in London, England in 1993 and earned her an Associate Certificate from the same institution a year later. A winner of many awards, Alexeyev has spent the past 12 years performing internationally, playing solo recitals, concertos, chamber music, and contemporary music.
She has performed with some of the world’s most prestigious orchestras such as the BBC Philharmonic, Moscow State Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Vienna Chamber, The Philharmonia, Royal Scottish National, Deutschland Radio, City of Birmingham Symphony, Bournemouth Symphony and Sinfonietta, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, London Mozart Players, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, English Chamber, Malaysian Philharmonic, Belgian National Symphony, Sinfonia Toronto and Quebec Symphony. In 1995, Alexeyev premiered Sir Paul McCartney’s first solo piano piece, A Leaf, which was later released on CD for EMI Classics. She regularly performs live for BBC radio and has also been broadcast by GMTV (UK), PBS (USA), CBC (Canada), Deutschland Radio, and a number of other radio stations in Britain, Finland, Malaysia, and Russia.
Phoebe Tsang, Violinist
appearing on December 14 www.phoebetsang.com
Violinist Phoebe Tsang is an active soloist, chamber musician and Principal Second Violinist of the Sinfonia Toronto chamber orchestra. She is currently the co-Artistic Director and co-Founder of the Alicier Arts Chamber Music series. In recent years she has been soloist with the Toronto Philharmonia, the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Orchestra, the Chinese Overseas Philharmonic, and for Esprit Orchestra New Wave and Hot Wave Festivals. In the 2006-07 season she will appear twice as soloist with Sinfonia Toronto. The student and teaching assistant of the late Professor Lorand Fenyves, Ms. Tsang continues to take lessons from the example of her lovely students aged 4 and upwards! A native of Hong Kong, Phoebe Tsang was raised in England and currently resides in Toronto. Her passion for poetry was first nurtured by her mother's love of English literature, followed by a number of teachers to whom she owes her informal education, including most recently Robert Priest and Allan Briesmaster. Her experience as journalist for a UK architectural magazine is another influence - Phoebe also holds a degree in Architecture from the University of London, England. Karen Ouzounian, Cellist appearing on February 1
Toronto cellist Karen
Ouzounian is currently completing her graduate studies at The Juilliard
School where she studies with Timothy Eddy. She has served as principal
cellist of the Juilliard Symphony, and she has frequently performed as a
soloist and chamber musician in The Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Paul
Recital Hall, the Juilliard Theatre and Morse Recital Hall. Winner of numerous awards and scholarships, Ms. Ouzounian has received the Grunin Prize and the Presidential Distinction from the Juilliard School for the top cello audition. She has also received prizes at the Canadian Music Competitions and the Ontario Music Festivals Association. She has performed the Beethoven Triple Concerto with Sinfonia Toronto under the direction of Nurhan Arman, as well as the Elgar Cello Concerto with the Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Ouzounian has performed solo and chamber music recitals in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Guatemala, Italy, Holland, Germany and Lebanon, and has been featured on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s “Up & Coming” music program. During her summers, Ms. Ouzounian has studied at the Marlboro Festival, Holland Music Sessions, the Sarasota Music Festival, the Casalmaggiore International Festival in Italy, the Banff Centre for the Arts and the Orford Arts Centre. In Masterclasses she has worked with renowned professors, including Ralph Kirshbaum, Frans Helmerson, Janos Starker and Aldo Parisot. This spring she participated in the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove (England), and has been invited to perform in its Open Chamber Music Seminar in September 2005. This Summer Ms. Ouzounian will study at the Taos School of Music, where she will have the opportunity to work with the Takács, Vermeer and Borromeo String Quartets, Robert McDonald and Michael Tree. Mary- Elizabeth Brown, Violinist appearing on March 7 In addition to her position as
concertmaster of Sinfonia Toronto, Mary-Elizabeth is currently Associate
Concertmaster of Orchestra London Canada as well as Concertmaster of the
Youth Orchestra of the Americas. In June 2007 she assumed a new position
as Principal Se Ms. Brown holds an Hons. B.Mus, cum laude, from the University of Toronto, and a M.Mus (Performance) from the Université de Montréal. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants from the University of Toronto, the City of London, DePaul University, the Hazel Crydermann-Wees Foundation, the Université de Montréal, Fonds des Amis de l'Art and the American Suzuki Foundation. She has soloed in masterclasses with Regis Pasqier, Pierre Amoyal, Sylvia Rosenberg, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Pamela Frank, Pinchas Zukerman and the late Lorand Fenyves, among others. She has appeared with the London Youth Symphony, Orchestra London Canada and the Banff Festival Chamber Orchestra. As a chamber musician, she has been heard on CBC Radio and at major festivals across Canada including the Scotia Festival, Le Festival Internationale du Domaine Forget and the Banff Summer Arts Festival. She has worked with members of the St. Lawrence, Orford, Artur Leblanc and Brentano Quartets as well as the Gryphon Trio, William Aide and Laurence Lesser. A two-time laureate of the Canadian Music Competition National Finals, she plays on a 1737 Guidantus violin and an F.N. Voirin bow on loan from the Banff Centre for the Arts. Heather Schmidt, Pianist and Composer appearing on April 4 www.heatherschmidt.com Heather Schmidt has
emerged as one of the most gifted virtuoso concert pianists and one of the
finest composers of her generation. She has been described by the press as
"poised and utterly musical", "a musical talent without match", "a great
artist", and "as much a pianist in the professional sense as she is a
composer". Heather began piano lessons at age four and made her first public appearance at age six. She started composing at the age of 5 and came to attention of the distinguished Canadian composer, Allan Bell, with whom she studied at the University of Calgary. She subsequently entered Indiana State University where she received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees with double majors in composition and piano performance. In 1996, at the age of 21, she became the youngest student to ever receive a Doctor of Music degree from this institution. She subsequently completed two years of professional studies at Juilliard in New York City, studying composition with Milton Babbitt and piano with Yoheved Kaplinsky. Heather is in great demand for solo piano recital and concerto engagements throughout Canada and abroad. She has received national and international recognition as a versatile performer, one who excels in the performance of both traditional and contemporary repertoire -a “talented player and composer” who “keenly feels the compositional consequences of every choice that a composer makes as a piece unfolds”. Her many performance awards include first prize in the Eckhardt-Gramatté Competition, and First Place, the Audience Choice Award, and the Maestro’s Choice Millennium Foundation Award at the Canadian Concerto Competition. Recent and upcoming solo and concerto performances include major recitals in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Chicago, New York and Dallas, and concerto engagements include appearances with the Manitoba Chamber and Montreal Chamber Orchestras, Orchestra London, the Hamilton and Calgary Philharmonic Orchestras, and the Windsor, Edmonton, Newfoundland, Red Deer Symphony, Kingston and Aguascalientes (Mexico) Symphony Orchestras. Heather is recognized as a virtuoso concert pianist. She is also recognized as a highly successful composer, a combination reminiscent of such illustrious composer-pianist predecessors as Buxteude, Schumann, Liszt and Rachmaninoff. She has also been composer-in-residence for numerous short-term residencies and festivals, including at the Strings of the Future Festival in Ottawa, the Niagara Symphony, Orchestra London Canada, the Schloss Elmau Festival in Germany and the Banff Centre, and is the current composer-in-residence of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra. Her many prestigious awards in composition include a Juno nomination in the category of “Best Classical Composition” (2003), prizewinner of the Polytech Choir’s 100th Anniversary Composition Competition (Finland, 2003), three consecutive BMI Awards (1993, 1994, 1995), SOCAN Composer Awards (1994, 1997), a Fleck Fellow from the Banff Centre (2001), the Zwilich Prize in the International League of Women Composers Competition (1994, 1996), the Dean’s Composition Prize at Indiana University (1993, 1994) and the 1994 Robert Fleming Prize from Canada Council. She has received commissions from sources such as the CBC, Canada Council, the Alberta Foundation, Westdeutsches Rundfunk in Germany, the Elaine Kaufman Cultural Center, the New York State Council for the Arts, the Harvard Musical Association, and the Ester Honens Foundation. Several commercial recordings feature Heather as composer and/or pianist. The Amernet Quartet’s performance of her string quartet Phantoms is available on a CD entitled “Music from Banff – Live from Carnegie Hall” (Marquis Label, EMI Canada). Heather’s Cello Concerto (1998) was recorded by cellist Shauna Rolston with the CBC Vancouver Orchestra under Mario Bernardi, and was released in 2001 by CBC Records on “This is the Colour of My Dreams”, a CD which won Best Classical CD Recording at the 2002 West Coast Music Awards. Heather’s first solo piano CD “Solus,” dedicated to some of her own compositions as well as works by other Canadian composers (CMC Centrediscs label) was launched to rave reviews and won Opus Magazine’s Best Classical CD (2003). In addition to performance and composition, Heather is committed to education and community outreach. From 1999 to 2001, she was adjunct Assistant Professor of Music at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, where she taught private piano, keyboard harmony, and chamber music. Judy Kang, Violinist appearing on May 9 www.judykang.com Critically acclaimed violinist Judy Kang appeared on the music scene at the age of ten, in her a performance with the National Arts Center Orchestra. The Ottawa Citizen enthusiastically stated, "If there was a star tonight, it was Judy Kang. Blessed with a gift for the violin that is exceptional, she moves about the instrument at her disposal with an ease that is awe-inspiring." Since
her first solo performance at the age of four, Ms. Kang has performed with
major orchestras and ensembles around the world including the Toronto
Symphony, National Arts Center Orchestra, Montreal Chamber Orchestra, Ottawa
Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, CBC Vancouver Orchestra, M She has given solo recitals in major cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago, and Los Angeles, and across Canada. Ms. Kang has performed with world-renowned musicians including esteemed artists such as Claude Frank, Kyung-Wha Chung, David Geber, Lynn Harell, Cho-Liang Lin, Leon Fleisher, Richard Goode, Isidore Cohen, and the late Felix Galimir. She has also worked intensely with notable composers; Leon Kirchner, Richard Danielpour, Alexander Goehr, Louis Karchin, and Pierre Boulez. Mr. Boulez personally selected Ms. Kang to work with him and to perform in what resulted in successful culminating concert. The New York Times raved, "The violinist, Judy Kang, who played with assurance and imagination, became the wizardly master of an entire sound environment." Canadian composer Michael Matthews has written a violin concerto expressly for Ms. Kang. As a member of the prestigious Musicians from Marlboro, she has toured extensively with members of the Guarneri and Mendelssohn String Quartets. Other festival appearances include at the Ravinia Festival, the Pablo Casals Festival, Bargemusic, Aspen Music Festival, Evian Music Festival, Banff Music Festival Orford Festival, Ste. Petronille Festival, the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, the Dame Myra Hess Series, Lanaudiere International Festival, Manchester International Music Festival, and the Focus Festival in New York. She has given master classes at the Sean Jackson and Friends Festival for the development of classical music in Barbados. Ms. Kang made her New York debut in Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall in 2003. Other great hall performances include Tokyo Suntory Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Isaac Stern and Zankel Halls (Carnegie Hall), Hoam Arts Hall, Glenn Gould Studio, Town Hall, Seoul National Arts Center, the Sejong Cultural Arts Center, Wigmore Hall, Salle Cortot in Paris, as well as at the Metropolitan and Guggenheim Museums. Ms. Kang was accepted to study on full scholarship at the Curtis Institute of Music at the age of 11. She graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree at the age of 17 as one of the youngest graduates in the institute's history. She was granted the Lily Foldes Scholarship from the Juilliard School, where she received a Master of Music degree. She became the first recipient, with full scholarship, of the Artist Diploma at the Manhattan School of Music. Her mentors include Sylvia Rosenberg, David Geber, Robert Mann, Aaron Rosand, and Lorand Fenyves. Since winning her first competition at the age of 5, Ms. Kang went on to capture the Grand-Prize as well as the "Best Interpretation" prize at the CBC Competition for Young Performers. Other awards include; Grand-Prize of the Canadian Music Competition (several years in a row) and top prizes at the Nielsen, Dong-A, Kreisler, and Naumburg International Violin Competitions. Ms. Kang has been the subject of many newspaper and magazine articles and has appeared on television network broadcasts CBC and CNN. She has released two critically acclaimed CDs on the CBC Records Label. She is frequently heard throughout Canada and the US, as well as internationally on CBC, WQXR (New York), BBC, and KBS radio stations among others. Ms. Kang is the recipient of numerous scholarships and grants from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Winspear Foundation, the Anne Burrows Foundation for Young Musicians, the Barnett Foundation Prize (Chicago), and the Canada Council for the Arts, among others. In 2005, she received the Sylva Gelber Prize awarded to the most talented Canadian musician under the age of 30. She performs on the 1689 Baumgartner Stradivarius, generously awarded by the Canada Council. Visit our popular website at myspace.com/sinfoniatoronto
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cGill Chamber
Orchestra, Puchon Philharmonic, L'Orchestre Symphonique de Laval, Thirteen
Strings, Vancouver Symphony, Quebec Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic,
Euro-Asian Philharmonic, Sinfonia Toronto, and L'Orchestre Symphonique
Metropolitain, and the Korean Chamber Ensemble, among others. 