BIOGRAPHIES

Marianna Shirinyan, Pianist  Marianna Shirinyan is one of the most creative and in sought after pianists in Europe today. Her vibrant and virtuoso musicianship puts her in demand, both as soloist and as chamber musician. Marianna plays with great sensitivity, understanding, technical brilliance and beauty of tone, which allows her to offer a wide range of repertoire. Her love for the music and her joy in sharing it with a larger audience are apparent in her performances.

She has received Danish Broadcasting Corporation’s prestigious P2 award for her contribution to Danish music life, the critics’ prize from the Association of Danish critics and just recently the Honorary Carl Nielsen award. Marianna is a frequent guest at a string of international music festivals, among them the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Schwetzinger Festspiele, MDR Summer Music Festival and the Festspillene in Bergen.

Marianna has garnered a reputation as a leading pianist of her generation through solo appearances with orchestras such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Oslo, Helsinki and Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestras, Potsdammer Kammerakademie, Göteborg Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, among others. She enjoyed collaborations with conductors such as Lawrence Foster, Zoltan Kocsis, Antonello Manacorda, Jun Märkl, Daniel Raiskin, Lan Shui, Thomas Søndergård, Krysztof Urbanski and Joshua Weilerstein.

Marianna Shirinyan has a bright discography. One of her later releases, the Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra by Louis Glass which she recorded together with the Rheinische Philharmonie Koblenz under the baton of Maestro Daniel Raiskin was awarded the P2 prize of the Danish radio.Marianna’s latest release Rachmaninov Suits for two pianos together with her former student Dominik Wizjan, released on Orchid classics has been highly praised by the reviewers and listeners alike.

Marianna is a professor of piano at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen and guest professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, in addition to curating several chamber music festivals across Europe.

Caitlin Broms-Jacobs, Oboist Renown for her “gorgeous singing tone” and “sensitive musicality”, (Winnipeg Free Press) Caitlin Broms-Jacobs enjoys a multifaceted career of orchestral, recital, chamber music, and concerto performances.  She is the principal oboist of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, a position she has held since 2009.  Caitlin has been lauded as “always sublime”, and “a delightfully musical player, with elegant tone and delivery” (Winnipeg Free Press).  Caitlin has appeared several times as a soloist with the MCO, playing concertos by Vivaldi, Bach, and others. Caitlin’s solo and chamber music performances were featured on the MCO’s 2021 livestream concert series, and her recent arrangement and performance with her MCO colleagues of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations was highly regarded.  In April 2022, Caitlin was  featured as soloist with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra for the premiere of Prayer in a Green Cathedral, a new oboe concerto written especially for her by one of Canada’s finest composers, Kevin Lau.

Caitlin can often be heard performing with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra as guest principal oboist; she has played countless concerts with the WSO, including numerous performances in the pit for the Manitoba Opera and Royal Winnipeg Ballet.  Caitlin has appeared on several occasions as a valued guest principal for the Calgary Philharmonic, as well as for the Group of 27 Chamber Orchestra.  She has performed with orchestras across Canada including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the National Ballet Orchestra and has performed frequently as principal for Canzona Chamber Choir and MusikBarock ensemble, playing oboe, oboe d’amore, and English Horn in concerts of music by J.S. Bach.

Caitlin served as principal oboist of the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra, and has played under esteemed conductors such as Andrey Boreyko, Jun Markl, JoAnn Falletta, Nello Santi, Yakov Kreizberg, Bramwell Tovey, Daniel Raiskin, and Anne Manson. Caitlin previously held the position of principal oboist of the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra. 

An avid chamber musician, Caitlin has presented numerous recitals in Winnipeg and across Canada, and has been featured for many seasons on Winnipeg’s Millennium recital series.  Her performances with pianist Madeline Hildebrand have been greatly appreciated for their expressive music making, compelling and unusual repertoire, as well as for the duo’s captivating spirit. 

Caitlin premiered contemporary works for oboe and English Horn for Groundswell New Music as a soloist and with chamber ensemble; her performances have been broadcast on CBC radio and Classic 107.   Caitlin was the Artistic Director and co-founder of the highly successful Liberty Village New Artist Series, a series of chamber music concerts held at the Academy of Spherical Arts in Toronto in 2009. 

Originally from Toronto, Caitlin studied with Keith Atkinson at the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Young Artists Performance Academy.  She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music where she studied with Richard Killmer. Caitlin furthered her studies with San Francisco Symphony Orchestra principal oboist Eugene Izotov.  

Sinfonia Toronto now in its 26th season, has toured twice in Europe, in the US, South America and China, receiving glowing reviews. It has released four CD’s, including a JUNO Award winner, and performs in many Ontario cities. Its extensive repertoire includes all the major string orchestra works of the 18th through 21st centuries, and it has premiered many new works. Under the baton of Nurhan Arman the orchestra’s performances present outstanding international guest artists and prominent Canadian musicians.

Maestro Nurhan Arman has conducted throughout Europe, Asia, South America, Canada and the US, returning regularly to many orchestras in Europe. Among the orchestras Maestro Arman has conducted are the Moscow Philharmonic, Deutsches Kammerorchester Frankfurt, Filarmonica Italiana, St. Petersburg State Hermitage Orchestra, Orchestre Regional d’Ile de France, Hungarian Symphony, Arpeggione Kammerorchester, Milano Classica and Belgrade Philharmonic.

Sinfonia Toronto respectfully acknowledges that we work in the Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation 

and the traditional territory of the Huron-Wendat and Haudenosaunee peoples