“Majesty, passion and excitement. Inspiring!” – Wiener Zeitung (Vienna)
“Artistry, poetry and impeccable technique” – La scena musicale (Montreal)
The Canadian chamber ensemble Duo Concertante take their name from the inscription over Beethoven’s “Kreutzer” sonata, “in stilo molto concertante,” which implies a relationship of two equal, dynamic voices.
Violinist Nancy Dahn and pianist Timothy Steeves have performed more than 700 concerts across North America, Europe, Central America and China, receiving accolades at home and abroad for “deeply integrated performances that flow naturally as if the music were being created on the spot” (Gramophone) filled with “grace and fire… fury and repose…a triumphant mass of non-stop energy “(WholeNote).
Among their 13 acclaimed recordings are their 3-CD set Beethoven: Complete Sonatas for Violin and Piano (Marquis) considered “beautiful…a reference in…contemporary performance” (Musical Toronto) and a “miracle of… knowledge and poetry” (Gramophone), which is broadcast regularly on CBC Radio 2. Duo Concertante have twelve other acclaimed recordings on the ATMA, Centrediscs, and Marquis labels, including their two-disc set of J.S. Bach’s Sonatas for Violin and Keyboard, which received the first of three consecutive ECMAs for Classical Recording of the Year, followed by Incarnation in 2018 and Perfect Light in 2019. Their Franz Schubert: Music for Violin and Piano was selected by CBC Music as one of “Canada’s Top 20 Classical Albums of 2020.”
Their 2022 album, Ecology of Being features music inspired by the climate emergency written especially for Duo Concertante. Praised as “a powerful and deeply moving album performed with world-class expressiveness and musicality “(WholeNote), the music of Ecology of Being also spurred a new interest in combining music and film. Melissa Hui’s “Ecology of Being”, for example, became a 21-minute film directed by Nicola Hawkins, and won Best Experimental Film and Best Original Score at the 2020 IndieX Filmfest (Los Angeles). Their 2022 film “End of the Line” (with music by Jessie Montgomery and part of a larger film project called SOLACE) was an award winner at the Los Angeles Women’s Independent Film Festival.
As champions of Canadian music, Duo Concertante have few equals, commissioning sixty-nine new works and original arrangements for violin and piano by leading composers. Their 2011 recording (Wild Bird, Marquis) of Murray Schafer’s Duo for Violin & Piano won the JUNO award for Classical Composition of the Year, and they have had works written for them by preeminent Canadian composers such as Andrew P. MacDonald, Kati Agócs, Chan Ka Nin, Omar Daniel, Alice Ping Yee Ho, Jocelyn Morlock, Kelly-Marie Murphy, Jean Lesage, and many more. Duo Concertante regularly perform new Canadian works alongside standard repertoire in such prestigious venues as Wigmore Hall (London), Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall (New York City), Shanghai City Theatre, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Roy Thomson Hall and the Four Seasons Performing Arts Centre (Toronto), the National Arts Centre (Ottawa), and the Forbidden City Concert Hall (Beijing), bringing international attention to Canadian composers and their works.
Duo Concertante are the founders and artistic directors of the Tuckamore Festival, a major contributor to the cultural life of Newfoundland and Labrador, which welcomes preeminent artists and young musicians from around the world for two weeks of performances, intensive coaching, school tours and collaborative events. In addition to their work with Tuckamore, Duo Concertante regularly perform at other festivals such as the Ottawa International Chamberfest, Cactus Pear Music Festival, Toronto Summer Music, Festival of the Sound, Indian River Festival, Domaine Forget and Music Niagara.