2024 Guest Artists and Faculty
Jeremy Denk
Jeremy Denk is one of America's foremost pianists, hailed by the New York Times as an artist 'you want to hear no matter what he performs'. Denk is also a New York Times bestselling author, winner of both the MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship and the Avery Fisher Prize, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Ying Quartet
The Grammy Award-winning Ying Quartet occupies a position of unique prominence in the classical
music world, combining brilliantly communicative performances with a fearlessly imaginative view of
chamber music in today's world. Now in its third decade, the Quartet has established itself as an
ensemble of the highest musical qualifications. The Quartet’s performances regularly take place in many of the world's most important concert halls; at the same time, the Ying’s belief that concert music can also be a meaningful part of everyday life has drawn the foursome to perform in settings as diverse as the workplace, schools, juvenile prisons, and the White House.
Greenwich Trio
Greenwich Trio brings together Slovenian violinist Lana Trotovšek, Canadian cellist Heather Tuach, who replaced original cellist Stjepan Hauser, and Japanese pianist Yoko Misumi. Since its formation in 2006, the ensemble has earned a distinguished reputation, garnering awards such as the Solti Foundation and Tunnell Trust Awards, as well as the top prize at the Beethoven Society of Europe Chamber Music Competition. Their recent recording of the complete Brahms Trios for Linn Records achieved critical acclaim, receiving five stars from BBC Music Magazine, Classica, Diapason, and more.
Duo Concertante
For twenty-four years through live performances and acclaimed recordings, violinist Nancy Dahn and pianist Timothy Steeves have built an international career as artist and life partners in the Canadian chamber ensemble Duo Concertante. Outstanding musicians, champions of new music, and visionary artistic directors, Nancy and Tim forge a musical legacy through live performances, recordings and a determination to provoke thought about our world through music. Known for the passion and brilliance of their performances, critics have praised Nancy Dahn and Timothy Steeves’ “artistry, poetry, and impeccable technique” (La Scena Musicale) and “deeply integrated performances that flow naturally as if the music were being created on the spot” (Gramophone). Their busy touring schedule across North America, Europe, and China has led to performances at Wigmore Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Koerner Hall, Roy Thomson Hall, the National Arts Centre, Shanghai City Theatre and the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing. Nancy and Tim’s thirteen commercial CDs include a 2011 JUNO award winner and the ECMA Classical Recording of the Year for 2017, 2018 and 2019. Their newest release of new Canadian works inspired by the climate emergency, Ecology of Being(Marquis Classics, March 2022), has been praised as “world-class…a powerful and deeply moving album” (WholeNote), and “wonderful music, superbly recorded... a balm for the soul” (Audiophilia). Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada, they hold John Lewis Paton Distinguished Professorships at Memorial University and are also Artistic Directors of the Tuckamore Festival.
Renée Jolles
Hailed as a “real star” by the New York Times, Renée Jolles is the Wegman Family Professor of Violin at The Eastman School of Music, a concertmaster of the Grammy-award winning Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and a concert artist with the Jolles Duo, Bach Virtuosi, as well as several chamber groups and festivals throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia. Ms. Jolles is an Artistic Director of Eastman’s annual Holocaust Remembrance Concert and the Eastman Virtuosi chamber series. Committed to new music, she can be heard as soloist and chamber artist on over twenty-five recordings as well as live radio broadcasts, now on the WQXR website, as soloist in three concerto premieres in Carnegie Hall with Orpheus.
Mark Fewer
Violinist Mark Fewer leads a multi-disciplined life in music. Violin soloist, chamber musician, orchestral leader, artistic director, conductor, arranger, teacher, jazz violinist, recording artist and occasional radio host, he has performed worldwide to great critical acclaim. Described as “intrepid” (The Globe and Mail), “genre-bending” (National Post), “profound” (The WholeNote), and “freaky good”(The Gazette), he has performed around the world in halls such as Carnegie, Wigmore and Salle Pleyel, and is equally at home in recital venues such as Bartok House (Budapest) to Le Poisson Rouge (NYC) to The Forum (Taipei).
Sharon Wei
Violist Sharon Wei is a JUNO winner and multi-faceted musician. She has performed as soloist and chamber musician throughout Canada and is the violist of the acclaimed New Orford String Quartet. Sharon was on faculty at Yale and Stanford University and is currently Associate Professor at Western University.
Vernon Regehr
A native of Winnipeg, cellist Vernon Regehr is an active recitalist, chamber and orchestral musician, conductor, and teacher. Regehr is on faculty at Memorial University’s School of Music and serves as the musical advisor and conductor of Kittiwake Dance Theatre.
Tom Allen
Tom Allen was born in Montreal. He worked as a bass trombonist in New York City when there were still places you just didn’t go, toured with the Great Lakes Brass and began working for the CBC on his 30th birthday, a very long time ago. He has written three books, created and hosted countless shows for theatre companies and orchestras, as well as touring a series of chamber musicals that includes The Missing Pages, Being Lost and JS Bach’s Long Walk in the Snow. He can’t imagine there’s anything else you’d like to know, but if there is you could visit his website, www.tomtomallen.com.
Lori Gemmell
Lori Gemmell started as a street-corner busker in Montreal and wound up playing regularly with the Toronto Symphony, The National Ballet of Canada Orchestra and, until there wasn’t one, anymore, she was Principal Harpist with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony. Lori teaches at Wilfred Laurier University and has a passion for new music.
She recently (with violinist Sheila Jaffé) premiered the Partita for Violin and Harp by Caroline Lizotte. The late composer R. Murray Schafer, honoured her with the gift of his Four Songs for Mezzo-Soprano and Harp, which she also premiered. Lori has made four solo recordings as well as recording with songwriters Kevin Fox and Feist.