Ottawa Chamber Music Society

Artist Bios

Joseph Petric – accordion

Joseph Petric’s performances at premier festivals and venues, including Tanglewood, Boston’s Seiji Ozawa Hall, Washington, DC’s Phillips Gallery and Kennedy Center, London’s Southbank and Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, have transformed appraisal of the concert accordion. His 180 commissioned works and annotated bibliography of over 1000 transcriptions, form the single largest contribution to the accordion repertoire. He has singlehandedly created the electroacoustic accordion canon. His collaborations have redefined the accordion concerto. Demand for his concerto commissions has led to solo engagements with many major orchestras in Canada, the United States, England and Sweden.

His solo recitals range from commissioned works with Bach, to electroacoustic Hatzis alongside Rameau. In 2005, he performed Bach’s six organ sonatas in Montreal and subsequent Bach Festivals, the first accordionist to perform these works. He has recorded over 20 CDs, including a 2003 Juno nomination, his videos have been broadcast in Europe and Canada, and he has been heard on radio in Canada, the United States and Europe.

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Dafnis Prieto – percussion

A native of Santa Clara, Cuba, Dafnis Prieto studied there as a youngster at the School of Fine Arts and later at the National School of Music in Havana, receiving a thorough classical education. At the same time, he developed an ever-broadening knowledge of Afro-Cuban music, jazz and world music from no academic sources. He now has behind him more than ten years of professional work, going back to his first European tours with a succession of talented pianists including Carlos Maza, Ramon Valle and the Columna B Group. He has performed with some of the world's great jazz artists such as Jane Bunnett and The Spirit of Havana, Steve Coleman and Five Elements, to name a few.

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Shanghai Quartet

Formed in Shanghai over 20 years ago, the versatile Shanghai Quartet is acclaimed for multicultural innovation and melding of Eastern music with Western repertoire, spanning genres from traditional Chinese folk music to Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, and new commissions from, among others, Lowell Lieberman and Bright Sheng. The Quartet has performed on premier concert stages in Europe, North and South America, and Asia. The 20th Anniversary tour featured the Beethoven Project: East Meets West, a performance of Beethoven's string quartets in six concerts around the world, the first time ever in China.They have been ensemble-in-residence at the Tanglewood and Ravinia festivals, appeared at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, and in PBS TV's Great Performers series. The Quartet's championing of new music includes a commission with Chamber Music America. The Quartet's extensive discography ranges from Chinese folk songs to Beethoven and Mendelssohn. The members of the Quartet are violinists Weigang Li and Yi-Wen Jiang, violist Honggang Li, and cellist Nicholas Tzavaras. Quartet-in-Residence at Montclair State University, New Jersey, they are also visiting professors at the Shanghai and Central conservatories in China.

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Kenneth Simpson – percussion

Ken Simpson is a native of Ottawa and continues to live here with his wife Elizabeth and daughters Olivia and Veronica. He studied at the University of Ottawa graduating in 1985 as well as taking private studies at McGill University. His teachers included Ian Bernard and Pierre Beluse. He currently plays with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, Capital BrassWorks, Opera Lyra Orchestra and with the Bel Canto Wind Quintet for their educational concerts. His previous engagements include Professor of Percussion at the University of Ottawa from 1988-2004, as well as being a founding member of the percussion duo Bangers and Smash. He is an endorser of Zildjian cymbals of Boston, Mass.

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Stephen Sitarski – violin

Stephen Sitarski, a versatile violinist and musician, is comfortable playing from Baroque to jazz, performing solos and ensemble works, conducting, consulting and doing administration. Concertmaster of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, he has been guest concertmaster of other Canadian orchestras and is frequently invited to lead freelance ensembles. As soloist, he has performed with the Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Niagara, Kitchener-Waterloo and Toronto symphony orchestras. He has commissioned and premiered violin concertos by Canadian composers Glenn Buhr and Kelly-Marie Murphy. He is first violin of the Canadian Chamber Ensemble and Toronto’s Art of Time Ensemble, an arranger for the Emperor Quartet and Quartetto Gelato, and regularly participates in chamber groups and festivals. He teaches at the Glenn Gould Professional School of Music in Toronto, Sir Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada. He is heard on recordings and radio, and has performed many television and film scores. 2006 marks his 9th consecutive appearance at the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival.

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Emily Smethurst – Flute

Flutist Emily Smethurst joined the National Arts Centre Orchestra as second flute in September 2002 at the age of 23.

Born and raised in North Vancouver, she studied with Camille Churchfield, principal flute of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. She completed her Bachelor of Music degree with distinction at McGill University, where her teachers were Carolyn Christie and Timothy Hutchins of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. While pursuing a Masters degree at Indiana University studying with Thomas Robertello, she won the job with NACO.

Emily was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada in 2001 and 2002, and toured Europe with the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra for three sessions. Additional summer studies were at the Banff Centre and performing with the National Academy Orchestra in Hamilton, Ont.

Emily is a member of the Ayorama wind quintet, performing educational concerts throughout the Ottawa area, and is a regular participant at the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival. She has also performed on numerous occasions with Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra.

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Lynn Stodola – Piano

Lynn Stodola was born in Chicago and received her early musical training at the American Conservatory of Music. She completed her graduate studies at the Juilliard School in New York .

While in New York she assisted as the official accompanist in the Master Classes of Leonard Rose, Nathan Milstein, Ivan Galamian and Henryk Szerying, gaining wide recognition as a chamber musician, recitalist and soloist.

Ms. Stodola’s performances have received critical acclaim from the New York Times: “excellent pianist – first class performance, intense and technically commanding”, and the Chicago Sun times: “stunning debut…Ms. Stodola showed herself possessed of intelligence, bravura and beauty of spirit.” As a soloist Ms. Stodola has appeared on the Symphony Nova Scotia Mozart Series with Maestro Georg Tintner, and with several orchestras in the U.S. including the Chicago Civic Orchestra, the Arkansas Philharmonic and the North Short (Chicago) Philharmonic. She has performed with her husband, violinist Philippe Djokic, in major cities throughout the United States, Canada, England, Belgium, Holland and the former Yugoslavia. They have recorded frequently for CBC radio and television.

Ms. Stodola has performed in music festivals in Alaska (Juneau Jazz and Classics), Rhode Island (Kingston Music Festival), the New Brunswick Summer Music Festival and the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival. She is currently Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Music at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and director of the “Chamber Music at Dalhousie” concert series.

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The 5 Browns

“One family, five pianos and 50 fingers add up to the biggest classical music sensation in years,” wrote The New York Post in 2005. The “Fab Five”, siblings Ryan, Melody, Gregory, Deondra and Desirae, each a virtuoso concert pianist that made their debut as early as age 9 with major symphony orchestras, bring together five distinctive talents, honed at New York’s Juilliard School, where for five years they studied simultaneously. The unique quintet, performing on five pianos and in various combinations, swept the classical world with the release of their first recording that topped the Billboard charts and rated them as one of the 2005 Top Cassical Artists. They are realizing their dream of introducing classical music to a new, wider audience. Critics have hailed their artistry and fresh approach and sold-out audiences across the United States, in the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan have responded with enthusiasm. In concert halls, stadiums, schools and civic auditoriums, almost a third of their audience has seldom, if ever, attended a classical music concert, and another third is college-age or younger.

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Turtle Island String Quartet

Founded in 1985 and deriving its name from Native American creation mythology, the Turtle Island String Quartet has become a unique force in the creation of new trends in chamber music for strings, fusing the classical with contemporary American musical styles. The Quartet’s forays into jazz, folk, bluegrass, swing, be-bop, new age, rock, hip-hop, and Latin American and Indian music, have resulted in a repertoire of arrangements and originals, more than 12 recordings, soundtracks for major motion pictures, TV and radio credits, and collaborations with eminent artists such as clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera, the Ying Quartet and Parsons Dance Company. The group enjoys international appeal, particularly in Europe, and received the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Recording of the Year. The members of the Quartet are violinists David Balakrishnan and Evan Price, violist Mads Tolling and cellist Mark Summer. All conservatory trained musicians, they are also improvisers, composers and arrangers, dedicated to refining their skills through "re-composition" of works by the old masters, development of repertoire by contemporary cutting edge composers, performances and recordings with major symphonic ensembles, and education.

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Zapp String Quartet

The Zapp String Quartet specializes in improvised music, jazz, rock, ethnic music, contemporary music and combinations of these styles. The members, violinists Jasper Le Clercq and Friemar Hitzer, violist Oene van Geel and cellist Emile Visser, are improvisers and soloists in their own right and all compose or arrange for the quartet.

Zapp adds to the classical string quartet tradition its groovy way of playing and percussion techniques, and may sound like a heavy rock band, a Bulgarian folk group or a be-bopping jazz band. Zapp has collaborated in many projects with musicians and groups such as Rian de Waal, James Campbell, Eric Vaarzon Morel & Eric Vloeimans, Zuco 103, and David Kweksilber & Jozef Dumoulin. Their new program, Passaggio, with accompanying CD released in November 2005, was presented at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Zapp commissioned new music for thisproject from eminent Dutch musicians and composers such as Guus Janssen, Ernst Reijseger, Corrie van Binsbergen, Randal Corsen and Martin Fondse. In December 2005, Zapp received the prestigious Kersjesprijs 2005 at an award ceremony in the Concertgebouw.

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Laurence Kayaleh – violin

Since her acclaimed Paris debut at the Théâtre du Chatelet, Laurence Kayaleh has appeared as soloist with leading conductors and major orchestras at prestigious venues in Europe, North and South America, Mexico and Japan. The impressive list includes Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Hall with the Russian National Orchestra under Mikhail Platen, Washington DC’s Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Slat kin, the Orchestra symphonious de Montréal under Charles Detroit, and the Basel Symphony under Mario Venango. Recently, she performed as soloist with the Bergamo Symphony Orchestra in Italy and with the Mexico City Philharmonic at the Creation International Music Festival. She gave recitals in Montreal, Dublin, Zurich and Messina (Sicily), and 20th century chamber music concerts at Montreal's Canadian Centre of Architecture. She plays a 1742 Guarnerius violin once owned by famed violinist and teacher Carl Flesch. In 1996, she received the Nyon City Artistic Award (Switzerland), and in 2000, was selected an honoured member of the Who’s Who Historical Society.

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Melanie Conly – soprano

Melanie Conly is enthusiastically acclaimed by audiences and often lauded by critics for her silvery voice that can also be heard on Simon Wynberg’s recently released self-titled CD. Performing widely in Canada and the United States, she commands a diverse repertoire of opera, musical theatre, oratorio, recital and new music. Last season’s engagements included concerts at the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival and the Kairos Music Festival in Washington, and performances in Toronto with the Talisker Chamber Players and Tryptych Productions. Particular highlights were a CBC broadcast concert featuring the music of P.D.Q. Bach with Peter Schickele, and a performance of the Villa-Lobos Bachianas Brasileiras for soprano and eight cellos. This summer she will appear again at the Kairos Music Festival and will make her debut at the Malibu Coast Chamber Music Festival in California. She maintains a class of piano and vocal students in her hometown Toronto and while travelling she will also be teaching and giving masterclasses.

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Richard Raymond - piano

Richard Raymond is a music lover's dream. His playing is reminiscent of history's great pianists. Its depth, passion, virtuosity and individuality combine to set him apart from others of his generation.

Richard Raymond has won virtually every award there is to win in Canada. In 1990 he won the Montreal Symphony Orchestra Competition, as well as the "International Stepping Stone" of the Canadian Music Competition. In 1991 he captured all the top prizes in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporations Young Performer's Competition. In 1992 he was finally recognized on the international scene: He became only the second Canadian to win the prestigious Montreal International Competition triumphing over 49 contestants from 18 countries. Soon after, he won the Chamber Music Prize at the Van Cliburn Competition, the first award ever to go to a Canadian artist in this competition. Mr. Raymond received major prizes at the prestigious 1998 William Kapell International Piano Competition (United States) and the 1999 Vianna da Motta Competition (Portugal). He was one out of four winners in the 2003 International Web Concert Hall Competition. He is the 1998 recipient of the prestigious Virginia Parker Prize awarded by the Canada Council.

Raymond's performances with the Montreal Symphony, the Toronto Symphony, and essentially every major orchestra in Canada have been met with great excitement. Recitals, festival appearances and chamber music engagements have taken him across Canada, to Italy, France and the United States. Debuts at the Lincoln Center in New York, at the Ruhr Klavier-Festival in Germany, In Paris, France, and with the Shangai Symphony Orchestra were all memorable events.

Richard Raymond has produced five compact discs for the Analekta and Musica Viva labels. His second CD, dedicated to the works of Franz Liszt, was nominated Best CD of the year at the 1998 East Coast Music Awards. Mr. Raymond was nominated Artist of the year at the 1998 OPUS Awards in Montreal. The Dallas Morning News gave his Chopin “Waltzes” CD a special Grade A rating in May 2003 and hailed it as being “polished, highly poetic”. They go on to say that his performances of the Chopin Waltzes “never fail to be music rather than display pieces”. Richard Raymond’s newest CD featuring the Reubke Piano Sonata in B-flat minor and Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No.21 (“Waldstein”) was released in late 2003 by Analekta.

Raymond studied with Masters like the Great American Pedagogue Leon Fleisher, Marc Durand, and John Perry. He took first prize in piano and chamber music at the "Conservatoire de Musique du Quebec" in Montreal, and has a Master's degree from the "Universite de Montreal" and an Artist Diploma from the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto and the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore. Raymond is currently Chair of the Piano Area and Associate Professor at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University in Montreal.

Richard Raymond is one of those rare artists who employs his virtuosity to express the full spectrum of human emotions. His technical brilliance combined with an intense passion for music-making serves as a conduit through which he reaches the hearts and souls of listeners.

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Kenneth Slowik – cello, baryton

Kenneth Slowik is artistic director of the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society in Washington, DC. He is a founding member of the Smithsonian Chamber Players, the Axelrod and Smithson quartets, the Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra, and the Castle Trio, and appears frequently with Anner Bylsma's ensemble L’Archibudelli. He has been a soloist with numerous orchestras, including the National Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, and the Cleveland Orchestra. Recently, he has been devoting increasing time to conducting oratorio, opera and the orchestral repertoire. His extensive discography, spanning composers from Monteverdi and Bach to Schoenberg and Mahler, includes more than sixty recordings, many of them international prize winners, featuring him as cellist, conductor, violist da gamba, baryton player, and collaborative keyboardist; his critically praised liner notes accompany over half of these releases. A member of the University of Maryland faculty, he is also artistic director of the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute, and was conductor of the Santa Fe Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra from1998 to2004.

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