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Artist Bios
John Johnson - flute
Juno award-winning saxophone player John Johnson is well known on Toronto’s music scene. In high demand as adept recording session player, he is also member of many popular bands. He is equally at home playing the funk/fusion sounds of Soul Stew, the high-energy latin/fusion of The Montuno Police, jazz standards with The Barlow Group, and classic blues with Michael Pickett. Other bands include Cimmaron, Vector, The Boss Brass and Manteca. In addition to all the saxophones, from sapranino to baritone, he is proficient on piccolo, flute, alto flute, clarinet and bass clarinet. This versatility is reflected in concerts with such diverse artists as Molly Johnson, Holly Cole, Diana Krall, Aretha Franklin, Roberta Flack, Dionne Warwick, Peabo Bryson, Cal Dodd, Dianne Reeves, Bill Mays, Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Andrew Burashko’s Art of Time Ensemble. He is known to bring to everything he does a rare combination of musical sensitivity and the technical facility to play just about anything.
Roberto Occhipinti - double bass
Roberto Occhipinti, one of Canada's premier bassists, is very active in a wide variety of musical contexts. He has toured and recorded with eminent jazz artist Jane Bunnett, and also with the Juno award-winning group NOJO, performing at Canadian jazz festivals with legendary saxophonist Sam Rivers. His partnership with Cuban piano virtuoso Hilario Durán includes the 2005 Juno award-winning album New Danzon, upcoming performances in the United States and Canada, as well as Durán's next album. As classical musician, he has been a member of the Winnipeg Symphony, Hamilton Philharmonic and Canadian Opera Company Orchestras, and has performed with many ensembles in Toronto including recent performances with the St. Lawrence Quartet, Gryphon Trio and Via Salzburg. Interested in contemporary music, he was a member of Arraymusic, performed with New Music Concerts and was principal bass of the Esprit Orchestra. As producer, he is currently working on projects with the Gryphon Trio, Shurum Burum Jazz Circus, Quartetto Gelato and Soul Stew.
Quartango
Quartango, formed by four classically trained musicians exploring their passion for tango, takes tango in new directions with impeccable arrangements, unexpected allusions to classical music and a dose of humour woven together by elegant ensemble interplay. The members are Richard Hunt - piano and arrangements, Denis Plante - bandoneon, René Gosselin - double bass, and Noémi Racine-Gaudreault - violin. Their repertoire ranges from the classic tangos to tango nuevo and Piazzolla. They also explore other genres, from jazz and opera to waltzes and jigs, in their own inimitable style. Quartango has delighted audiences across Canada and the United States, in Tokyo, Taipei, Paris and São Paulo. They stole the show at Carnegie Hall, in performance with the New York Pops, and have also appeared with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa and the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal. Last summer, Quartango performed four outdoor concerts with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, attracting a total audience of more than 60,000. Quartango has recorded five CDs, several of which have won awards. Their latest recording, Performance, was released in June 2003.
Claudia Cashin-Mack – piano
Claudia Cashin-Mack has been an active freelance musician and teacher in Ottawa for many years. Her performances, both as soloist and chamber pianist, are known for their intuitive lyricism and passion. A native of New Jersey, she studied with renowned French pianist Jean-Paul Sevilla at the University of Ottawa, where she received the Isobel Firestone Award for outstanding musical achievement. She later studied with Donal Nold at the Manhattan School of Music. Often heard in recital on CBC Radio, she was featured in a broadcast of highlights from Classical Encounters. She has collaborated with many singers, including soprano Rosemarie Landry, baritone Thomas Goudie, bass-baritone Janos Techanyi, and most recently with mezzo-soprano Sandra Graham at the Canadian Arts Festival at the University of Edinboro, where they premiered a song cycle by composer Colin Mack. Her interest in American music has resulted in a recording project of the complete works for piano by George Gershwin.
Andrew Dawes – violin
Andrew Dawes, "one of the most distinguished violinists Canada has ever produced" (Ottawa Citizen), was born in High River, Alberta. He has been acclaimed as recitalist, chamber musician and soloist throughout North and South America, Europe and the Far East. After receiving the Prix de Virtuosité from the Conservatoire in Geneva, Switzerland with the highest marks ever awarded, he became a founding member and first violinist of the renowned Orford String Quartet (1965-1991). With the Quartet he played more than 2,000 concerts on six continents, made more than 50 recordings and won three Juno awards. In 1992, after teaching for over 20 years at the University of Toronto, he joined the University of British Columbia in Vancouver to teach violin and chamber music. In 1995-96, he took leave of absence to perform as first violinist of the Tokyo String Quartet, playing on a 1727 Stradivarius that belonged to Nicolo Paganini. Andrew Dawes was named a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1992.
Alcan Quartet
Formed by violinists Laura Andriani and Nathalie Camus, violist Luc Beauchemin and cellist David Ellis Since and based in Chicoutimi, Quebec since its founding in 1989, the Alcan Quartet has achieved international renown for excellence. The Quartet’s accomplishments include close to 1000 concerts in North America, Europe and Asia, over 100 live radio broadcasts in Canada, the United States and France, numerous television appearances, a dozen CDs, and a number of commissioned pieces and premieres. The Quartet has also been teaching at the Université de Montréal since 1997, and is regularly invited to teach and give master classes at universities, conservatories and summer schools. The Quartet’s discography, includes major works from the string quartet repertoire, from Haydn, Mozart and Schubert to Dvorák, Debussy and Borodin, and has garnered critical acclaim in Canada, the United States and Europe. The Schubert quartets CD won the 1999 Prix Opus for recording of the year. The Quartet receives financial assistance from its namesake, the multinational aluminum company Alcan, and from the Conseil des arts et lettres du Québec and Canada Arts Council.
Christopher Verrette – baroque violin
Christopher Verrette is in his 13th season as a member of Tafelmusik, Canada's Baroque Orchestra, with which he is a frequent soloist and leader. He is a graduate of Indiana University, where he was awarded the first-ever Performer's Certificate for accomplishment on the baroque violin and was a student of Stanley Ritchie. Since that time he has been committed to the growth of Early Music in the American Midwest as a founding member of both Ensemble Voltaire in Indianapolis and the Chicago Baroque Ensemble and has collaborated with numerous period instrument ensembles around North America. This season he has been heard playing renaissance violin, vielle, rebec with Musicians in Ordinary and viola d'amore with Thomas Georgi and Chatham Baroque. Recent recording projects have ranged from old favorites like Beethoven’s 5th and 6th Symphonies and Pachelbel’s Canon, to new arrangements of Playford tunes by Terry McKenna on "Throw the House out of the Windowe" for Marquis records, John Welsman's score (on medieval vielle) to "The Limb Salesman" (an independent Canadian film that debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2004), and unfamiliar instrumental music by Reinhard Keiser with Ensemble Voltaire.
Pentaèdre – wind quintet
Since its debut in 1985, Pentaèdre has been dedicated to the exploration of diverse, original and often less well known chamber music repertoire. The members seek out the classical music repertoire for wind quintet as well as orchestral wind works and transcriptions. The ensemble has an open structure which welcomes conductors, instrumentalists, soloists and string ensembles and thus transforms itself into a chamber orchestra to perform the widest range of repertoire for its audience. Like the pentagram from which it takes its name, Pentaèdre is composed of five musicians whose talent, technique and precision are without question. Flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon each provide their very specific colour to create a rich, unique and homogeneous sonority that is the ensemble's distinctive trade mark. The group has toured throughout Quebec as well as Canada, United States, and Europe playing at such venues as the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Orford Festival, the National Gallery of Canada, Carnegie Hall, the Festival Musica de Strasbourg, the Festival Inernational de Lanaudière, Festival du Domaine Forget, Festival de la Baie-des-chaleurs and Barrie's Colours of Music Festival. Their season concerts are regularly broadcast on Radio-Canada and CBC. Their CD Musique française pour quintette à vent of works by Françaix, Milhaud, Ibert, Bozza and Ravel came out in 1994 on the Amplitude label. Their latest CD, Airs Anciens, featuring works works by Schafer, Respighi, Warlock and Farkas with mezzo Noëlla Huet was released in 2002 (ATMA label).
Frederic Lacroix – piano
Pianist Frederic Lacroix has performed throughout the United States and Canada and in Taiwan. Recent performances include appearances with the Albany Symphony Orchestra, Cornell Chamber Orchestra, Ottawa Symphony Orchestra and the Ensemble Fusions. He has figured as both composer and pianist in the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, Cornell's Festival of Early Romantic Piano Music and the Festival de musique sacree de l'Outaouais. Lacroix has also performed in programs for CBC Radio and NPR. He also participates in the premieres of works of Canadian and American composers.
Lacroix holds degrees from the University of Mntreal and the University of Ottawa, where he studied with Marc Durand, Cynthia Floyd and Andrew Tunis. He is currently a doctoral student at Cornell University, where he is studying keyboard performance practice with renowned fortepianist Malcolm Bilson.
David Kutz – tuba
Born in Toronto Ontario, David Kutz began playing
the tuba at the age of thirteen years old, performing
for various school ensembles and marching with
the 200 piece Burlington Teen Tour Band in parades
across Canada and the United States.
David has garnered four degrees in Music; attending
Queen’s University in Kingston Ontario,
McGill University in Montreal, and Northwestern
University in Evanston Illinois where he has
received the Doctorate in Music degree in 2003.
David’s teachers have included Nicholas
Atkinson (NAC Orchestra), Dennis Miller (Montreal
Symphony), Rex Martin (Northwestern University),
Gene Pokorny (Chicago Symphony Orchestra), Roger
Bobo (International Soloist and Pedagogue),
and the late Arnold Jacobs (Chicago Symphony
and legendary pedagogue). David’s Doctoral
research focused on the teachings of Arnold
Jacobs, investigating his sources of his pedagogy
and outlining the principals of his teaching.
David is currently the Solo Tuba with the Netherlands
Radio Kamer Filharmonie (formerly the Netherlands
Radio Symphony) in Hilversum NL, a position
that he has held since 2003. The NRKF performs
regularly at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and
maintains a demanding schedule of recording
for labels such as BIS, PentaTone Classics,
and the Naxos labels. Since being in the Netherlands,
David has performed with numerous ensembles
including engagements with the Netherlands Philharmonic
Orchestra, Radio Filharmonic Orchestra, Resedentie
Orchestra, Holland Sinfonia, and the Limburg
Symphony and has also performed with the Zurich
Opera, Singapore Symphony, the Saint Louis Symphony,
and the National Arts Centre Orchestra
As a solo artist, David has performed recitals in Europe and North America, and has appeared twice at the International Tuba and Euphonium Conference (1995, 2000), the Holland Music Festival in Amsterdam, and for the third year here at Ottawa Chamber Music Festival. David is also actively commissioning new works for the tuba including two that will be performed at this years Ottawa Chamber Music Festival by the American composer John Cheetham .
As an acaademic, David has held several positions over the past decade; teaching at the University of Prince Edward Island, University of New Brunswick, Northwestern University, and the University of Missouri-Columbia. His teaching responsibilities have not only included the private instruction of brass students, but he has also given numerous lectures in the areas of Music Appreciation, Music Theory, Music Education, and Brass Pedagogy.
Camille Churchfield – flute
Camille Churchfield is the newest member of the flute faculty at University of Ottawa after having served as Principal Flute of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra for 29 years. Now performing frequently with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Ms. Churchfield was a concerto soloist nearly every season with her own orchestra in Vancouver, as well as with other Canadian orchestras; her creative musicianship and luminous tone have earned the respect of audiences across the country. She has performed with an array of Vancouver chamber music groups as well as with Scotia Festival and the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, and has been heard often on CBC Radio. She has been Guest Principal with NACO and with the Seattle Symphony, and has toured with the Toronto Symphony. Ms. Churchfield recorded many times with the VSO and can be heard on disk with bassoonist Christopher Millard (Summit Records). Her training includes study with the preeminent British flutist William Bennett as well as earlier work in California with Paul Renzi, Roger Stevens and Julius Baker, and she owes a fond debt of gratitude to the many colleagues from whose musical wisdom she has learned over the years. A dedicated teacher herself, Ms. Churchfield was a long-time faculty member at the University of British Columbia; she maintains a private teaching studio, coaches chamber and orchestral groups and often serves on faculty in the summers at Domaine Forget Music Academy and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, where her skills have contributed to the successful professional lives of many Canadian flutists. She holds a B.A. in Psychology. She looks forward to continuing her travels to serve on adjudication panels and to present masterclasses and clinics from her new home base in Ottawa.
Simon Aldrich – clarinet
Simon Aldrich, nominated for an Opus Award as Discovery of the Year, is principal clarinet of the Orchestre de l'Opéra de Montréal and l'Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal and has appeared as soloist with these orchestras. Previously principal clarinet of the Chicago Classical Symphony and the Colorado Philharmonic, he has also performed as soloist with the Toronto Symphony, Orchestra London, Chicago Classical Symphony, Chicago North Shore Chamber Symphony, and the Fanshawe Orchestra. He is a member of Nouvel Ensemble Moderne in Montreal with which he has appeared as soloist and played across Canada, in the United States, England, France, Belgium, Germany, Australia and Japan. He can be heard regularly on CBC Radio and on a large number of recordings that includes a CD of Carter's Clarinet Concerto that won the 2002 Opus Award for Best Contemporary Recording. He holds a doctorate and two master’s degrees from Yale University and attended Northwestern University as well as McGill University where he now teaches.
Valerie Dueck – piano
Manitoba-born pianist Valerie Dueck has pursued a wide variety of solo and collaborative endeavours, performing with the Ottawa Chamber Music Society, in various broadcasts for CBC Radio, on two recital tours of China with violinist David Stewart, and at Vienna’s Musikverein with clarinetist Peter Schmidl. She completed her Master of Music degree at the University of Ottawa in 2003, under the direction of Stéphane Lemelin. In 2005, she moved to Austria where she is currently pursuing postgraduate studies in piano/vocal accompanying at the University of Vienna with Professor David Lutz. An avid advocate of Canadian artists, she has premiered Canadian compositions in Ottawa, Pennsylvania, Vienna, and Zagreb, and has recently released the CD titled Hail, a groundbreaking album of new music, with soprano Doreen Taylor-Claxton. In 2006, she founded the Aurora Polaris Salon Series, under the auspices of the Canadian Embassy in Vienna, which fosters the promotion of Canadian and Austrian performers and composers.
Kleztory
Kleztory, one of Canada’s most dynamic klezmer ensembles, started to evolve in 1997 when guitarist Alain Legault founded Les Gitans Sédentaires. Joined by bassist Mark Peetsma, the group performed more than 200 shows in the following two years. In 2000, classically trained clarinetist, Airat Ichmouratov, joined the fine-tuned rhythm section, and in 2002, with the addition of violinist Elvira Misbakhova and accordionist Henri Oppenheim, Kleztory became a traditional klezmer ensemble. Klezmer is the traditional music of nomadic Jewish musicians who traveled throughout Eastern Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries. Similar to the music they perform, Kleztory is a rich mosaic of cultures (Russia, Alberta, Quebec and France, musical training (academic and self-taught) and musical tastes (classical, contemporary, jazz, blues, country and folk). Combining their talents, the five musicians perform with emotion and virtuosity true to the spirit of klezmer. Through innovative arrangements respectful of the original compositions, Kleztory has forged a unique, authentic musical path. Performing in a wide variety of Montreal venues, Kleztory gave over 40 concerts in Quebec in 2003 and to date has released two CDs.
Marc-André Lalonde – percussion
Marc-André Lalonde has been principal timpanist of the Orchestre symphonique de Quebec since 2001. A student of Guy Lachapelle at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, where he was awarded prizes in percussion and chamber music, he went on to study the timpani repertoire with Louis Charbonneau at the Université de Montréal. After performing on percussion or timpani with most orchestras in Montreal, he left for Spain where he became principal timpanist of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and Real Filharmonía of Galicia. Upon returning to Canada, he was principal timpanist of the Winnipeg Symphony and Manitoba Chamber orchestras. A dynamic teacher, he has taught in both Canada and Spain. As chamber musician he has performed in Canada, the United States and Europe. He has participated in the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival and also the Domaine Forget International Festival where he recently recorded Mahler works in collaboration with the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society and Santa Fe Pro Musica.
Gryphon Trio
Annalee Patipatanakoon, violin
Roman Borys, cello
Jamie Parker, piano
Touring internationally since 1993, the Juno award-winning Gryphon Trio is one of North America’s premier chamber ensembles. The ensemble is recognized for its interpretations of both standard and contemporary repertoire as well as its effective education and outreach initiatives. Based in Toronto, the Trio tours regularly throughout Canada and the United States and has also performed in Finland, Germany, France, Belgium, Mexico, Russia, Poland, Greece and Egypt. Since 1998, the Gryphon Trio has been Ensemble-in-Residence at the Music TORONTO chamber music series. The coming season will see the European debut of the Trio’s groundbreaking multimedia production of Christos Hatzis’s Constantinople. The Royal Opera House will present Constantinople in the Linbury Studio as part of their ROH2 series in March 2007.
The Gryphon Trio's celebrated canon of recordings for the Analekta label includes works by Haydn, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Dvorak, Lalo and Canadian composers Chan Ka-Nin, Gary Kulesha, Kelly-Marie Murphy and Christos Hatzis. The Trio’s latest release, Mozart's complete works for piano trio, was recently hailed by Gramophone magazine as "a new front runner...” In 2004, the Gryphon’s Canadian Premieres CD was awarded a Juno. A mainstay of Canada’s CBC national radio network, the Trio’s live performances have also been broadcast around the globe on NPR (USA), Radio France, RTBF (Belgium), Radio Bremen, Hessischer Rundfunk (Germany), and Finnish Radio. The Gryphon Trio has also appeared on Canadian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Russian, and French television networks.
As part of its ongoing effort to expand the reach of chamber music the Gryphon Trio offers the very popular ‘Gryphon at the Latin Lounge’ concerts, which combine repertoire from both classical and jazz worlds. Originally developed for Music TORONTO’s Chamber at Lula series, these concerts follow a relaxed set format that gives the Trio an opportunity to make music with musicians from non-Classical and non-European traditions. Collaboration with Cuban and Brazilian artists has lead to insightful and unique learning opportunities for everyone involved.
The Gryphon Trio’s groundbreaking multimedia production of Christos Hatzis’s Constantinople will have its European debut in the Linbury Studio at the Royal Opera House as part of the ROH2 series in March 2007.
Jamie Parker, Annalee Patipatanakoon and Roman Borys all teach at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music. Dr. Parker is the Rupert E. Edwards Chair in Piano Performance.
©2002-2004 Ottawa
Chamber Music Society.
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