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Artist Bios
Ensemble Masques
Olivier Fortin - harpsichord, Elin Söderström - viola da gamba, and guest artists form Ensemble Masques. The young ensemble, inspired by the masques of Elizabethan England, is dedicated to performing instrumental and vocal music of the 17th and 18th centuries on period instruments. Masques presents a concert series in Montreal. Since the release of its critically acclaimed first recording, devoted to the Consorts in Two Parts by English composer Matthew Locke, the ensemble has been heard in Canada at major festivals including the Lamèque International Baroque Music Festival, the Victoria Summer Music Festival and Vancouver Early Music Festival. Recently, Masques has also performed in France and the United-States. The ensemble has gained international attention as result of winning the Grand prize in the Dorian/Early Music America Competition in 2000 and being selected as finalist at the York Early Music Competition in 2001 (England). Since 2004, Masques has released three recordings, namely English Fancy, Baroque Christmas and Mensa Sonora : Biber and his contemporaries.
Louis-Philippe Marsolais – horn
Louis-Philippe Marsolais, formerly principal horn of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra and associate principal horn of the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, is currently a member and artistic director of Pantaèdre, a Montreal-based wind quintet. As recitalist, soloist and chamber musician, he performs across North America, in Europe and Asia. He has appeared with many orchestras in Quebec including the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, and in Europe with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra, and Haydn Orchestra in Bolzano, Italy. A winner of coveted prizes at major international competitions including the 2004 Geneva Competion, 2004 Mozart Competition (Rovereto, Italy), and 2000 International Horn Competition (Trévoux, France), he won three prizes at the prestigious Munich International Competition in 2005. Keenly committed to contemporary music, he received the Canadian Music Centre Award for best performance of a Canadian work at the 2001 Prix d’Europe. Since then he has premiered works for tuba, tuba and band, and chamber music ensembles by Canadian, Swiss, German and French composers.
Anne Jelle Visser – tuba
Anne Jelle Visser has been principal tuba of the Zurich Opera Orchestra since 1999, having previously held the same position with the North Holland Philharmonic Orchestra. A regular guest with orchestras such as the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Bavarian State Opera Orchestra, he has performed under such noted conductors as Zubin Mehta, Sir Georg Solti, Mariss Jansons, Valery Gergiev, Bernard Haitink, Christoph von Dohnany and Franz Welser-Möst. In high demand as a soloist, he has performed in recitals and at brass conferences around the world. Most recently, he performed the Ivan Jetvic Tuba Concerto at the Melbourne International Festival of Brass with the New Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and the John Williams Tuba Concerto with the National Orchestra of Chile in Santiago. Also sought-after as a teacher and pedagogue, he holds the position of Professor of Tuba at the Zurich Conservatory of Music and frequently presents master classes throughout Europe. He can be heard on recordings and DVD's with the Opera Orchestra of Zurich.
Anton Kuerti – piano
Anton Kuerti is internationally acclaimed as one of the great pianists of this century. Born in Austria, he grew up in the United States and has lived in Canada for the past 40 years. His teachers included Arthur Loesser, Mieczyslaw Horszowski and Rudolf Serkin. He has toured 31 countries, and has performed with most major North American orchestras and conductors. In Canada, he has appeared in about 140 communities, and has played with every professional orchestra, including 39 concerts with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. As a chamber musician, he has performed with such artists as Gidon Kremer, Yo-Yo Ma, Janos Starker, and the Cleveland, Guarneri and Tokyo string quartets. Anton Kuerti is an Officer of the Order of Canada, and has received many honorary doctorates. One of today's most recorded artists, his discography included all the Beethoven piano concertos and sonatas, the Schubert sonatas, the Brahms concertos and works by many other composers.
Judith Ginsburg – piano
A graduate of the University of Ottawa where she studied with Jean-Paul Sevilla, Judith Ginsburg pursued advanced studies in London, England with renowned Glyndebourne Opera Music staff member and BBC staff accompanist Paul Hamburger. Upon return to Canada, she completed the Repetiteur Training Program at the University of Toronto Opera Division and participated in extensive accompanying and master classes with Martin Isepp and Menahem Pressler. Since 1987, she has been principal repetiteur of Opera Lyra Ottawa and principal pianist with the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra. As freelance musician, she has performed in musicals at Montreal’s Place des Arts and been principal repetiteur for National Arts Centre productions. Often heard on CBC radio, she frequently performs at the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, the National Arts Centre’s Music for a Sunday Afternoon and Almonte in Concert series. As accompanist, she has collaborated with leading Canadian artists such as Alan Monk, Theodore Baerg and Tracy Dahl. She is also Education/Music Manager for Opera Lyra Ottawa.
Francis Colpron - recorder, baroque flute
Acclaimed as an outstanding instrumentalist, Francis Colpron already at an early age played and toured with the Ensemble de flûtes à bec de Chateauguay in Canada and Europe. A graduate of the Université Laval in Quebec City, he pursued further studies at Utrecht Conservatory in the Netherlands with Marion Verbruggen, Heiko ter Schegger (recorder) and Martin Root (traverso). In 1991, he formed his own ensemble, Les Boréades in Montréal, of which he is still artistic director. Les Boréades presents a concert series in Montreal, regularly tours North America and Europe, and has released several recordings. In 2000, the ensemble's CD, Telemann: Suite and Concertos, won the Prix Opus for record of the year in the medieval, Renaissance and Baroque category. A regular guest of other ensembles including the National Arts Centre Orhcestra, Tafelmusik and Les Violons du Roy, he also teaches at the Université de Montréal and at prestigious summer music camps in Canada and the United States.
Charles Daniels – tenor
Charles Daniels studied at Cambridge University and London's Royal College of Music. He commands a repertoire spanning from the 9th century to the present day. Appearing regularly in concert with leading early music ensembles in the United Kingdom, Europe and North America, he recently performed Bach's Magnificat with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, sang with the Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra in Poland, and performed for the Pope in Rome. In opera, he has appeared, among others, in Lully's Atys at Opéra de Paris and in Purcell's Fairy Queen at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. This season's engagements included a Netherlands tour with the Orchestra of the Enlightenment, and Mozart's Requiem at Westminster Abbey. Upcoming engagements include Handel's Paukenmesse with the Orquestra Sinfonica de Barcelona and Bach's St. John Passion in Toronto. His discography of over 60 recordings includes Handel Occasional Songs with Emma Kirkby, Messiah with the Gabrieli Consort, and more than 20 Purcell discs, mostly with The King's Consort.
Alex Weimann
In recent years, Alexander Weimann has emerged as one of the most sought-after ensemble directors, soloists and chamber music partners of his generation. He could be heard in Festivals in Boston, Tanglewood, Vancouver, Graz, Salzburg, Vienna, Bremen, Halle, Irsee, Karlsruhe, Schleswig-Holstein, London, Brussels and Utrecht. He is a member of the ensemble Tragicomedia, as well as a frequent guest of Boréades, Cantus Cölln, the Freiburger Barockorchester, the Gesualdo-Consort, Tafelmusik and Les Voix Baroques, to name a few. In 2003, he launched his new ensemble, called “Tempo Rubato”. He has also successfully directed at the Rococo Stage of the Palace Theatre at Sanssoucis, the opera group “I Confidenti”. And he recently became the music director of “Académie Baroque de Montréal”.
After assistance work at opera houses in Amsterdam, Basel and Hamburg, he stepped forward with his own productions: Pergolesi’s La Serva Padrona with the Freiburger Barockorchester, Pepusch’s Beggar’s Opera staged at the Palace Theater of Gotha, Handel’s Orlando Furioso and Stradella’s Moro per Amore for the Teamtheater of Munich, Telemann’s Seliges Erwägen, presented during the European Week held at Passau, the opera pastiche (an operatic parody called) Capriole d’Amore at the 2004 Handel Festival of Halle, in 2005, the Caldara oratorio Clodoveo and in 2006, the event Mozart a Milano at festivals in Montréal, Vancouver and Berlin.
He can be heard on about 100 CDs and is regularly being broadcast by many radio stations worldwide. His albums “Capritio” (harmonia mundi USA) and Handel’s “Gloria” (ATMA) were internationally acclaimed by critics and audience. In May 2005, he started the first comprehensive recording of Alessandro Scarlatti’s keyboard music. Volume 1 (out of 3) got raving reviews and is fi. nominated the opus award 2006 for the best canadian early music recording.
Weimann was born in 1965 in Munich where he studied the organ, church music, musicology (M.A. with Distinction on the Recitatives in J.S. Bach’s work), theatre, Medieval Latin and Jazz piano. He was supported by the Bavarian Radio Council, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and a Cusanuswerk Grant for the Highly Talented. In addition to his studies, he has attended numerous master classes in harpsichord and historical performance. To ground himself further in the roots of Western music, he involved himself intensively for some years with Gregorian chant. In 1997, his group “Le Nuove Musiche” won the first prize at the Premio Bonporti in Rovereto. From 1990 to 1995, Weimann taught musical theory, improvisation and jazz at the Munich Musikhochschule. Since 1998, he has been giving master classes in harpsichord and performance for early music at various institutions such as Lunds University in Malmö, the Bremen Musikhochschule but also at North-American universities such as Berkeley (California) and Darthmouth (New-Hampshire), and most recently, as a vocal coach, at the Université de Montréal.
Weimann currently lives in Berlin and Montréal.
Alexander Tselyakov – piano
"...represents the best aspect of Russian pianism and all its attributes...effectively synthesized the emotional balance of Arthur Rubinstein and the more highly-strung febrile quality of Horowitz."
Harris Goldsmith, New York Concert Review
Distinguished pianist Alexander Tselyakov has been described as a “phenomenal pianist” (Germany),having “an intoxicating sound” (Israel), and “a perfect artistic individuality” (Russia). He began his concert career with the Azerbaijan State Philharmonic Orchestra in his native Soviet Union at the age of nine. Alexander Tselyakov went on to win one of the leading prizes at the prestigious VIIIth International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, the Second International Music Competition of Japan, the Ibla Grand Prize International Piano Competition and the Mazara del Vallo International Piano and Orchestra Competition in Italy, the Israel Competition and the New Orleans International Piano Competition. His playing has inspired standing ovations in Japan, Germany, Italy, Israel, Spain, Portugal, France, England, Sweden, Austria, Poland, Finland, the United States, Denmark, the Netherlands, Turkey and Canada where he now makes his home. Tselyakov combines virtuosity with breath-taking musicality in the Russian tradition of great pianists. He studied with Lev Naumov (custodian of the Heinrich Neuhaus methods that are credited with producing many extraordinary twentieth-century Russian keyboard masters such as Gilels and Richter) at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. Tselyakov has performed frequently with leading orchestras including the Leningrad Philharmonic, the Moscow Philharmonic, the Moscow Radio Symphony and the State Byelorussian Philharmonic. He has appeared with the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra Symphonique de Québec, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Virginia Symphony, the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra and Symphony Nova Scotia, to name a few. Tselyakov has appeared as a recitalist at major festivals and concert halls around the world. He has performed at the Shostakovich Philharmonic Hall in St. Petersburg, the Great Hall of the Moscow State Conservatory, the Tel-Aviv Museum, the Toronto Art Centre (the Ford Centre), the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, the Palais Montcalm in Québec, the Kleinhans Music Hall in Buffalo, the Temppeliakin Kirkko Hall in Helsinki, the University of Fine Arts and Music in Tokyo, the Conservatorii Publico Professional in Granada (Spain), and at the Regentenbau Hall in Bad Kissingen (Germany). While still in Russia Tselyakov was appointed concert solo pianist with the Byelorussian State Philharmonic and Assistant Professor of Music at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. After moving to Israel in 1991, Tselyakov continued to impress audiences and critics alike. Several more important prizes followed along with recitals for such dignitaries as Michael Gorbachev and the late Yitzhak Rabin. In 1994, Tselyakov immigrated to Canada and made his debut to great acclaim that December at the Ford Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto. Recitals across the country soon started to materialize. Tselyakov is now counted in the ranks of Canada’s leading concert pianists. That indescribable “something extra” which is so evident in his concerts made an immediate impact on Canadian audiences and continues to do so. Recent concerts have included a highly successful performance at Carnegie Recital Hall in New York, critically acclaimed concerts at Wigmore Hall in London, performances at The Centre Cultural (Paris, France), the University of Chicago, the International Piano Festival in Istanbul, at Merkin Hall (New York), at the International Piano Festival (San Jose, CA), the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, the Phillips Collection (Washington), the Embassy Series (Washington), at Blackheath Hall (London), the Vendsyssel Festival (Denmark), the Stockholm-Royal Palace Music Festival (Sweden), at Bösendorfer Saal (Vienna, Austria), at Cristofori Concerten Hall (Amsterdam), and at the Concert & Congress Centre de Doelen, Rotterdam (Netherlands). Tselyakov has also been heard recently on WQXR New York’s “Reflections on the Keyboard”, on the Danish Radio, on the BBC Radio (London, UK), ON Erstsendung, DeutschlandRadio Berlin (Germany) and on CBC Radio (Canada).
Active as a chamber musician, Tselyakov collaborates with many leading Canadian musicians and is Artistic Director of the Pender Harbour Chamber Music Festival, BC and of the Clear Lake Chamber Music Festival, MB, Canada.
Alexander Tselyakov lives in Brandon, Manitoba where he has held a full-time position as Professor of piano at Brandon University since 2003.
Theatre of Early Music
The Theatre of Early Music (TEM) is a new ensemble of some of the world's finest musicians, sharing a particular passion for early music. Its formation is the result of a search of instrumentalists and singers for opportunities that would allow devotion and dedication to enter into the creative process. The core of TEM consists of a Canada-based ensemble primarily made up of young musicians whose distinctive style, coupled with Daniel Taylor's expertise and enthusiasm, leads to captivating readings of magnificent but often neglected works. In various constellations leading international musicians in the field perform on the platform provided by the Theatre of Early Music in their regular TEM concert series in Canada, on tours around the world and on recordings. The TEM is directed by Daniel Taylor and recent seasons have included guest artists such as Emma Kirkby, Deborah York, Suzie Leblanc, Nancy Argenta, Charles Daniels, Benjamin Butterfield, James Bowman, Robin Blaze, Peter Harvey, Michael George and Stephen Varcoe.
The Theatre of Early Music recently signed an exclusive contract with the BIS label. Their first recording on the BIS label, Couperin's Lecons de Tenebre, was released in March 2005. Their second release featured James Bowman in a duet programme with Daniel Taylor with poetry read by the Actor Ralph Fiennes ("English Patient", "Schindler's List", "Quiz Show", "Hannibal: Red Dragon"). Upcoming recordings include the Bach setting of the Pergolesi Stabat Mater with Emma Kirkby. Members of the TEM recently returned from their first concert tour of South America.
The Theatre of Early music offers a regular series of concerts in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa; tours have taken them across Canada, to Europe, throughout the United States and Asia. Future concert plans for the ensemble include tours in Germany, Spain, Asia as well as tours in Canada, the United States and South America.
This past Season in Canada, the TEM welcomed Emma Kirkby, Gillian Keith, Katharine Fuge,Meredith Hall, James Bowman, Robin Blaze, Rufus Muller, James Gilchrist, Michiel Schrey,Charles Daniels, Peter Harvey, Daniel Lichti and Michael George. Their production of the Vivaldi Stabat Mater choreographed by James Kudelka was a critical success and will be featured on CD and DVD for televison by the Rhombus Company in co-operation with BIS records.
In 2006 -2007, the TEM will continue their highly-praised Bach Cantata cycle, as well as welcoming James Bowman in a concert of Purcell Odes followed by a Handel Concert with guests Suzie Leblanc, Benjamin Butterfield and Gary Relyea.
Daniel Taylor – countertenor
The countertenor Daniel Taylor is now one of the most sought-after countertenors in the world and recognized as "Canada's star countertenor...there is a sense of conviction and honesty that sets him apart from the others" (Globe and Mail). His debut at Glyndebourne in Handel's Theodora was greeted with critical praise and followed on his highly successful operatic debut in Jonathan Miller's production of Handel's Rodelinda. He receives invitations from an ever-widening circle of the world's leading early and contemporary music ensembles, appearing in opera (Metropolitan Opera, Glyndebourne, San Francisco, Rome, Welsh National Opera, Canadian Opera, Opera North and Munich), oratorio (Gabrieli Consort, Monteverdi Choir/English Baroque Soloists, Bach Collegium Japan, Les Arts Florissants, Berlin Academie fur Alte Musik, Collegium vocale de Ghent, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, King's Consort, Academy of Ancient Music), symphonic works (Dallas, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Toronto, Rotterdam, Montreal), recital (Vienna Konzerthaus; Frick Collection, New York; Forbidden Concert Hall, Beijing; Lufthansa Baroque Festival and Wigmore Hall, London), and film (Podeswa's Five Senses for Fineline-winner at Cannes and also of a Genie). Chamber music also features prominently in his calendar and he regularly joins forces with the Berlin Academie fur Alte Musik, Fretwork and Musica Antiqua Koln.
Future engagements include his debut with the Munich Opera in Handel's Rinaldo, his debut with the Brooklyn Philharmonia in Orff's Carmina Burana, his return to the Brooklyn Academy of Music for Jonathan Miller's staging of the Bach St. Matthew Passion, his return to the Cleveland Orchestra for Handel's Messiah, a new production of Handel'sCesare with the Welsh National Opera, Handel's Choice of Hercules with the King's Consort in Germany, a tour of the St. Matthew Passion with the Bach Collegium Japan, a recital tour of South America with the Theatre of Early Music, Handel Messiah with the New York Collegium/Andrew Parrott and also with the Handel/Haydn Society in Boston and a recital tour in Asia.
Daniel Taylor has made more than 60 recordings, which include Bach Cantatas/Monteverdi Chior/Gardiner for Deutche Gramophone and SDG. Renaissance duets with James Bowman (BIS), Handel's Rinaldo with Bartoli /AAM/Hogwood (DECCA),Theodora with LAF/Christie (ERATO), Cantatas 'Before Bach' with Collegium Vocale de Ghent/Herrewege (Harmonia Mundi) Sakamoto's pop-opera Life with the Dalai Lama (SONY) and Bach Cantatas with the Bach Collegium Japan (BIS). Upcoming recordings include a CD/DVD at Notre-Dame in Paris of the Mass in John Nelson/L'ensemble Orchestral de Paris, a recording of Handel's Saul for Hanssler Classics with Helmut Rilling/Bach Academie Stuttgart and Handel's Jephtha/McCreesh with the Paul McCreesh/Gabrieli Consort for Deutsche Gramophone. Daniel studied Literature, Music and Philosophy at McGill University, and Music and Religion at the University of Montreal. He continues to study singing with Michael Chance. Daniel Taylor is Artistic Director of the Montréal Early Music Festival and a Visiting Professor at McGill University. Daniel is Founder and Artistic Director of the Theatre of Early Music, a period-instrument ensemble based in Canada comprised of musicians from all over the world.
Kimball Sykes - clarinet
Kimball Sykes joined the National Arts Centre Orchestra as principal clarinet in 1985. Born in Vancouver, he received a Bachelor of Music Degree from the University of British Columbia where he studied with Ronald deKant. In 1982 Mr. Sykes was a member of the National Youth Orchestra and was awarded the first of two Canada Council grants to study with Robert Marcellus in Chicago. He has participated in the Banff School of Fine Arts Festival, the Scotia Festival, the Orford Festival and the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival. He has performed and toured with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and was a member of the Vancouver Opera Orchestra. While in Vancouver, he was a founding member of the Vancouver Wind Trio. From 1983 to 1985 he was principal clarinet of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Sykes has performed as a soloist with the NAC Orchestra on numerous occasions. In May 2000, he gave the premiere performance of Vagues immobiles, a clarinet concerto by Alain Perron commissioned for him by the NAC, and in November 2002, he performed the Copland Clarinet Concerto, both conducted by Pinchas Zukerman. Other groups he has appeared with as soloist include Thirteen Strings, the Honolulu Symphony and the Auckland Philharmonia. Mr. Sykes has performed numerous solo and chamber music programs for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He can be heard on the recent Chamber Players of Canada recording of Schubert's Octet. His recording of the Mozart Clarinet Quintet with Pinchas Zukerman and NAC Orchestra string principal musicians was nominated for a 2004 Juno award Kimball Sykes is currently on faculty at the University of Ottawa.
Jonathan Swartz - violin
Jonathan Swartz both teaches at Arizona State University, Rocky Mountain Summer Conservatory and Interlochen Arts Camp and maintains a prolific performing career. He often collaborates with his sister, Jennifer Swartz, principal harp of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, and his wife, American pianist Wendy Chen. He has performed as soloist and chamber musician under auspices of Jeunesses Musicales du Canada, in concert series at Toronto's Roy Thomson Hall and at festivals. He is a member of the IRIS Chamber Orchestra, a Tennessee ensemble that performs regularly with leading artists such as Itzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma. Passionate about new music, he has participated in numerous commissions, premieres and recordings. To build the career of talented Canadian composer Kieren MacMillan, he plans to record two works she recently wrote for him and two chamber works still underway. He has given master classes throughout North America and is a sought-after master clinician. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Rice University.
Quartetto Gelato
Cynthia Steljes - oboe, English horn
Peter DeSotto - tenor, violin, mandolin
Alexander Sevastian – accordion, piano,
bandoneon
Elinor Frey – cello
For over a decade, this dazzling ensemble has
enchanted audiences and critics worldwide with
their exotic blend of musical virtuosity, artistic
passion and charismatic presence. Quartetto
Gelato established themselves as dominant forces
on the emerging “new classical”
scene early in their career by winning the coveted
title of NPR Performance Today’s Debut
Artist of the Year in 1996. Today, Quartetto
Gelato continues its reign as an international
sensation with repeat sold-out performances
throughout the globe.
Classical in intent, eclectic by design, Quartetto Gelato not only thrills its audiences with the mastery of eight instruments, but offers the wonderfully unexpected bonus of a brilliant operatic tenor. With a performance repertoire that travels imaginatively between classical masterworks, operatic arias and the sizzling energy of tangos, gypsy and folk songs, the group’s relaxed stage presence and delightful humor establishes an immediate rapport with traditional and non-traditional classical audiences alike. Performed without scores, their shows radiate a sense of spontaneity and excitement rarely seen on the classical stage.
The 2004-2005 season featured concerts throughout the US, Canada and Guatemala with extended residency programs in Albuquerque NM, Brownsville TX and Kansas City MO. Quartetto Gelato returned for the fourth time to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City with a new holiday program, Christmas from around the World. Summer festival programs featured the premiere of 4 x 4 (a collaborative program with Quartetto Gelato and string quartet) and also a 12 minute commission setting to music by Canadian composer Marjan Mozetich the well-known children’s favorite “Love You Forever” by Robert Munsch for Quartetto Gelato and narrator. Mr. Munsch himself was the narrator for the premiere. Quartetto Gelato also performed an outdoor concert at Jackson Triggs winery in Ontario’s wine region summer and the performance was filmed as one portion of a commercial DVD, Quartetto Gelato Explores Music and Wine, to be released in 2006.
The 2005-6 season features over 100 concerts in recital and with orchestra throughout the U.S., Canada, Sweden, Estonia and Asia. The quartet returns to Sweden in November for a 14 concert tour of the country. This season marks the quartet’s first visit to Estonia. In the fall of 2005, the quartet’s first compilation CD was released, Favourite Flavours, featuring highlights from the 5 CDs in their catalogue and sneak preview of their 6th including music from Latin America.
Active in the recording studio, Quartetto Gelato has released Quartetto Gelato Travels the Orient Express celebrating the original journey of the famous train and featuring music from London to Istanbul. Since the release in spring of 2004, the recording has met with immediate critical and public acclaim. The previous recordings, which have played a significant role in the group’s increasing popularity, are Neapolitan Café, Aria Fresca, Rustic Chivalry and their debut recording, simply entitled Quartetto Gelato. The latter two CD’s have literally been heard around the world, since they accompanied Canadian astronaut, Dr. Robert Thirsk, during his NASA flight on board the space shuttle Columbia in 1997.
Quartetto Gelato can also be heard on the soundtrack recording of the major motion picture Only You, starring Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey Jr., on the Sony label. Additionally they have appeared on the hit CD recording of Ashley McIsaak on the A & M record label.
Classical radio listeners across the continent know Quartetto Gelato by their instantly recognizable sound, which is broadcast frequently on the CBC, PRI and NPR networks. In particular, the band has been featured regularly on NPR’s popular Performance Today program, which recognized Quartetto Gelato in 1996 by presenting them with their award for "Debut Artist of the Year." The panel of music critics who made that selection characterized the quartet as "an amazing ensemble that achieves the nearly impossible: they play salon music with real style and classical music with real precision; Great chops and a commitment in all that they play."
Paul Marleyn – cello
A cellist with a broad and eclectic repertoire that ranges from the Baroque period to the twentieth century, from the Gabrielli Ricercar to the Romantic concerto, and from the Metallica song to the Irish reel, Anglo-Canadian cellist Paul Marleyn tours regularly in Canada and has given numerous performances in the United States, Europe and Asia.
A frequent participant in summer festivals including the Chamber Music East, Prussia Cove, Casalmaggiore International, Leicester International, Ottawa International, and Indian River festivals, he has collaborated with artists such as Boris Berman, Martin Beaver, Miriam Fried, James Somerville, Stéphane Lemelin, Paul Neubauer, Marc-André Hamelin, Steven Dann, Joshua Bell, and with members of the Tokyo, Vermeer, St. Lawrence and Hagen quartets. He has appeared as soloist the Belgrade Philharmonic, European Chamber, Winnipeg Symphony, Symphony Nova Scotia, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony and Manitoba Chamber orchestras. Recital engagements have included London’s Wigmore Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Chicago’s Cultural Centre, and Geneva’s Victoria Saal. Since 2000, Paul has been President and Artistic Director of Canada’s annual Agassiz Summer Chamber Music Festival.
Paul Marleyn has made several compact disc recordings as soloist and chamber musician. His first CD, released by United Records in 1989, contains works by Schostakovitch, Prokofieff and Schnittke, and was described as "emotionally intense, physically big-boned" (Gramophone Magazine), and "over-flowing with health, the joy of playing, and flamboyant brilliance" (Répértoire, France.) His recording of the complete works of Ernest Bloch for Signum Classics has also received favorable reviews; "an excellent recording, this release deserves enthusiastic recommendation" (BBC Music Magazine) and "a fine cellist with astute command of style and formidable technique" (Strad magazine.) Other releases include Swirl for solo cello by Jim Hiscott on the CBC Records label, as well as chamber music recordings for RCA Victor and CBC Records. Mr. Marleyn’s concerts and recordings are frequently heard on CBC radio, BBC radio, NPR affiliate stations in the United States and around the world.
Mr. Marleyn has a special interest in new music, having been a frequent guest of the prestigious German group Ensemble Modern, and at the Winnipeg Centara, Almeida, Lviv Contrasts and Donaueshinger new music festivals. Paul has commissioned new works by Bramwell Tovey, Kevin Volans, Michael Matthews, David Raphael Scott, Glenn Buhr, Jim Hiscott and Rodion Schedrin.
Paul Marleyn was born in Reading, England. After studying privately with Robert Norris in London, he worked with David Strange at the Royal Academy of Music, Laurence Lesser at the New England Conservatory and Aldo Parisot at Yale University. Paul holds a Masters Degree and Artist Diploma, and in 1994 was elected Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.
A laureate of the Royal Overseas League International Competition in London, he is the recipient of several national and international awards, including grants from the Fulbright Commission, the Canada Council, the Manitoba Arts Council and the Royal Society of Arts. From 1993 to 1997, Mr. Marleyn was Principal Cellist of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and from 1997 to 2004, he taught at the University of Manitoba, in Winnipeg. In 2004, he became Professor of Cello at the University of Ottawa.
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