Ottawa Chamber Music Society

Artist Bios

Karen Donnelly – trumpet

After three seasons as acting principal trumpet, Karen Donnelly became principal trumpet of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in 1999. Previously, she was principal trumpet with Orchestra London Canada. As chamber musician, she regularly performs at the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival and is often heard on CBC Radio and Radio-Canada. As member of the Rideau Lakes Brass Quintet, she participates in educational concerts and school workshops, and she is involved in the organization of the Capital BrassWorks concert series in Ottawa. Recent highlights include a feature concert with the Hannaford Street Silver Band celebrating Women in Brass, and the premiere of Gary Kulesha’s The Boughs of Music, written especially for her, with the NAC Orchestra. A graduate of the University of Regina and McGill University, she performed with premier Montreal ensembles including the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Orchestre des Grands Ballets Canadiens and Les Violons du Roy. She teaches in the Music Department at the University of Ottawa since 2002.

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Sophie Drouin – violin

After graduating from the Conservatoire de musique du Québec with a coveted Premier Prix in 1989, Sophie Drouin completed her studies in Toronto and Banff. Her teachers included Liliane Garnier-Lesage and Lorand Fenyves. She has been a member of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and the MusikBarock Ensemble (Winnipeg), and she has been a guest artist at festivals including the Guelph Spring Festival, Westben Festival, Festival of the Sound, and the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival. She is currently a violinist in the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra where her husband, Stephen Sitarski, is concertmaster. She is also a visual artist who works in mosaic, using precisely cleaved pieces of glass, stone, ceramics and metal in a cement binder.

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Duke Trio

Founded by violinist Mark Fewer, cellist Thomas Wiebe and pianist Peter Longworth, the Duke Trio has become a much sought-after chamber ensemble since it gave its debut performance in Toronto in 1995. The trio has performed extensively throughout Canada to great audience acclaim. Recent highlights include the performance of the complete cycle of Beethoven’s piano trios in three concerts in London, Ontario, and forthcoming is a recording of Shostakovich and Copland works.The three members of the ensemble teach at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.

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Ross Edwards – clarinet

Ross Edwards is principal clarinet of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Canadian Chamber Ensemble. He was previously principal clarinet of several other orchestras, including the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra London Canada and Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra. He is a regular participant in festivals and chamber music concerts across Canada. He teaches at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario.

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Mark Fewer – violin

Mark Fewer, a remarkably versatile musician, is currently concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and also artistic director of the Scotia Festival of Music in Halifax and of SweetWater Music Weekend in Owen Sound, Ontario. He is a founding member of the Duke Trio and a member of the SuperNova String Quartet. His recent projects include the jazz-hybrid show Lotusland, The Dharma at Big Sur for six-string electric violin and orchestra by John Adams which he recently premiered in Canada in Vancouver, and performances of the complete cycle of Bach sonatas and partitas. Growing up in St. John’s, Newfound, where his father was a famous local singer and entertainer, he played the piano at age 4, the violin at 6, and the saxophone at 10. After deciding to focus on the violin, he studied in Toronto, London, England and Budapest, Hungary. His major teachers were David Zafer, Jose-Luis Garcia and Ferenc Rados.

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Renée-Paule Gauthier – violin

Renée-Paule Gauthier is mentioned in Henry Roth’s Violin Virtuosos, from Paganini to the 21st Century (1997), as one of the best upcoming violinists of the new generation. A winner in several competitions, including the Canadian Music Competition and concerto competition of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, she is a graduate of the Université de Montréal and Eastman School of Music and also studied with Andrée Azar, Eugene Drucker, Brian Lewis, Jean-François Rivest, Phillip Setzer and Zvi Zeitlin. She has performed as soloist with several orchestras in her native Quebec. Since 2004, she has been residing in Ottawa where she plays with the National Arts Centre Orchestra and with the chamber orchestra Thirteen Strings. She is an active soloist and chamber musician in the National Arts Centre’s Music for a Sunday Afternoon series, Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, Montreal Chamber Music Festival and Jeunesses Musicales du Canada. She is heard regularly on CBC and Radio-Canada broadcasts.

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Lori Gemmell – harp

Lori Gemmell enjoys a diverse career as orchestral musician, chamber musician, soloist and teacher. A graduate of the University of Toronto where she studied with the eminent harpist Judy Loman, she is currently principal harp of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra. She has been a regular player with Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne de Montréal, a contemporary chamber group, with which she toured in Europe and Japan. She has also given solo concerto performances, among others, with the National Arts Centre, Edmonton Symphony and Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony orchestras and Orchestra London Canada. In 2000, she won second prize in the Canadian Concerto Competition and in 2001, she participated in the 14th International Harp Contest in Israel. She teaches at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, and also maintains a private studio in Toronto. She recently released Prelude, a recording of works for solo harp.

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Meredith Hall – soprano

Meredith Hall, equally at home in opera and oratorio and especially in demand for Baroque and Classical works, particularly Mozart and Handel, has performed across North America, in Europe and Japan. Engagements in 2005-06 included Beethoven's Irish and Scottish songs at the Shannon International Music Festival, Messiah with the Portland Baroque and Newfoundland Symphony orchestras and Toronto's Amadeus Choir and Iseler Singers, participation in the Arizona Chamber Music Festival, and a Toronto Women's Musical Club recital with guitarist Bernard Farley, her husband. Recent opera appearances included leading roles in Monteverdi, Handel, Mozart and Rameau works for Houston Grand Opera, Opera Atelier and Opera in Concert in Toronto, and the Göttingen Handel Festival in Germany. Previous engagements include on a long list a tour in Japan with Opera Atelier and a series of song recitals with Bernard Farley in Tokyo and Osaka. She has recorded with ensembles such as Les Musiciens du Louvre, Le Concert Spirituel, Toronto Consort and Tafelmusik.

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Matthew Halls – harpsichord

Matthew Halls, associate director of the renowned period ensemble, The King’s Consort, also works extensively as keyboard player (harpsichord and organ), conductor and chorus master throughout Europe, the Far East and North America. Acclaimed as a keyboard and continuo player, he has appeared with leading period ensembles in the United Kingdom, New York, Montreal and Germany. He has been a member of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra since 1999, participating in Ton Koopman's ongoing project to record the complete Bach cantatas. Since joining Sonnerie in 2002, he has appeared with the acclaimed ensemble at many major music festivals. Upcoming engagements as concerto soloist include Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos with The King’s Consort and Bach’s solo keyboard sonatas with Sonnerie at London’s Wigmore hall. Conducting and directing engagements will include tours to Slovenia and Croatia with The Holland Baroque Society, and directing for English Touring Opera. He also teaches regularly at Oxford University, his alma mater, and tutors for the European Baroque Orchestra.

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Charles Hamann – oboe

Charles “Chip” Hamann joined the National Arts Centre Orchestra in 1993 as acting principal oboe at the age of 22, and after two seasons became principal oboe. Recognized as one of Canada’s foremost oboists, he performs regularly as soloist with the Orchestra. Other solo appearances include the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra, Thirteen Strings and Les Violons du Roy. He is also active as chamber musician, teacher and adjudicator. He has participated in the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, Utah Music Festival and San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival in California, among others. He is on the faculty of the Music Department at the University of Ottawa and has given master classes at the Royal Conservatory of Music, University of Toronto and University of Nebraska, as well as across Canada, the eastern United States and Mexico on extensive NAC Orchestra tours. He has adjudicated for the NAC Orchestra Bursary competition and for the Conservatoire de musique du Québec.

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Peter Harvey – baritone

Although commanding a wide repertoire, Peter Harvey is mainly known as concert soloist with orchestras and choirs specializing in 17th and 18th century repertoire. He has worked with most leading British ensembles and conductors including the English Baroque Soloists, Gabrieli Consort and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Frequently invited abroad by groups such as Ghent’s Collegium Vocale and The Netherlands Bach Society, he performed the St John Passion with the Leipziger Thomanerchor on its first visit to England in 1995, and again in Leipzig on Good Friday 1997. Bach’s music features strongly in his repertoire, both in performances and recordings. During the year 2000 Bach celebrations, he was particularly in demand as soloist on Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s Bach Cantata Pilgrimage. He recently released a highly acclaimed recording of the St Matthew Passion with the Gabrieli Consort. His vast discography, ranging from the 17th century to the present day, includes rare works such as Beethoven’s arrangements of Scottish and Irish folk songs.

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Victor Herbiet – saxophone

Victor Herbiet studied with Peter Smith and Steven Gellman at the University of Ottawa and with Sebastian Tremblay at the Conservatoire du Québec, winning the Prix du Conservatoire. With the Canadian Forces since 1999, he has played, among others, in the Ceremonial Guard and Governor General's Foot Guards bands in Ottawa, and is now with the Canadian Forces Central Band in Ottawa.

He has played concerts with the military bands in various formations, such as saxophone quartet and concert band, in Canada, the United States, France, Belgium and South Korea. Outside the Forces, he has performed recitals with pianist Jean Desmarais, for Espace Musique and on radio. He has participated in high profile competitions and was a winner in the 2005 Espace Musique radio competition. In 2005, he gave a Tsunami relief recital in Japan and studied with legendary Japanese saxophonist Nobuya Sugawa. He gives saxophone clinics in high schools, teaches privately and at the University of Ottawa, where he is studying for his master’s degree with Noël Samyn.

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Jill Kirwan – horn

Jill Kirwan has been playing with the National Arts Centre Orchestra since 1986. She is also principal horn of the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, and is a regular performer at the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival. She is a member of the Rideau Lakes Brass Quintet, Capital BrassWorks and the Ayorama Wind Quintet. An enthusiastic teacher, she performs with the Rideau Lakes and Ayorama quintets about a dozen concerts annually in schools around the Ottawa-Gatineau region. From 1971 to 1994, she worked extensively with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal as an additional musician, participating in concerts, tours and recordings. While in Montreal, she also performed with the Orchestre des Grands Ballets Canadiens, CBC Orchestra, Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal, I Musici de Montréal and McGill Chamber Orchestra.

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Vivian Lee – trombone

Vivian Lee studied trombone with Douglas Burden, Ted Griffiths and Albert Devito. She played second trombone with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra from 1978 to1990, and also played bass trombone with Orchestra London Canada during roughly the same period. In 1990, she returned to Montréal to join the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and became a permanent member in 1992. Apart from playing with the orchestra and teaching trombone at McGill University, she divides her time between her husband, trombonist and conductor David Martin, and her children, Erica and Travis.

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