Orazio Sciortino was born in Syracuse, Sicily in 1984. After completing his studies there with distinction, he has continued his education at Italy’s renowned international piano institute in Imola with Boris Petrushansky, Louis Lortie and Michel Dalberto and is also studying composition with Fabio Vacchi at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan. He has been featured soloist with, among others, the Moldova Chamber Orchestra, Bacau Philharmonic Orchestra, Arturo Toscanini Symphony Orchestra, and Gyor Philharmonic Orchestra. He has performed in recital in Milan’s Sala Verdi, in Berlin’s Konzerthaus, and in Spain, Switzerland, Poland and Kenya. He has recorded for radio and the Aulia label. He is also a composer of many chamber music pieces presented by noted music societies. His most recent work, Cadenzas for Mozart’s Piano Concertos, has been published by Ricordi.

Mayumi Seiler, born in Osaka, Japan, of Japanese/German parentage, began playing the violin at age three and studied at the Mozarteum while growing up in Salzburg. She performs as soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe, Japan and North America. She has appeared with major orchestras, including the London Sinfonia, Royal Philharmonic, Berlin Symphony, Moscow Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic and Toronto Symphony, under eminent conductors such as Neville Marriner, Christopher Hogwood and Sándor Végh. She has recorded extensively. Recent performance highlights include a duo concert with legendary violinist Ruggiero Ricci in Washington, DC and solo performances in London, England and Halifax, and with the Toronto Symphony led by Maestro Peter Oundjian. She is founding artistic director of the successful chamber music series Via Salzburg at Toronto’s Glenn Gould Studio. With the support of a private benefactor, she plays a c1740 J.B. Guadagnini violin. She teaches at the Glenn Gould School and University of Toronto.

Formed 26 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 cutting edge contemporary works. The Quartet has performed on premier concert stages in Europe, North and South America, and Asia. To celebrate their 25th anniversary in 2007, the Quartet premiered commissions from the three continents, from Chen Yi, Krzysztof Penderecki and jazz pianist Dick Hyman. Their 20th anniversary tour featured the Beethoven Project: East Meets West, a performance of Beethoven’s string quartets in six concerts around the world, the fi rst 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 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. Ensemble-in-residence at Montclair State University, NJ, the musicians are also visiting professors at the Shanghai and Central conservatories in China.

Violinist and violist Barry Shiffman is a performer, recording artist, teacher, and creator of special projects. He has appeared as soloist with orchestras and in recital throughout North America, Europe and Japan. Recent appearances include his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, a Northern California tour as soloist with the New Century Chamber Orchestra, and a Canadian tour as guest violist with the Gryphon Trio. In 1989, he co-founded the St. Lawrence String Quartet (SLSQ) and for 17 years performed worldwide with the quartet. The SLSQ won the 1992 Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC) and participated in many Banff Centre programs. A sought-after teacher and chamber music coach, he served with the SLSQ as artist-in-residence at Stanford University (1998-2006) and as visiting artist at the University of Toronto (1995-2006). Committed to the composers of our time, he has been involved in the premieres of hundreds of new works. Since 2006, Barry Shiffman has been director of music programs at The Banff Centre, and executive director of BISQC.

Elizabeth Simpson started performing with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in 1982 as assistant principal horn and has been fourth horn player since 1992. She has toured and recorded with the Orchestra. She is a member of Capital BrassWorks and also a founding member of the Bel Canto Wind Quintet that has presented successful concert series in Ottawa and is often heard on CBC/Radio-Canada as well as at the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival. She has taught at various Ottawa institutions including the University of Ottawa, National Capital Music Academy and Arts Canterbury Program, and performs in the National Arts Centre Orchestra’s Music in the Schools program in both the Ragtime Brass Sextet and Bel Canto Wind Quintet. A graduate of the University of Ottawa and Indiana State University, she studied with renowned horn players Daniel Gress, Philip Farkas, Meir Rimon, Michael Hatfi eld and Arnold Jacobs.

Kenneth Simpson is a percussionist with the National Arts Centre Orchestra and principal percussion of the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra. Also very active in chamber music, he has performed in the National Arts Centre’s Music for a Sunday Afternoon series, the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival and Espace Musique concert series. He is very involved with the Bel Canto Wind Quintet in the National Arts Centre Orchestra’s Music in the Schools program. He is also a member of Capital BrassWorks, an active clinician, and an endorser for Zildjian Cymbals in Boston, Massachusetts. Kenneth Simpson studied at the University of Ottawa with Ian Bernard, timpanist of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, and continued with renowned teacher and performer Pierre Béluse at McGill University. He was Professor of Percussion at the University of Ottawa for 18 years, and was a founding member of the percussion duo Bangers and Smash.

Stephen Sitarski, a versatile violinist and musician, performs from Baroque to jazz, solo and ensemble works, conducts, consults and does administration. Concertmaster of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, 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 fi rst 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 Royal Conservatory’s Glenn Gould School in Toronto, Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada. Heard on recordings and radio, he has also performed many television and fi lm scores. 2008 marks his tenth year participating in the OICM Festival.

Santee Smith is a member of the Mohawk Nation, Turtle Clan, from Six Nations, Ontario. She is the founding artistic director of Kaha:wi Dance Theatre that performs nationally and internationally. She was a core member of the Aboriginal Dance Project, Chinook Winds, at the Banff Centre (1997-2001). Her choreography, which she began creating and performing in 1996, now includes works such as Kaha:wi, Here On Earth, Midwinter Dreaming, A Constellation of Bones, The Threshing Floor, A Soldier’s Tale, and A Story Before Time. A Story Before Time was recently nominated for a Dora Mayor Award in two categories. She is also the founder of the Living Ritual: World Indigenous Dance Festival that was held in Toronto in 2006. Recipient of the K.M. Hunter Award for dance from the Ontario Arts Council and the Victor Martyn-Lynch Staunton Award for mid-career artistic achievement, she also received the fi rst John Hobday Award for Excellence in Arts Administration from the Canada Council for the Arts.

Minsoo Sohn …is an artist, a man who will create a life in music, find listeners, and reward them (The Boston Globe). First Laureate of the 2006 Honens International Piano Competition, he is praised for his masterful technique and astonishing artistic expression creating performances rich in emotion and musical intelligence. Born in Korea, he began piano studies at age three. It was only when he moved to Boston in 1995 to study with Russell Sherman and Wha Kyung Byun at the New England Conservatory that he was reassured of his career as a concert artist. In September, he will be soloist with the Orchestre symphonique de Québec and next April he will make his debut in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. His fi rst CD, a recording of Liszt transcriptions and études, will be released in the fall, and later this year he will record the Goldberg Variations. When

In 1998 when James Sommerville became principal horn of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and a member of the renowned Boston Symphony Players, the prestigious appointment capped a remarkable string of successes in all facets of horn playing for the Canadian musician and former associate principal horn of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. As soloist, he has appeared with all major Canadian orchestras and many throughout the United States and Europe. As orchestral player, he has toured and recorded extensively. As chamber musician, he has performed and taught at major Canadian festivals, is heard regularly on CBC and has recorded the entire standard horn repertoire for broadcast over the past 20 years. He has numerous award-winning recordings to his credit. He is both devoted to performing early music on period instruments and to premiering new works, many commissioned by or specially for him. As artistic director of the Hamilton Philharmonic, he maintains an active conducting career. He teaches at the New England Conservatory.

A native of Ottawa, Michael Spassov received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in composition at the Juilliard School, where he was a student of Samuel Adler and Christopher Rouse. His compositions have been performed by the Juilliard Orchestra, by the San Francisco new music group, eighth blackbird, and by Toronto’s Continuum Ensemble, a group that presents works of young and emerging composers. He has recently worked as a conductor, assistant conductor and repetiteur at the Canadian Opera Company, for three seasons at Sarasota Opera, at New York City’s One World Symphony, and at The Little Opera Company of New Jersey. He has worked on productions of numerous concerts and of Tosca, Le Nozze di Figaro, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Falstaff, Suor Angelica, Luisa Miller, Don Giovanni, Madama Butterfly, La Bohème, and Carmen, as well as Verdi’s early works I Masnadieri and Attila. In addition, he has pursued conducting studies with Gustav Meier, Carl St.Clair and Victor DeRenzi.

Canadian pianist Timothy Steeves has performed as soloist and chamber musician across North America, Europe and Asia. With violinist Nancy Dahn, his wife, he forms the Duo Concertante and has performed at many summer festivals including the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, Sound Symposium, Baie des Chaleurs Chamber Music Festival, Huntsville Festival, Guelph Spring Festival, Cactus Pear Chamber Music Festival in San Antonio, Texas and at the Tuckamore Festival in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador where he also serves as co-artistic director. He is frequently heard on CBC radio and has been featured on TV Ontario’s Studio 2 and BRAVO! TV. Timothy Steeves is Professor of Piano at Memorial University in St. John’s.

Formed in 1989, the St. Lawrence String Quartet ranks among the world-class chamber ensembles of its generation. The Quartet has performed across North and South America, Europe and Asia. The past season included appearances across North America and two tours to Europe. This summer, in addition to participating in festivals in Canada and the United States, they will mark their 13th year as resident quartet at the Spoleto USA Festival in Charleston, SC. The Quartet champions works by living composers and works actively with, among others, R. Murray Schafer, Osvaldo Golijov and Christos Hatzis. Innovative collaborations include the 2007 premiere and performances across the United States with soprano Heidi Grant and pianist Kevin Murphy of Roberto Sierras’ Songs from the Diaspora. The Quartet’s acclaimed recordings, including Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Golijov and Shostakovich, have received coveted awards. Ensemble-in-residence at Stanford University, and visiting artists at the University of Toronto since 1995, the Quartet inaugurated a visiting chamber music residency at Arizona State University in 2007. The members of the ensemble are violinists Geoff Nuttall and Scott St. John, violist Lesley Robertson and cellist Christopher Costanza.

Acclaimed Canadian harpist Jennifer Swartz enjoys an active career as soloist, chamber musician, orchestral musician and teacher. She is principal harp of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and Assistant Professor of Harp at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music. Performing regularly as concerto soloist with orchestras across Canada, she made her Carnegie Hall debut as concerto soloist with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. She appears as featured recitalist throughout Canada and is frequently heard on CBC broadcasts. She participates in many chamber music festivals and recitals performing with renowned chamber ensembles and notable artists. Her distinguished discography includes La Strada, a recording of Nino Rota’s Concerto for Harp and Orchestra, that was nominated for a 2004 Juno award and won the 2004 Prix Opus for best classical recording of the year. Theseus, for Harp and String Quartet, recorded with the Molinari String Quartet, was awarded the 2004 Prix Opus for best contemporary recording of the year.

Jonathan Swartz teaches both at Arizona State University, the Rocky Mountain Summer Conservatory, Domaine Forget Academy and Innsbrook Institute, gives master classes throughout North Amercia 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 the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society and 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. He is a sought-after master clinician and frequent presenter at the American String Teachers’Association National Conferences. He is the founder and artistic director of the Visiting Quartet Residency Program at ASU and co-creator of the Violinist’s Seminar at Domaine Forget. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from Rice University.

Collaborative pianist Erika Switzer won fi rst prize for best pianist at the Wigmore Hall International Song Competition and at the Robert Schumann International Vocal Competition. In recitals throughout Europe, North America and South Africa, she has been praised for her ability to match emotional playing to dramatic texts. After seven years studying, teaching and performing in Germany, she is currently a C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellow at the Juilliard School. Performance highlights include recitals with Tyler Duncan, Martha Guth, Colin Balzer and Edith Wiens for Pro Musicis in New York’s Carnegie Hall, in Boston and Paris; the André Turp Recital Society and Montreal Chamber Music Festival; the Vocal Arts Society in Washington DC; Cape Classic Chamber Music Festival in Capetown, South Africa; Festival Vancouver; the New Discoveries series at Baden-Baden Festspiele; and Winners & Masters in Munich and Bielefeld. She has been recorded by the CBC, Dutch Radio 4 and in Germany for SWR and the Bayerische Rundfunk.

Kimball Sykes, principal clarinet of the National Arts Centre Orchestra since 1985, is one of Canada’s foremost clarinettists. A frequent soloist with the Orchestra, in 2000 he premiered Alain Perron’s clarinet concerto, Vagues immobiles, commissioned for him by the National Arts Centre. He has appeared as soloist with other ensembles including Thirteen Strings, the Honolulu Symphony and Auckland Philharmonia. He performed and toured with the Vancouver Symphony, was a member of the Vancouver Opera Orchestra and principal clarinet of the Honolulu Symphony. As chamber musician, he was a founding member of the Vancouver Wind Trio and regularly participates in major festivals across Canada. He has performed many solo and chamber music programs on CBC Radio. His recordings include Schubert’s Octet with the Chamber Players of Canada and Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet with Pinchas Zukerman and NACO string principals that was nominated for a 2004 Juno award. He teaches at the University of Ottawa and has given master classes across North America.

In 2000, at age 17, Jean-Philippe Sylvestre won the First Prize, People’s Choice Award and Paul Merkelo Scholarship at the prestigious Orchestre symphonique de Montréal competition. His many awards include multiple prizes at the 2001 CBC Young Performers Competition, the recent Concours des Journées de la Musique Française (Montreal), and Banff Centre and Canada Council scholarships. He has performed recitals in premier national and international venues, including Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and has appeared as soloist with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, among others. In 2005, he performed Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 under Richard Bradshaw at the Toronto Centre for the Arts, and in the inaugural season of the Canadian Opera Company’s Four Seasons Centre, he performed his transcription of 23 paraphrases from Wagner’s Ring Cycle, and three Glenn Gould transcriptions. A graduate of Université de Montréal, he holds an Artist Diploma from Toronto’s Glenn Gould School, and now studies with Louis Lortie at the Imola piano institute in Italy.