Artists & Performers
![Joan Blackman, Artistic Director / violin](http://d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/504404/79fffc2c81737766627fd9955a9edbb39412580c/original/joan-w-violin-high-res.jpg/!!/b%3AW1siZXh0cmFjdCIseyJsZWZ0IjowLCJ0b3AiOjAsIndpZHRoIjoyODMyLCJoZWlnaHQiOjI4MzJ9XSxbInJlc2l6ZSIsNTAwXSxbIm1heCJdLFsid2UiXV0%3D/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg)
Joan Blackman
Artistic director / Violin
Artistic Director of Vancouver’s Vetta Chamber Music Society, Ms. Blackman enjoys a vibrant and varied musical life. She served as Associate Concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony for many years and has performed and recorded as soloist with the Vancouver Symphony, Victoria Symphony, CBC Radio Orchestra, Turning Point Ensemble and the Banff Festival Orchestra. She also teaches privately and has given masterclasses throughout B.C.
Ms. Blackman is known throughout Canada and the U.S. as a fine chamber musician and has performed with premier groups such as the Penderecki String Quartet, the Purcell String Quartet and the Gryphon Trio. Besides performing and curating the Vetta Chamber Music series in Vancouver, she works with the Canadian Music Centre in their Celebration concert series. Joan is also a member of the Sea and Sky collective which has released two CDs and performs throughout B.C.
Joan has appeared on numerous series including Music in the Morning, Music Fest Vancouver, the Jeffrey Concerts in London, Ontario, and the American String Project. She has also appeared at summer festivals including the Hornby Island Festival, the Pender Harbour Chamber Music Festival, Kaimerata, and the Victoria Summer Music Festival.
“Your heart would need to be made of stone not to have loved Joan Blackman’s splendid solo “. “Shapelier phrases and sweeter tone would be hard to imagine”, “a ravishing tone”, “first rate soloist”, “exchanged lines meltingly in a flawless performance” “playing with lyricism, precision, and evident joy”, are some of the accolades that have graced Joan’s reviews.
![Rosemary Georgeson, First Nations Consultant](http://d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/504404/be7e429813917e89c6d59f0d5ed622b9be858a72/original/rosemary-georgeson1.jpg/!!/b%3AW1siZXh0cmFjdCIseyJsZWZ0IjowLCJ0b3AiOjAsIndpZHRoIjozOTIsImhlaWdodCI6MzkyfV0sWyJyZXNpemUiLDQ5Nl0sWyJtYXgiXSxbIndlIl1d/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg)
Rosemary Georgeson
Artist, Writer, Storyteller, & First Nations Consultant
Rose came into her community art’s career later in life, after working for many years as a truck driver, resort cook and a deckhand on the fishboats, as a means of raising three children on her own. Rose came into control of her own life in 2000.
The recipient of the 2009 Vancouver Mayor’s Award recognizing her as an emerging artist in community arts, Rosemary has applied her talents in a variety of situations in the Downtown Eastside and throughout B.C. & the Northwest Territories and into the Yukon.
Rosemary has provided outreach and story consultation for Vancouver Moving Theatre’s In the Heart of a City: The Downtown Eastside Community Play and co-wrote and provided cast hospitality for We’re All In This Together: The Shadows Project.
She is Urban Ink Productions Community Liaison and worked closely with Marie Clements on the CBC radio drama Hours of Water involving 100’s of participants – decades of women who lived and worked in the drowning west coast fishing industry.
Rosemary was associate producer of From Where We Speak (a theatrical bridge of words between two islands created by Penalakut and Galiano Island Aboriginal students).
Rosemary worked as project leader of The Squaw Hall Community Arts Project: A Community Remembers – a documentary film created by youth and elders from an Aboriginal perspective that was created for and within the Williams Lake community by co-producers urban ink and the Twin Fish Theatre Collective (Nelson).
Rosemary has been touring “Women In Fish” throughout B.C. and other parts of Canada. “Women in Fish” has been adapted as a two women touring show.
Rosemary also collaborated with Renae Morriseau and Savannah Walling on the “Story Weaving Project”, a contemporary story of urban Aboriginal life, which she was also project co-ordinator.
Rosemary’s first documentary “We Have Stories” screened in the fall of 2013 at “The Heart of the City Festival” and was also part of “Indigenous Women In Film” Screening / Discussion / Q&A at Liu Institute for Global Issues at UBC in May 2014.
Rosemary has just completed her four-month residency as Vancouver Public Library’s Aboriginal Storyteller in Residence 2014.Since 2015, Rosemary has collaborated with “Vetta Chamber Music” in ongoing projects of cultural reconciliation.
![Jae-Won Bang, violin](http://d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/504404/d446e7966566b89850858e7fe7d120db8022f0f4/original/jae-won2.jpg/!!/b%3AW1siZXh0cmFjdCIseyJsZWZ0IjowLCJ0b3AiOjkxNSwid2lkdGgiOjM2NzYsImhlaWdodCI6MzY3Nn1dLFsicmVzaXplIiw1MDBdLFsibWF4Il0sWyJ3ZSJdXQ%3D%3D/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg)
Jae-Won Bang
Violin
Violinist Jae-Won Bang received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music in Violin Performance from the Colburn School and Yale School of Music respectively, and Master of Music in Historical Performance from the Juilliard School. In 2012, she was featured on the NEXT Young Artist series on CBC Radio Two with pianist Ryo Yanagitani, as the first artist to be heard on both baroque and modern violins.
Jae-Won has collaborated with Clive Greensmith, Gil Kalish, Ronald Leonard, Rachel Podger, Arnold Steinhardt, and has performed in Weill Hall and Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall, Kennedy Centre, Alice Tully Hall, the Greene Space at WQXR, and le poisson rouge. She has also appeared as a Young Artist with Da Camera Houston for the 2015/2016 season. Her teachers include Gerald and Toni Stanick, Robert Lipsett, Ani Kavafian, Laurie Smukler, and Cho-Liang Lin on violin and Robert Mealy, Cynthia Roberts and Monica Huggett on baroque violin. As an orchestral musician, Jae-Won has previously performed in the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. Since the 2016/2017 season, she has been a member of the first violin section in the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
![](http://d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/504404/034942c27a910206e617811dfe9622a11b283875/original/emilie-grimes.jpg/!!/b%3AW1siZXh0cmFjdCIseyJsZWZ0Ijo2MiwidG9wIjowLCJ3aWR0aCI6ODc1LCJoZWlnaHQiOjg3NX1dLFsicmVzaXplIiw1MDBdLFsibWF4Il0sWyJ3ZSJdXQ%3D%3D/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg)
Emilie Grimes-Bouchard
Viola
Originally from Ottawa, Emilie Grimes holds a Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Michael Tree and Steven Tenenbom. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Montreal under the tutelage of Neal Gripp.
As an orchestral and chamber musician, Emilie has performed in venues worldwide. She toured with the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra in Germany, and appeared on Hong Kong’s Radio 4 with the Vancouver based Koerner Quartet. She has also appeared on WQXR in New York, playing baroque viola with Juilliard’s historical performance ensemble, Juilliard415, and was featured in the National Arts Centre’s “My First NAC” showcase concert series. She regularly takes part in series around Vancouver, including the VSO Chamber Players, UBC’s Wednesdays at Noon, Classics at the Gordon Smith Gallery, the Vancouver Chamber Music Society, and has performed as a guest with the NU:BC new music ensemble. She was appointed Adjunct Professor of Viola at the University of British Columbia from 2017 to 2019.
Emilie joined the viola section of the Vancouver Symphony in 2012, and recently won the position of Assistant Principal Viola.
![Jane Coop, piano](http://d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/504404/22167d48d3e14b02beb75a7f837239748c4b6153/original/header-image-1500x862-jane-coop.jpg/!!/b%3AW1siZXh0cmFjdCIseyJsZWZ0IjozNjUsInRvcCI6MCwid2lkdGgiOjg2MiwiaGVpZ2h0Ijo4NjJ9XSxbInJlc2l6ZSIsNTAwXSxbIm1heCJdLFsid2UiXV0%3D/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg)
Jane Coop
Piano
Pianist Jane Coop was born in Saint John, NB and grew up in Calgary, AB. She studied with Anton Kuerti in Toronto and Leon Fleisher in Baltimore.
At nineteen she won First Prize in the CBC’s national radio competition, and this, along with prizes at competitions in New York and Washington, DC, launched her career. She made recital debuts at Wigmore Hall and Carnegie Hall, as well as performing with the Toronto, Calgary, Victoria and the CBC Vancouver Orchestras. In 1976 she toured the New England States as soloist with Mario Bernardi and the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada in Mozart’s Concerto in D minor.
Jane has since played in over twenty countries, in such halls as the Bolshoi Hall in St. Petersburg, the Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall, Roy Thomson Hall, the Beijing Concert Hall and the Salle Gaveau (Paris). In Canada she has given concerts from coast to coast to coast. She is one of the few who has remained resident in Canada throughout her career. Commissions from Stephen Chatman, Ramona Luengen and others have been included in both her live performances and her recordings.
Coop’s long-time association with violinist Andrew Dawes, and her more recent partnership with cellist Antonio Lysy, have given her the opportunity to delve into the sonata literature of Beethoven. In summer festivals around the world, she has performed with the Manhattan, Miami, Audubon, Orford, Lafayette, Colorado, Seattle, Angeles and Pacifica String Quartets, as well as with the Los Angeles Chamber Winds, York Winds, and such luminaries as Barry Tuckwell, Jamie Somerville, Martin Beaver, Jeanne Baxtrasser and Michelle Zukovsky. Coop is a faculty artist at the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, the oldest chamber festival in North America. There she collaborates in performances of much of the chamber music literature for piano and strings, and coaches brilliant young musicians from across the continent.
Her sixteen recordings, three of which have been nominated for Juno awards, have garnered glowing reviews and have been heard on classical radio programs in many countries. In December 2012, Jane Coop was appointed to the Order of Canada, our country’s highest honour for lifetime achievement.
![David Gillham, violin](http://d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/504404/3c1520fc56248c65dc5390c4737bfc7b3544a2cf/original/david-gillham-better.jpg/!!/b%3AW1siZXh0cmFjdCIseyJsZWZ0IjowLCJ0b3AiOjAsIndpZHRoIjozOTcsImhlaWdodCI6Mzk3fV0sWyJyZXNpemUiLDM5N10sWyJtYXgiXSxbIndlIl1d/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg)
David Gillham
Violin
Canadian Violinist David Gillham regularly appears as chamber musician, in recital and as soloist in major cities and venues across four continents. A sought after teacher, Mr. Gillham is an Associate Professor of Violin at the University of British Columbia School of Music and is the director of the Violin Programme at the Domaine Forget International Music Festival and Academy. Mr. Gillham has given masterclasses throughout North and South America, China, Taiwan and South Africa.
Mr. Gillham was for many years a member of the acclaimed Arianna String Quartet (USA) and is a founding member of the Ridge Piano Trio and the violin and piano duo “Gillham-Iinuma”.
In 2002, Mr. Gillham received the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal in honour of his contributions to the arts in Canada.
Mr. Gillham performs on a Carlo Tononi violin made in 1725, Venice.
![David Harding, Viola](http://d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/504404/325fa5075fc8a27b8c537a081bbef17a1bca6b31/original/artist-950x1428-david-harding.jpg/!!/b%3AW1siZXh0cmFjdCIseyJsZWZ0IjowLCJ0b3AiOjAsIndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImhlaWdodCI6OTUwfV0sWyJyZXNpemUiLDUwMF0sWyJtYXgiXSxbIndlIl1d/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg)
David Harding
Viola
David Harding has an extensive solo and chamber music career, having performed throughout Europe, the United States, Canada, Central America and Australia, in such renowned venues as Berlin’s Philharmonie, the Beethovenhaus in Bonn, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and New York’s 92nd Street Y and Metropolitan Museum of Art. Noted for his “eloquent viola playing”, David has performed at music festivals around the world, including the Edinburgh International Festival, Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, Seattle Chamber Music Society, Sitka Chamber Music Festival, Australian Festival of Chamber Music, and Philip Glass’ “Days and Nights Festival” in Big Sur, California. David’s career has involved collaborations with leading instrumentalists and ensembles such as the Pacifica, Shanghai, Cypress, Dover, Fine Arts and Miro Quartets as well as the Gryphon Trio. David was formerly a member of the Toronto String Quartet and the Chester String Quartet as well as the Canadian string trio “Triskelion.” With his wife, flutist Lorna McGhee and harpist, Heidi Krutzen, David is a member of Trio Verlaine.
David’s live performances have been broadcast on CBC Radio (Canada), BBC Radio 3 (UK), NPR’s ‘Performance Today’ (USA), ABC (Australia) and Deutschland Radio. David has recorded two CDs with Trio Verlaine; “ Fin de Siècle, the music of Debussy and Ravel” and “Six Departures” featuring works by Bax and Jolivet alongside new commissions by R. Murray Schafer and Jeffery Cotton. “Six Departures” was chosen to be CBC Radio’s ‘Classical CD of the Week.’ Other recordings include Philip Glass’ String Sextet and Schoenberg’s “Verklärte Nacht” on Orange Mountain Records, Bach’s “Goldberg Variations” with the string trio Triskelion for CBC records, the music of Aaron Jay Kernis with the Chester Quartet, and Brahms’ Viola Sonatas with pianist Phillip Bush for Skylark Music.
In addition to performing the core chamber music literature, David enjoys working closely with composers on new commissions and has helped to expand the repertoire for viola with four solo commissions, and five chamber music commissions to date. In collaboration with Philip Glass, he has worked on interdisciplinary projects with poets Jerry Quickley, Mike Garry, and kora player, Foday Musa Suso. David has worked alongside rock musicians in studio sessions, and arranged the string tracks for the Juno-winning, Grammy-nominated album “Mad Mad World” by Tom Cochrane. Prior to joining the Chester Quartet and embarking on a chamber music career, David was Assistant Principal Viola of the Canadian Opera Company, and performed and recorded with renowned early music ensemble, Tafelmusik.
David is currently Professor of Viola and Chamber Music at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh. He has given masterclasses throughout North America, and was formerly Associate Professor of Viola at the University of British Columbia, and with the Chester String Quartet, “Ensemble in Residence” at Indiana University South Bend. A graduate of the Juilliard School of Music and winner of the Sir John Barbirolli Award at the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, David’s primary teachers were Tibor Vaghy, Paul Doktor and Emmanuel Vardi. He performs on violas made by Nicolas Gilles, Montpellier, France and Pietro Antonio Della Costa, Treviso, Italy.
![Jane Hayes, piano](http://d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/504404/251fcb92330d90b8022fb96b309aca2b6f8a02a9/original/2020-headshot.jpeg/!!/b%3AW1siZXh0cmFjdCIseyJsZWZ0IjowLCJ0b3AiOjAsIndpZHRoIjo5MDksImhlaWdodCI6OTA5fV0sWyJyZXNpemUiLDUwMF0sWyJtYXgiXSxbIndlIl1d/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg)
Jane Hayes
Piano
Since her debut with the Toronto Symphony, Jane Hayes' concerts have taken her across Canada, the United States, Europe and Mexico. An active recording artist, she has over 20 CDs available on the Fanfare, EMI, Centrediscs, ATMA, Artifact, CBC-Musica Viva and CBC SM5000 labels. Jane moved to BC in 1993 to become a faculty member in the newly opened Music Department of Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Langley. Her passion for teaching was recognized when she received the 2015 Distinguished Teaching Award in the Faculty of Arts. Jane enjoyed a year-long sabbatical in 2017-2018 when she devoted her energy to two main projects: researching possibilities for long-distance music education in northern BC; and giving a series of recitals and master classes at universities and private music schools in the Henan and Guangdong provinces in China to foster professional development among Chinese piano professors. As a result of her work in China, she was appointed Guest Professor at Henan Polytechnic University. After 27 years, Jane has officially left Kwantlen to focus on her performing and mentoring passions.
In recent years she has appeared regularly on concert stages in every combination from duo through large ensemble, as soloist with orchestra to chamber collaborator. She has been a partner of such esteemed artists as cellist Harvey Shapiro, violinist Robert Davidovici, and flutists Julius Baker and Bonita Boyd among others. She is a founding member of Vancouver’s Turning Point Ensemble, the Yarilo Ensemble and Sea and Sky (violinist Joan Blackman; clarinetist François Houle; saxophonist Julia Nolan). This season’s highlights will include presentations of the complete Beethoven Cello Sonata Cycle with Pamela Highbaugh Aloni of the LaFayette Quartet along with several livestream and video performances around the province.
![Yiyi Hsu, Violin](http://d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/504404/098fd5680dce3b3322f3bd552e938270e4c8e98e/original/yiyi-hsu-headshot.jpg/!!/b%3AW1siZXh0cmFjdCIseyJsZWZ0IjoxODIsInRvcCI6MjAwLCJ3aWR0aCI6OTAwLCJoZWlnaHQiOjkwMH1dLFsicmVzaXplIiw1MDBdLFsibWF4Il0sWyJ3ZSJdXQ%3D%3D/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg)
Yiyi Hsu
Violin
Yiyi Hsu is a dedicated musician and a young emerging professional. She holds a Bachelor’s of Music in Violin Performance from the University of British Columbia - School of Music and will be completing the Artist Diploma in 2023. She has been a student of David Gillham for the past several years, studying both violin and chamber music.
Yiyi is an avid chamber and orchestral musician. In addition to serving as concertmaster of the UBC Symphony Orchestra on several occasions, she is a member of the Somerset Quartet, the quartet in residency at the UBC School of Music. Yiyi is very receptive and plays with vigour, enthusiasm and intelligence. She was a participant at The Domaine Forget Music Festival and Academy in Charlevoix, Quebec, the Hammelburg Violin Academy in Germany and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra Institute.
![](http://d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/504404/9a09fb1d8fafab041e591ecabbca3cfc16426c33/original/aliciashotcpo.jpg/!!/b%3AW1siZXh0cmFjdCIseyJsZWZ0IjowLCJ0b3AiOjQ1LCJ3aWR0aCI6NDYwLCJoZWlnaHQiOjQ2MH1dLFsicmVzaXplIiw0NjBdLFsibWF4Il0sWyJ3ZSJdXQ%3D%3D/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg)
Alicia Venables
Violin
Born in Victoria, BC, Alicia Venables was raised in the Okanagan Valley where she began piano lessons at the age of four and violin at age nine. She is currently on a one-year contract with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and was previously a member of the first violin section in the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra.
She spent her summers at Music Academy of the West, the Young Artist Program at the National Arts Centre, the Banff Masterclass Program and Morningside Music Bridge. She also had the opportunity to participate in the New York String Orchestra Seminar, Masterclass Al-Andalus in Spain and the Fjord Cadenza Festival in Norway.
She received her Master of Music Degree from Carnegie Mellon University where she studied with Andrés Cárdenes. During her studies there, she was a member of the CMU Honors String Quartet where they travelled to Doha, Qatar as cultural ambassadors. She received her Bachelor of Music Degree from San Francisco Conservatory of Music studying with Ian Swensen and a Diploma in Music Performance from Mount Royal University where she studied with William Van der Sloot. She is currently on faculty at the Vancouver Academy of Music.
Zoltan Rozsnyai
Cello
Zoltan Rozsnyai was born into a musical family. Both his parents and grandparents were professional musicians. He studied piano and violin, before taking up the cello at the age of six. He joined the Windsor Symphony at 15, then left to attend the University of Toronto two years later.
While in Toronto, he studied with Vladimir Orloff and Daniel Domb. Zoltan also took masterclasses at the Banff School of Fine Arts, studying with Aldo Parisot, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, and Janos Starker. He played for many years in the Canadian Opera Company and National Ballet orchestras, as well as performing as soloist and chamber musician throughout Ontario. Zoltan also spent a year in India with his electric cello, traveling and collaborating with musicians. In 1999 he joined the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and has been the Assistant Principal cellist since 2001.
![](http://d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/504404/9335be7ed87cdd7f3107d5fd67ccb1920a5649e8/original/rebecca-ruthven.jpg/!!/b%3AW1siZXh0cmFjdCIseyJsZWZ0IjowLCJ0b3AiOjAsIndpZHRoIjoyMzY0LCJoZWlnaHQiOjIzNjR9XSxbInJlc2l6ZSIsNTAwXSxbIm1heCJdLFsid2UiXV0%3D/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg)
Rebecca Ruthven
Viola
Rebecca is a freelance violinist and violist based in Vancouver. Originally from Kelowna, she completed bachelor’s degrees in Violin Performance and Biochemistry at McGill University. She has performed in workshops at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Tafelmusik Summer and Winter Baroque Institutes, Tuckamore Chamber Music Festival and Madeline Island Chamber Music. A three-time alumnus of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, she was the youngest Canadian musician in the Canada India Youth Orchestra project in Bangalore and is a recipient of the Stephen Sitarski Leadership Award. She performs with chamber and orchestral ensembles in and outside Vancouver, including the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra, and studies baroque violin as part of Early Music Vancouver’s Scholarship Programme and UBC’s Baroque Orchestra Mentorship Program.
![Henry Shapard, cello](http://d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/504404/15c4e6295ece4e97d21b27d7e2f9a194b86be68b/original/henry-shapard.jpeg/!!/b%3AW1siZXh0cmFjdCIseyJsZWZ0Ijo0LCJ0b3AiOjQ1Nywid2lkdGgiOjEwNzYsImhlaWdodCI6MTA3Nn1dLFsicmVzaXplIiw1MDBdLFsibWF4Il0sWyJ3ZSJdXQ%3D%3D/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg)
Henry Shapard
Cello
Henry Shapard was appointed Principal Cello of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in March of 2020, when he was 21 years old. Before joining the VSO, he briefly held the position of Principal Cello of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra, where he was appointed by the RIPO’s Artistic Adviser—and Music Director Emeritus of the VSO—Bramwell Tovey.
In May 2020, Henry graduated with distinction from Yale University with a degree in History, where he was named Phi Beta Kappa and was awarded the Bach Society Prize, the Sharp Prize, the Selden Memorial Award, and the Berkeley College Arts Prize. At Yale, he was a student of Ole Akahoshi and served as Principal Cello of the Yale Symphony Orchestra, where William Boughton became another important mentor. Henry served as the assistant conductor of the Yale Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Berkeley College Orchestra and the Saybrook College Orchestra. He led Low Strung, an all-cello rock group at Yale, on tours to China, Singapore, and across the USA.
Henry is a two-time fellow of the Tanglewood Music Center of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where he received the Karl Zeise Memorial Cello Award and was selected for a third fellowship as a member of the New Fromm Players, with whom he recorded real-time remote performances during the summer of 2020. He has also performed across Germany and Denmark as a member of the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra.
![Jacob van der Sloot, viola](http://d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/504404/bb4a4f4364538ea21b4bf0ad67aab550fac8b824/original/image.png/!!/b%3AW1siZXh0cmFjdCIseyJsZWZ0Ijo4OCwidG9wIjowLCJ3aWR0aCI6NTkyLCJoZWlnaHQiOjU5Mn1dLFsicmVzaXplIiw1MDBdLFsibWF4Il0sWyJ3ZSJdXQ%3D%3D/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.png)
Jacob van der Sloot
Viola
Jacob van der Sloot started playing violin under the instruction of his mother and father, Daphne and Michael van der Sloot, when he was five. He then switched to viola with his father when he was 13 and was accepted to the Juilliard school to study with Steven Tenebom, where he would earn his Bachelors degree in 2019. Shortly after his undergraduate studies, Jacob became the youngest member of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra at age 22.
Growing up in Victoria BC, Jacob had the opportunity to solo with the Sidney Classical, Sooke Philharmonic and the VCM Senior string orchestras, being praised for his “..deep, rich sound with flying colours.” (Times Colonist, Canada) Jacob has gone on to perform in halls around the world such as Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall and Alice Tully hall in New York City, Museo Del Violino in Cremona, Bing Concert Hall in Stanford and the Bejing Conservatory Concert Hall, among others. He has enjoyed dedicating his summers to the study of music, participating in programs such as the Perlman Music Program, Morningside Music Bridge, the NAC’s Young Artist Program, Banff International Masterclass Program, PRISMA Music Festival, Casalmaggiore Festival in Italy and a fellowship at the Bowdoin Music Festival. It was at these festivals where Jacob had the opportunity to study with and play alongside renowned faculty such as Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Dimitri Murrath, Roberto Diaz, Atar Arad, Máté Szücs and Michael Gieler. Jacob also made his solo Carnegie debut in 2019 playing the Brahms E-flat Major viola sonata as part of Julie Jordan’s “International Rising Stars” concert series.
An avid chamber musician, Jacob was part of the Noctis Quartet, which won second place at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition and the WDAV Young Artists Competition. His chamber groups have also performed numerous times in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium. Jacob’s passion for chamber music also carries into music outreach, playing chamber music all over New York City in hospitals, prisons, retirement homes, schools and psychiatric facilities as part of Juilliard’s “Gluck” Fellowship program and through GroupMuse concerts. He also enjoys private teaching, and has served on faculty of the Victoria Summer Strings Academy.
Jacob's orchestral journey began with the Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra. He has since played with the Juilliard Orchestra, the Juilliard Lab Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra and Principal Violist of both the Sidney Classical Orchestra and the New York Concerti Sinfonietta. Jacob joined the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in 2020 and is incredibly happy to call Vancouver his home.
![](http://d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/504404/2ec9afcf49f1720590ebd76cdc48ceb31fc8559d/original/220317-meaghan03081.jpg/!!/b%3AW1siZXh0cmFjdCIseyJsZWZ0IjowLCJ0b3AiOjMwMCwid2lkdGgiOjI0MDAsImhlaWdodCI6MjQwMH1dLFsicmVzaXplIiw1MDBdLFsibWF4Il0sWyJ3ZSJdXQ%3D%3D/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.jpg)
Meaghan Williams
Bass
Raised in St. John’s Newfoundland, Meaghan completed her undergraduate degree in performance at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto with virtuoso bassist Joel Quarrington. During that time, she also had the privilege of studying with bass legend Gary Karr. Meaghan earned her Konzertexamen with Michael Wolf at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. She also attended the Carl-Flesch Akademie in Baden-Baden, Germany where she studied with Finnish double bass phenomenon Janne Saksala, Principal Bass of Berlin Philharmonic.
Following her studies, Meaghan performed with the Neue Lausitzer Philharmonie in Germany and she was founding member of the Hyogo Performing Arts Center Symphony Orchestra in Japan. Since returning to Canada, Meaghan has performed with ensembles from coast to coast including the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Victoria Symphony and the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra. Meaghan is the Principal Bass of the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Vancouver Opera Orchestra.
A believer in diversity and innovation, Meaghan enjoys working with living composers and expanding the repertoire for double bass. She premiered the Concerto for Cello, Bass, Suona & Dizi by Dr. Ning Wang (Beijing) with the Nu:BC Collective and premiered Placentia Bay: Summer of 1941 for double bass and orchestra by Mark Haney with the Okanagan Symphony in November 2019. Meaghan is a passionate advocate of Canadian design and craftsmanship and performs on a double bass made by Peter Mach (Gatineau, QC) and bows made by Reid Hudson (Duncan, BC) and Max Kasper (Halifax, NS).
Meaghan is grateful to have been supported throughout her career with grants from the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council, the BC Arts Council, and the Canada Council for the Arts. She teaches at Capilano University, privately both in person and online, and at the West Coast Amateur Musicians Society course in Squamish, BC, each summer.
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Jennie Press
Violin
A native of St. John's, NL, Jennie Press made her solo debut with the Newfoundland Symphony at thirteen and has since had solo appearances with orchestras in Canada and the United States. Ms. Press has been a national finalist numerous times in the Canadian Music Competitions, the Shean Strings Competiton and the National Music Festival, both as a soloist and chamber musician. She has also been a prize winner in the Marbury Violin Competition, the Yale Gordon String Competition, the Alexandria Symphony Competiton and the Wellesly Symphony Competition. Ms. Press has performed in symphony and chamber orchestras including the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Concert Artists of Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Annapolis Symphony, Lancaster Symphony, Key West Symphony, and the CBC Radio Orchestra, and has served as concertmaster in several orchestras including Royal Opera Canada, Annapolis Opera, Washington Summer Opera, De Camera Chamber Players.
Ms. Press spent one year at the Walnut Hill School in Natick, MA as a student of Eric Rosenblith, and has attended Encore School for Strings, the Banff Centre Chamber Music Residency, and the National Arts Centre Young Artists Program. She holds Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, MD as a student of Victor Danchenko. She also spent one year as an Artist Diploma candidate at the Glenn Gould School in Toronto, ON as a student of Atis Bankas. Ms. Press has played in masterclasses and lessons for such internationally renowned artists as Midori, Pinchas Zukerman, Leon Fleisher, Donald Weilerstein, Camilla Wicks, Andreas Cardenes, Laurence Lesser, Lorand Fenyves, and members of the Juilliard, Orford and Vogler Quartets.
Ms. Press is currently Second Assistant Concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and teaches privately at the VSO School of Music. She is a regular performer in the VSO Chamber Players, Vancouver Chamber Players, and Vetta Chamber music Series.
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Hung-Wei Huang
Viola
Born in Taipei, Taiwan, violist Hung-Wei Huang joined the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra as Principal Viola in February 2021. In 2002 Mr. Huang became the youngest-ever principal viola of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, going on to play with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. He has served as guest principal viola of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, and London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Mr. Huang has performed chamber musicat Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall and the Kennedy Center and at the Marlboro, Santa Fe, and Great Mountain Festivals. He has collaborated with Joshua Bell, Myung-Wha Chung, Lang Lang, Yo-Yo Ma, Anne-SophieMutter, Paula Robison and Mitsuko Uchida, as well as members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, and Orion string quartets.
Hung-Wei Huang began music lessons at the age of seven with Lin Chia-Zong, and continued his studies at the Curtis Institute of Music, the Julliard School, and the Mannes School of Music.
Mr. Huang served as guest professor of viola and chamber music at the Korea National University of Arts, and his students are members of professional orchestras around the world.
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Julia Nolan
Saxophone
An active performer, saxophonist Julia Nolan has commissioned numerous works by Canadian composers. In 2020, she will be the featured soloist with Sinfonia, conducted by Clyde Mitchell performing Stefan Hintersteininger’s Saxophone Concerto. In 2019, she performed this concerto with the West Coast Orchestra on a tour of Balkan countries. In 2018, Julia released a CD with violinist Joan Blackman and pianist Jane Hayes and a CD of Canadian works with the Saxophilia Saxophone Quartet. In 2016, Julia gave the U.S. premiere of Jeffrey Ryan’s concerto Brazen with the Lubbock Symphony and premiered the concerto Cool Cut by John Oliver with Vancouver’s Turning Point Ensemble. She recorded new works for organ and saxophone by Denis Bedard (2014) and is the featured soloist with the Naden Band of the Royal Canadian Navy (2015) performing Robert Buckley’sPrestidigitation.
Julia has performed and recorded with the Alan Matheson’s jazz groups and played with the Dal Richards jazz orchestra.Julia Nolan has served as a clinician and international judge in Belgium, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the United States and is currently the Director of Scholarly Publications for the North American Saxophone Alliance. Dr. Nolan teaches saxophone at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and the University of British Columbia and the Vancouver Symphony School of Music.
She is also an Artist-Clinician for Yamaha, Canada Ltd and Rousseau Musical Products.
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Jodi Proznick
bass
Three time Juno-nominated bassist, composer, producer and educator Jodi Proznick has earned a reputation as one of Canada’s finest jazz artists. She has won numerous National Jazz Awards, including Bassist of the Year in ’08 and ’09. Her group, the Jodi Proznick Quartet, was awarded the Acoustic Group of the Year and Album of the Year in ‘08 and the Galaxie Rising Star at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival in ‘04. Most recently, Jodi was awarded the Jazz Artist of the Year at the Western Canadian Music Awards and the Platinum Jubilee Art and Music Award from the Lieutenant Governer of British Columbia.
Jodi has performed with many of Canada’s top musicians, including P.J. Perry, Don Thompson, Kirk MacDonald, Guido Basso, Oliver Gannon, Dee Daniels, Phil Dwyer, Mark Fewer, Bill Henderson and Laila Biali as well as international jazz legends such as David 'Fathead' Newman, Sheila Jordan, George Coleman, Seamus Blake, Lewis Nash, Peter Bernstein, Tootie Heath, Bucky Pizzarelli, Russell Malone, Harold Mabern, Eddie Daniels and Ed Thigpen. In addition to recording her own Juno-nominated CDs as a leader, Jodi has been featured on over 50 recordings as a sidewoman and is co-leader of Triology (f. Miles Black and Bill Coon), the Ostara Project and others.
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Dylan Palmer
bass
Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Dylan Palmer joined the Vancouver Symphony as Principal Double Bass in January, 2010. Prior to joining the VSO, Dylan was a member of the New World Symphony, in Miami Beach, Florida.
Mr. Palmer has participated in the Spoleto (USA), Domaine Forget, and Sarasota music festivals. He also attended Tanglewood Music Center in 2005 and 2008, where he performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra as a fellow.
Mr. Palmer received his Bachelor of Music degree from the University Of North Texas, where he studied with pedagogue Jeff Bradetich
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Jeanette Jonquil
Clarinet
Jeanette Jonquil has been the principal clarinetist in the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra since 2005. She has performed as guest principal clarinetist with the Minnesota Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony and New Zealand Symphony. Before moving to Vancouver, she had been the principal clarinetist of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
For several summers, Ms. Jonquil was the principal clarinetist of the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra in Boulder. She has attended the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in Germany, Pacific Music Festival in Japan, Chautauqua Music Festival in New York and was a fellow at Tanglewood where she was awarded the Gino B. Cioffi Memorial Prize for most outstanding woodwind playing.
Ms. Jonquil is originally from Utica, New York where she began playing the clarinet in her school band program. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from Northwestern University and her Master of Music degree from Yale University. Her primary teachers were Russell Dagon and David Shifrin. Some of her other accomplishments include winning the Woolsey Hall Concerto Competition and the Daniel Nyfenger Memorial Prize for Excellence in Woodwind Playing (both at Yale) and winning first prize at the Coleman Chamber Music Competition in Los Angeles.
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Sophie Dansereau
Bassoon
Born in Sorel-Tracy, Sophie Dansereau obtained the \"Prix avec Grande Distinction à l'unanimité\" in bassoon and chamber music from the Conservatoire de Musique du Québec as well as a Masters of Music from Yale University. Her main teachers are Richard Gagnon, Frank Morelli, Christopher Millard and Stéphane Lévesque.
Contrabassoonist and assistant principal bassoonist of the Vancouver Symphony and principal bassoonist of the CBC Radio Orchestra, Sophie has performed with the Auckland Philharmonic (New Zealand), the New World Symphony, the National Art Centre and l'Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, as well as several major music festivals around the world. She has worked on several occasions with the finest conductors, such as Bramwell Tovey, Seiji Ozawa, Robert Spano, Michael Tilson Thomas, Pinchas Zukerman, Alain Trudel, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Charles Dutoit. Sophie has been awarded many prizes in major national and international competitions and was featured as a soloist on many occasions with the APO and the VSO. A sought after bassoonist in chamber music, she is a member of the Admare Quintet.
Sophie, who had received the Governor General Medal for Academic Merit in 1992, has also served on the faculty of the University of British Colombia. She is now teaching at the Vancouver Academy of Music and is the instructor for the woodwind section.
Besides her full work schedule, Sophie is an enthusiastic runner and swimmer. Her unexpected time at the 2007 Vancouver Marathon gave her the qualification for the legendary Boston Marathon, which she plans to train for and run in 2008.