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.

Baroque violinist Sarah Douglass has performed with ensembles across the country, including Rosa Barocca, Arion Orchestre Baroque, L'Harmonie des Saisons, Pallade Musica and Les Temps Perdus. She has recorded the Violin Duos by Maddalena Sirmen Lombardini, the first complete recording of these works, and can be heard on Rosa Barocca's Juno-winning album of Italian cello concerti with Elinor Frey, as well as various other albums.

A Calgary native, Sarah co-directs and performs in the Chamber Muse Calgary baroque concert series. She is a founding member of the Berwick Fiddle Consort, an historical folk trio that explores 18th-century Scottish and Irish repertoire. 

Sarah earned a Master's degree from McGill University in 2020, studying with Olivier Brault. She has also earned degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory, where she studied with Ian Swensen and Elizabeth Blumenstock. She is grateful to have studied with many great artists including Sigiswald Kuijken, Marc Destrubé, Hank Knox, Elisabeth Reed, Corey Jamason, Paul Hersh, and Kati Debretzeni through the Royal Conservatory of the Hague.
 

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.

Canadian-born Chinese violist, Peter Ing, is a seasonal musician with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Peter began his musical training directly on the viola and was immersed into the rich alto sound right from the start. He obtained his bachelor’s degree from the University of Western Ontario, studying with Ralph Aldridge. Following that, he went on to study with David Harding at the University of British Columbia, completing a master’s degree. Peter also spent time as a fellow at the Kent Blossom Music Festival studying chamber music and orchestral repertoire with various Cleveland Orchestra musicians. Aside from being an active orchestral musician, he is also the violist and founding member of the Rose Gellert String Quartet, the ensemble-in-residence at the Langley Community Music School. His string quartet acts as a musical ambassador in the Langley area bringing music to schools and senior’s homes where  their residence may not have the mobility to attend live performances. When not on stage, Peter can be found with his Partner roaming around garden centres finding new plants to grow on their home balcony.

As the winner of The Artist's International competition, Ji Eun Jenny Lim was awarded a debut recital at the Carnegie Weill hall the following year; and also made her debut at the Lincoln Center, New York and the Kennedy Center, Washington with the Juilliard Orchestra after winning the Juilliard competition. In Korea, she made her debut with Leipziger Kammer Orchester in the Seoul International Music Festival, and also was the soloist with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra in the New Year's Gala Concert. Ji Eun has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras including Leipziger Kammer Orchester, Italian Chamber Orchestra, Corelli Chamber Orchestra, Novgorod Philharmonic, Irkutsk Philharmonic, Aspen Baroque Orchestra, Lake George Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, Busan Philharmonic, Korean Symphony, Sungnam City Philharmonic, Kangnung City Symphony, Incheon Philharmonic, Seoul National Symphony and many other major orchestras in South Korea. She toured playing recitals, chamber music concerts and international festivals such as Aspen Music Festival, Australian Chamber Music Festival, Tenerife International Music Festival, Radio France Chamber Music Concerts, Savonlinna Festival Chamber Music Concerts, FestiVal Gardena Chamber Music Concerts, Concerto dell’Ensamble Novalis, Chamber Music in Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, Korean Festival Ensemble Chamber Music Concert, Gumi International Music Festival, Daecheon International Chamber Music Festival in Australia, Austria, Canada, China, England, Finland, England, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, and USA.

After her education with Gerard Kantarjian in Canada, Ji Eun achieved her Bachelor's, Master's degree and Professional Studies program at the Juilliard School in New York. Her studies continued with legendary artists such as Arnold Steinhardt (Guarneri Quartet), Donald Weilerstein (Cleveland Quartet) and Norbert Brainin (Amadeus Quartet).

Also devoted in teaching, Ji Eun taught violin and chamber music at YonSei University and HanYang University in South Korea, and also at Montpellier International Music Academy and International Sommerakademie Schloss Heiligenberg. She was one of principles in conductorless chamber Orchestra, the renowned Hwaum Chamber Orchestra for many number of years. Since residing in Vancouver, Canada, she was featured in numerous festivals such as Vancouver Chamber Music Society Series, Music in the Morning Series, UBC Noon concerts, Music on Main, Pender Harbour Chamber Music Festival, and many more. Ji Eun is currently on the faculty at Vancouver Academy of Music.

Romanian-Canadian cellist Cristian Márkos has been a member of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra since 1999. Born in Iași, Romania, Cristian earned his B.Mus in Music Performance from the Music Academy in Bucharest, Romania. He went on to the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee for post-graduate studies with Mr. Wolfgang Laufer, late cellist of the renowned Fine Arts Quartet.

Wanting to experience a ‘true’ Canadian winter, Cristian sat as Associate Principal Cellist with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra for the 2012-2013 concert season.  As an accomplished symphony and chamber musician, he has toured with the Mont Blanc Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the late Maestro/cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, and as a soloist Cristian has performed on stages in Romania, France, Germany, Austria, Greece, Italy, United States, and Canada.

In addition to performing, Cristian is also a dedicated teacher and clinician and maintains vibrant private teaching studios at the VSO’s new School of Music and the Vancouver Academy of Music.