Henk Guittart, co-founder of the Schoenberg Quartet and one of Europe’s most sought-after professors of chamber music, has been appointed director of Fall & Winter Music Programs at The Banff Centre. He joins Barry Shiffman, co-founder of the St. Lawrence String Quartet (SLSQ) and one of Canada’s pre-eminent musicians, as the Centre’s co-artistic director of Music. Shiffman, who was recently appointed associate dean of the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, will continue to serve as director of Banff’s Summer Music Programs. He also retains his responsibility as executive director of the Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC).
In announcing the appointments, Sarah Iley, the Centre’s vice-president of Programming, stated, “Henk and Barry together bring tremendous depth and breadth to The Banff Centre’s internationally renowned music programs. We are fortunate to have such a dynamic duo to develop projects and deliver programs that will propel artists onto the international stage and add to the cultural repertoire. Both deeply respect the tradition of nurturing artists for which The Banff Centre is known, and both care passionately about enabling the creation of new work..”
A violist who has performed all over the world with the Schoenberg Quartet, Henk Guittart is a highly-regarded viola teacher, chamber music coach, and conductor. From 1979 until 1984 he was head of the chamber music department of the Royal Conservatory of the Netherlands and in 1990/1991 was appointed to the position of conductor at the Rotterdam Academy of Music and at the Maastricht Academy. Over the past decade he has been a guest conductor and professor at the music academies in Budapest, Princeton, Los Angeles, Dresden, The Hague, Amsterdam, Cologne, Moscow, and Stanford. Since the fall of 2006 Henk Guittart has served as artistic advisor of music programs at The Banff Centre, where he has also served as guest faculty.
Guittart studied viola with Jürgen Kussmaul at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague (The Netherlands) and orchestral conducting with Louis Stotijn. In 1974 he founded the Schoenberg Ensemble, of which he was the artistic director until 1990. From 1976 until 2009 he was the violist of the critically-acclaimed Schoenberg Quartet, with which he recorded 35 CDs. Since 1998 he has also conducted professional symphony orchestras.
Raised in Toronto, Canadian violinist and violist Barry Shiffman has a rich and varied career as a performer, recording artist, teacher, and creator of special projects. Passionately committed to the composers of our time, he has been involved in the premieres of hundreds of new works. Shiffman made his debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at the age of 15 and co-founded the St. Lawrence String Quartet in 1989. Canada’s premiere string quartet, the SLSQ won the 1992 Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC) and went on to gain an international following.
During his 17 years with the quartet Shiffman maintained a recording career which garnered numerous awards, including a Juno, a Grammy nomination, and the German critics’ award, the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. He also served as artist-in-residence at Stanford University from 1998 to 2006 and as visiting artist at the University of Toronto from 1995 to 2006. Since the fall of 2006, Barry Shiffman has been director of music programs at The Banff Centre, and executive director of the prestigious Banff International String Quartet Competition.
The Banff Centre’s Fall and Winter Music Programs offer established and emerging musicians opportunities to focus on personal artistic development and self-directed projects in collaboration with distinguished guest artists. The Centre’s Summer Music Programs form part of the Banff Summer Arts Festival. They provide intensive master class and performance opportunities that foster career development and artistic discovery under the leadership of world-renowned faculty.
Working alongside the co-artistic directors to deliver world-class music programming at The Banff Centre will be Mark Wold, director of operations for Music. Mark holds a Bachelor of Music (violin) and Philosophy, and a Master’s of Continuing Education, and has served in a variety of senior administrative roles at The Banff Centre. Effective immediately, Henk Guittart will providing strategic planning and program development for the 2010-11 Fall and Winter Music programs, while Barry Shiffman will continue his current role at the Centre until September.
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