Evolution: Quartet 2022 Participant and Faculty Program (Jul 23)

Celebrating its 30th season, the Gryphon Trio is one of the world’s preeminent piano trios, garnering acclaim and impressing international audiences with its highly refined, dynamic and memorable performances.

With a repertoire that ranges from traditional to contemporary and from European classicism to modern-day multimedia, the Gryphons are committed to redefining chamber music for the 21st century.

Creative innovators with an appetite for discovery and new directions, the Gryphon Trio has commissioned over 100 new works, and frequently collaborates on projects that push the boundaries of chamber music. The trio tours regularly throughout North America and Europe, and their 22 recordings are an encyclopedia of works for the genre. Honours include three Juno Awards for Classical Album of the Year – most recently, that of 2019 – and the prestigious 2013 Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts from the Canada Council.

Deeply committed to music education and audience development, the Gryphons conduct master classes and workshops at universities and conservatories, and are artists-in-residence at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music and Trinity College. Dr. Jamie Parker is the Rupert E. Edwards Chair in Piano Performance and Annalee Patipatanakoon is Associate Professor of Violin and Head of Strings at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music.

Since 2010, the trio’s multi-faceted arts creation program Listen Up! has engaged elementary school students, teachers and parents in 16 Canadian communities and provided them with the experience and knowledge required to participate actively in the arts.

The Gryphon Trio has had a long association with the Ottawa Chamberfest – Roman Borys served as Artistic Director between 2007-2015, as Artistic and Executive Director between 2015-2021 and Patipatanakoon and Parker served as Artistic Advisors between 2008-2021. The Trio are currently Directors of Classical Music Summer programs at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

Le Quatuor Eybler s’est constitué à la fin de 2004 dans le but d’approfondir les œuvres du premier siècle du quatuor à cordes, une attention toute spéciale étant accordée aux compositeurs peu connus, dont Joseph Leopold Edler von Eybler, qui a donné son nom à l’ensemble. Ses musiciens jouent sur des instruments qui conviennent à l’époque de la musique qu’ils interprètent. L’ensemble est caractérisé par l’exceptionnelle combinaison de compétences et de talents de ses membres : des années de pratique en tant que chambristes, une formidable maîtrise technique, une grande expérience du jeu des instruments d’époque ainsi qu’une passion intarissable pour le répertoire interprété. Ils ont enregistré, entre autres, la première mondiale d’œuvres de Joseph Leopold Edler von Eybler, de Jean-Baptiste Vanhal et de J.G.H Backofen, ainsi que le Quintette avec clarinette de Mozart et un album double des quatuors de l’opus 33 de Joseph Haydn, qui a été décrit comme « tout simplement un trésor » par le magazine Early Music America, qui en a aussi dit : « les tempos sont judicieusement choisis, le jeu d’ensemble est irréprochable, et l’intonation d’une pureté absolue. C’est une interprétation qui reflète les qualités profondément humaines et charmantes de Haydn le compositeur — bonne humeur, esprit et invention. »

Le JACK Quartet (quatuor JACK), dont les musiciens ont été qualifiés de « superhéros du monde de la nouvelle musique » par le Boston Globe, est le quatuor qui s'impose lorsqu'il est question de musique contemporaine : selon le Washington Post, « il allie un sens musical impeccable à une férocité intellectuelle et à un sens de l'engagement sans compromis ». Le JACK Quartet, qui se compose des violonistes Christopher Otto et Austin Wulliman, de l'altiste John Pickford Richards et du violoncelliste Jay Campbell, met l'accent sur les nouvelles compositions, ce qui pousse ses musiciens à collaborer avec des compositeurs comme John Luther Adams, Chaya Czernowin, Simon Steen-Andersen, Caroline Shaw, Helmut Lachenmann, Steve Reich, Matthias Pintscher et John Zorn. Ce quatuor exerce ses activités en tant qu'organisation à but non lucratif, et il se consacre à l'interprétation, à la commande de nouvelles œuvres et au rayonnement de la nouvelle musique pour quatuor à cordes. Le quatuor, qui accorde une grande importance à l'éducation, passe deux semaines par été à enseigner à New Music on the Point, un festival de musique de chambre contemporaine pour jeunes musiciens et compositeurs, au Vermont. Le JACK Quartet a une collaboration de longue date avec le programme de quatuor à cordes en résidence de l'Université de l'Iowa, où les membres du quatuor enseignent et collaborent avec les étudiants chaque automne, et avec le Center for New Music de l'Université de Boston, où ils passent du temps chaque semestre. De plus, le quatuor est régulièrement de passage dans certaines écoles, dont l'Université Columbia, l'Université Harvard, l'Université de New York, l'Université de Princeton, l'Université Stanford et l'Université de Washington.

Reconnu pour ses interprétations dynamiques et ses couleurs généreuses et brillantes, le Quatuor Parker, qui a gagné le prix Grammy de la meilleure interprétation en musique de chambre en 2011, s’est rapidement distingué – grâce à ses concerts exaltants, à sa sonorité lumineuse et à son sens musical exceptionnel – comme l’un des ensembles les plus éminents de sa génération. En demande dans le monde entier, le quatuor s’est produit, depuis sa création en 2002, dans les plus importantes salles de concert de la scène internationale. Les membres du Quatuor Parker Quartet sont diplômés en interprétation et en musique de chambre du New England Conservatory of Music et ont participé au prestigieux programme de formation professionnelle pour quatuors à cordes du même conservatoire de 2006 à 2008. Parmi les mentors qui ont eu la plus grande influence sur eux figurent les membres originaux du Quatuor Cleveland, ainsi que Kim Kashkashian, György Kurtág et Rainer Schmidt. Les musiciens du Quatuor Parker vivent à Cambridge, au Massachusetts, où ils sont les artistes en résidence « Blodgett » au sein du département de musique de l’Université Harvard.

Image par Luke Ratray

Suzanne Farrin is a composer who explores the interior worlds of instruments and the visceral potentialities of sound. Her music has been performed by some of the great musicians of today on stages across Europe and North and South America. Earlier works have concentrated on establishing an intensity and personal language through careful study of solo instruments along with the interpretive personalities that come with them. Those works include pieces for solo strings (corpo di terra, for cello; Time is a Cage for violin and uscirmi di braccia, for viola and piano or bass drum). Though they have now been played by many interpreters, they were expressly written for people close to Suzanne: Julia Lichten (cello), Cal Wiersma (violin), and Antoine Tamestit and Markus Hadulla (viola and piano). That intimacy is a productive space for her: it is as if exploring the very personal habits, sounds and physicality of each brings her closer to a more universal experience. This search for transcendence has more recently been applied to vocal music. In dolce la morte, Suzanne felt she was expressing the inherent conflicts, contractions, and corporal strife that exist in the great master’s love poetry.

Her music has been featured at venues and festivals including The Gothenburg Art Biennial, Mostly Mozart, Matrix, Alpenklassik, Music in Würzburg, BAM NextWave, Theaterforum (Germany), Town Hall Seattle, Carnegie’s Weill Hall, Symphony Space, Wigmore Hall, the Walker Art Center, Centro de Artes de la Universidad Nacional de San Martín (Argentina) and in New York (where she lives), The Stone, Spectrum, Subculture, Miller Theater, Merkin Hall, Wavehill, Lincoln Center, the Park Avenue Armory, and Joe’s Pub, among many others. In addition to composing, Suzanne is a performer of the ondes Martenot, an early electronic instrument created by the engineer Maurice Martenot in France in the 1920s as a response to the simultaneous destruction and technological advances of World War I. Her life as an interpreter on the instrument has taken her to venues such as the Abrons Arts Center in New York City, Centro de Artes in Buenos Aires as well as television, where she was recently featured in an episode directed by Roman Coppola on the Amazon series Mozart in the Jungle. She is featured as a performer in Chicuarotes, an upcoming feature-film directed by Gael Garcia Bernal, as well as the Iranian film Sade Ma’bar (Blockage) directed by Mohsen Gharaie. Suzanne is the Frayda B. Lindemann Professor of Music and Chair at Hunter College and The CUNY Graduate Center, where she teaches composition. She holds a doctorate from Yale University. Corpo di Terra (New Focus Recordings) is devoted entirely to her work, which may also be heard on the VAI, Signum Classics, Tundra, and Albany Records labels. She was the 2017 Frederic A. Juilliard/Walter Damrosch Rome Prize winner in Composition and is a 2020 Guggenheim fellow.  

Photo by Luke Redmond

Suzannah Clark (AKC, B.Mus, M.Mus, M.F.A, M.A., Ph.D.) est professeure de musique à l'Université Harvard. Avant de s'établir à Harvard en 2008, elle a enseigné à l'Université d'Oxford durant huit ans. Elle est spécialisée dans la musique de Franz Schubert, l'histoire de la théorie musicale et la musique médiévale. Son livre Analyzing Schubert a été publié par Cambridge University Press en 2011. Suzannah Clark a donné des conférences au Royaume-Uni, aux États-Unis, au Canada, en France et en Allemagne, et elle a reçu des bourses de l'Office allemand d'échanges universitaires (DAAD, Allemagne), du Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada (Canada), de la British Academy (R.-U.), et de l'Arts and Humanities Research Council (R.-U.). Elle a récemment été boursière « William J. Bouwsma » au National Humanities Center, en Caroline du Nord. Elle est actuellement membre du Conseil de l'American Musicological Society et est, depuis 2013, rédactrice responsable des critiques pour la revue de l'AMS. À Harvard, elle donne principalement des cours liés à la théorie musicale, mais aussi à la musicologie historique. Suzannah Clark a passé la plus grande partie de sa jeunesse à Terre-Neuve, au Canada, et a étudié en Angleterre, en France et en Italie. Elle a fait ses études de baccalauréat et de maîtrise au King’s College de Londres (R.-U.) et a obtenu une maîtrise ès Arts (1993) et un doctorat (1997) de l'Université de Princeton.

Praised by the New York Times as “a gifted Brazilian-American modernist” whose works are “brilliantly realized”, “technically formidable, wildly varied”, and possess “voluptuous, elemental lyricism”, Felipe Lara’s work — which includes orchestral, chamber, vocal, film, electroacoustic, and popular music — engages in producing new musical contexts by means of (re)interpreting and translating acoustical and extra-musical properties of familiar source sonorities into project-specific forces. He often aspires to create self-similar relationships between the macro and micro-articulation of the musical experience and highlights the interdependence of acoustic music composition and technology. 

His music has been recently commissioned by leading soloists, ensembles, and institutions such as the Arditti Quartet (with ExperimentalStudio Freiburg SWR), Brentano Quartet (with Hsin-Yung Huang), Claire Chase, Conrad Tao, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Duo Diorama, Ensemble InterContemporain, Ensemble Modern, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, International Contemporary Ensemble, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Ogni Suono, Rebekah Heller, and São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (Osesp), as well as performed by the Amazonas Philharmonic, Asasello Quartet, Ensemble Recherche, David Fulmer, Dirk Kaftan, Esperanza Spalding, Ex Novo Ensemble, Ilan Volkov, JACK Quartet, Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, Mivos Quartet, Neil Thomson, Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic Hilversum, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Peter Eötvös, Steven Schick, Susanna Mällki, Talea Ensemble, and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. 

His compositions have been presented by festivals and venues such as Aspen Music Festival, Centre Acanthes (Metz), Acht Brücken Festival (Kölner Philharmonie), Aldeburgh Music Festival (UK), Ars Musica (Belgium), The Art Institute of Chicago, Aspekte Festival (Salzburg), Asphalt Festival (Düsseldorf), Budapest Music Center, Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concerts, Crested Butte Music Festival, Darmstadt International Courses for New Music, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Europalia (Belgium), Festival Música Nova (São Paulo), Fromm Players at Harvard, Hakuju Hall (Tokyo), Heidelberger Frühling, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (UK), King’s Place (London), The Kitchen (New York), Luxembourg Philharmonie, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival (New York), Musikfest Frankfurt, New York Philharmonic Biennial, Pan Music Festival (ISCM, South Korea), Philharmonie de Paris, Phillips Collection (Washington, DC), Roulette (Brooklyn), Sala São Paulo (Brazil), Sala Cecília Meireles (Rio de Janeiro), Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall (London), Tanglewood’s Festival for Contemporary Music, Tanglewood’s Great Performers Series, Teatro Amazonas (Manaus), Teatro La Fenice (Venice), Theatro Municipal (São Paulo), and TimeSpans Festival (New York). 

The recipient of a 2015 Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Fellowship, from Harvard University, he has been awarded a Johns Hopkins Catalyst Award (2021), Prêmio Concerto (São Paulo, 2021), New Jersey Council for the Arts Fellowship (2020), an  invitational fellowship from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation (2014), composition prize from Funarte (Brazilian Ministry of Culture, 2014), Master Artist Award from the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture (2013), Kanter/Mivos String Quartet Prize (2011), Staubach Prize from IMD (Darmstadt, 2008), Dal Niente International Call-for-Scores, First Prize in Orchestra Composition from the Biennial for Brazilian Contemporary Music (2005), as well as commissions from Chamber Music America (2021), Koussevitzky Music Foundation at Library of Congress (2016), and Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University (2011). He was also a finalist for the 2014 Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative (Geneva, 2014). 

Recent recordings include Parábolas na Caverna and Meditation and Calligraphy on Claire Chase’s Density 2036 (Berkeley, Meyer Sound 2020), Metafagote on Rebekah Heller’s album also titled Metafagote (New York, Tundra Records, 2017),  Tran(slate) on JACK Quartet/Áltavoz composers (New York, New Focus Recordings 2014) and Progetto Prometeo – omaggio a Luigi Nono ed Emilio Vedova by Ex Novo Ensemble (Venice, Rosenfinger 2009), Corde Vocale on Mivos Quartet’s Reappearances (New York, Carrier Records 2013), Corde Vocale by Arditti Quartet and Prisma by Duo Diorama on Quatro Visões Contemporâneas na Música Paulista (Campinas, Gravina 2008), and Sonata de Desintoxicação on Karin Fernandes’ Cria, which was awarded ‘album of the year’ by Brazilian Revista Concerto (São Paulo, Proac 2014). 

He holds a PhD in Music Composition from New York University (Graduate Scholl of Arts and Science) where he was a Henry M. MacCracken Fellow, a Masters of Music from Tufts University, and a Bachelors of Music degree from Berklee College of Music. His main teachers were Louis Karchin, Tristan Murail, Mario Davidovsky, John McDonald, Vuk Kulenovic, and Alla Elana Cohen. Additionally, he had lessons with Brian Ferneyhough, Chaya Czernowin, David Rakowski, Helmut Lachenmann, Kaija Saariaho, Marco Stroppa, Michel Jarrell, Philippe Leroux, and Wolfgang Rihm, privately and in international festivals and academies such as the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Centre Acanthes, Darmstadt, Domaine Forget, Hindemith Institute, and June in Buffalo. 

Lara is an Assistant Professor in Music Composition at Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute. Having previously taught at Boston Conservatory at Berklee and Faculty of Arts and Science at New York University, he has been Visiting Lecturer at Harvard’s Department of Music, where he was awarded two Harvard Excellence in Teaching Awards (2017, 2019), as well as Visiting Faculty at Federal University of Bahia (Salvador, Brazil). 

Future engagements include performances of Double Concerto for Esperanza Spalding, Claire Chase, and large symphony orchestra by the Los Angeles Philharmonic (2023) and New York Philharmonic (2023), both led by Susanna Mälkki, a Miller Theater Composer Portrait performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble and conductor Vimbayi Kaziboni (2022), as well as the world premiere of a new large scale work for string quartet for the Parker Quartet, commissioned by Chamber Music America (2022). 

Susan Sinclair teaches the Alexander Technique and the Pilates Method in her Toronto studio,  directs the Sinclair Studio Alexander Technique Teacher Training program, and trains Pilates teachers.

Susan is on faculty at the Tokyo School for the Alexander Technique, the Houston School for the Alexander Technique and has taught for the Alexander Alliance Training in   the USA, Germany and Japan.

Sinclair teaches at Toronto Dance Theater, is guest faculty at The Gestalt Institute of Toronto, and has taught courses at Humber College, Center for Indigenous Theater, Equity Showcase Theater, and in workshops to University of Toronto, Western University, and Temple University.

Sinclair presented her work at the Eighth and Ninth International Congresses of the Alexander Technique in Lugano Switzerland, and regularly teaches at Alexander Technique International conferences in Europe, USA, Canada and Japan.

Susan graduated from the Alexander Foundation, Philadelphia, School of the Toronto Dance Theater, and Ryerson Polytechnical Institute.

Since 1990, Susan has developed a  unique combination of  the Alexander Technique and her own Pilates-evolved method,   and worked with many musicians, dancers and actors for voice production, performance enhancement, injury prevention and recovery, and physical conditioning.

Caroline has spent the best part of 35 years in the arts, as stage manager, production and technical manager, education manager, project manager and producer in UK and Canada.

It has taken her into community arts and human circuses in South London; large parades with boats, cars and bicycles made of sticky tape; giant puppets in Portugal; too many events in soggy fields; touring round the Scottish Highlands; running two theatres for young people in Wales; enjoying fireworks and tugs (fortunately at the same time); Operas with elephants; Touring a multimedia theatre/opera production (Constantinople - Christos Hatzis + Gryphon Trio; What’s Classical? festival weekends; Producer with Luminato Festival over the years; Performances with 1000 performers (Apocalypsis - R Murray Schafer); Night time illuminated walks in Canadian National Parks (Banff and Rouge) (Illuminations); Multiple choirs on a pond (Maada’ooki Songlines – C Derksen) and Community presentations (Odaabanag-with music by Melody McKiver - Jumblies Theatre)

She has one simple, but passionate, aim - to introduce people, especially young people, to the live arts as creators and participants, as well as spectators.

Fay Nass is a Vancouver based theatre director, curator, dramaturg, producer and multi-disciplinary artist. She is Artistic Director of the frank theatre company and the founder/AD of Aphotic Theatre. Their work often examines questions of race, sex, and culture, and the challenges these pose to notions of identity. Being an Iranian-Canadian immigrant and a non-binary queer artist, in their work they shine light on liminal spaces in order to shift meanings and create space for cultural exchanges. Fay has been working as a director, dramaturg, writer, producer, curator, educator and consultant for the past 15 years in Vancouver. Her most recent credits include: co-directing Trans Script Part I: The Women (The Frank Theatre and Zee Theatre at Firehall Arts Centre) directing She Mami Wata & the Pussy WitchHunt (the Frank Theatre at PuSh Festival 2020), co-directing Straight White Men (ITSAZOO productions at Gateway Theatre), dramaturgy of Camera Obscura (Hungry Ghosts) (The Frank Theatre & QAF), directing and devising Diaspora: Queer immigrant and refugee stories (The Frank Theatre at QAF). Fay holds a MFA from Simon Fraser University. Currently, they are doing the Artistic Leadership Residency at the National Theatre School of Canada.

Alyssa Regent (b. 1995) was born on the islands of Guadeloupe (FR) and studied at Hunter College New York, where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts in composition. In 2021 she was a Fromm Foundation Fellow at the 77th Composers’ Conference in Boston, MA. In 2022, she obtained her Master of Arts in composition under Suzanne Farrin and David Fulmer. During her time at Hunter College, she trained as a conductor under David Fulmer and was the Assistant conductor of the Hunter Symphony Orchestra. Alyssa’s music draws inspiration from folklore and the broader realm of art (visual art, written and spoken word, film, movement, sound art, etc.) as an approach on how to experience the affect or emotive power present within the make-up of music and the spectrum of human emotions and sensibilities. 

Her music has been performed by the Talea Ensemble, Intercontemporary Ensemble, NMK Ensemble and soloists such as Connor Hanick, Erin Gee and Emi Fergusson, among others. She will begin her DMA studies this Fall at Columbia University.

Alyssa Regent is generously supported by the Canadian Pacific Hotels Endowment (Centre for Arts).

Ethan Hill is a musician and composer from western Canada. His recent works are rooted in the logic of acoustic just intonation and lead by his deep curiosity for artistic intuition. Fascinated by nature and metaphysics, he often finds himself considering these fields’ analogies to and roles in the arts. Recently, he has been exploring research in attention; how it leads us through daily life, its role in the arts and how we can employ it to uncover ever more discrete sonic worlds.

He studied composition at the University of Victoria, where he also trained as a liturgical musician at St. John the Divine Anglican Church. In 2019, he relocated to Montreal to study the organ at McGill University, during which time he held an organ scholarship at Christ Church Cathedral. He is currently based in Calgary, where he has the pleasure of working with the Alberta Ballet, the University of Calgary, choral ensembles and churches, and dedicates his free time to his personal creative endeavors.
 

Ethan Hill is generously supported by the Canadian Pacific Hotels Endowment (Centre for Arts). 

Gabriel Bouche Caro is a Puerto Rican composer based in New York City. Gabriel explores concepts and perceptions of personal and musical identity through language and the experience of life as part of a colonized people and society. Identity, authenticity in a non-native environment, and foreignness are all tints that color the artistic conception and eventual discourse that is communicated in his work. His music has been performed in North America, South America, the Caribbean, Europe and Asia. Gabriel's music has been featured in the Havana Contemporary Music festival, soundSCAPE and New Music on the Point festivals. He has been commissioned by the Baltimore Classical Guitar Society, the Canvasounds Collective, the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts, the Peabody Institute and Americas Society (ongoing). His music has been performed and recorded by various ensembles and soloists including the JACK Quartet, Victory Players, Evan Runyon, Gleb Kanasevich, Clare Monfredo and Eric Schultz. He is the recipient of the Randolph S. Rothschild Award in Composition (Peabody Institute), and the Augusto Rodriguez Prize for musical achievement (University of Puerto Rico). Gabriel holds an MM in Composition from the Peabody Conservatory and a BA in Music from the University of Puerto Rico. Currently Gabriel is a PhD candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center. 
 

Gabriel Bouche Caro is generously supported by the Jeanne and Peter Lougheed Endowment. 

Ihlara McIndoe (she/her, b.1997) is a composer from Ōtepoti/Dunedin, Aotearoa/New Zealand, whose work has been performed across Aotearoa, Australia, and Japan. In all her creative work, Ihlara prioritises two interconnected themes: preservation, and exploration. She strives to consistently question what these themes mean to her as composer, musicologist, and performer, and how critical reflection of these themes can help to better support a sustainable, inclusive music industry, particularly in genres with complex ongoing artistic and social legacies.

Ihlara’s most recent works have been written as part of her relationship with the Antarctic Heritage Trust, following the opportunity to kayak on the Antarctic Peninsula and developing a series of compositions to share across Aotearoa to encourage the spirit of exploration. Her major piece from this project was performed by the New Zealand National Youth Orchestra and members of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in 2021, as part of her role as National Youth Orchestra Composer in Residence.

A practising lawyer in public law and litigation, Ihlara has a keen interest in the roles and responsibilities of statutorily created arts organisations, and will be commencing her graduate music studies drawing from this interest at McGill University in the Fall, alongside continuing her compositional development.
 

Ihlara McIndoe is generously supported by the John Linn Memorial Endowment. 

Seare Farhat strives to create music that connects a listener to the visceral imagination, energy, and transformation within narrative forms. Starting out his musical endeavors in Afghan folk music, he later built on these valued experiences in the western classical tradition combined with other interests, such as mathematics. Seare has received commissions from the JACK Quartet, IU New Music Ensemble, Metropolitan Youth Symphony, Quintessence Wind Quintet, and the Oberlin Sinfonietta, and served as the young composer-in-residence of the Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings in 2019. He has received honors such as FLUX Quartet's 2019 call for scores and being a finalist for Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra's 2019 call for scores. Seare has also held residencies at Avaloch Farm Music Institute in 2022 and with the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music as a Balhest Eeble Composer Fellow for the 2021-23 cycle.  Seare holds a B.M. in Composition and B.A. in Mathematics from Oberlin College and Conservatory, a master’s degree from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he held the position of Assistant Director of the New Music Ensemble, and is currently pursuing a D.M.A. at Cornell University studying with Elizabeth Ogonek, Kevin Ernste, and Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri​.
 

Seare Farhat is generously supported by the John Linn Memorial Endowment. 

Kalaisan Kalaichelvan is a composer and pianist based in Toronto, Canada. His compositional practice spans multiple disciplines, drawing from film, dance, theatre, installation and deals with themes of translation and transference. 

Named by Ludwig Van as one of “six emerging Canadian composers to keep an eye on”, his music has been performed and premiered by renowned ensembles such as Pro Coro Canada, the Dior Quartet and Duo Concertante. Kalaisan is a 2021 Fellow of the Sundance Composers lab and is one of the awarded grantees of the Sundance Institute’s Art of Practice Fellowship. He has held residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and was an alumna of the Canadian Film Centre as one of the 2021 Slaight Music residents.  He was also recently awarded the Creativity Connection Fellowship with Toronto Metropolitan University and was one of the six composers commissioned by the Canadian League of Composers to write for Pro Coro Canada under their PIVOT program.  In 2022, Kalaisan has scored feature films that have premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (“This Place”) and the Fantasia Film Festival (“The Protector”).

Kalaisan’s music is defined by its genre-bending boldness, its refined classicism and musical ingenuity. Having worked across various disciplines and communities of thought, Kalaisan seeks to bring together incongruous institutions to build novel structures that reflect his artistic upbringing.
 

The Treske Quartet — Mollie Wrafter, violin; Oliver Baily, violin; Abigail Hammett, viola; Louis Baily, cello

The Treske Quartet was formed in North Yorkshire, UK in 2017 and, although now based in Manchester, still plays an active role in delivering high quality chamber music in the area. Over the past two years the quartet has given recitals in the UK and abroad, notably the Ryedale Festival, Wye Valley Summer Festival, Llandeilo International Music Festival, and the New Generation Festival in Florence. They performed in the semi-final round of the 2022 Royal Overseas League String Ensemble competition in London, and have received coaching from some of the world's leading chamber musicians including members of the Chilingirian Quartet and Brodsky Quartet.

Passionate about contemporary and new music, the quartet enjoys collaborating with composers, performing, and recording their work. Over the past two years Treske has been working with Cumbria based composer Edward Cowie and will be recording his 9th String Quartet and Double String Quartet in collaboration with the Kreutzer Quartet for the Divine Arts record label. They have also worked with Manchester composer Claire Roberts on numerous chamber and vocal works.
 

The Treske Quartet is generously supported by the MacLachlan Ridge Family Endowment and the Michelle Milne Artist Award. 

The Vaughan String Quartet — Vladimir Rufino, violin; Mattia Berrini, violin; Fabiola Amorim, viola; Silvia Buttiglione, cello. 

Lauded by the press for its “youthful energy, seasoned experience, invigorating playing and soulful interpretations”, the Vaughan String Quartet is one of the most active young chamber music groups in Canada. Past engagements include performances for the Banff Centre for performing Arts, Edmonton Recital Society, Edmonton Opera, New Music Edmonton, the Western Canadian Music Awards, and the St. Albert Chamber Music Recital Series. The Vaughan has collaborated with a number of artists including classical accordionist Antonio Peruch, pianists Sarah Ho and Janet Scott-Hoyt, violinist Laura Andriani, and cellist Rafael Hoekman. The group has received reviews from the Edmonton Journal and the St. Albert Gazette, and has appeared on live radio (CBC Radio Canada) and television (City TV, L’Alberta en Bref, and France 3 Franche-Comté). The quartet has been coached by members of prominent North American string quartets such as the Cecilia, the St. Lawrence, the Lafayette, the Dover, and the Penderecki, as well as by world-renowned musicians including Gerald Stanick, Laura Andriani, Jonathan Crow, Robert Bardston, and Petr Holman. In 2014 the Vaughan String Quartet was Artist in Residence at the Banff Centre. A recipient of the Luminato Festival String Quartet Fellowship in Toronto, the group was part of Murray Schafer’s “Apocalypsis”, recorded live by CBC in 2015 and released on CD in 2016 by Analekta. In 2017 the group participated in the St. Lawrence String Quartet Chamber Music Seminar at Stanford University. Since 2013 the Vaughan String Quartet has organized a concert series in Edmonton, inviting musicians from across Canada and abroad, and has received a number of grants and awards from the Edmonton Arts Council, including the Cultural Diversity Award in 2017. The quartet’s debut on the international stage took place in New York City in the summer of 2015 under the sponsorship of the PAMAR (Pan American Musical Art Research). In the summer of 2016, the ensemble held its European debut at the FIMU festival in Belfort, France and continued on to perform in various cities in Northern Italy. This intense performance schedule has brought the Vaughan String Quartet to some of the most important concert halls in North America such as the Winspear Centre in Edmonton (AB), the Festival Hall in Calgary (AB), the Rolston Hall at the Banff Centre (AB), Philip T. Young Hall in Victoria (BC), the Sony Centre in Toronto (ON), Munson Recital Hall at Azusa Pacific University (CA), Campbell Hall in Stanford (CA), and the Symphony Space in New York (NY). The Vaughan String Quartet is also very engaged in the community: they regularly perform in hospitals, senior centres, schools and have been involved in concerts for people in the autism spectrum.
 

The Vaughan String Quartet is generously supported by the Gladys and Merrill Muttart Foundation Endowment. 

Noa Sarid, violin
Tobias Elser, violin
Caleb Georges, viola
Joanne Yesol Choi, cello

Joined together from Israel, Korea-Canada, Saint Lucia, and the USA, the Dior Quartet is the Quartet-in-Residence at the Glenn Gould School, Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada. Formed in Fall 2018 at the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University under the Pacifica Quartet, they are Silver prize winners of the 2021 Chesapeake Chamber Music Competition, quarter-finalists of the 2022 Banff International String Quartet Competition and 2021 Bartok Competition, and Bronze Medalists of the 2019 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. The Dior Quartet has performed and participated in various programs and concert series in Canada, USA, and the U.K. The repertoire and projects they pursue intersect with their multicultural backgrounds and moral values, as they seek to explore the immigrant experience through art. The quartet takes their name from the French word “D’or” which means gold. The quartet has been selected to participate in the prestigious 2023 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition and 2023 Bad Tolz 1st International String Quartet Competition.

Ximenez Quartet — Karin Cuellar Rendon, violin; Simon Alexandre, violin; Namgon Lee, viola; Jessica Korotkin, cello

Named after 19th century Peruvian-Bolivian composer Pedro Ximenez Abril Tirado (1784-1856), the Ximenez Quartet was born in the fall of 2019 out of the shared passion for exploring music by lesser-known composers, especially those from the Americas. Montreal based and McGill University students Karin Cuellar (Bolivia), Simon Alexandre (Canada), Namgon Lee (South Korea), and Jessica Korotkin (USA) have made their mission to bring this repertoire to the concert platform in a sensitive, historically informed, and contextualized manner that aims to place this music in equal terms with music from the canonic, mostly euro-centered repertoire. In addition to exploring South American music, the Ximenez Quartet has performed repertoire ranging from classical to contemporary while integrating performance practice methods inspired by recent scholarship. The Ximenez Quartet was featured as a guest ensemble with the esteemed music series at the McCord Museum in Montreal. In addition, the Ximenez Quartet has curated concerts at the Schulich School of Music’s 5 a 7 series as well as with the Baroque Orchestra of Colorado’s “Confluences” series. Most recently, the Ximenez Quartet was the only Canadian ensemble participating in Latin America’s most prominent baroque festival, the "XIII Festival Internacional de Musica Barroca y Renacentista Misiones de Chiquitos” in Bolivia. Upcoming engagements include a concert at the 2022 Montreal Baroque Festival and the premiere of a virtual concert recorded for the 2022 Early Music America Emerging Artist Showcase.
 

The Ximenez Quartet is generously supported by the Finch Chamber Music Scholarship Fund. 

Uxor String Quartet — Cristina Prats Costa, violin/viola | Lindsie Katz, violin/viola | Elana Cooper, violin/viola | Joanna Joy Neuschatz, cello

The Uxor Quartet is formed by four friends sharing their mutual love for historically- informed performance of string quartets. Uxor is comprised of Cristina Prats Costa(violin/viola), Lindsie Katz (violin/viola), Elana Cooper (violin/viola) and Joanna Joy Neuschatz, cello). They first met as students in 2021 at the Royal Conservatory The Hague in the Netherlands, and soon developed a passion and commitment that extended beyond their studies. As a historical string quartet, Uxor plays on gut strings with period bows based on the repertoire. In addition to baroque and classical repertoire, Uxor is excited about playing contemporary pieces and working alongside composers to create works written specifically for historical string quartets. Formed during Covid times, Uxor is very excited about future opportunities and live performances.
 

The Uxor Quartet is generously supported by the Finch Chamber Music Scholarship Fund. 

The Calista Quartet — Annamaria Vasmatzidis, violin; May Tang, violin; Harper Randolph, viola; Adalus Low-Manzini, cello

Since their formation, the Calista quartet— comprised of Annamaria Vasmatzidis and May Tang (violins), Harper Randolph (viola), and Adalus Low-Manzini (cello)— has been dedicated to performing works from both the standard quartet repertoire and by underrepresented composers. In their time together, they have had the opportunity to work closely with many esteemed chamber musicians including Amir Eldan, former member of the Oberlin Trio; Matt Albert, former member of Eighth Blackbird; and Kirsten Docter and Mari Sato, former members of the Cavani Quartet. As a quartet comprised of women of color, Calista has been especially enthusiastic to perform more contemporary works by female composers in hopes of canonizing underrepresented voices in music. In December of 2021, Calista collaborated with tenor Nicholas Phan for a digital recital presented by the University Musical Society, housed on University of Michigan’s campus. The recital featured pieces exclusively written by female composers, including Caroline Shaw and Rebecca Clarke. In Winter of 2021, Calista had the unique opportunity to record Rhiannon Giddens’ “At the Purchaser’s Option” for the University of Michigan Museum of Art’s Musical Labels.

The Calista Quartet is generously supported by the Finch Chamber Music Scholarship Fund.