ALEH REMEZAU
Canadian oboist Aleh Remezau is renowned for his “sensuous and exuberant” performances (The Millbrook Independent) and “incredibly expressive” playing (Vancouver Sun). Having established himself as a sought-after orchestral musician, he has performed in major Canadian venues as well as concert halls in the United States, Austria and the United Kingdom. He has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony Orchestra and National Arts Centre Orchestra as well as guest Principal Oboe with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, National Ballet Orchestra, Canadian Opera Company and Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. He appears regularly with the Esprit Orchestra, performing as both Principal Oboist and solo English horn.
After joining the Hamilton Philharmonic as Principal Oboe, Mr. Remezau’s playing has been highlighted in major works such as Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin, Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite and Rimsky Korsakov’s Scheherazade. During his first season, he was a featured musician on the orchestra’s video broadcasts of Mozart’s Oboe Quartet and Tomasi’s Evocations for Solo Oboe. In the 2023-24 season, he performed Concerto for Oboe and Strings by Ralph Vaughan Williams as soloist.
While living in New York City, Mr. Remezau has performed numerous times on oboe and English horn with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of world class conductors including Jaap van Zweden, Manfred Honeck, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Neeme Jarvi and others. With the New York Philharmonic, he can be heard on their 2017 Grammy nominated recording of Christopher Rouse’s Symphony No. 4.
Mr. Remezau was an inaugural member of The Orchestra Now (TON) – a training orchestra based at Bard College, New York. With TON, he was a frequent performer at Alice Tully Hall, The Metropolitan Museum, and Carnegie Hall. In 2018, he was one of select few musicians invited to perform at the renowned Grafenegg Festival in Austria.
Mr. Remezau also extensively performs outside of the orchestra, seeking out different ways to connect and share his art with audiences. As an active chamber musician, he has performed in festivals including the Scotia Festival, Sweetwater Music Festival and Big Lake Festival. As a member of The Happenstancers, an adventurous Toronto-based chamber ensemble featuring “an obscene amount of talent” (TheWholeNote), Mr. Remezau has brought “considerable virtuosity” to works for oboe and English horn by Oliver Knussen and Elliott Carter, presenting concerts hailed as “bizarrely eclectic, …very intriguing and rewarding” (John Gilks, operaramblings). He has also performed as a pit musician on Broadway in the musical Wicked, Mirvish’s production of Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 as well as the Shaw Festival.
Aleh Remezau began his musical studies on piano, and his study of the oboe at fifteen. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto and the Manhattan School of Music. He is an alumnus of The Music Academy of the West and Domaine Forget.
CAMERON CROZMAN
“With a rich imagination and a keen mind” (Diapason Magazine), Canadian cellist Cameron Crozman leads an active performing career as a soloist and chamber musician in Canada, the USA, and Europe. He has appeared as a soloist with the Orchestre National d’Ile-de-France (Paris), Montreal, Winnipeg, Hamilton, and Vancouver Island Symphonies among others, and performances have taken him everywhere from the Philharmonie de Paris and the Shanghai Oriental Arts Centre, to the Qidi Vidi Brewery of St. John’s, Newfoundland. An avid collaborator and chamber musician, Cameron shares the stage with eminent artists such as James Ehnes, Augustin Hadelich, Louis Lortie, Gérard Caussé, James Campbell, and members of the Ébène, New Zealand, and Penderecki String Quartets.
Winner of the 2021 Canada Council for the Arts Virginia Parker Prize, the Council’s largest award for emerging classical musicians, Cameron was CBC/Radio-Canada’s 2019 Classical Revelation artist and a laureate of Gautier Capuçon’s Classe d’Excellence at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris. Cameron’s debut album, Cavatine, recorded on the ca. 1696 “Bonjour” Stradivarius cello with pianist Philip Chiu, was released in 2019 and described by the French publication Classica Magazine as displaying “technical perfection with a personal style that leaves us wanting to hear more.” He has since recorded a number of CDs for the labels ATMA Classique in Canada and Printemps des Arts de Monte-Carlo in Monaco. His most recent release from May 2024 of the Haydn Cello Concertos and Jacques Hétu’s Rondo performed with Les Violons du Roy and conductor Nicolas Ellis has garnered international praise. Cameron’s performances are broadcast on CBC, BBC, RTÉ Radio, Radio France, and Medici.tv.
Deeply committed to the music of today, Cameron is active in leading projects commissioning and premiering new music by some of Canada’s most recognized composers including Alexina Louie, Allan Gordon Bell, Liam Ritz, James O’Callaghan, and Kelly-Marie Murphy. After studies in Canada with Paul Pulford, Cameron was a student at the Paris Conservatoire and received his “Prix de violoncelle” with highest honours studying in the class of Michel Strauss and chamber music with Claire Désert and Ami Flammer. In 2018, he received a one year mentorship with violinist James Ehnes as part of the André-Bourbeau award from the Jeunesses Musicales Canada. Passionate about teaching the next generation, he has been invited to give masterclasses at the Académie Rainier III in Monaco, Lawrence University (Wisconsin), University of Montreal, Conservatorio Superior de Música Joaquín Rodrigo Valencia, and the Escola Superior de Music de Lisboa, among others.
Alongside his performing activities, Cameron finds himself abosrbed by the rewarding challenges of producing concerts and musical events. He is co-founder of ClassicalValley, a festival bringing together chamber music and wine in Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada, and along with pianist Meagan Milatz, produces a series of chamber music concerts in Montreal called “HausMusique” in one of North America’s landmark Art Deco spaces, the Grande Salle of 9th floor of the Eaton Centre.
Since 2024, he has had the incredible joy to work alongside one of his musical heroes, James Campbell, as Assistant Artistic Director of the Festival of the Sound, among Canada’s premiere classical music festival now in it’s 46th year. Cameron is also grateful to have the chance to work together with his father by organizing chamber music concerts in Llíria, Spain, designated a Creative City of Music by the UNESCO (and share their enjoyment for Spanish culture, food, and wine 🍷).
Cameron currently plays on a c. 1750 Gennaro Gagliano cello, on loan from the Canada Council for the Arts Instrument Bank and a bow by Georges Léon Lamy generously provided by the company CANIMEX INC. of Drummondville, Québec.
ENSEMBLE COMTESSA
Founded in Montreal in 2022, COMTESSA is a medieval music collective dedicated to reviving the repertoire of the 11th–15th centuries through performance, research, and inclusive artistic practices. Led by artistic director Isabelle Douailly-Backman, executive director Len Torrie, and production director Maria Gajraj, the ensemble brings together historically informed performance with contemporary perspectives.
COMTESSA presents concerts, lectures, recordings, and interdisciplinary projects that make medieval music accessible to modern audiences while creating opportunities for women and queer artists in early music. The collective has collaborated with organizations including Studio de musique ancienne de Montreal, Early Music Vancouver, Early Music America, Mont Royal Reverdies, Mécénat Musica, Sapphonix Collective, and Ensemble Scholastica, and has toured in Quebec and Ontario.
Recent productions include Florilegium, The Red Book: Songs from the Llibre Vermell de Montserrat, and Rose & Flame. Through its work, COMTESSA seeks to renew and expand the landscape of medieval music in Canada.
ELISSA LEE
Co-founder and Executive Director
Juno award winner and First Prize winner of the 23rd Eckhardt-Gramatté Strings Competition, Elissa Lee has appeared as a soloist with top orchestras across Canada. She has held positions as second concertmaster in both the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and the WDR Sinfonie Orchester. Now enjoying a busy freelance career, Elissa tours frequently the greatest concert halls and festivals in Europe. She has performed as Concertmaster with the Rundfunk Orchester München, the Swedish Radio Orchestra, the KlangVerwaltung Orchestra in Munich, and Festival Strings Luzern, and in leading positions with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Luxembourg Philharmonic and the Canadian Opera Company. She has also been a guest of the world renowned Chamber of Orchestra of Europe, and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and has worked under the baton of Claudio Abbado, Simon Rattle, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Bernard Haitink and Daniel Harding.
As a chamber musician she has performed with Louis Lortie, Augustin Dumay, Anton Kuerti, Pascal Devoyon, Kevin Fitzgerald, Lawrence Lesser, and Shauna Rolston and has been a frequent participant in Open Chamber Music in Prussia Cove, England. Elissa Lee joined Ensemble Made In Canada in 2010, which performs concerts and tours throughout Canada and the United States.
Elissa enjoys sleeping. When she is not sleeping, playing the violin, or on her computer, she enjoys cooking, baking, reading cookbooks, going to restaurants and thinking about what she wants to eat for her next meal.
ILYA POLETAEV
A musician with a fiercely inquisitive mind, impeccable technique and an intensely poetic vision, Ilya Poletaev is an artist equally at home on the modern piano or on historical keyboards: harpsichord, fortepiano, and organ. Hailed as one of the most significant pianists of his generation by Süddeutsche Zeitung, he launched his career after capturing First Prize at the prestigious International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Leipzig in 2010 – the only Canadian ever to win that competition.
He has since appeared at the Gewandhaus, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Dresdner Musikfestspiele, Potsdam Festspiele, Accademia Filarmonica Romana, Montreal, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, St. Paul’s Ordway Center, Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall, Caramoor, Northwest, and many other venues across Canada, US, Italy, Romania, Germany, and Russia. He has performed with the Toronto Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Hartford Symphony, Moscow State Symphony, Samara Philharmonic, Sinfonia di Cluj, and McGill Symphony in collaboration with such conductors as David Robertson, Peter Oundjian, Bernhard Gueller, Alexis Hauser, Rossen Milanov, Nurhan Arman, and Leo Kraemer.
In addition to performing the classical repertoire, Mr. Poletaev is also active as an improviser both as a soloist and as a creator of scores for silent film. He made his debut at the Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, a world-renowned festival in Pordenone.
A dedicated teacher, he is currently Associate Professor of Piano at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University, Assistant Director of the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Choral Week, and previously served on the faculty at Yale. As a Lecturer in Early Music, he has given numerous masterclasses and talks at prestigious schools, including San Francisco Conservatory, Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, UK, Boston University, Tanglewood Institute, Buchman-Mehta School of Music in Tel-Aviv, Rubin Academy in Jerusalem, and Glenn Gould School.
He began studying at six and continued in Israel until he moved to Canada. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto where he studied with Marietta Orlov, harpsichord with Colin Tilney, and Walter Buczynski, as well as a Doctorate from Yale with Boris Berman.
JULIANA MOROZ
Canadian cellist Juliana Moroz is increasingly recognized as a rising young artist in North America. Named to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s “30 under 30” in 2021, Juliana is originally from Winnipeg, Canada. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings in 2023, as well as her Master’s degree from Rice University in 2025. Juliana has participated in the Aspen Summer Music Festival, Toronto Summer Music, Orford Arts Festival, and Rome Chamber Music Festival. In 2024, she was a finalist in the Eckhardt-Gramatté Competition. Recent accomplishments include performing with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra on their Masterworks Series and becoming a Sylva Gelber Music Foundation Award winner. Juliana is currently based in Toronto as a Rebanks Family Fellowship Artist for the 2025-2026 season.
KERSON LEONG
Kerson Leong has been described as “not just one of Canada’s greatest violinists but one of the greatest violinists, period” (Toronto Star). Forging a unique path since his First Prize win at the International Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition in 2010, he continues to win over colleagues and audiences alike with “a mixture of spontaneity and mastery, elegance, fantasy, intensity that makes his sound recognizable from the first notes” (Le Monde).
His latest album, featuring the Britten and Bruch violin concertos with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Patrick Hahn for Alpha Classics, was released to widespread critical acclaim, including having been awarded ‘Editor’s Choice’ by Gramophone, ‘The Strad Recommends’ by The Strad, and the ‘Choc de Classica’ by Classica as well as five-star recommendations from the Sunday Times and Diapason among others.
Recent season highlights include solo performances with such ensembles as the Royal, Oslo, Brussels, Kansai, and Liège Royal Philharmonic Orchestras, the Seattle, Singapore, Toledo, Montreal, Tucson, Bilkent, Toronto, Vancouver, Stavanger, and Wuppertal Symphony Orchestras, a tour of Sweden with the Camerata Nordica, a recital tour of the Midwestern United States, and recording John Rutter’s Visions with the composer himself and the Aurora Chamber Orchestra, after giving its world premiere in London, UK.
As a sought-after soloist, he was hand-picked by Yannick Nézet-Séguin to be his artist-in-residence with the Orchestre Métropolitain during the 18/19 season and has performed in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Wigmore Hall, the Auditorium du Louvre and the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing.
As a passionate chamber musician, he has performed at such international festivals and concert series as the Verbier Festival, Rheingau Musik Festival, Gstaad Menuhin Festival, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Flâneries musicales de Reims, and Bergen International Festival among others.
Passionate about pedagogy and music outreach, he has been invited to give masterclasses and teach at various festivals and universities including the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, the Gustav Mahler Academy, the Domaine Forget Festival Academy, the University of Ottawa, and Dalhousie University among others.
Fostering a significant audience away from the concert hall as well, he is cementing his noteworthy role in reaching young people, aspiring musicians, and potential music lovers alike with his art in creative and engaging ways on social media. He is an associate artist of the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium, where he was mentored by Augustin Dumay.
He has always been keen on making connections between music and other fields. Ever since his dad started introducing him to physics concepts about string resonance, they have strongly influenced his playing and philosophy on sound production. Together with his dad, he has given lectures about this subject in places such as the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, the Barratt-Due Music Institute in Oslo, and various universities in California.
Kerson performs on the ‘ex Bohrer, Baumgartner’ Guarneri del Gesu courtesy of Canimex Inc, Drummondville (Quebec), Canada.
NICK BOBAS
Nick started playing the bass many moons ago in Ottawa. He has a B.Mus. from McGill University, an Orchestral Studies Certificate from University of Ottawa and a M.Mus. from Boston University. Additional private studies with Joel Quarrington over the years were extremely influential and kept Nick’s eye on the prize. Summer festivals that were formative for him include the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, four tours with the JM World Orchestra based in Spain and multiple sessions at Domaine Forget, Orford Music Academy and the NAC Young Artist Program.
He has played seasons with the Calgary Philharmonic, the Bergen Philharmonic in Norway and the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra. He has freelanced with a variety of orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic, the Northern Sinfonia, NACO, TSO, VSO, and COC among others. He feels fortunate to have played with many great conductors and soloists over the years.
Nick felt he had copious amounts of extra free time so along with his partner Sarah they decided to have two kids and open a brewery in Prince Edward County called Slake Brewing where he brews all the beer which they co-own with a couple of other exhausted people.
PHIL CHIU
“A pianist-painter who transforms each musical idea into a beautiful array of colors” (La Presse), Philip Chiu is acclaimed for his brilliant pianism, sensitive listening, and a stage presence that eschews the hermit-pianist image and favours openness, authenticity, and connection with audiences. Inaugural winner of the Mécénat Musica Prix Goyer, Mr. Chiu has become one of Canada’s leading musicians through his infectious love of music and his passion for creation and communication.
He concertizes extensively as soloist and chamber musician and has performed solo recitals and chamber music concerts in most major venues across Canada, as well as concert halls in France, Japan and the United States. He recently made his debut for the La Jolla Music Society in California in their 50th anniversary season and will be appearing in Maine and Massachusetts in fall 2019. Chamber music partners have included James Ehnes, Emmanuel Pahud, Regis Pasquier, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Bomsori Kim, Johannes Moser, and Raphael Wallfisch. He has a long-standing violin-piano duo with Jonathan Crow, concertmaster of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and violinist of the New Orford String Quartet. Mr. Chiu is a veteran touring artist of Prairie Debut, Jeunesses Musicales Canada, and Debut Atlantic, having toured the country 14 times with their generous support.
As Artist-in-Residence of Cecilia Concert’s 2018/19 Season, he immensely enjoyed programming four unique and imaginative concerts, and is looking forward to further exploring his creative side as Artist-in-Residence for Montreal’s La Chapelle Historique du Bon-Pasteur in 2020. Other upcoming projects include a recording/concert tour of John Burge’s 24 Preludes for Solo Piano, as well as a recording/concert project with Pentaèdre, honouring the music of Jacques Hétu.
In addition to his performing activities, Mr. Chiu created the Collaborative Piano Program at the Domaine Forget International Academy and consulted for national and international competitions as a recognized expert in collaborative piano. He has also juried for provincial, national, and international competitions.
Mr. Chiu has recorded for Warner Music, Analekta, ATMA Classique, and CBC Music. He can be heard on BBC Radio 3, France Musique, ICI Musique, and CBC Music. He is eternally grateful for the support of Mécénat Musica, the Sylva Gelber Music Foundation, and the Canada Council for the Arts.
PHILHARMONISCHES STREICHQUARTETT BERLIN
The Quartet
The Philharmonic String Quartet represents chamber musical excellence of the Berlin Philharmonic: cosmopolitan, versatile and artistically passionate. The Quartet features three members of the Berlin Philharmonic – Dorian Xhoxhi (violin), Helena Berg (violin) and Julia Gartemann (viola) — and the esteemed soloist Christoph Heesch (cello). The balance between powerful freshness and rich, philharmonic sound particularly distinguishes this ensemble. “The Philharmonic String Quartet captivates the audience from the first note.” (Rondo Magazine 5/14/2022)
The musicians are aware that they are following in great footsteps: with the Philharmonic String Quartet they are continuing the venerable tradition of the Berlin Philharmonic’s ensembles of making chamber music at the highest level. All four musicians have won various top-class competitions and have vast experience in various chamber music formations. The Philharmonic String Quartet offers them the opportunity to create their own musical expression. They feel less committed to a certain style than to their virtuosity, and they follow the motto of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: “… because we love to talk to all kinds of masters – with the old and modern.”
Helena Berg (violin)
The violin plays an important role in her family: her parents are violinists, and after her big sister started getting lessons from them, Helena Madoka Berg did not want to be left behind. The desire to become a professional musician however came later. Born and raised in Berlin, she studied at the Julius Stern Institute of the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) with Tomasz Tomaszewski (1997-2004), at the Juilliard School New York with Robert Mann, and at the Hanns Eisler University of Music with Antje Weithaas. She also attended master classes with Kurt Saßmannshaus, Thomas Brandis, Rainer Kussmaul and Christian Tetzlaff among others. Her training was supported by several grants, including the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben and the Villa Musica Rheinland-Pfalz.
The winner of various competitions, such as the Jakob Stainer Violin Competition and the Ibolyka Gyarfas Violin Competition, she gained her first orchestral experience in the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra, the Berlin State Youth Orchestra, and the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. From 2009-2010 she apprenticed in the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Academy studying under Guy Braunstein and Christian Stadelmann. Her first orchestral position led her to the Munich Philharmonic, and since 2012 she has been a member of the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra. In September 2013 Helena Madoka Berg returned to the Berlin Philharmonic as a member of the second violins, and in February 2016 joined the first violins. Aside from her love for making music, she keeps busy with her two small children.
Dorian Xhoxhi (violin)
Violinist Dorian Xhoxhi joined the Berliner Philharmoniker as a member of the first violin section in 2010. Before that, he was a member of the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin and later became Principal Concertmaster of the Second Violins in the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig.
At the age of six, Dorian received his first violin lessons from his father, university professor Roland Xhoxhi, in Tirana. He later studied in Munich and Berlin with Prof. E. Sebestyen, Prof. S. Picard and Prof. A. Weithaas. Through achieving a fellowship at the Villa Musica Mainz and attending master classes from Midori, R. Fein, Z. Bron and E. Feltz, Dorian received further crucial impulses. In 2006 he was awarded first prize at both the International Queen Sophie Charlotte Competition in Mirow und the International Louise Henriette Competition in Oranienburg.
As a member of the Berliner Barock Solisten, Dorian frequently works with artist personalities such as Reinhard Goebel, Emmanuelle Haim and Vittorio Ghielmi. In this context, the performance with period instruments has developed into an integral part of Dorian’s artistic work throughout several years.
A demanded soloist, chamber musician and teacher, Dorian is regularly active in Europe and Asia. In 2018, he became an associate professor for violin at the Rostock University of Music and Drama.
In the same year, his enthusiasm for chamber music led Dorian to establish the Philharmonic String Quartet with his Philharmonic colleagues Helena Madoka Berg and Kyoungmin Park. Dorian plays a violin from Camillo Camilli, Mantova 1739.
Julia Gartemann (viola)
In the family quartet, the viola was actually their mother’s instrument. Julia Gartemann and her sister Cornelia played violin, their father, cello. And yet, at some point, Julia Gartemann took up the viola. She knew at once that it was »her« instrument, and never played the violin again. In 1990, she began studying the viola with Nobuko Imai at the Detmold Hochschule für Musik.
In 1998, after graduating, she went to Michael Tree at the renowned Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, then completed her studies with Wilfried Strehle in the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Karajan Academy as well as in masterclasses with Thomas Riebl, Kim Kashkashian, Wolfram Christ and with the Tokyo and Vermeer String Quartets.
Julia Gartemann, who has won prizes in various competitions since 1986, appears as a soloist and a chamber musician in Germany and abroad. She is also involved in Philharmoniker chamber music groups (Venus Ensemble Berlin, Brahms Ensemble Berlin). In recent years, she has also devoted herself to teaching; since 2014 she has been a teacher at Berlin’s “Hanns Eisler” Hochschule für Musik. Julia Gartemann plays a 1767 viola by C.F. Landolfi.
Christoph Heesch (cello)
Christoph Heesch is one of the most promising artists of today’s music scene and impresses with his soloistic and chamber music skills — meanwhile he is celebrating great success both nationally and internationally. The main focus of his artistic work is the examination of music from a stylistically critical perspective, taking into account the technical skills of instrumental playing combined with an exciting interaction with the audience.
Born in Berlin in 1995, the artist began playing the cello at the age of six. In the following years he studied at the Julius Stern Institute, worked for several years with Jens Peter Maintz and attended master classes with David Geringas, Wolfgang Boettcher and Lászlo Fenyö. Today Christoph Heesch studies at the University of the Arts Berlin with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt. As solo cellist of the Ensemble Esperanza and the Chamber Orchestra Eroica Berlin he combines knowledge of historically informed performance practice with modern instruments.
The artist pays particular attention to classical concerts, which he would like to open up to a broad audience. The innovative concerts and other music mediation formats of the TONALi project offer an ideal home for his musical and conceptual ideas.
Christoph Heesch is a laureate of national and international competitions: He was awarded at the “Antonio Janigro” competition in Croatia and the international “Witold-Lutosławski” competition as well as at the XIIth Domenico Gabrielli Competition. Christoph Heesch has also been awarded the “Mieczysław Weinberg” prize and a special prize for the best music mediation at the TONALi15 music competition. At the German Music Competition 2016 in Bonn he received a scholarship after reaching the semifinal and he was semifinalist of the Queen Elisabeth Competition 2017.
He holds a scholarship at the Musikakademie Liechtenstein and has been playing a cello by Domenicus Montagnana from the German Musical Instrument Fund „Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben“ since 2017.
RÉMI PELLETIER
Rémi Pelletier joined the Toronto Symphony Orchestra as Associate Principal Viola in September 2019, having served in the New York Philharmonic’s viola section from July 2013, and in the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal beginning in 2007.
Previously, he was a regular substitute with The Philadelphia Orchestra, and also performed with The Haddonfield Symphony and Orchestre Métropolitain. He served as Guest Principal Viola of the International Orchestra of Italy in the summers of 2011 and 2012, Principal Viola of Japan’s Pacific Music Festival, and Assistant Principal of the New York String Orchestra Seminar.
An active chamber musician, Mr. Pelletier was a regular guest at the Société de musique de chambre de Québec and performed with Rendez-vous musical de Laterrière and Musica Camerata, as well as with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal’s chamber music series. His honours include the CBC/McGill Music Award (2003), as well as first prize at the Concours du Québec and Canada’s National Music Festival Competition.
A native of Québec, Mr. Pelletier was a scholarship recipient at Encore School for Strings and the Orford Arts Centre. He performed a recital on CBC’s Debut series. In addition to attending masterclasses with Kim Kashkashian, Roberto Diaz, and others, Rémi Pelletier studied with Michael Tree and Joseph De Pasquale at The Curtis Institute of Music, and with André Roy at McGill University, from which he graduated with the distinction of Outstanding Achievement in Viola Performance, and where he was Principal Viola of the McGill Symphony Orchestra.
RUXANDRA OANCEA
Multifaceted artist, Ruxandra Oancea is equally comfortable performing on both modern piano and early pianoforte. Her solid training started in Romania with pianist Dan Grigore, a disciple of the renowned teacher Florica Musicescu (Dinu Lipatti’s mentor). Ruxandra has concertized extensively as a soloist and chamber musician in Canada, the US, Italy, Austria, France, Great Britain, Japan, and her native Romania.
During her graduate studies in Canada (M. Mus in modern piano with pianist Sara Laimon, and Graduate Diploma in Performance in fortepiano with fortepianist and scholar Tom Beghin), Ms. Oancea was particularly interested in promoting the music of her native Romania abroad. In 2017 she was involved in performing and coordinating the “George Enescu Festival” at McGill University in Montreal. Among her projects are performances of all of Beethoven’s sonatas written for the 5-octave Anton Walter fortepiano, performances of works by Schubert and Woelfl on a 1809 Streicher fortepiano, and the performances of André Gagnon’s “Mes quatre saisons” and “Les turluteries” with l’Orchestre Symphonique de la Vallée-du-Haut-Saint-Laurent.
In 2001, Ruxandra Oancea was appointed as a tenured professor of piano at “George Enescu National College of Music”in Bucharest. She holds a Doctorate from the National University of Music in Bucharest. In 2018 she was appointed Lecturer at McGill University.
SHEILA JAFFÉ
Sheila Jaffé was born into a family of musicians and was fascinated by classical music from a young age. Born in Montreal and raised in South Florida, she returned to her native Quebec at the age of thirteen to live and study with her second cousin Catherine Dallaire, concertmaster of the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec and professor of violin at the Conservatoire de Musique de Québec. After completing high school as part of the arts intensive program at l’École Secondaire Pierre-Laporte in Montreal, Sheila completed her Bachelor’s degree in violin performance at the Université de Montréal.
Over the course of her years in Montreal, it became clear that chamber music and orchestral playing were at the core of her musical passions. She co-founded the Alaya String Quartet, performed in numerous chamber music concerts in the city, and kept herself impossibly busy with every kind of ensemble she could put together. In the summers, she participated in orchestral, chamber music and masterclass festivals such as Schleswig-Holstein Orchester, Domaine Forget, International Musicians Seminar and Open Chamber Music at Prussia Cove, Orford Arts Centre, Aurora Music in Sweden, and several others. Sheila continued her studies in Berlin, Germany with a Master’s program at the Hanns Eisler Hochschüle für Musik, during which she also was accepted into the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Akademie for a one-year position. During this time she also co-founded the Alondra String Quartet, who were invited to the International Musicians Seminar Prussia Cove as well as the Toronto Summer Music festival. The members of this quartet are now in leading orchestras around the world. In 2013, at the Rosebud Chamber Music Festival in Alberta, Canada, she co-founded the Rosebud String Quartet (RSQ), with whom she currently performs regularly. Sheila is also the violinist and violist of the Array Ensemble, specializing in new music. In 2015, Sheila joined the Canadian Opera Company as a violist while continuing to nurture her love of chamber music on the violin with her string quartet as well as other chamber ensembles and various solo performances. She is now principal viola of the Canadian Opera Company and the National Ballet of Canada orchestras. Her first album, “Lachrymae”, a tribute to her late husband Peter Longworth and featuring works by Franck, Elgar and Britten in collaboration with Welsh pianist Huw Watkins (Coviello Classics), came out in 2022, closely followed in 2023 by her string quartet’s first album of Haydn and Mozart featuring Canadian violist Steven Dann and the Rosebud String Quartet (Leaf Music).
Sheila Jaffé plays on a Francesco Gobetti (1710-15) violin and Raymond Schryer (2001) viola on generous loan from Canimex
TIM BEATTIE
Tim Beattie is a Canadian guitarist who gained international attention after winning the 2018 Brussels International Guitar Competition. He has since performed across Europe and North America, earning top prizes at competitions in Antwerp, Brussels, Calgary, Enschede, Hamilton, Leicester, Manhattan, and Uppsala.
Highlights of his 2024–25 season included solo debuts at Carnegie Hall (NYC), Festival Corde D’Autunno (Milan), Áureo Herrero Festival (Spain), alongside tours throughout the UK and Canada with the RSNO, Scottish Opera, Canadian Opera Company, and Quartet Malamatina.
Beattie was a scholarship student at the Amsterdam Conservatory, where he completed his BMus in 2019 with honours (cum laude). He undertook fully-funded postgraduate studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, earning an MMus in 2021 and an Artist Diploma in 2022. In 2022, he became the first and only guitarist ever invited to join the prestigious Rebanks Fellowship at The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.
He is currently pursuing a PhD on a full doctoral studentship at the University of Surrey (UK). Tim is an Associate Teacher of guitar at the University of St Andrews and founding director of St Andrews GuitarFest (Scotland) and Simcoe Guitar (Canada).