Amanda Forsyth Cello

One of the most exciting conductors of the younger generation and already widely admired for her unique combination of “drama and tenderness, power and delicacy” (Hereford Times), Elim Chan serves as Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra beginning this season, and has recently been appointed Chief Conductor Designate of the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra.

Highlights of her 2018–2019 season include her debuts with BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Sydney Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie.

In 2012, Chan participated in the Conductors Program at the NAC Summer Music Institute, where she worked with Pinchas Zukerman and led the NAC Orchestra as part of the final concert. This evening’s concert marks her first time conducting the NAC Orchestra in a main series concert.

Born in Hong Kong, Elim Chan became the first female winner of the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition in 2014. As a result of this achievement, she held the position of Assistant Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra in 2015–2016 and was appointed to the Dudamel Fellowship program with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2016–2017.

Canadian JUNO Award-winning Amanda Forsyth is considered one of North America's most dynamic cellists. Describing a recent performance, California’s Ventura County Star raves “In Forsyth’s hands, it was sheer magic.” She has achieved her international reputation as a soloist and chamber musician, and was Principal Cellist of the NAC Orchestra from 1999 to 2015. Her intense richness of tone, remarkable technique and exceptional musicality combine to enthrall audiences and critics alike.

Forsyth has appeared numerous times on tour and in St. Petersburg with the Mariinsky Orchestra, and, in 2014, she made her Carnegie Hall debut with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Highlights from her 2018–2019 season include her debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and, as cellist of the Zukerman Trio, engagements with Chamber Music Sedona, Music Institute of Chicago and Savannah Music Festival. 

Amanda Forsyth’s most recent recording features Brahms’s Double Concerto with Pinchas Zukerman and the NAC Orchestra, released by Analekta Records.

Born in South Africa, she moved to Canada as a child and began playing cello at age three. She studied with William Pleeth in London, and Harvey Shapiro at The Juilliard School. She performs on a rare 1699 Italian cello by Carlo Giuseppe Testore.

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Born in Gorizia, Italy, January 7, 1948
Now living in Kingston, Ontario

Canadian composer Marjan Mozetich (pronounced Mar(i)ANNE Moh-ZED-itch) was born in Italy to Slovenian parents and moved at the age of four to Hamilton, Ontario. At the University of Toronto, from which he received his Bachelor of Music degree in 1972, Mozetich studied composition with Lothar Klein and John Weinzweig. He then went to Italy to study privately with Franco Donatoni and Luciano Berio, and to England to study with David Bedford. From 1991 until this past May, he taught composition at Queen’s University. In both 2002 and 2006, Mozetich received the Jan V. Matejcek Concert Music Award from SOCAN for most performed and broadcast Canadian composer.

Among Mozetich’s most performed and recorded works are the Oboe Concerto (1991), The Passion of Angels (1995) for two harps and orchestra (the first Canadian work for this pair of soloists), Postcards from the Sky (1996), the violin concerto Affairs of the Heart (1997), and the Bassoon Concerto (2003). Many of his works have been choreographed or used in film and theatrical productions. In 2010, his Angels in Flight and Lament in the Trampled Garden were both nominated for a Juno in the category Classical Composition of the Year, with the latter winning the award. In 2012, he received an honorary doctorate from the Royal Military College of Canada, and in 2015 he was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada. 

His most recent premiere was Songs to Whitman for tenor and string quartet, performed at the 2017 Ottawa Chamberfest; next up is a Clarinet Concerto for the Kingston Symphony.

Mozetich began by writing avant-garde works in the manner of Berio, Ligeti and Penderecki, but by the 1980s had adopted elements of American minimalism and was fostering a return to tonal music and lyricism. Mozetich calls his present style new-age romanticism, and describes his music as “beautiful, lush, and romantic in a postmodern perspective with touches of the minimal, the spiritual and the traditional.”