Artists
Sofia-Marie Bergeron is a violinist from Montreal. She studied the violin at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal in the class of Sonia Jelinkova, continued her studies in Switzerland at the Haute École de musique de Lausanne with Silvia Marcovici where she obtained in 2011 the Bachelor of Arts in music. She also studied with Salvatore Accardo at the Walter Stauffer Accademia in Cremona (Italy). From 2013 to 2016 Sofia joined the International Menuhin Music Academy in Switzerland to work with Maxim Vengerov. She played many concerts as a member and soloist of the Menuhin Camerata in Switzerland, Poland, Italy, Israel and Macedonia. With great interest in chamber music, Sofia has recently collaborated with Jessica Linnebach, Paul Marleyn, Yehonatan Berick and Joel Quarrington.
Jacob van der Sloot started playing violin under the instruction of his father, Michael van der Sloot, and switched to viola when he was 13. Jacob was accepted to the Juilliard school where he would earn his Bachelors degree in 2019 and is currently pursuing his Masters degree with a Teaching Assistantship at the University of Ottawa School of Music.
Jacob has established himself as one of Canada’s top young violists, participating in world-renowned programs such as the Perlman Music Program, Morningside Music Bridge, the NAC's Young Artists Program and a fellowship with the Bowdoin Music Festival. Jacob has performed chamber and solo concerts around the world in Italy, Israel, China and the USA, including his solo Carnegie hall debut in 2019 playing the Brahms E flat sonata as part of the “International Rising Stars” concert series. Jacob is an avid chamber musician as well, including a second place finish in the Fischoff Competition and loves to regularly play outreach concerts in NYC and Ottawa.
Jacob was awarded the Friends of the NAC Orchestra Award at the NAC Orchestra Bursary Competition in 2018.
Shang-Jung (Kitty) Chan, recipient of the 2018 British Columbia Arts Council Scholarship, is ARCT certified from the Royal Conservatory of Music for both cello and piano with first-class honors. She appeared at various summer programs including the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, Scotia Festival of Music and Le Domaine Forget Strings Academy. Kitty was a participant in the Institute of Orchestral Studies with the NAC Orchestra in partnership with University of Ottawa, as well as a student mentee in the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra. She participated in public masterclass with Mischa Maisky, Paul Watkins, Laurence Lesser, Marc Coppey, Steven Doane, and Philippe Muller to name a few. Holding two Bachelor’s Degrees in Biology and Music, Kitty is currently working towards her Master’s Degree in Performance with Professor Paul Marleyn at University of Ottawa.