Artists
Canadian violinist of German and Lebanese ancestry, Jessica Linnebach, has established herself as an accomplished artist with a thriving multi-faceted career encompassing solo, chamber, and orchestral performances.
Known for her “burnt caramel sound, utterly fearless virtuosity…and romantic lyricism” (Artsfile), Jessica has performed as a soloist with orchestras around the world. A passionate chamber musician, Jessica is a member of the Ironwood String Quartet along with her NAC Orchestra colleagues Emily Kruspe, Carissa Klopoushak, and Rachel Mercer. They are frequent performers at various chamber music series and festivals, including the NAC’s WolfGANG and Music for a Sunday Afternoon series and Ottawa Chamberfest, Pontiac Enchanté, Ritornello, and Classical Unbound festivals. As part of a commitment to reaching broader audiences, Jessica is one of the Artistic Directors of the Classical Unbound Festival, a chamber music festival in Prince Edward County, Ontario.
Accepted to the world-renowned Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia at age ten, Jessica remains one of the youngest-ever Bachelor of Music graduates in the school’s history. While there, Jessica’s primary teachers were Aaron Rosand, Jaime Laredo, and Ida Kavafian. At 18, she received her Master of Music from the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, where she studied with Pinchas Zukerman and Patinka Kopec.
Jessica resides in Ottawa, where she has been Associate Concertmaster with the NAC Orchestra since 2010. A natural leader, Jessica has performed numerous times as guest concertmaster with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.
Jessica plays a circa 1840 Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume (Guarnerius del Gésu 1737) violin. Her bows are crafted by Ron Forrester and Michael Vann.
In 2014, after 12 years of living abroad, violist David Marks returned to Canada to accept the position of Associate Principal Viola with the NAC Orchestra. Born in Vancouver, David grew up in Virginia in the heart of a musical family. He experimented with composing, writing, drawing, and painting from an early age. These passions have resulted in dozens of original songs, paintings, and murals. His viola studies took him across the U.S. and Europe for lessons with Roberto Diaz, Atar Arad, Karen Tuttle, Gerard Caussé, Thomas Riebl, and Nobuko Imai; to the Banff Centre; L’Académie de Musique Tibor Varga; and Prussia Cove.
In Europe, David performed as Principal Viola with L’Orchestre de Montpellier and L’Opera de Bordeaux, La Orquesta de la Ciudad de Granada, Holland Symfonia, and Amsterdam Sinfonietta. He was Principal Viola of the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the batons of Vladimir Jurowski, Christoph Eschenbach, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Marin Alsop. As a fixture on the contemporary music scene, he performed across Europe with the Asko/Schonberg Ensemble, Ensemble Modern, the Mondriaan Quartet, Fabrica Musica, and Nieuw Amsterdamse Peil. He was a member of the avant-garde Dutch contemporary music group Nieuw Ensemble, with whom he toured China and recorded over 40 works.
As a folk musician, David has toured Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, singing his songs with The History of Dynamite. His folk opera The Odyssey was performed at the Banff Centre and subsequently at Theater de Cameleon in Amsterdam. He plays fiddle and guitar and has performed with Van Dyke Parks, Bill Frisell, and Patrick Watson.
He lives with his wife and four children in Wakefield, Quebec.
Assistant Principal Cello of the National Arts Centre Orchestra since 2014, Julia MacLaine performs worldwide as a soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician in music ranging from classical to contemporary and from “world” to her own arrangements and compositions.
Most recently, she has performed with her string quartet Ironwood in Mahone Bay (NS), at the Indian River Festival (PEI), and their own Classical Unbound Festival in Prince Edward County. The quartet has appeared at the WolfGANG Sessions and the Music for a Sunday Afternoon series in Ottawa, at Ritornello Festival (SK), and in Paris. Their programs combine classical warhorses (Beethoven, Ravel, Debussy) with very new music (works by Ana Sokolovic, Nicole Lizée, Bryce Dessner, Philip Glass, Esa‐Pekka Salonen) and occasionally veer off into their own arrangements of original songs and folk music.
During the ten years she spent living in New York City, Julia collaborated frequently with composers, giving voice to new works for solo cello. Most notably, she has been a champion of Pedro Malpica’s Pachamama’s Catharsis. Julia could often be heard on all three stages at Carnegie Hall. As a member of Ensemble Connect (previously ACJW), she performed numerous chamber music concerts at Weill and Zankel Halls, notably as the soloist in Tan Dun’s concerto Elegy: Snow in June. She also played frequently in Stern Auditorium as a member of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and as principal cellist for Osvaldo Golijov’s Pasion selun San Marcos. From 2005 to 2014, she was a member of the Brooklyn‐based chamber orchestra The Knights, with whom she performed the Schumann Cello Concerto in 2012 in Central Park and for live broadcast by WQXR. The Grammy‐nominated ensemble collaborates regularly with artists such as Gil Shaham, Renée Fleming, and Yo‐Yo Ma and has recorded several albums for, among others, Sony Classical.
An entrepreneurial musician, Julia co-founded the New York group the Ikarus Chamber Players, an ensemble that married classical chamber music with other art forms in their own concert series in auction houses, art galleries, and other unique venues. With her colleagues in the Academy (Carnegie and Juilliard‐led fellowship connected to Ensemble ACJW/Connect), she formed the chamber music collective Decoda to develop community chamber music residencies around the world. With Decoda, Julia has performed at the Mecklenberg‐Vorpommern Festival in Germany, Abu Dhabi, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and across the United States. She has also appeared at the Lanaudière, Bic, Mostly Mozart, Tanglewood, and Ravinia festivals.
Julia has performed with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Les Violons du Roy, and her chamber music collaborators include Itzhak Perlman, Jackie Parker, Pinchas Zukerman, members of the Orion String Quartet, Ani and Ida Kavafian, Inon Barnatan, and Cynthia Phelps.
Originally from Prince Edward Island, Julia studied with Antonio Lysy at McGill University (BMus), Timothy Eddy at the Mannes College of Music (Artist Diploma), and The Juilliard School (MMus).
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