≈ 90 minutes · With intermission
Last updated: October 3, 2023
A note about Jocelyn Morlock
Tonight’s WolfGANG Sessions is a special edition dedicated to the work of the much-missed Canadian composer Jocelyn Morlock (1969–2023). One of the country’s leading composers, Morlock wrote compelling music that has been recorded extensively and receives numerous performances and broadcasts throughout North America and Europe. Born in Winnipeg, she studied piano at Brandon University, and later earned a master’s degree and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of British Columbia, where she was recently an instructor and lecturer of composition. The inaugural composer-in residence for Vancouver’s Music on Main Society (2012–2014), she took on the same role for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra from 2014 to 2019. She had close ties with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, who in 2017, commissioned My Name is Amanda Todd, a powerful work about the teen from Port Coquitlam, BC, who took her own life due to cyberbullying. It subsequently won the 2018 JUNO Award for Classical Composition for the Year.
Recognized for their “richly satisfying harmonies and solo melodies full of emotion” (Winnipeg Free Press), “shimmering sheets of harmonics” (Georgia Straight), and a “deftly idiomatic” (Vancouver Sun) style, Morlock’s moving and vibrant compositions are inspired by birds, insomnia, nature, fear, other people’s music and art, nocturnal wandering thoughts, lucid dreaming, death, and the liminal times and experiences before and after death.
Program
COMPOSITIONS BY JOCELYN MORLOCK
Vermilion for string quartet (11 min)
Vespertine for flute and harp (10 min)
I. Twilight
II. Verdigris
Blue Sun for violin and viola (11 min)
Three Meditations on Light for cello and harp (17 min)
I. The birds breathe the morning light
II. Bioluminescence (wine-dark sea)
III. Absence of light – gradual reawakening
Unfurl for wind quintet (21 min)
Repertoire
Vermilion for string quartet
Vermilion for string quartet was commissioned by David Pay, the founder and artistic director of Vancouver’s Music on Main Society and is also the work’s dedicatee. The single-movement work, composed in 2014 during Morlock’s residency with the Society, was premiered in March 2014 by the Aeolus Quartet.
Morlock included the following note in the score that point to the various concepts, images, and emotions the music of the quartet evokes:
shape: frenetic, restless, brief moments of calm that are increasingly distorted, pulled in numerous directions as sharp fragments and shards of sound pixelate
colour: brilliant red, cinnabar, scarlet, orange, red lacquer with flashes of acid green
animalian etymology (via Wikipedia): The word vermilion came from the Old French word vermeillon, which was derived from vermeil, from the Latin vermiculus, the diminutive of the Latin word vermis, or worm. It has the same origin as the English word vermin…
Vespertine for flute and harp
I. Twilight
II. Verdigris
Sensuous musical colour and texture are front and centre in Vespertine, a piece for flute and harp that Morlock composed in 2005 for the Krutzen/McGhee Duo (Lorna McGhee, flute; Heidi Krutzen, harp). Drawing on the natural timbral qualities of the two instruments, Morlock weaves their delicate lines into ethereal webs of sound, which she says refers to “the night-blossoming plants and to nocturnally active creatures—the mysterious flora and fauna that inspired my music.” As she further explains:
In Twilight, I wanted to explore the darker sounds of the harp; a sense of ritual, anticipation, and nervousness at the opening gives way to a growing feeling of tension and increasing energy. At the climactic point of Twilight, I imagine seeing trails of bright sparks wheeling through the air. These are followed by a peaceful ending, in which we calmly await the morning light.
Verdigris is written in the style of a postlude. It is melancholy and fully of existential solitude, like a lone bird crooning to itself in the night.
Blue Sun for violin and viola
Musicians have found that many of Morlock’s compositions allow them a certain expressive autonomy that makes them satisfying to play. Her piece Blue Sun for violin and viola, composed in 1998, is written in a way that encourages interpretative freedom between its two players, thereby creating a special kind of intimacy in its performance. As she instructed in the score:
This piece is in seven short sections, which are to be played without pause. Both players read from the score. At times proportional notation is used; sometimes one player has notated rhythms while the other plays more freely. Do not be too concerned about exactly where to play the proportionally notated music, just fit it in vertically between the other player’s notes.
As to the subject of the piece, Morlock says,
The name “Blue Sun” is a reference to the lingering image or ghost sun that persists in your field of vision after looking at the real one. These pieces were written after I’d encountered some folk music that wouldn’t let me be; although they are not based on folk music, the moods of that music permeate them nonetheless, lingering like the after-image of the sun.
Three Meditations on Light for cello and harp
I. The birds breathe the morning light
II. Bioluminescence (wine-dark sea)
III. Absence of light – gradual reawakening
Three Meditations on Light is a three-movement piece that Morlock wrote in 2011 for Couloir—the duo of harpist Heidi Krutzen and cellist Ariel Barnes. They premiered it in October 2012 at Music on Main’s Modulus Festival.
In an interview with Ken Bolton before the work’s premiere, Morlock expressed that she initially had mixed feelings about writing a piece for the instrumental combination, “I thought ‘Oh, good! I love writing for Heidi, and for Ari.’ And then I thought ‘Oh, strange! I’ve never heard music for harp and cello before.’” Discovering that she “actually really like the combination,” she sought new ways to use each instrument, explaining that while both have huge ranges, composers rarely made use of the cello’s higher register or the lower notes of the harp.
The idea of the piece, she says, “was inspired by various conceptions of light and sun, in particular Sol Invictus, the unconquerable sun. In ancient Egyptian culture (ca. 3000–2000 BCE) it was believed that each night, the sun god Ra made a heroic journey, and fought a nocturnal battle in order to rise again in the morning. I love the idea that the sunrise is not a given, that each new day is miraculous.”
Unfurl for wind quintet
One of Morlock’s recent compositions, Unfurl for wind quintet was composed in 2021. Commissioned by the Seattle Chamber Music Society Commissioning Club, the one-movement work is dedicated to the SCMS and its artistic director, James Ehnes, and was premiered at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival in August that year.
As she explains in her note to the piece,
The title of my quintet, Unfurl, came from a poem called “For a New Beginning”, written by John O’Donohue. I read it after hearing that it was sent to President Joe Biden by the Irish President Michael D. Higgins, on the occasion of his inauguration. I hope that its mood of optimism and growth will characterize 2021, after the long difficulty of 2020. Unfurl is a similarly hopeful piece, somewhat bucolic, written during late winter and early spring of 2021 as I witnessed rebirth and resurgence beginning in the natural world, and our own human one.
Morlock was especially moved and inspired by one particular line from O’Donohue’s poem: “Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning.” “That just provoked so many beautiful images in me,” she said, “including an almost physical image of a sound coming out and rising gently.” For the sound world and palette of Unfurl, she was significantly influenced by American composer Samuel Barber’s Summer Music, which was written for the same instrumental combination. The piece also incorporates one of Morlock’s favourite sounds—that of birds: “You’re going to hear a lot of melody that sound like bird, something kind of natural in the piece, and something sort of gentle and optimistic.”
Program notes compiled and edited by Hannah Chan-Hartley, PhD
Artists
The late Jocelyn Morlock (1969–2023) was one of Canada’s leading composers, who wrote compelling music that has been recorded extensively and receives numerous performances and broadcasts throughout North America and Europe. Born in Winnipeg, she studied piano at Brandon University, and later earned a master’s degree and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of British Columbia, where she was recently an instructor and lecturer of composition. The inaugural composer-in-residence for Vancouver’s Music on Main Society (2012–14), she took on the same role for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra from 2014 to 2019.
Jocelyn had close ties with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, who in 2015, commissioned My Name is Amanda Todd, a powerful work about the teen from Port Coquitlam, BC, who took her own life due to cyberbullying. It subsequently won the 2018 JUNO Award for Classical Composition for the Year.
“With its shimmering sheets of harmonics” (Georgia Straight) and an approach that is “deftly idiomatic” (Vancouver Sun), Morlock’s music has received numerous national and international accolades, including Top 10 at the 2002 International Rostrum of Composers, the Mayor’s Arts Award for Music in Vancouver (2016) and the JUNO award for Classical Composition of the Year (My Name Is Amanda Todd, 2018).
Most of Morlock’s compositions are for small ensembles, many of them for unusual combinations like piano and percussion (Quoi?), cello and vibraphone (Shade), bassoon and harp (Nightsong), and an ensemble consisting of clarinet/bass clarinet, trumpet, violin and double bass (Velcro Lizards). Cobalt, a concerto for two violins and orchestra, was her first commission for the National Arts Centre Orchestra, in 2009. Her first full-length CD, also titled Cobalt, was released on the Centrediscs label in 2014.
Originally from St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Sean Rice has performed extensively throughout North America and around the world. His broadcasts include recitals with CBC Radio, performances for Schweizer Radio DRS, and Lucerne Festival live streams for the 2016 New York Philharmonic Biennial and the 2019 Lucerne Festival Alumni Orchestra.
Recognized as an exciting interpreter of contemporary music, The New York Times has described Sean as a “technically precise, exuberant protagonist” in performance. Sean has performed at festivals such as the Lucerne Festival, Ottawa Chamberfest, New York City’s Museum of Modern Art Summergarden concert series, the Toronto Summer Music Festival, and the Banff Music Festival. In addition to numerous New York Times reviews, Sean’s performances have received high praise from the Ottawa Citizen, Musical Toronto, and ARTSFILE. For a recent performance of Golijov’s Ayre at Ottawa Chamberfest, Musical Toronto wrote: “The performers were strong, especially NACO clarinetist Sean Rice, who unloaded a wailing solo that rivalled even the best Klezmer effort by Giora Feidman.”
Sean was invited at an early age to perform a concert with the National Arts Centre Orchestra during its 2002 Atlantic Tour and has subsequently appeared as a soloist with ensembles including the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Axiom, The New Juilliard Ensemble, and Symphony Nova Scotia. The recipient of numerous awards, Sean received first prize at the 2006 Canadian Concerto Competition hosted by the Orchestre symphonique de Québec. Following his 2007 Montréal debut at Jeunesses Musicales, La Presse wrote: ". . . clarinettiste canadien Sean Rice y révéla une technique impeccable, une authentique musicalité, une sonorité tour à tour éclatante et chaleureuse, et un vrai talent de chambriste.” Continuing the 2007–2008 season, Sean performed his first national tour with pianist Jean-Philippe Sylvestre for Jeunesses Musicales’ touring series. Since then, he has toured frequently throughout major cities across the United States, Europe, Malaysia, Brazil, and Japan.
As an educator, Sean has served as a visiting professor at Memorial University (2017–2018) and director of the Contemporary Music Ensemble at the University of Ottawa (2012–2017). He has been invited to give masterclasses at institutions such as the Royal College of Music, the Beijing Central Conservatory, the University of British Columbia, and the University of West England. Additionally, Sean has adjudicated numerous competitions, including the National Music Festival Competition held by the Canadian Association of Music Festivals. In the fall of 2021, Sean joined the clarinet faculty at the University of Ottawa.
As a conductor, Sean debuted in 2012 as the director of the Contemporary Music Ensemble at the University of Ottawa. In 2017, he led an ensemble of musicians from the National Arts Centre Orchestra and made his international conducting debut at the International Society for Contemporary Music Festival in Vancouver. Recently, Sean conducted the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra for its 2021-2022 season opener—their first performance since the pandemic.
Sean has developed a significant profile outside the concert hall as a classical music podcaster and host. Under his tenure, the National Arts Centre NACOcast has enjoyed great success and international recognition, and Classic FM continues to list his podcasts among the top ten in the world for classical music. Sean also hosts the NAC’s WolfGANG Sessions—a contemporary music series he helped design and curate for the National Arts Centre.
Sean is a graduate of Memorial University of Newfoundland, where he received his Bachelor of Music while studying with Paul Bendzsa.
Continuing his studies under the tutelage of Charles Neidich, Sean graduated with a Master of Music and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from The Juilliard School. Currently living in Ottawa, audiences can hear him perform regularly as a recitalist, chamber musician, and Second Clarinet/Bass Clarinet of the National Arts Centre Orchestra.
Stephanie Morin joined the NAC Orchestra as Second Flute and Piccolo in 2020 and is currently on faculty at the University of Ottawa. In addition to her teaching at uOttawa, Stephanie has been a guest speaker and teacher at programs such as OAcademy, Fluture Music Studio, and Flute On The Edge. She is also an active chamber musician and has performed in NAC chamber music concerts and at Ottawa Chamberfest.
Before her tenure at the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Stephanie was Assistant Principal Flute with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and Principal Flute of the Laval and Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean orchestras. She has also performed with ensembles such as Les Violons du Roy, the Orchestre Métropolitain, and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal.
Stephanie pursued her music studies in Montreal, first at Marianopolis College with Carolyn Christie, then at McGill University with Denis Bluteau, and finally at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal, where she completed a Master’s in Flute Performance with Marie-Andrée Benny.
Stephanie is a prize-winner at the OSM, Canadian Music, Prix d’Europe, and Orchestra Toronto Concerto competitions.
Anna Petersen joined the NAC Orchestra as Second Oboe and English Horn in 2013. She has performed orchestral and chamber concerts throughout Canada and the United States and internationally in China, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Europe.
Before joining the NAC Orchestra, she held positions as Principal Oboe of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra and as a member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. She has enjoyed guest appearances as Principal Oboe with the Pittsburgh, Detroit, Vancouver, and Wichita symphony orchestras, The Florida Orchestra, the Lake Placid Sinfonietta, and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom she made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2013. She has also recently performed with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra in Auckland, New Zealand.
In addition to her orchestral career, Anna is an active soloist and chamber musician. She has been a soloist with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, Symphoria, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra, the Lake Placid Sinfonietta, and the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra, and has performed as a finalist in the Coleman Chamber Music Competition in Pasadena, California. Anna has been a featured performer at Ottawa Chamberfest, a fellow at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, a participant in the Masterclass Program at the Banff Centre for the Arts, and a performer at the Skaneateles and Bravo! Vail Valley Music festivals.
Also an experienced teacher, Anna is on faculty at the University of Ottawa and previously was the Adjunct Professor of Oboe at Syracuse University’s Setnor School of Music and SUNY Geneseo. In 2018, she was a guest member of the Prairie Winds at Madeline Island Chamber Music, and during the summers of 2012 and 2015, she was a coach at the Bennington Chamber Music Conference in Bennington, Vermont.
Anna earned her Bachelor of Music and Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. Her primary teachers include Richard Killmer and Suzanne Geoffrey.
In addition to her musical life, Anna is an internationally certified yoga teacher with Yoga Alliance, having completed 300 hours of training in Bali, Indonesia.
Kimball Sykes joined the National Arts Centre Orchestra as Principal Clarinet in 1985.
Born in Vancouver, he received a Bachelor of Music from the University of British Columbia, where he studied with Ronald deKant. In 1982, Kimball was a member of the National Youth Orchestra and was awarded the first of two Canada Council grants to study with Robert Marcellus in Chicago. He has participated in the Banff School of Fine Arts Festival, the Scotia Festival, the Orford Festival, and Ottawa Chamberfest.
He has performed and toured with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and was a member of the Vancouver Opera Orchestra. While in Vancouver, he was a founding member of the Vancouver Wind Trio. From 1983 to 1985, he was the principal clarinet of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra.
Kimball has performed as a soloist with the NAC Orchestra numerous times. In May 2000, he gave the premiere performance of Vagues immobiles, a clarinet concerto by Alain Perron commissioned for him by the NAC, and in November 2002, he performed the Coplandʼs Clarinet Concerto, both conducted by Pinchas Zukerman. Other groups he has appeared with as a soloist include Thirteen Strings, the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, and the Auckland Philharmonia.
Kimball has performed numerous solo and chamber music programs for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He can be heard on the recent Chamber Players of Canada recording of Schubert’s Octet. He has also recorded the Mozart Clarinet Quintet with Pinchas Zukerman and former NAC Orchestra principal musicians Donnie Deacon, Jane Logan, and Amanda Forsyth, included in the NAC Orchestra’s double Mozart CD for CBC Records and nominated for a Juno Award in 2004.
Kimball is currently on faculty at the University of Ottawa.
Darren Hicks joined the National Arts Centre Orchestra as Principal Bassoon in September 2022 after four seasons with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra as Associate Principal Bassoon. Hailing from Middleton, Nova Scotia, Darren pursued undergraduate studies at the University of Ottawa, studying under former NACO Principal Bassoon Christopher Millard. He then went on to study at the graduate level with Frank Morelli at the Yale School of Music in New Haven, Connecticut.
After graduation, Darren was chosen as a fellow for the Rebanks Family Fellowship at the Glenn Gould School of Music. After this, he moved to Miami Beach, Florida, to become a Bassoon Fellow at the New World Symphony. Darren is an alumnus of numerous summer festivals, including Domaine Forget, the Orchestre de la Francophonie, the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, the Banff Festival, the Verbier Festival, and the Aspen Music Festival and School.
Formative influences in Darren’s musicianship include Joan Panetti (Yale), David Shifrin (Yale), Whitney Crockett, Daniel Matsukawa, Judith Leclair, and Nancy Goeres.
Darren feels very fortunate to have received several honours and awards, including winning the Aspen Music Festival and School’s Concerto Competition for bassoon (2019), the New World Symphony Concerto Competition (March 2018), the Dean’s Prize at the Yale School of Music (2014), and the National Arts Centre Orchestra Bursary (2012).
Darren plays on a bassoon made outside Peterborough by Bell Bassoons Ltd. When not hunched over his reed desk, he enjoys building his record collection, meandering walks in nature, numerous podcasts, and feeding his insatiable sweet tooth.
A native of Fredericksburg, Virginia, Lauren Anker was recently appointed third horn of the National Arts Centre Orchestra. In 2021, she completed a master’s at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, studying with William VerMeulen. She holds degrees from Oberlin College and Conservatory in horn performance and history, where she studied under former St. Louis Symphony Orchestra principal horn Roland Pandolfi.
Lauren’s past festival experience includes four summers at the Aspen Music Festival and School, where she received a John N. Stern Scholarship for students of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music for 2018 and 2019. She has also attended the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, the National Orchestral Institute, the Colorado College Summer Music Festival, and the National Symphony Orchestra’s Summer Music Institute. She has joined the horn sections of the Houston Symphony and Dallas Symphony Orchestra and performed a variety of orchestral and contemporary works in venues such as Chicago’s Symphony Center, New York’s Carnegie Hall, Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. She was a founding member of Kodan Quintet at the Shepherd School and was named a 2021 Performance Today Young Artist in Residence.
She first studied horn with Washington, D. C.–area freelancer Jeremy Cucco. Other past teachers include James Nickel of the National Symphony Orchestra, former principal horn of Orchestre symphonique de Montréal John Zirbel, and Andrew Bain of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
She enjoys biking across Ottawa and the surrounding area’s fabulous bike path system and hopes to get a bit better at skating on the canal!
An innovative and creative harpist, Antoine Malette-Chénier performs repertoire ranging from the Renaissance and the Baroque, on period instruments, to contemporary creations. Described as "a brilliant soloist", he is Principal Harp with the Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivières. Lauded for his versatility, Antoine has played with numerous ensembles in Canada and abroad, including the Orchestre Métropolitain, Les Violons du Roy, and the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, as a soloist, and as a chamber and continuo player.
Antoine is a recipient of the 2014 Michael Measures Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts and a first prize at the 2013 OSM Competition. Antoine holds degrees from the Yale School of Music, McGill University, and the Université de Montréal, and a Master in historical harps from the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse (Lyon, France).
His first solo album, Consolations, was released on the ATMA Classique label and is available everywhere.
Violinist Marjolaine Lambert, a native of Joliette but a self-proclaimed Montrealer, started her music studies at age four, following the footsteps of her brother, violist Frédéric Lambert. At a young age, her natural talent led her to join the studio of Johanne Arel and Raymond Dessaints at Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, from which she graduated in 2005. With a passion for learning and broadening her general knowledge, she went to McGill University in the class of Denise Lupien. Studying the rudiments of Mandarin as a minor led her to tour China as the Principal Second Violin of the Orchestre de la Francophonie Canadienne.
After completing her bachelor's with honours, she went to Yale University for her master's to study with Ani Kavafian. There, she thrived as the concertmaster of the Yale Philharmonia and winner of the Woolsey Concerto Competition. Establishing strong collaborations with contemporary composers, maestro Julian Wachner and herself created Novus NYC, an orchestra devoted to new music, of which she acted as concertmaster. She had the opportunity to premiere works by David Lang, Bernard Rands and Christopher Theofanidis.
Her passion for new music led her to pursue a Doctorate of Music at McGill University, with the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, which focused on the hyper-violin created by Pierre Boulez in his Anthèmes. Her work with live electronics has brought her interesting and different kinds of projects, including the world premiere of Les Gestes, a creation of dance choreographer Isabelle Van Grimde.
Marjolaine has performed as a soloist under many conductors, such as Yuli Turovsky, Peter Oundjian, and Shinik Hahm. As a chambrist, she's been invited to perform often with Les Violons du Roy, I Musici, and the Arcos Chamber Orchestra.
In her rare spare time, Marjolaine enjoys watching an impressive amount of TV shows, discovering the depths of performance practice on her Baroque violin, or rocking out stadiums with Céline Dion.
She is thrilled to be a National Arts Centre Orchestra member since September 2016.
A dedicated champion of contemporary music, Montreal-born violinist Noémi Racine Gaudreault is renowned for the virtuosity and sensitivity of her playing. She has performed as a soloist in orchestras across Canada, the United States, France, and Turkey. In addition to her career as a soloist, Noémi is a much sought-after chamber musician, playing regularly in contemporary and chamber music festivals. She has been the Principal Second Violin of the Orchestre Métropolitain and solo violin of the SMCQ, the ECM, and the Quartango Ensemble. She holds a First Prize with Great Distinction from the Montreal Music Conservatory and an Artist Diploma from McGill University. Noémi currently lives in the National Capital Region. She is Assistant Concertmaster of the National Arts Centre Orchestra.
Paul Casey was born and raised in Ottawa and is an avid orchestral, chamber, and solo musician and pedagogue.
Paul is one of the newest additions to the National Arts Centre Orchestra viola section as a soloist. Paul has performed with NACO as part of FanFair, the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, and has given recitals in Canada and the United States. He was the 2011 recipient of the NACO Bursary Competition’s Crabtree Foundation Award.
Paul obtained a Master of Music and a Bachelor of Music from Indiana University and the University of Ottawa, respectively, and most recently studied at McGill University.
Paul is on faculty at the Leading Note Foundation’s OrKidstra program and was the string coach for the Ottawa Junior Youth Orchestra. He is also a member of the Silflay String Quartet with his wife, cellist Karen Kang, and violinists Leah Roseman and Mark Friedman.
Described as a "pure chamber musician" (The Globe and Mail) creating "moments of pure magic" (Toronto Star), Canadian cellist Rachel Mercer has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician across five continents.
Grand prize winner of the 2001 Vriendenkrans Competition in Amsterdam, Rachel is Principal Cello of the NAC Orchestra in Ottawa and Co-Artistic Director of the "5 at the First" Chamber Music Series in Hamilton and Orleans, Ontario. Rachel plays with the Mercer-Park Duo, the St. John-Mercer-Park Trio and the Ironwood Quartet, and was cellist of the JUNO award-winning piano quartet Ensemble Made In Canada (2008-2020), the AYR Trio (2010-2020), and the Aviv Quartet (2002-2010). She has given masterclasses across North America, South Africa and Israel and talks on performance and careers in music.
An advocate for new Canadian music, Rachel has commissioned and premiered over 30 works, including cello concerti by Stewart Goodyear and Kevin Lau, as well as solo and chamber works by Vivian Fung, Andrew Downing, Alice Ho, David Braid, Kelly Marie-Murphy, John Burge, and Jocelyn Morlock. Recent chamber and solo albums include Kevin Lau: Under A Veil of Stars (Leaf Music), Our Strength, Our Song (Centrediscs), John Burge: One Sail (Naxos), Alice Ho: Mascarada (Centrediscs), and from 2012, the complete Bach Suites (Pipistrelle) with the 1696 Bonjour Stradivarius Cello from the Canada Council for the Arts Musical Instrument Bank. Rachel currently plays a 17th-century cello from Northern Italy.