≈ 75 minutes · With intermission
Last updated: November 28, 2024
About Tonight’s Program
Tonight’s concert features chamber works that were all commissioned by yMusic, an innovative chamber ensemble comprised of “six contemporary classical polymaths who playfully overstep the boundaries of musical genres” (The New Yorker). Founded in New York City in 2008, yMusic is “one of the groups that has really helped to shape the future of classical music,” (Fred Child, NPR’s Performance Today). Their virtuosic execution and unique configuration—string trio, flute, clarinet, and trumpet—has inspired original works by some of today’s foremost composers, as you’ll hear on this program.
Program
Sean Rice, curator and host / clarinet and bass clarinet
Stephanie Morin, flute
Kimball Sykes, clarinet
Lauren Anker, horn
Amy Horvey, trumpet
Vincent Parizeau, guitar and electric guitar
Emily Kruspe, violin
Carissa Klopoushak, viola
Julia MacLaine, cello
NICO MUHLY Balance Problems (8 minutes)
MARK DANCIGERS Everness (7 minutes)
GABRIELLA SMITH Tessellations (5 minutes)
INTERMISSION
MISSY MAZZOLI Ecstatic Science (10 minutes)
SARAH KIRKLAND SNIDER Daughter of the Waves (8 minutes)
Repertoire
Balance Problems
Nico Muhly (b. 1981) is an American composer and sought-after collaborator whose influences range from American minimalism to the Anglican choral tradition. The recipient of commissions from the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and others, he has written more than 80 works for the concert stage. Muhly is a frequent collaborator with choreographer Benjamin Millepied and, as an arranger, has paired with Sufjan Stevens, Anohni and the Johnsons, and others. His work for stage and screen includes music for the Broadway revival of The Glass Menagerie and scores for films including the Academy Award–winning The Reader. Born in Vermont, Muhly studied composition at The Juilliard School before working as an editor and conductor for Philip Glass.
Muhly’s sextet, Balance Problems (2013) was commissioned by Linda and Stuart Nelson for yMusic and is the title track on the ensemble’s 2014 recording, which was produced by Son Lux (Ryan Lott). He’s shared that the title comes from the challenge of writing a piece for yMusic’s unique makeup of instruments, especially one that is “very fast and very busy, in which every instrument is clear, and in which all of their lines are distinct.”
The music of Balance Problems is minimalist, characterized by repetitive figures that create a pulsating backdrop of shifting timbres and textures. Layered overtop of this propulsive foundation are various melodic and rhythmic motives as well as sound effects; cello and trumpet sing soaring melodies. Later, a contrasting episode features the acoustic guitar carrying the motoric line, as flute and clarinet play sustained tones. The others soon join in to fill out the delicate texture and the hypnotic music eventually leads to an ethereal passage. With a grinding dissonance, the violin jumpstarts the “motor” again, and the instruments generate new strata of sounds. Suddenly, a mighty snap on the cello triggers a burst of energy and the ensemble drives forward to the finish.
Everness
Mark Dancigers (b. 1981) is a composer of music for chamber ensembles, orchestra, ballet, and contemporary dance. He is also the electric guitarist for the chamber music group NOW Ensemble, helping to bring this instrument into new musical contexts. His music is recorded on seven albums released on the New Amsterdam label by artists including yMusic and Michi Wiancko. Dancigers studied music composition at Yale, the Yale School of Music, and Princeton University. He is currently Assistant Professor at New College of Florida, where he directed New Music New College from 2020 to 2022.
Danciger’s sextet Everness (2013) appears on yMusic’s 2014 recording Balance Problems. In an October 2014 interview with textura, CJ Camerieri, the ensemble’s trumpet player, said the following about the piece:
Taking its title from a Jorge Luis Borges poem of the same name, “Everness” by Mark Dancigers is yet another example of how our composers are using the unique instrumentation of yMusic to create new textures and colours. Borges writes in the poem “unending are the mazes,” and from the opening violin solo to the repeated woodwind arpeggio and culminating in the hauntingly beautiful closing chorale, this piece uses the ensemble’s unique orchestration to both create and navigate these mazes.
Everness unfolds over four distinct sections that all feature, to an extent, ostinato patterns, arpeggiating figures, and sustained melodies. The first, marked “elegant”, features a lyrical violin solo over viola and cello accompaniment with long-held tones coloured by notes plucked in the left hand. Downward-flowing arpeggios on winds and violin lead into the second section, which Dancigers describes as “suspended, floating, articulate”. Here, the ensemble plays quietly chugging figures, save the violin, which sings a long melody of poignant leaps. The third section is characterized by “bold” arpeggios, which, after briefly played by the strings, are taken up by flute and clarinet, as the string trio meanders through a contrapuntal “maze”. In the final chorale, the individual voices gradually dissolve into sublime harmony.
Tessellations
Gabriella Smith (b. 1991) is a composer whose work invites listeners to find joy in climate action. Her music comes from a love of play, exploring new instrumental sounds, and creating musical arcs that transport audiences into sonic landscapes inspired by the natural world. An “outright sensation” (Los Angeles Times), her music “exudes inventiveness with a welcoming personality, rousing energy and torrents of joy” (The New York Times). Current projects include a large-scale work for Kronos Quartet, commissioned in celebration of their 50th anniversary season, and an album-length work for yMusic featuring underwater field recordings. She and her longtime collaborator cellist Gabriel Cabezas perform together as a cello-violin-voice-electronics duo.
Tessellations was commissioned by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition for yMusic, and was premiered on April 8, 2018, at The Cube in Detroit. The piece is on yMusic’s 2020 album Ecstatic Science. It opens with a grooving rhythm tapped on the cello’s body, to which the other instruments add their various exclamations in turn, thereby creating an interlocking motivic pattern, or “tessellation”. These initial sounds (pitchless) have a playful percussive quality, with the players using extended techniques—blows, glissandos, and ricochet bow strokes. The texture gradually morphs to pitched music (glissandos elongated, strings plucked), while trumpet and clarinet hold static tones. Thereafter the ensemble locks into a new pattern (instruments now bowed and blown), to which one of the players contributes a line of wordless singing. They continue into another pattern of layered motives, clearly melodic now, that blend in “harmony”. As sustained tones reappear on the trumpet and clarinet, the fluid texture on the other instruments gradually dissolves to noise, and the piece draws to a close with the same grooving rhythm tapped on the cello that had started it.
Ecstatic Science
Recently deemed “one of the more consistently inventive, surprising composers now working in New York” (The New York Times) and “Brooklyn’s post-millennial Mozart” (Time Out New York), Missy Mazzoli (b. 1980) has had her music performed by the Kronos Quartet, LA Opera, eighth blackbird, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Opera, and many others. In 2018 she became one of the first two women, along with Jeanine Tesori, to receive a main stage commission from the Metropolitan Opera, and was nominated for a Grammy Award. She is Composer-in-Residence at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and from 2012 to 2015 was Composer-in-Residence with Opera Philadelphia.
Mazzoli’s Ecstatic Science is the title work of yMusic’s 2020 album, and was originally premiered at Carnegie Hall, New York, in December 2016. She provides the following description of the piece:
There’s a lot of math at play; chord progressions are drawn-out, multiplied, condensed, and layered. Melodies are flipped upside-down and fractured into the smallest possible element. The horizontal becomes vertical and the vertical stretches systematically into a twisting melody. The “science” behind the notes provides a frame for a persistent, bubbling energy, a scaffold for the ecstatic gestures that eventually consume everything else.
Listen out for two main musical ideas, introduced from the start, which form the basis of this piece. The first motive consists of sustained notes in the strings, with the violin playing upward glissandos intermittently. As the music progresses, this initially slow-moving melody is taken up by each of the wind instruments in faster, more recognizable versions, including a soaring rendition played by all three. The second, in contrast to the first, consists of lively burbling fragments on flute and clarinet, which they play in alternation to create a single musical line. Beginning as quick interjections to the first idea, the individual instruments later play the parts of the melody alone, without the other; at other points during the piece, the trumpet joins in, and the clarinet plays all the parts of the melody. After their ecstatic development, both ideas return to their original “forms” at the work’s conclusion.
Daughter of the Waves
Composer Sarah Kirkland Snider (b. 1973) writes music of direct expression and vivid narrative that has been hailed as “rapturous” (The New York Times), “groundbreaking” (The Boston Globe), and “ravishingly beautiful” (NPR). Recently named one of the “Top 35 Female Composers in Classical Music” by The Washington Post, Snider’s works have been commissioned and/or performed by many major orchestras around the world as well as notable ensembles as wide-ranging as the Emerson String Quartet, eighth blackbird, and Roomful of Teeth, among others. Her four full-length LPs—The Blue Hour (2022), Mass for the Endangered (2020), Endangered, Unremembered (2015), and Penelope (2010)—have garnered year-end nods and critical acclaim. A founding Co-Artistic Director of Brooklyn-based non-profit New Amsterdam Records, Snider has a Master of Music and an Artist’s Diploma from the Yale School of Music, and a Bachelor of Arts from Wesleyan University.
Composed in 2010, Daughter of the Waves appears on yMusic’s debut album Beautiful Mechanical, which was Time Out New York’s “#1 Classical Record of the Year.” According to yMusic’s violist Nadia Sirota, the piece was written specifically for the recording. Snider, who writes music that often blurs the boundaries between classical and pop music, said, in a 2012 interview with Chris McGovern, that “working with yMusic is dreamy. They’re all amazing musicians…they get the in-betweenness of genres with music….” She has noted that the piece was composed while she was pregnant with her daughter, and that the title references her daughter’s name (Dylan, Welsh, “child of the waves”) as well as the turbulent emotional states of pregnancy. However, one also might hear in the music a seascape, and the many characteristics of water in that context.
Daughter of the Waves is for an octet of yMusic’s instrumentation with the flute doubling on alto flute and parts for horn and electric guitar. With this instrumentation, Snider creates an eclectic musical idiom that combines classical music elements like counterpoint, with modern methods of producing sound (via extended techniques such as scratch tones), as well as pop influences, evident in the simple, repetitive cadences throughout and the electric guitar’s edgy timbre.
The piece unfolds in 12 short sections of contrasting moods that mark the flow of the music. “Pensive but restless, mysterious” (1) opens with alto flute murmurs, cello playing ricochet, and long notes on viola; violin and clarinet play rocking melodic figures. It’s followed by “Robust, impassioned” (2), featuring the trumpet on a lilting melody, while motives in the other five parts suggest the different layers of water movement in an ocean—from the stillness of the deep to fast-moving surface waves. “Light, playful” (3) is characterized by a snappy rhythm on clarinet and cello alongside plucked glissando effects; the alto flute here is exchanged for a regular flute. The opening material returns at “Again elusive, mysterious” (4) and is developed; ricochet motives alternate with grinding chords.
“Delirious, carnivalesque” (5) is an exuberant passage that sounds like the swinging music at a noisy fairground; it continues into “More lyrical (same energy)” (6), a flowing melody on trumpet underscored by heavy metal–like chords on viola and cello that become “Demonic, frenzied” (7). The music then becomes “Plaintive, intense” (8), with clarinet and trumpet in counterpoint over strings on high sustained notes; swells, slides, and murmuring figures evoke waves, that become “Slightly more relaxed” (9), as the trumpet picks up the murmur; strings emit pitch-less scratch sounds, while flute and clarinet cycle through patterns of upward and downward leaps. The latter carries on at “Laid back, dreamy, ruminative” (10), an extended episode distinctively coloured by a chordal motive on electric guitar and a poignant melody on horn. It stops briefly, for a “strange half-remembered interruption” (11), after which the ensemble draws the piece to a “Serene” (12) close.
Program notes by Hannah Chan-Hartley, PhD
Composer bios compiled and edited by Hannah Chan-Hartley, PhD
Artists
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.
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.
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!
Amy Horvey is a Montreal-based trumpeter renowned for blending contemporary and traditional music practices. Acclaimed for her skill and expressive tone, she is an advocate of Canadian contemporary music, commissioning works by composers including Nicole Lizée and Keiko Devaux. Amy has released two solo albums, Interview and Catchment, and her projects have been featured at festivals across Canada, the United States, and Europe.
On the orchestral stage, Amy has appeared as a soloist with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM) and the National Arts Centre Orchestra. She has toured and performed for over a decade with the OSM and has been the acting principal trumpet of the Canadian Opera Company for numerous productions. She has worked with many groups, including the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Victoria Symphony Orchestra, l’Orchestre Métropolitan, and the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra. She holds a Doctorate in Trumpet Performance from McGill University.
Amy Horvey is a Yamaha Artist.
A native of Montreal, Vincent Parizeau began his music studies at the St. Joseph’s Oratory with the celebrated Petits Chanteurs du Mont-Royal. He studied bassoon at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal with Rodolpho Masella and Gerald Corey (the NAC Orchestra’s former principal bassoon), graduating with “Premier Prix” (First Place Honours) at the age of 21. He studied with Franck Morelli and earned a Master of Music from Yale University in 2001.
On his return from the United States, Vincent founded the Ensemble Synapse, a group of 14 musicians performing a repertoire of original works with no conductor. An ardent advocate of contemporary music, he has appeared regularly in performances with various contemporary music ensembles, including the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec and the Ensemble contemporain de Montréal, with which he has recorded two albums.
Vincent has played in several orchestras, including the Orchestre symphonique de Laval, the Orchestre des Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, where he played for a season before joining the National Arts Centre Orchestra at the beginning of the 2004–2005 season.
Toronto-born violinist Emily Kruspe has a great love for musical collaborations, chamber music, harmony, and rhythmic groove. She has performed extensively throughout North America and Europe, most notably with the Rolston String Quartet from 2018 to 2020. Emily regularly performs with the Toronto-based ARC Ensemble and is featured on its newest CD, Chamber Works by Alberto Hemsi. Her love of chamber music stems from festivals she attended in her youth: Yellow Barn, the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, the Banff International String Quartet Festival, and the Domaine Forget Chamber Music Festival. As an orchestral musician, Emily has performed with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the National Ballet Orchestra of Canada, and the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra. She was a winner of the Glenn Gould School’s Concerto Competition and the University of Toronto Concerto Competition, a recipient of the Orford String Quartet Award, and was previously a CBC Young Artist. In 2018, she was named one of CBC Music’s 30 hot Canadian classical musicians under 30.
Emily completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto under Erika Raum, received an Artist Diploma from the Glenn Gould School under Paul Kantor and Barry Shiffman, and studied at the Colburn School with Martin Beaver. She was a 2017–2018 fellow of the Rebanks Family Fellowship and International Performance Residency Program at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto and was subsequently awarded a violin from the Canada Council for the Arts Musical Instrument Bank. Emily has been a proud member of the National Arts Centre Orchestra since October 2022 and regularly plays with the Ironwood Quartet, composed of NACO colleagues Jessica Linnebach, Carissa Klopoushak, and Rachel Mercer. When she isn’t playing music, she can be found cycling, teaching, and walking her cats, Figaro and Rosie, around the perimeter of her house repeatedly.
Carissa Klopoushak has made a name for herself as a curious, creative, and versatile musician. She leads a multifaceted musical life as a violinist, violist, chamber musician, orchestral player, and curator. A charismatic and engaging performer, Carissa’s playing has been described as “the complete package of sensitive musicianship and effortless technique” (E-Gré Competition). Based in Ottawa, Canada, she is a proud violinist with the National Arts Centre Orchestra and the Ironwood Quartet and serves as Artistic Director of Ottawa Chamberfest.
A passionate collaborator, Carissa has been featured at many chamber music festivals across Canada and has toured the country extensively in recitals for Debut Atlantic and as the winner of the 2009 Eckhardt-Grammatté National Music Competition. Carissa joined the Australian Chamber Orchestra for a series of tours, residencies, and recordings in the 2013/2014 season and has shared the stage with acclaimed artists such as Lara St. John, Jon Kimura Parker, Inon Barnatan, Gryphon Trio, Cecilia Quartet, Mark Fewer, Martin Beaver, John Storgårds, Branford Marsalis, Miloš Karadaglić, and Richard Reed Parry. Since 2014, Carissa has been a member of the Ironwood Quartet, made up of friends and NACO colleagues Jessica Linnebach, Emily Kruspe, and Rachel Mercer.
Carissa’s love of chamber music extends into creation and curation, where she continuously strives to bring the concert experience into the 21st century through fresh and innovative programming and presentation. Named Artistic Director of Ottawa Chamberfest in 2020, Carissa programs and oversees a two-week summer festival (amongst the world’s largest), a fall-winter concert series, and a suite of community engagement and education initiatives. She cut her teeth as a curator, co-founder, and co-director of the Ritornello Chamber Music Festival in her hometown, Saskatoon, and as co-director of Classical Unbound in wine-loving Prince Edward County with Ironwood.
As a dynamic and fluid musician never limited by genre, Carissa thrives in the richness of various musical experiences. She is the lead singer, violinist, and arranger for the Ukrainian turbo-folk band Тут і Там (pronounced Toot-ee-tahm). The band has recorded four full-length albums and performed at major Ukrainian festivals across Canada, Sydney, Australia, and Ukraine. In her multidimensional world, she has co-composed and recorded a ballet score for Edmonton’s Ukrainian Shumka Dancers’ production Ancestors & Elders, performed the Canadian premiere of Vivian Fung’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra, and toured Canada, China, and Europe with the National Arts Centre Orchestra.
Carissa strongly advocates for more inclusion in classical music, programming and performing new music, female composers, and giving a platform to underrepresented voices. Her artistic evolution is guided by music’s universality—its power to connect people and its ability to build communities. As a musician and presenter, she aims to bring people closer together. The pursuit of meaningful and honest connection, combined with a healthy dose of curiosity, drives her artistic voice. She brings a versatile skill set, a unique voice, warm energy, and vigorous dedication to any musical pursuit.
Carissa holds a doctorate in violin performance from McGill University, where she focused on the little-known classical violin repertoire of Ukrainian composers. A two-time laureate of the Canada Council for the Arts Musical Instrument Bank Competition, Carissa performed on two Vuillaume violins from the collection, most recently a beautiful Maggini model from 1851.
Carissa currently performs on a 2009 instrument by Mark Schnurr of Flesherton, Ontario, and a Denis Cormier viola. Her debut recording, Soundworlds, was released in 2016 with Canadian pianist Philip Chiu. When not making music, you can find Carissa spinning vinyl, spending time with her partner, Emily, and their cats, Fig and Rosie, or expanding her love of coffee in some little café somewhere.
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.
Julia enjoys exploring the juxtaposition of music with other art forms, of different styles of music, and of contemporary and classical music. Her début album, Préludes, released by Analekta in January 2022, features six new Canadian works written for her, alongside the six Preludes from the Bach Cello Suites that inspired the new pieces.
During the ten years she spent living in New York City, Julia collaborated frequently with composers, giving voice to new chamber and solo cello works. She has given premieres of music by Ingram Marshall, James Blachly, and Mauricio Pauly and has been a champion of Pedro Malpica’s Pachamama’s Catharsis for solo cello. With three other members of Ensemble ACJW, Julia created and performed an immersive tribute to whales and ocean life at the Museum of Natural History, featuring new American music, original poetry, and live painting. From 2005 to 2014, she was a member of The Knights, with whom she performed the Schumann Cello Concerto in Central Park.
Julia has performed at the Mecklenberg‐Vorpommern, Lanaudière, Bic, Mostly Mozart, Tanglewood, and Ravinia Festivals in Abu Dhabi, Tokyo, and throughout Europe, the U.S., and Canada. She has performed with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Les Violons du Roy and counted Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, James Ehnes, Cynthia Phelps, Inon Barnatan, Jamie and Jon Kimura Parker, and the Orion String Quartet among her chamber music partners.
Originally from Prince Edward Island, Julia studied with Antonio Lysy at McGill University and Timothy Eddy at the Mannes College of Music and The Juilliard School. She lives in Wakefield, Quebec, with her partner (also a musician) and their son.
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