SINFONIA TORONTO MUSICIANS Mary

Mary-Elizabeth Brown, Concertmaster

In addition to her position as concertmaster of Sinfonia Toronto, Mary-Elizabeth is currently A

ssociate Concertmaster of Orchestra London Canada as well as Concertmaster of the Youth Orchestra of the Americas and the Britten-Pears orchestra in Aldeburgh, England. She has played under distinguished conductors such as Kryszstof Penderecki, Lorin Maazel, Benjamin Zander, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Isaac Karabtchevsky and Placido Domingo.

Ms. Brown holds an Hons. B.Mus, cum laude, from the University of Toronto, and a M.Mus (Performance) from the Université de Montréal. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants from the University of Toronto, the City of London, DePaul University, the Hazel Crydermann-Wees Foundation, the Université de Montréal, Fonds des Amis de l'Art and the American Suzuki Foundation. She has soloed in masterclasses with Regis Pasqier, Pierre Amoyal, Sylvia Rosenberg, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Pamela Frank, Pinchas Zukerman and the late Lorand Fenyves, among others. She has appeared with the London Youth Symphony, Orchestra London Canada and the Banff Festival Chamber Orchestra.

As a chamber musician, she has been heard on CBC Radio and at major festivals across Canada including the Scotia Festival, Le Festival Internationale du Domaine Forget and the Banff Summer Arts Festival. She has worked with members of the St. Lawrence, Orford, Artur Leblanc and Brentano Quartets as well as the Gryphon Trio, William Aide and Laurence Lesser. A two-time laureate of the Canadian Music Competition National Finals, she plays on a 1737 Guidantus violin and an F.N. Voirin bow on loan from the Banff Centre for the Arts.

Violinist, Emily Hau, received her Bachelor and Master of Music from the University of Housto

n. She studied under the guidance of the distinguished artist, Fredell Lack, and the concertmaster of Dallas Symphony, Emanuel Borok. Emily has been the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships from the University of Houston, the University of Toronto, the Starling Endowment, and the Canadian Aldeburgh Foundation. She has performed in selective master classes that include Ruggiero Ricci, James Buswell, Kyung Sun Lee, Charles Castleman and Rachel Podger.

A vibrant young violinist, Emily spent several summers abroad at music festivals that include Banff, Britten-Pears, Schlern and Pacific Music Festival. Her musical experiences over the years, have allowed her to study, as well as perform, under some of the most renowned teachers and conductors of our time. Emily has previously studied with Zhang Yun Zhang, Lorand Fenyves and Paul Kantor. She has played under conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Andrey Boreyko and Robin Ticciati. Her recent engagements has allowed her to travel throughout Canada, the United States, Japan, Italy, Jamaica, England and Germany.

A graduate of the Yerevan Gomidas Conservatory Martin Bazarian has served for 13 years as the Concertmaster of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. He has also performed with the Canadian Opera Company and the National Ballet orchestras as well as the Toronto Philharmonia.

Sarah Boyer was born in Toronto and began her musical studies at the Royal Conservatory and summer schools such as Domain Forget, Quebec; Courntney B.C.; Interlochen, Michigan; and the Qua

rtet Program, Pennsylvania via numerous scholarships. Her teachers included Jacques Israelievitch, Camilla Wicks, Charles Castleman and Oleg Krysa. She graduated from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester N.Y., attended the fall and winter residency program at the Banff Centre for the Arts, and the European Mozart Academy in Krakow, Poland. Her solo and chamber music career has included performances in Europe under Luciano Beriot, concerts at the Incontri di Canna music festival in Italy where she was featured in a documentary which is being shown all over North America on the Bravo Channel.

As a freelance musician she has worked in most of the cities in upstate New York, Pennsylvania and Toronto. She has performed as a Toronto Symphony extra musician and plays with the Sinfonia Toronto.

Sarah Boyer also has been very active as a teacher where she taught at Mercyhurst College in Erie PA, and was the director of the String program at the Conservatory Young Artist Program in the D'Angelo School of Music.

Born in Shenyang, China, Xiaohan Guo began her violin studies at the age of six, winning many awards in numerous youth competitions. Continuing her musical education, she enrolled at the Shenyang Conservatory at the age of 13. In 1998, she pursued her Bachelor’s Degree, majoring in violin, at the Shanghai Conservatory subsequently receiving first prize in the 2001 Mozart Violin Concerto Competition, whereby receiving an invitation to perform the Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 4 with the Shanghai Youth Symphony Orchestra. Upon graduation she joined the Shanghai Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra, having the honor of performing with outstanding musicians such as Itzhak Perlman, Seiji Ozawa and Mstislav Rostropovich. She has been a student of Mrs. Eleonora Turovsky at University of Montreal since her arrival in Canada in 2004, completing her Master’s Degree and is now undertaking her Doctorate program. During her studies she was a winner of several bursaries. Xiaohan has given many solo and chamber music recitals at Chapel de Bon-Pasteur and University of Montreal, as well as being a guest soloist with I Musici de Montreal Chamber Orchestra with Waxman ’s Carmen Fantasy.

A recipient of numerous awards and scholarships, violinist Praise Lam is emerging as a highly active soloist, chamber musician and orchestral musician both in Canada and abroad. In 2002, Praise was invited to play for the Canadian Ambassador to China and the Direct

or of the Canada Arts Council in Beijing. Since capturing the 2003 Emerging Performing Arts Award at the Mississauga Arts Awards, Praise’s solo performances has taken her from her hometown orchestral stage with the Mississauga Philharmonic Orchestra to television appearances with Rogers Cable & CBC to Hollywood’s 20th Century Fox Newman Scoring Stage in Los Angeles, California. Praise holds an ARCT Diploma from the Royal Conservatory of Music, a Bachelor of Music Performance degree and a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Toronto and has also spent two years of applied violin studies with Professor Lin Yaoji at the Beijing Central Conservatory of Music. Praise also had the opportunity to play for such esteemed musicians as Jose Luis Garcia, Mauricio Fuks, and members of the St. Lawrence String Quartet, the Orford String Quartet, and the Prazak String Quaret.

Praise held the position as conductor of the Mississauga Youth Orchestra’s Junior Concert Strings in 2000-2001 and continues to maintain an active role in music education. In her early years, Praise had been active as an accomplished pianist as well as a composer. A consistent award winner in both fields, Praise began her piano studies at age 4 and composition at age 9. A student of Canadian composer Larysa Kuzmenko at the Royal Conservatory, Praise Lam won the Ettore Mazzoleni Memorial Composition Scholarship and the Dr. Igor Kuchivnsky Memorial Composition Scholarship for three years. She was 15 when she first held the position of student composer-in-residence and 16 when her Shadows of a Journey was premiered by the Royal Conservatory Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Simon Streatfield. Her commission at age 18 by the Mississauga Symphony to compose an orchestral work was her last official work before she decided to pursue a full-time career as a violinist.

Albina Molodozhan was born in Moscow, Russia. She began violin lessons with Alexander Shirinsky at the age of six and at age ten she played solo on Moldavian broadcast.

Albina graduated from the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music with a Master's degree in violin performance in 2004 where she studied with former Borodin Quartet member and student of Abram Yampolsky, Vladimir Rabei. In July 2001 she participated in master classes in Germany - International Summer Academy for Young Artists. Bayerische Musikakademie Marktoberdorf. Her teachers included Dr.Helmut Zehetmair and Professor Vladimir Ivanov. In Toronto she has taken master classes with Jacques Israelievitch and Mark Skazinetsky.

Albina has played numerous concerts through Russia, Germany, Holland, Switzerland and Canada with piano Trio-Continuum and as a soloist in major music halls. Albina received an award on Russian National Festival “Festos” for talented students as a best chamber music performer.

She recorded a CD in 2004 as a soloist with Gnesin Russian Academy of Music chamber orchestra in Moscow: Bach - Concertos in D Minor for two violins and A Minor for violin.

Anthony Rapoport is principal violist of Sinfonia Toronto and a founding member of the Windermere String Quartet and the Aradia Ensemble, with whom he has recorded over a dozen internationally released CDs. On tour as soloist with Aradia, he was acclaimed as “a splendid violist” by the New Zealand Herald. Anthony received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Juilliard School in New York.

András Weber received his musical training in Budapest, Hungary. His mentor, Janos Starker, has been a major influence in his work. He has been principal cellist with orchestras in Hungary, Mexi

co City and Canada, and has given concerts in North America, Europe and Korea. He was the winner of DEBUT in Montreal where The Gazette called him a "generously gifted" musician who plays with a "nicely coloured and singing tone."

Mr. Weber has recorded in Hungary and Canada and plans to release three CD's: solo cello pieces, music for cello and organ with his wife Ran Kim and works for harp and cello with the acclaimed Mexican harpist Mercedes Gómez.

Mr. Weber is the founding director of the Toronto series 'Music Alive!' and teaches at the Royal Conservatory of Music. He is the founding member of Toronto Piano Trio and was member of the famed Arthur LeBlanc quartet. He has played concertos with many orchestras around the world.

Sarah Steeves is a graduate of McGill University with a Master of Music in Performance where she studied with Brian Manker. She previously completed her Bachelor of Music with Honours in Performance at the University of Toronto. As a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral player, Sarah has performed at the Aldeburgh, Banff, Domaine Forget, Orford, Toronto Bach, Toronto Summer Music, and Windy Mountain Music Fe

stivals. She has performed with the Disney’s Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra, Mississauga Symphony, National Youth Orchestra of Canada, Orchestra London, Sudbury Symphony, and the Youth Orchestra of the Americas. Keenly interested in contemporary music, Sarah has performed at McGill University’s MusiMars and the University of Toronto’s New Music Festivals. She has premiered new works by many young Canadian composers, including a commission of Kevin Lau’s Starsail in March 2008.

Since beginning cello lessons with Tom Mirhady of Calgary Philharmonic at the age of three, Sarah has worked with many great musicians including Rivka Golani, Lawrence Lesser, Edgar Meyer, Aldo Parisot, and Janos Starker as well as the Leipzig and St. Lawrence String Quartets. As a registered Suzuki teacher, Sarah has maintained studios at the Wychwood Music School and the McGill Conservatory. She currently teaches privately at the Classical Music Conservatory and is a doctoral student at the University of Toronto studying with Shauna Rolston. Sarah’s 2009-2010 season will include a recital at the Arts & Letters Club of Toronto with Angela Park and touring China as a member of The World Orchestra of Jeunesses Musicales.

Calum MacLeod was born, raised and educated in Toronto and started freelancing as a double bass player in the jazz and classical styles as soon as he could improvise a bass line and read a part. He began studying bass in public school strings programs. His first teacher on bass and his only instructor in playing jazz bass was Richard Felix (Toronto freelancer). During his formative years his principal teacher and mentor in classical bass playing was Paul Rogers of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Calum has been performed with such orchestras as the Oshawa/Durham Symphony Orchestra, Peterborough Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Niagara, Esprit Orchestra, Talisker Players, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Calum wishes to express his enthusiasm for being a part of Sinfonia Toronto and hopes to see you all at the next show!