Summer Solstice Festival 2010
Guest Artists

JAMES CAMPBELL  Clarinet

Juno Award winner and member of the Order of Canada, James Campbell is internationally recognized as one of the finest clarinetists of his day. A distinguished chamber musician, he has been, since 1984, Artistic Director of Festival of the Sound, Parry Sound’s annual chamber music festival. He is currently Professor of Music at the Music School of Indiana University.

“Campbell’s playing isn’t just light and fun-loving here.
It is, as always, impeccably styled…. First class.” 
–Toronto Star

MELVIN CHEN  Piano
The multi-talented Melvin Chen holds a doctorate in chemistry from Harvard University but studies in music prevailed in the end.  After completing a double master’s degree in piano and violin at The Juilliard School, he embarked upon a performing and teaching career that has taken him from his home in New York State, where he is Associate Director of the Bard College Conservatory of Music, to Canada, Asia and much of the U.S. 

Allen Kozinn of the New York Times hailed Melvin Chen as “a pianist whose playing is powerful and driven.”

JONATHAN CROW  Violin

A graduate of McGill University, Jonathan Crow achieved success early in his career when, at the age of 25, he was appointed Concertmaster of the Montreal Symphony, a position he held from 2002 to 2006. He has performed as a soloist with orchestras across North America and as a chamber musician, has appeared at major festivals in Europe and North and South America. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Violin at McGill University.

“Crow’s playing was impeccable and sincere, every arc of violin melody well carved …”  –La Scena Musicale

MATT HAIMOVITZ  Cello
A prize-winning soloist and recipient of the 1986 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Matt Haimovitz is also known for exciting collaborations with other artists and musicians, including recording projects for Oxingale, the independent record label he co-founded. His pursuit of innovative musical dialogue has taken him out of the concert hall to clubs and coffee houses and earned him, among other awards, the American Music Center’s Trailblazer Award in 2004. He has been a Professor of Cello at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music since 2004.

“The world is generously supplied with prodigious cellists. But ask which of them is as comfortable with Jimi Hendrix as with J.S. Bach, and you’re likely to hear just one name: Matt Haimovitz.”  –Star Tribune

Founding member of the St. Lawrence String Quartet and current member of Trio Voce, Marina Hoover has performed at The White House, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and many other famous concert halls around the world. She has made over 1000 appearances, in tours to Europe, Japan, Australia, Viet Nam, and throughout the Americas. She now coaches chamber music at the Music Institute of Chicago while continuing to perform as a soloist and chamber musician.

“…her musical insights reflect her pedigree.” –Toronto Star

Prize-winning soloist at the Paganini and Naumberg International Competitions, member of the Formosa Quartet, the Chicago Chamber Musicians, and Trio Voce, Jasmine Lin has performed throughout North and South America and Asia.

The New York Times praised the “electrifying assertiveness” and “virtuosic abandon” of her playing.

TANYA PROCHAZKA  Cello

A resident of Edmonton since 1986 and Professor of Cello at the University of Alberta since 1998, Tanya Prochazka continues the career of performance and teaching that she began after studies at the Paris Conservatoire and at Indiana University, with Janos Starker. A conductor as well as soloist and chamber musician, she directs the University Symphony and Academy String orchestras at the University of Alberta.

Strings magazine described her playing in The New Goldberg Variations, which she recorded in 2003 with pianist Jacques Després, as “sensational.”

SCOTT ST. JOHN  Violin/Viola
A compelling, virtuosic performer, Canadian-born Scott St. John was awarded a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2003. A member of the St. Lawrence String Quartet since 2006, he combines performance and teaching as a Lecturer and Artist in Residence at Stanford University. 

“[Scott St. John] is a musician of impeccable taste and natural instincts.  He lets the music do the talking.” 
–Pittsburgh Press

Founding member of the Guild Trio, current member of Trio Voce, Director of the Hear’s to your Health concert series and Music Director of the ECMS Summer Solstice Festival, Patricia Tao won many honours and accolades as a soloist and chamber musician in the years before she joined the Department of Music at the University of Alberta, where she is now Associate Professor of Music. She continues to maintain a busy performance and recording schedule. Her latest project, with Trio Voce colleagues Marina Hoover and Jasmine Lin, is a recording of the Shostakovich trios.

“Her performance was so precise that it can be compared with filigree work.” –Vecer, Skopje

SHARON WEI  Viola
The recipient of many awards and scholarships as a student of music at the Curtis Institute and Yale University, Sharon Wei continues to win acclaim as a recitalist and chamber musician. She is a founding member of the piano quartet, Made in Canada, which Chatelaine magazine listed among the “80 Amazing Canadian Women to Watch” in its 2008 anniversary issue. She currently teaches at Stanford University.

“The performance by Sharon Wei and … Scott St. John was marked by an intense concentration on detail and moments where a relaxed pleasure flared.” 
–Stanley Feffernan, ShowTimeMagazine.ca