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Summer Solstice Festival 2012 | June 22 – 24, 2012
Guest Artists
Nora Bumanis has been Principal Harpist of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra since 1980. She is a graduate of the University of Toronto where she studied with Judy Loman. She also studied with Alice Chalifoux at the Salzedo Harp Colony in Camden, Maine and with Lynne Palmer in Seattle, Washington. In addition to her busy orchestral schedule, Ms. Bumanis is much in demand as a soloist, recitalist and teacher. She has performed with most of the leading Canadian symphony orchestras plus the National Ballet of Canada and the Canadian Opera Company orchestras. She is also in great demand as a chamber musician and has been frequently broadcast on CBC radio and television. Ms. Bumanis teaches at the University of Alberta and Alberta College Conservatory. In 1998 she was on the faculty of the International Banff Festival. She was Managing Director of the Jasper Festival of Music and Wine from 2000-2003 and performed in the summer of 2010 at the Festival of the Sound in Parry Sound, Ontario. Nora Bumanis and Julia Shaw began their collaboration as Canada’s first professional harp duo in 1988. They have recorded five CDs and performed extensively throughout Canada. She was Global TV Edmonton’s Woman of Vision in February 2009 and is an active member of the Edmonton Glenora Rotary Club. |
Described by Strad Magazine as a musician whose "tonal distinction and essential musicality produced an auspicious impression," Taiwanese-American violist Che-Yen Chen has established himself as a prominent recitalist, chamber, and orchestral musician. A young four-time winner of the National Viola Competition in Taiwan, Mr. Chen began his viola studies at the age of six with Ben Lin. He continued his studies in the U.S. at The Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School under the guidance of Michael Tree, Joseph de Pasquale, Karen Tuttle and Paul Neubauer. A founding member of the Formosa Quartet, the First prize and Amadeus prizewinner of the 10th London International String Quartet Competition, Mr. Chen is an advocate of chamber music. He is also currently a member of the San Diego-based Myriad Trio, Camera Lucida, a former member of Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society Two, and has toured with Musicians from Marlboro after three consecutive summers at the Marlboro Music Festival. |
Jacques Després has led a diverse artistic life, having appeared as a soloist with many orchestras, solo recitalist, collaborative artist, lecturer, educator, recording artist, and musical director of the Summer Serenades at Stony Brook University in New York. Critics worldwide have celebrated Després' musical approach for its rare combination of virtuosity and artistic integrity. Després was awarded a Premier Prix à l'unanimité au Conservatoire de Musique du Québec. He graduated with a Master's degree from the Juilliard School and holds a DMA from the University at Stony Brook. He received the Artist Diploma with Distinction at Indiana University. His teachers were Christiane Sénart, Gyorgy Sebok, Adele Marcus and Gilbert Kalish. |
Jasmin Lin is a prize-winning soloist at the Paganini and Naumberg International Competitions; member of the Formosa Quartet, Trio Voce, and Chicago Chamber Musicians, and returning guest artist of the Summer Solstice Festival. Ms. Lin is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music. She gave her New York debut in Merkin Hall, where the program included her poetry set to music. Her poem, The night of h’s, received an Editor’s Choice Award from the International Poetry Foundation. She is on the faculty at Roosevelt University and is a proud native of Chicago. |
Since her soloist debut at the age of seven, Edmonton-born Jessica Linnebach has established an impressive international career. Accepted to the world-renowned Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia at the age of ten, Jessica remains one of the youngest ever Bachelor of Music graduates in the history of the school. While there, Jessica's primary teachers were Aaron Rosand, Jaime Laredo and Ida Kavafian. At eighteen, she received her Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music in New York City where she studied with Pinchas Zukerman and Patinka Kopec. Now Associate Concertmaster of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, she is also a dedicated chamber musician. A founding member of the Zukerman Chamber Players, led by violinist Pinchas Zukerman, she has toured extensively and made several recordings with the much-acclaimed group. Jessica Linnebach plays the circa1869 Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume violin and bow loaned by the Canada Council for the Arts Musical Instrument Bank. |
 MARINA HOOVER  Cello
A founding member of the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Marina Hoover has enjoyed a distinguished career as a chamber musician and soloist. Born in Edmonton, Ms. Hoover studied under David Soyer at the Curtis Institute of Music and obtained a Master's degree at Yale under Aldo Parisot. She has appeared as a soloist with the Toronto Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, Symphony Nova Scotia, Yale Chamber Orchestra, Curtis Orchestra, and the Belo Horizonte Symphony in Brazil. Her recordings include a Juno award-winning recording of the Schumann String Quartets Nos. 1 and 3 and the Grammy-nominated Yiddishbuk, both with the St. Lawrence String Quartet. |
TARA HELEN O’CONNOR Tara Helen O'Connor is a founding member of the New Millennium Ensemble; member of the woodwind quintet Windscape, and soloist with the Bach Aria Group. Tara received a Doctorate from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She teaches at the Bard College Conservatory of Music and the Manhattan School of Music and is a professor of flute and head of the wind department at Purchase College Conservatory of Music. A 2001 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, she also received two Grammy nominations in January of 2003 for a recording of Osvaldo Golijov's Yiddishbuk. |
Daniel Phillips studied with Ivan Galamian and Sally Thomas at Juilliard and later with Sándor Végh and George Neikrug. He is a founding member of the 25-year-old Orion String Quartet, in residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He is professor of violin at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, CUNY and is on the faculty of the Mannes College of Music and the Bard College Conservatory of Music. |
CHARLES PILON Violinist and violist Charles Pilon studied with Sonia Jeinkova at Montreal's Marianapolis College. He earned a Bachelor of Music from McGill University under Mauricio Fuks before further studies at the University of Southern California's Advanced Studies program with Robert Lipett. During his time at USC, he also studied with David Cerone at the Encore School of Strings and Roman Totenberg at Kneizel Hall. Mr. Pilon joined Orchestra London (Ontario) in the First Violin section (2003/04) before joining the Edmonton Symphony's First Violins for the 2004/05 season. He is currently Assistant Principal Violist with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. His viola mentors are former ESO Principal Viola Nick Pulos and pedagogue Thomas Riebel at the Salzburg Mozarteum. |
A multi-talented musician — a classical and jazz soloist, composer, and conductor — Stephen Prutsman is one of the most creative and versatile artists of his generation. He has been a keyboard player for art rock groups; a medal winner at international piano competitions; a collaborator; a composer and arranger with the Kronos Quartet; and from 2009 – 2012, Artistic Director of the Cartegena International Festival of Music. Stephen has written and arranged over 40 works for the Kronos Quartet, in addition to having written for many world's leading classical and popular artists and ensembles. |
Award-winning Canadian cellist Shauna Rolston is considered by peers and fans alike to be one of the most compelling and unique musical voices on the stage today. Since receiving a mini cello for her second birthday, Shauna has appeared around the world, performing in the world's major concert halls including Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw, Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, and was the featured artist at the 1988 Olympics. Shauna earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History from Yale University and a Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music where she studied with the distinguished cellist and pedagogue, Aldo Parisot. She is a devoted educator, much in demand as a guest master class artist. Shauna is Professor of Cello and Head of Strings at the University of Toronto and a Visiting Artist for the Music and Sound Programs at The Banff Centre. |
Julianne Scott is Principal clarinet of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and former Principal clarinet with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic. Julianne attained her Bachelor of Music degree in Clarinet Performance from the University of Toronto in 2006, where she was a student of Joaquin Valdepenas. She then studied with Yehuda Gilad at the University of Southern California, where she received her Master's degree. She is a member of the clarinet faculty at the University of Alberta and is a Rico Performing Artist. |
 PATRICIA TAO Piano
Patricia Tao combines teaching and performance as an Associate Professor of Music at the University of Alberta and a much-in-demand chamber musician. Director of the Summer Solstice Festival, she also pursues her interest in music programming as Director of the Hear's to your Health music series at the Walter Mackenzie Health Sciences Centre. Dr. Tao received her doctorate from Stony Brook University under the tutelage of Gilbert Kalish, after studies at Harvard and Indiana Universities, where she studied with Leonard Shure and Gyorgy Sebok, respectively. She has been an Artist-in-Residence at the University of Virginia. Since 2002 she has taught piano and chamber music at the University of Alberta, where she is Associate Professor of Music. |
NORA BUMANIS
CHE-YEN CHEN
JACQUES DESPRÉS
JESSICA LINNEBACH
DANIEL PHILLIPS
STEPHEN PRUTSMAN
