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Kathleen Kajioka

Kathleen Kajioka

Kathleen Kajioka

VIOLIN

Hailed as “one of Toronto’s most gifted, and searching, young musicians” (Globe & Mail), Kathleen Kajioka has established a reputation as a musical multi-linguist — from the Classical music establishment to the World music scene, from Early Music to New Music to Pop, Kathleen moves between worlds with agility and uncompromising depth.

Since completing her studies on viola at the Eastman School of Music, she has performed in concert series and festivals across Canada, from the Halifax Jazz Festival to the Victoria Summer Chamber Music Festival, and internationally in the US and Europe. Kathleen has been heard frequently on CBC Radio as both soloist and chamber musician.

As a baroque violinist and violist, she appears regularly with Tafelmusik, Scaramella and Toronto Masque Theatre. She also performs with the Texas Early Music Project, and with the Montreal-based ensembles Masques and Arion Baroque.

She teaches Early Music at the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Glenn Gould School, and brings all her musical experiences to bear in her role as broadcaster at The New Classical 96.3FM in Toronto, where she is the weekly host of “In the Still of the Night” and “Dinner Classics.”

Collingwood Music Festival
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Mayumi Seiler

Mayumi Seiler

Mayumi Seiler

VIOLIN

A violinist of impeccably tailored artistry, Mayumi Seiler is renowned for her exciting performances of concerto, recital and collaborative works both live and on disc. She has graced stages from New York’s Carnegie Hall to Toronto’s Roy Thompson Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Vienna’s Musikverein and in London at Wigmore Hall and the Royal Albert Hall for The Proms. In performances of depth and delight, she has collaborated with renowned soloists and conductors, and created a distinguished series of concerts which played to sold-out houses in Toronto over 14 seasons.

Mayumi Seiler has appeared as concerto soloist with major symphonies around the globe, including the Royal Philharmonic, Berlin Symphony, Moscow Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Montréal Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Academica Salzburg, Bournemouth Symphony, City of London Sinfonia and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, among others. She has collaborated with such noted conductors as Kent Nagano, Peter Oundjian, David Atherton, Christopher Hogwood, Neville Marriner, Sandor Vegh, Hugh Wolff and Richard Hickox.

Among Ms. Seiler’s extensive list of recordings are the Beethoven Concerto, the two Mendelssohn Concertos and three of the Haydn Violin Concertos with the City of London Sinfonia and Richard Hickox conducting on the Virgin Classics label. She has recorded Stravinsky’s Le Baiser de la Fée with the Hong Kong Philharmonic and David Atherton, also on Virgin Classics. Her many recordings of chamber music, including works of Schumann, Dohnanyi, Boccherini and Mozart, appear on the Hyperion and Capriccio labels.

While nurturing a busy schedule as a soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe, Japan and the Americas, Ms. Seiler founded Toronto’s Via Salzburg – acclaimed as “One of the best roads to our musical hearts” (Toronto Star). In Via Salzburg she led a string orchestra in regular performances at the Glenn Gould Studio for sold out audiences. Through 14 seasons she curated programs with renowned artists from Europe and Asia and combined varied art forms such as dance, pantomime and painting into Via Salzburg events, winning the embrace of audiences and the praise of critics citing the performer’s “combustion of creative energy – they clearly love what they are doing” (Toronto Star).

She has collaborated with many of the world’s leading soloists, including violinists Maxim Vengerov, Richard Tognetti and Ruggiero Ricci, violist Veronika Hagen, cellists Steven Isserlis and Colin Carr, pianists Menachim Pressler, André Laplante, Yael Weiss and Ikuyo Nakamichi, clarinetist David Shiffrin, and guitarist Elliot Fisk among many others.

An active and passionate teacher, Mayumi Seiler serves on the faculty at The Glenn Gould School in Toronto. She has held a professorship at the University Mozarteum in Salzburg, has given masterclasses worldwide and has adjudicated at numerous international violin competitions. She began her musical upbringing in Osaka, Japan, where she was born of Japanese/German parentage. Wedded to the violin from the age of three, she received her musical education at the renowned Mozarteum during the formative years of her childhood in Salzburg.

Mayumi Seiler performs on the 1684 Croall Stradivarius.

Collingwood Music Festival
115 Hurontario St. Suite 200
Collingwood, ON
L9Y 2L9
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R.H. Thomson

R.H. Thomson

R.H. Thomson

STAGE ACTOR

In 2015, Canadian stage and screen actor RH Thomson was awarded the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement and the ACTRA Award of Excellence. He was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 2010 and has been given an Honorary Doctorate from Trinity College, University of Toronto. He has appeared in theatres across Canada and has filmed in Canada, the US, Greece and the Czech Republic most recently in Chloe directed by Atom Egoyan. He has earned Gemini, Genie, Dora and Merritt awards for his work and recently directed The Crucible at Theatre Calgary and performed in The Message by Jason Sherman and This Was The World by Ellie Moon, both directed by Richard Rose at the Tarragon Theatre Toronto. He played Matthew Cuthbert in the CBC/NETFLIX series Anne With An E for which he has received two Canadian Screen Awards. As well as being an advocate for the arts, Mr. Thomson has worked on many history/education/arts projects. For the First World War Centenary, he built the multi lingual project The World Remembers-Le Monde Se Souvient, an international WWI Commemoration with installations across Canada and in four other nations – www.theworldremembers.ca.

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Rolston String Quartet

Rolston String Quartet

Rolston String Quartet

ENSEMBLE

Rolston String Quartet

Luri Lee & Jason Issokson, violins
Hez Leung, viola
Peter Eom, cello

With their debut recording, “Souvenirs” recently named BBC Music Magazine ‘recording of the year’, Canada’s Rolston String Quartet continues to receive acclamation and recognition for their musical excellence. As the 2018 recipient and first international ensemble chosen for the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award from Chamber Music America, their accolades and awards precede them. In 2016, a monumental year, they won First Prize at the 12th Banff International String Quartet Competition, Grand Prize at the 31st Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition, and Astral’s National Auditions.

Recent highlights include debut performances at Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, The Freer Gallery, and Chamber Music Houston, two major Canadian tours under the Prairie Debut and Debut Atlantic touring networks, and three European tours with dates in Leipzig, Berlin, Lucerne, Heidelberg, Barcelona, and Graz among others. Their 2019-20 season includes concerts at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music, Texas Performing Arts, Chamber Music Northwest, and Calgary Pro Musica; the chamber music societies of Detroit, Fort Worth, Kansas City, Philadelphia, and Vancouver; and the Louvre Museum. As Süddeutsche Zeitung states, “they showed such delicacy, slender elasticity, impeccable intonation, and such eminent sense of tonal balance…This is a new bright star on the truly not empty string quartet sky of our day.”

Notable collaborations include performances with renowned artists Janina Fialkowska, Gary Hoffman, Nobuko Imai, Miguel da Silva, and David Shifrin, as well as the St. Lawrence, and Dover Quartets. The quartet are associated artists at the Queen Elizabeth Music Chapel, and completed a two-year term as the Yale School of Music’s fellowship quartet-in-residence in spring 2019. Previously, they were the graduate quartet-in-residence at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. Keeping in the teaching tradition, they have taught at the Yale School of Music, University of Toronto, and the Bowdoin International Music Festival among others. Primary mentors include the Brentano Quartet, James Dunham, Norman Fischer, and Kenneth Goldsmith, and the quartet has received additional guidance from the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Miguel da Silva, and Alastair Tait.

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Gryphon Trio

Gryphon Trio

Gryphon Trio

ENSEMBLE

With over 1500 performances spanning the globe, the Gryphon Trio has firmly cemented its place as one of the world’s foremost piano trios, captivating audiences globally with their vibrant, boundary-pushing performances. Comprised of the original members, violinist Annalee Patipatanakoon, cellist Roman Borys, and pianist Jamie Parker, Gryphon Trio is celebrated for its dynamic programming, from cherished classical repertoire to avant-garde, multimedia collaborations that redefine chamber music for the 21st century.

Entering their fourth decade together, Gryphon Trio is once again set to inspire with their groundbreaking production, ECHOES: Memories of the World, a multimedia journey that merges music, narrative, and film to explore themes of cultural resilience and historical memory. Featuring both Indigenous and non-Indigenous creators, including mezzo-soprano Marion Newman Nege’ga and narrator čačumḥi Aaron M. Wells, this work honors visionary artists who have defied erasure, inviting audiences to experience music as a bridge to understanding and empowerment.

The trio’s prolific discography, spanning 22 albums on renowned labels such as Analekta and Naxos, is a rich testament to their commitment to the piano trio repertoire, with accolades that include 11 Juno nominations, culminating in three Juno wins for Classical Album of the Year (2019, 2011 & 2004). In 2013, the Canada Council for the Arts recognized their exceptional contributions with the prestigious Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts. Dedicated to expanding the canon, they have commissioned over 85 new works, pushing artistic boundaries and welcoming fresh voices into the chamber music landscape.

With a touring schedule that sees the trio in North America, Europe, and beyond, Gryphon Trio maintains strong partnerships with institutions including Orford Music Academy, Music Toronto, Ottawa Chamberfest, and Festival del Lago in Mexico. Equally at ease with major symphonies or in intimate chamber salon settings, the Trio’s performances are both ambitious and intimate, drawing listeners into an unforgettable musical dialogue. Committed educators, Gryphon Trio actively mentors emerging musicians and audiences. They serve as ensemble-in-residence at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts in Kingston and as artists-in-residence at Trinity College, University of Toronto. Their Listen Up! initiative, launched in 2010, has brought large-scale, community-based arts projects to 16 Canadian communities, inspiring collaborative creation and arts education nationwide. Additionally, they lead the Piano Trio Workshop in colleges, universities, and conservatories around the globe.

Beyond their Trio work, the members are each dedicated arts advocates. Roman Borys served as Artistic Director of the Ottawa Chamber Music Society for over a decade and was recently appointed Artistic & Executive Director of Music Toronto. Annalee Patipatanakoon, a faculty member and Chair of the Strings Performance Area at the University of Toronto, and Jamie Parker, who holds the Rupert E. Edwards Chair in Piano Performance, continue to influence Canada’s music landscape through their leadership roles and teaching.

The Gryphon Trio is represented by Andrew Kwan Artists Management Inc., Toronto, ON.

Collingwood Music Festival
115 Hurontario St. Suite 200
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Daniel Vnukowski

Daniel Vnukowski

Daniel Vnukowski

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Hailed as “a pianist to watch” by New York Classical Review and “a dashing pianist” by The Sunday Times, Polish-Canadian pianist Daniel Vnukowski (pronounced Vnoo-koff’-skee) has performed throughout Europe, North America, South America and Asia in prestigious concert halls. Dedicated to giving back to the country that nurtured him as an artist, Vnukowski founded “Piano Six – New Generation” to perform outreach concerts for remote communities in Canada and the “Collingwood Summer Music Festival”. Since November 1, 2021, Mr. Vnukowski has been radio announcer of the Classical Jukebox on the New Classical FM, the only full-time classical radio station in English-speaking Canada.

During the Covid-19 crisis, Vnukowski’s virtual live streaming project from home has made waves internationally, reaching over half a million viewers. The livestreams have been endorsed by Fazioli Pianoforte and featured on NPR Radio, Classical FM, Ludwig Van Toronto and BBC Music Magazine playlists.
The music of interwar Jewish composers also occupies a special place in Mr. Vnukowski’s repertoire and during 2019 he continued to focus on the music of Karol Rathaus, performing the composer’s Piano Concerto with The Orchestra Now conducted by Leon Botstein, as part of a Rathaus Festival presented by the Copland School of Music at Queens College; made his sold-out Carnegie Hall recital debut in a program that included the composer’s Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 20; and released an all-Rathaus recording of solo piano music on the Toccata label. Mr. Vnukowski will be featured in a documentary on Rathaus produced by Lev Deych & Michael Haas.
Note: Vnukowski is an anglicized version of the original Polish name Wnukowski.

Visit danperforms.com for more information.

Collingwood Music Festival
115 Hurontario St. Suite 200
Collingwood, ON
L9Y 2L9
[email protected]

Office: (705) 416-1317

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