Eugène-Auguste Ysaÿe was a Belgian virtuoso violinist,composer,and conductor. He was regarded as "The King of the Violin",or,as Nathan Milstein put it,the "tsar".
Anne-Sophie Mutter is a German violinist. Born and raised in Rheinfelden,Baden-Württemberg,Mutter started playing the violin at age five and continued studies in Germany and Switzerland. She was supported early in her career by Herbert von Karajan and made her orchestral debut with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1977. Since Mutter gained prominence in the 1970s and 1980s,she has recorded over 50 albums and performed as a soloist with leading orchestras worldwide and as a recitalist. Her primary instrument is the Lord Dunn–Raven Stradivarius violin.
Raymond Murray Schafer was a Canadian composer,writer,music educator,and environmentalist perhaps best known for his World Soundscape Project,concern for acoustic ecology,and his book The Tuning of the World (1977). He was the first recipient of the Jules Léger Prize in 1978.
Ofra Harnoy is an Israeli-Canadian cellist. She is a Member of the Order of Canada. By joining the international artists roster of RCA Victor Red Seal,Harnoy became the first Canadian classical instrumental soloist since Glenn Gould to gain an exclusive worldwide contract with a major record label. She is a five-time Juno Award winner.
Anton Emil Kuerti,OC is an Austrian-born Canadian pianist,music teacher,composer,and conductor. He has developed international recognition as a solo pianist.
Louis Quilico,was a Canadian opera singer. One of the leading dramatic baritones of his day,he was an ideal interpreter of the great Italian and French composers,especially Giuseppe Verdi. He was often referred to as "Mr Rigoletto" in reference to the Verdi opera. During his 45-year-long career he shared performing credits with opera's greatest stars. He spent 25 consecutive years at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. After his retirement from the stage in 1998 he continued to perform and record,most often with his second wife,pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico,,with whom he made four CDs. The couple also toured together extensively in concerts until Quilico's death in 2000. Quilico received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award,Canada's highest honour in the performing arts,in November 1999 for his lifetime contribution to classical music.
Jean Coulthard,was a Canadian composer and music educator. She was one of a trio of women composers who dominated Western Canadian music in the twentieth century:Coulthard,Barbara Pentland,and Violet Archer. All three died within weeks of each other in 2000. Her works might be loosely termed "prematurely neo-Romantic",as the orthodox serialists who dominated academic musical life in North America during the 1950s and 1960s had little use for her.
Violet Louise Archer was a Canadian composer,teacher,pianist,organist,and percussionist. Born Violet Balestreri in Montreal,Quebec,in 1913,her family changed their name to Archer in 1940. She died in Ottawa on 21 February 2000.
Julia Fischer is a German classical violinist and pianist. She teaches at the Munich University of Music and Performing Arts and performs up to 60 times per year.
Meriwether Lewis Spratlan Jr. was an American music academic and composer of contemporary classical music.
Jeanne Lamon,was an American-Canadian violinist and conductor.
Marjan Mozetich is a Canadian composer who has written music for theatre,film and dance,as well as many symphonic works,chamber music,and solo pieces. He has written compulsory competition pieces for the 1992 Banff String Quartet Competition and the 1995 Montreal International Music Competition. Co-founder of Arraymusic in Toronto,Mozetich served as their artistic director from 1976 to 1978. After his work with Array,he worked for some time at the University of Toronto music library,and then became a freelance composer. Mozetich moved to Howe Island,near Kingston,Ontario,and taught composition at Queen's University in Kingston from 1991 to 2010. He has won several awards,including the first prize in the CAPAC (SOCAN)-Sir Ernest MacMillan Award. His major compositions include Fantasia... sul linguaggio perduto,and Postcards from the Sky.
Imant Karlis Raminsh is a Canadian composer of Latvian descent,best known for his choral compositions. He resides in Coldstream,British Columbia.
Ann Southam,was a Canadian electronic and classical music composer and music teacher. She is known for her minimalist,iterative,and lyrical style,for her long-term collaborations with dance choreographers and performers,for her large body of work,and,according to the Globe and Mail,for "blazing a trail for women composers in a notoriously sexist field".
Rachel Barton Pine is an American violinist. She debuted with the Chicago Symphony at age 10,and was the first American and youngest ever gold medal winner of the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition. The Washington Post wrote that she "displays a power and confidence that puts her in the top echelon."
Derek Charke is a Canadian classical composer and flutist.
Stephen Chatman is an American-born Canadian composer residing in Vancouver. His compositions have been performed across Canada and in the United States.
Rachel Kolly,born 21 May 1981 in Lausanne,Switzerland,is a Swiss violinist. Considered a child prodigy at the violin,she started playing at the age of five.
Larysa Kuzmenko is a Juno Awards-nominated Canadian composer and pianist based in Toronto,Ontario. She currently teaches on the music faculties of The Royal Conservatory of Music and the University of Toronto.
