Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Second Piano Concerto (1868), the First Cello Concerto (1872), Danse macabre (1874), the opera Samson and Delilah (1877), the Third Violin Concerto (1880), the Third ("Organ") Symphony (1886) and The Carnival of the Animals (1886).
Shulamit Ran is an Israeli-American composer. She moved from Israel to New York City at 14, as a scholarship student at the Mannes College of Music. Her Symphony (1990) won her the Pulitzer Prize for Music. In this regard, she was the second woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music, the first being Ellen Taaffe Zwilich in 1983. Ran was a professor of music composition at the University of Chicago from 1973 to 2015. She has performed as a pianist in Israel, Europe and the U.S., and her compositional works have been performed worldwide by a wide array of orchestras and chamber groups.
Natalie Clein is a British classical cellist. Her mother is a professional violinist. Her sister is the actress Louisa Clein.
René-Charles "Zino" Francescatti was a French virtuoso violinist.
Rivka Golani is a world–renowned Israeli-born viola player. She has performed as soloist with many orchestras throughout the world including the Boston Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, BBC Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, Hong Kong Symphony, Singapore Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Tokyo Metropolitan, Montreal Symphony and the Toronto Symphony.
Cecile Buencamino Licad is a Filipina classical pianist. She was born in Manila.
Han-Na Chang is a South Korean conductor and cellist.
Alisa Weilerstein is an American classical cellist. She was named a 2011 MacArthur Fellow.
Valerie Tryon, is an English classical pianist. Since 1971 she has resided in Canada, but continues to pursue an international performing and recording career, and spends a part of each year in her native Britain. Among her specialisms is the music of Franz Liszt, of which she has made a number of celebrated recordings. Currently 'Artist-in-Residence' at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Tryon is active as a concerto soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, accompanist and adjudicator.
Denis Brott, SMOM is a Canadian cellist, music teacher, conductor and founder and artistic director of the Montreal Chamber Music Festival.
Min Kwon is a Korean-American pianist and professor of piano at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.
Gary Kulesha is a Canadian composer, pianist, conductor, and educator. Since 1995, he has been Composer Advisor to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He has been Composer-in-Residence with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony (1988–1992) and the Canadian Opera Company (1993–1995). He was awarded the National Arts Centre Orchestra Composer Award in 2002. He currently teaches on the music faculty at the University of Toronto.
Patricia Blomfield Holt was a Canadian composer, pianist and music educator. An associate of the Canadian Music Centre and a member of the Association of Canadian Women Composers, her compositions have been performed by notable musical ensembles throughout North America and Europe.
Sviatoslav Nikolayevich Knushevitsky was a Soviet-Russian classical cellist. He was particularly noted for his partnership with the violinist David Oistrakh and the pianist Lev Oborin in a renowned piano trio from 1940 until his death. After Mstislav Rostropovich and Daniil Shafran, he is spoken of as one of the pre-eminent Russian cellists of the 20th century.
Marjorie Olive Hayward was an English violinist and violin teacher, prominent during the first few decades of the 20th century.
Marylou Dawes or Mary Lou Dawes, was a Canadian concert pianist. She was one of Canada's leading accompanists, chamber musicians and soloists. She trained in Calgary and Austria and won the 3rd prize at the ARD International Music Competition, Munich, for duo with her brother Andrew Dawes in 1963. Marylou and Andrew played a concert for Queen Elizabeth II and The Duke of Edinburgh during their Royal visit to Regina in July 1973. She has toured across Canada, Europe, Mexico and the United States.
Allan Gordon Bell, is a Canadian contemporary classical composer.
Sylvia Haydée Kersenbaum is an Argentine pianist, composer and teacher. Among other things, she is recognized for performing the complete cycle of 32 Beethoven piano sonatas twice, and her music for the ballet The Masque of the Red Death, based on a story by Edgar Allan Poe.
Megumi Masaki is a Japanese-Canadian pianist, multimedia artist, educator, researcher, arts administrator, conductor, and curator.
Natalia Khoma is a Ukrainian-born cellist. She is the first and only Ukrainian cellist to become a laureate of the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, Russia.
