Praised for her “very personal creative power” (Badener Zeitung), soprano Dorothea Hayley has been a soloist with the Vancouver Symphony, the Bourgas Symphony and Capriccio Basel, and has appeared in recital in Europe, Asia and North and South America. She has performed in festivals such as the Happening Festival, Gulangyu Piano Festival, Performer’s Voice Symposium, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival and the Atempo Festival of Caracas, and with organizations like Vancouver New Music, the SMCQ, Chants Libres, CIRMMT, Codes d’accès, and the Land’s End Ensemble. Recently Artist in Residence at the Banff Centre and the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, she teaches voice at Vancouver Community College. Dorothea completed vocal studies at McGill University, the University of British Columbia, and the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien, and has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Koerner Foundation, and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec. She holds a Doctor of Music degree from Université de Montréal.

Alejandro Ochoa (Doctor of Musical Arts) graduated Magna cum Laude from Universidad de Los Andes (Colombia), where he studied with the celebrated Cuban pianist Ignacio Pacheco. As well as performing extensively throughout Colombia, Alejandro has given numerous solo and chamber music recitals in Canada, China, Germany, The Netherlands and Portugal. As a fortepianist he has been heard in Vancouver, Montreal and Bruges, Belgium. His latest CD recording for the label Enkii Records features works on fortepiano by C.P.E. Bach, Scarlatti, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.

On top of a being a soloist and chamber recitalist, Alejandro is deeply devoted to teaching. Under his tutelage, his students have won multiple prizes at local and national competitions. He has instructed piano at McGill University and is currently on faculty at the Vancouver Academy of Music and Kwantlen Polytechnic University. Alejandro is a competition medalist and is the recipient of multiple prestigious awards and grants. He is also pianist at the Broadwood Duo, and co-founder of TopMusicTeachers.com.

Camilo Mendez is a composer of acoustic concert music. He conceives his works as compositional cycles; series of pieces orbiting around the same musical ideas, but written for different instrumental combinations. He completed a Doctorate and a Master’s in advanced composition at the Royal College of Music in London. He has also studied privately with Rebecca Saunders and Pierluigi Billone. In 2017, Mendez was the Rieman and Baketel Fellow for Music at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. His music has been performed by ensembles and soloists who specialize in contemporary concert music and has been featured in such international festivals as Festival Internacional Cervantino, the International Summer Course for New Music Darmstadt, June in Buffalo, Klasik Keyifler, the Mallorca Saxophone Festival, and Next Generation Donaueschingen. In 2009, he was awarded the Colombian national prize in composition for his work Tropical Textures VI. He has held residencies at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and Willapa Bay AiR. Dr. Camilo Mendez joined the Department of Music at HKBU as Assistant Professor in 2018.

Olivia C. Davies is a Canadian Contemporary Indigenous dance artist working as a guest on the unceeded Coast Salish territories (Vancouver, Canada) since 2011. She honours her mixed-blood Métis-Anishnawbe heritage in her practice with intrinsic ties to feminist politics and social justice. Her work often explores the emotional and political relationships between people and places. Her first full-length work “Crow’s Nest and Other Places She’s Gone” (2017) blends Contemporary dance, theatre, and street culture through an Indigenous lens. In addition to Crow’s Nest, she has created, directed, and danced in several shorter performance pieces including The Falling Stars (2015), Open Fire (2016), Compass (2017), Re:Verb (2017); devising cohesive artistic collaboration with multimedia arts collectives, musicians, fiction writers and poets. Her recent choreographic projects include Gateways (2018) and Rematriate (2018).

One of the most dynamic and exciting world-class ensembles of its generation, the Borealis String Quartet has received international critical acclaim as an ensemble praised for its fiery performances, passionate style, and refined, musical interpretation. Founded in Vancouver, British Columbia in the fall of 2000 and rapidly establishing a stellar reputation, the Borealis has toured extensively in North America, Europe and Asia and performed to enthusiastic sold-out audiences in major cities, including New York, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vienna, Rome, Mainz, Shanghai, Taipei, Beijing, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and, of course, in their home town of Vancouver. The Quartet is frequently seen on television and heard on CBC Radio and other stations across North America and Asia and has recorded seven CDs which feature the great classics as well as music written especially for them. It has also filmed music videos which were debuted at the Vancouver International Film Festival and often broadcast on Bravo Television and the Knowledge Network and most recently was featured in the documentary film “A New Economy.” The Borealis is on faculty and acts as the Quartet in Residence at the Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Langley Campus (KPU) and at the Langley Community Music School (LCMS).

Mezzo-soprano Melanie Adams is a prominent member of Vancouver’s music community as a solo and ensemble performer and as a teacher.  As a soloist, her repertoire ranges from early music to world premieres of new music by prominent Canadian composers.  She has collaborated with many musical and theatrical organizations, including the Erato Ensemble, the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, the Vancouver Island Symphony, Fugue Theatre, Redshift Musical Society, Vancouver Pro Musica and The Opera Project.  Most notably, recently she created the dual role of Margot/Amelia McGillen in the world premiere of Supernatural Noir, and she created the role of Spirit of the Maple Tree in the world premiere of Shadow Catch. She was also the soloist in the world premiere of Nerakhoon by Howard Shore, as part of Ottawa’s Music and Beyond Festival in 2011.

Melanie is also very well-known as a long-time member of Vancouver’s musica intima, with whom she has toured extensively in Canada and the United States, as well as France and Ireland, and has appeared on 6 of their 8 recordings.  Since January 2012, she has also been a member of the Vancouver Cantata Singers.

Teaching is also a very important facet of Melanie’s career.  In addition to being the Vice-President of the Vancouver chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, she is also the NATS District Governor for the province of BC.  She currently is on faculty teaching voice at the St. James Music Academy on the downtown Eastside, and teaches from her private studio in New Westminster.

Raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Dr. Paolo Bortolussi has performed throughout Canada and the United States. As a specialist in contemporary music, Paolo is the Artistic Director of the Nu:BC Collective, a new music and arts ensemble in residence at the University of British Columbia. To date he has premiered over one hundred solo, chamber, and orchestral works. Currently principal flutist with the Vancouver Island Symphony, Paolo has appeared as soloist with the VIS, the Albany (NY) Symphony Orchestra and the Canada West Chamber Orchestra. In April 2013, Paolo will premiere a newly commissioned flute concerto by Jocelyn Morlock with the Vancouver Island Symphony. Paolo co-directs the contemporary players ensemble at the University of British Columbia, and is also on the faculty of Kwantlen Polytechnic University. He holds a BMus degree in performance from the University of Ottawa and a Master and Doctoral degree in flute from Indiana University.

Manuel Laufer has appeared as soloist and chamber musician in North America, South America, and Europe. An enthusiastic proponent of new music, he has presented numerous world premieres in venues including Merkin Hall, Le Poisson Rouge, the Bang on a Can Marathon (NYC), June in Buffalo, and Festival ATEMPO (Caracas). Also an avid collaborator in the traditional repertoire, he has participated in the Songfest Professional Program, the Franz-Schubert-Institut at Baden-bei-Wien, and the Orford Arts Centre Summer Academy, and joined the staff of University of California, Irvine as a collaborative pianist. Manuel holds degrees in Music History and Piano Performance from McGill University. He completed a Master’s in Performance at University of California, Irvine, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Piano Studies at New York University. He serves as Adjunct Faculty at NYU Steinhardt.

Jeremy Chaulk was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia and now makes his home in Montreal. In addition to performing across Canada, his career has brought to Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Mexico, Netherlands, Romania, Spain and the United States. He has been recorded by the CBC for Medici TV in a masterclass with Jean- Phillipe Collard, as well as having appeared several times on television in Halifax in his youth. He recently participated in a recording of chamber music, soon to be released on the Naxos label’s Canadian Composers series. Recent notable performances were at the Salzburg International Chamber Music Festival, the Montreal New Music Festival, and as soloist with the Youth Orchestra of Nova Scotia. Jeremy won the second prize at the first Alkan-Zimmermann International Piano Competition in Athens, an honorable mention at the International Ludmilla Knezkova Piano Competition, and won first prize in the national finals of the Canadian Music Competition. He also won first prize at the Festival du Royaume in both solo and chamber music.

Jeremy completed his Doctor of Music degree under the direction of Kyoko Hashimoto at McGill University in Montreal, and he holds a master’s degree and an artist diploma from the same institution. He also studied at the Conservatoire de Montréal, the Conservatory of Utrecht in the Netherlands, and has completed courses at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Rencontres Musicales Internationales d’Enghien in Belgium and the Orford Arts Centre.
 

Since 1999, Quatuor Bozzini has been an original voice in new, experimental and classical music. Not content to parlay received wisdom, the quartet cultivates an ethos of risk-taking, and boldly venture off the beaten track. Quatuor Bozzini stands out with their "extraordinary playing" (Alex Ross, The New Yorker). With rigorous qualitative criteria, they have nurtured a vastly diverse repertoire, unbiased by the currents of fashion. This has led to close to two hundred commissioned pieces, as well as over three hundred premiered works. A Quatuor Bozzini concert is an intensely shared experience, with meticulous and sensuous attention to detail.

The group presents an annual concert series in Montréal and also tours extensively in Canada, the US, South America and Europe. Notable festivals and venues include MärzMusik (Berlin), Ultima (Oslo), Huddersfield (UK), Klangspuren (Austria), Tsuda Hall (Tokyo), Musiekgebouw (Amsterdam), November Music (Netherlands), Présences (France), Kortrijk (Belgium), TimeSpans (NYC), Porgy&Bess (Vienna) and Other Minds (San Francisco). To ensure continual development in their art, the quartet's musical laboratories, the Composers Kitchen, Performers Kitchen and Bozzini Lab, work to mentor and support new generations of composers and performers. The quartet runs its own recording label, Collection QB, and has issued critically-acclaimed albums, many of which have become reference recordings in the discipline. They also have issued albums with Edition Wandelweiser, Another Timbre, Wergo-Deutscher Musikrat, Centrediscs and ATMA Classique.

In 2018, Quatuor Bozzini was awarded the Performer of the Year Opus Prize by the Conseil québécois de la musique. Finalist to the 28th Grand Prix (Conseil des arts de Montréal, 2012), Quatuor Bozzini is also the recipient of three Opus Prizes: International Outreach (2007), Contemporary Disc of the Year (2004), and Discovery of the Year (2001) as well as the Étoile-Galaxie Prize from Radio-Canada (2001), the Förderpreis Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung (2007), the German Record Critics Prize for Arbor Vitae (2009) and the 2014 Friends of Canadian Music Award.
 

Canadian pianist Shoshana Telner has performed across Canada and abroad. Described as "an authentic musician with a sparkling technique" (Le Droit) and "full of fire and warmth" (the New York Times), Shoshana has a passion for engaging audiences with exciting performances.  She made her solo orchestral début with the National Arts Centre Orchestra at the age of 16 and has since performed as soloist with several orchestras including the Québec Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Classical Orchestra, and the National Academy Orchestra.

Shoshana has performed at numerous summer festivals including the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, the Elora Festival, the Kincardine Summer Music Festival, the Brott Music Festival, and the Blueridge Chamber Music Festival. She has been awarded honors at the International Stepping Stone Competition, the Esther Honens International Piano Competition and the Canadian Concerto Competition.  Shoshanas recordings include solo works of Canadian composer Colin Mack (CanSona), the Grieg violin/piano sonatas with Jeremy Bell (Chestnut Hall Music), Mozart Sonatas and Sonatinas (The Mozart Effect) and the six Bach Keyboard Partitas (Centaur Records). 

Shoshana received a Bachelor's degree on full scholarship from Boston University, a Master's degree from the Juilliard School in New York, and a Doctorate in performance from McGill University. She has taught piano and coached ensembles at McGill University, the University of Ottawa, Wilfrid Laurier University, and currently teaches piano at McMaster University. She frequently gives masterclasses, adjudicates competitions, and examines for the Royal Conservatory of Music. 
 

William George has performed leading roles with many international musical organizations, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City Operas, and festivals and concerts in Canada, Hong Kong, Finland, England, Sweden, Germany, the Philippines, and Carnegie Hall. A specialist in contemporary music, Will has worked closely with many respected composers, including Michael Tippett, Barry Truax and Marga Richter. He recently received rave reviews for his performance in Peter Maxwell Davies’ “Eight Songs for a Mad King” with Nu:BC Ensemble. His recordings include “EAST,” with guitarist Michael Strutt, and a collection of songs by Marga Richter, both released on the Redshift label. Will is also the lead singer of the roots-rock band Horse Opera, which released their debut album “Nothin’ To Lose” in November 2017.
 

An accomplished singer and clarinetist, baritone Steven Bélanger has performed with ensembles of all sizes and genres across Canada including the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal (SMAM), Les Violons du Roy and La Chapelle de Québec, Opéra de Montréal, VivaVoce, the Elmer Iseler Singers, the Canadian Chamber Choir and Arion Baroque Orchestra. He has appeared as soloist with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM), the McGill Baroque Orchestra, Voix Libres, Le Choeur du Vieux-Montreal, Les Grands Ballets canadiens de Montréal, the Kingston Symphony Orchestra, the Queen’s
University Symphony Orchestra, the Quinte Symphony, the Grand River Chorus, the Victoria Baroque Players and the Prince George Symphony Orchestra. Steven has appeared at music festivals across North America and has participated in over a dozen recordings for such labels as Decca, ATMA, Naxos, Centrediscs and Grouse Records. Locally, he performs regularly with the Vancouver Chamber Choir and Early Music Vancouver.
 

Yuel has performed extensively in Canada, the United States and the Czech Republic, where he completed his advanced training at the Prague Academy with Joseph Suk. He also studied at the Harid Conservatory in Florida and at Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Texas. Frequently appearing as soloist and chamber musician, he has been heard at the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, the Banff Summer Festival, Domaine Forget and the Scotia Festival.

Cellist, Sungyong Lim, graduated with honors from the renowned Yewon School and the Seoul School of the Arts before entering the Korea National University of Arts. During his university studies, he decided to advance his musical education in Europe. Accepted by the Detmold Musik Hochschule in Germany, he earned a bachelor's degree, master's degree, a konzertexamen's degree in cello performance. Sungyong graduated at the top of his class, with a comprehensive performance repertoire and with considerable teaching experience.

Among his many musical achievements, Sungyong has received accolades from the DAAD (Deutdcher Akademischer Austausch Dienst) and from his performance at the German Chamber Music Competition. He continues to receive invitations for solo engagements from organizations such as the German Johannes-Brahms-Saal, and Detmold Konzert Hause, as well as from musical groups in Switzerland , France, Luxembourg, Germany and Korea. Sung Yong has also concertized as an outstanding artist in the French Flaine International Masterclass, the Courchevel Music Festival, the Swiss Lugano Music Festival and the Swiss Sion Music Festival. In addition, he performed, by invitation at music concerts with the Navara Music Festival, and had concerts under Kurt Masur. He also attended the Master classes of famous music professors, such as Lauren Lesser, Christoph Henkel, Xenia Jankovich, Yong Chang Cho and Praha Trio.

His musical talents have been influenced by many recognized artists with whom he studied, including Marcio Carneiro, Johnes Goritzki, Alexander Gebert, Aurin Qurtet, and Sung Won Yang. Sungyong has played as the principal cellist of both the German Detmold Orchestra and the Mosy Chamber Orchestra. Also, he regularly performed in many chamber music concerts, with duos, trios and quartets in Korea and Germany. Sungyong currently teaches at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and since 2015, he has been a member of the Borealis String Quartet.
 

Isabelle is a native of Canada, but grew up dividing her time between Paris and Vancouver.  After receiving a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Victoria where she studied with Jaroslav Karlovsky, she then obtained her Masters in Performance at the Cleveland Institute where she was a student of Heidi Castleman, Lynne Ramsey Irvine and Robert Vernon.

From 1990 to 2001, Isabelle was assistant principal viola of the Victoria Symphony.  During her time with the V.S.O., Isabelle performed as a soloist including performances under the baton of Yehudi Menuhin.  She also helped found the Savitri Quartet, and has performed on C.B.C. radio both as a member of the Savitri Quartet, and in collaboration with mezzo-soprano Susan Platts.  From 1996-1998, Isabelle served as assistant principal with the Colorado Music Festival in Boulder, Colorado.

Since settling permanently in Vancouver in 2002, Isabelle has appeared as a soloist with Lions’ Gate Sinfonia, West Coast Symphony and Musica Intima.  Currently, Isabelle is principal viola with Lion’s Gate Sinfonia, is acting assistant principal viola of the Vancouver Opera and performs as a regular extra with the Vancouver Symphony. As well as juggling a busy chamber music career, Isabelle joins her love of music and children by heading the Viola Department at the Vancouver Academy of Music, and by joyfully caring for her two sons, Nicholas and Kai, with husband, Steve Mason.

One of Canada’s leading interpreters of contemporary and experimental music, flutist Mark Takeshi McGregor has been praised for his “mind-blowing” musicianship and “huge physical energy” (Victoria Times Colonist). As a soloist and chamber musician, McGregor has performed extensively across five continents, including appearances at the 2017 ISCM World New Music Days, Innovations en Concert (Montreal), Athelas New Music Festival (Copenhagen), the Melos-Ethos Festival (Bratislava), Núcleo Música Nova’s International Symposium of New Music in Curitiba, Brazil, and the 2019 Honolulu Festival. His discography includes critically acclaimed recordings for Redshift Records and Centrediscs, including his latest album, Lutalica, which explores music for solo flute by Pacific Rim composers. Mark has a fondness for newts, whiskey, and the internet, where he can be found at www.marktakeshimcgregor.com. 

Pianist Corey Hamm  has premiered over 300 solo, chamber, and concerto works by composers from all over the world. Of his CD of Rzewski’s hour-long solo piano epic The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, Rzewski wrote “Excellent! Bravo! This may be the best recording.”  Corey’s work with French composer Dutilleux lead to his plan upcoming recording of Dutilleux’s complete works for solo piano and chamber with piano. Other upcoming recordings include those by PEP (Piano and Erhu Project), The Nu:BC Collective, and one of solo piano works written for Corey.

Recent and upcoming concerto performances include Bartok Piano Concerto 2, Prokofiev 3, the world premiere of Dorothy Chang’s Gateways (for erhu and piano soloists) with PEP,  Fauré Fantasie, and Lutoslawski. 

Dr. Hamm is Professor of Piano at UBC where he won the Killam Teaching Award and the Dorothy Somerset award for excellence in performance. He is on the Piano Faculty of both the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice (SICPP) at NEC in Boston, and MusicFest Perugia, in Italy. 
 

Rebecca Whitling is the Acting Second Assistant Concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and violinist in the new music quintet Standing Wave. She was Principal Second Violin of the CBC Radio Orchestra. Rebecca is a graduate of McGill and Indiana Universities, and she played in the New World Symphony from 1992-95. She has appeared as a chamber and orchestral musician at Tanglewood, Schleswig-Holstein, Ojai, and Cabrillo music festivals. As a member of the prize-winning Plymouth String Quartet, she performed at festivals and concert series in the U.S., Europe, and South America. Rebecca plays regularly with great musicians in all kinds of musical groups in and around Vancouver, including the Vancouver New Music Society, the Babayaga String Quartet, the New Orchestra Workshop, the NU:BC ensemble, Tango Paradiso, the Hard Rubber Orchestra, and the Tony Wilson Sextet. She has appeared as a soloist with the Vancouver Philharmonic, the Semiahmoo Strings, Prince George Symphony Orchestra and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

Leslie Dala is the Music Director of the Vancouver Bach Choir, the Associate Conductor and Chorus Director of Vancouver Opera, and the Music Director Emeritus of the Vancouver Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra. He has conducted throughout Canada and in Italy, France, the Czech Republic, China, Taiwan and the United States. Recent highlights include his debut at Carnegie Hall leading a massed choir of singers from Canada and the United States in a performance of Mozart’s Sparrow Mass; the world premiere of The River of Light by Brian Current and Rossini’s La Cenerentola during the Vancouver Opera Festival; William Bolcolm’s opera Dinner at Eight as well as Max Richter’s The Four Seasons Recomposed at the 2018 Wexford Festival in Ireland.

A born and raised Vancouverite, Michelle attended the University of British Columbia where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in clarinet under Wes Foster and Cris Inguanti. She received her Master’s degree from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music studying with renowned clarinetist James Campbell. During her time at IU Michelle was the Associate Instructor of the clarinet studio. From 2012 to 2017 Michelle held the position of 2 nd /Utility Clarinet with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and was sessional faculty at the University of Manitoba.

Michelle is the 2nd /Eb clarinetist of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
Michelle has spent multiple summers studying music at the Banff Centre and was accepted into the Winter Residency program. Along with her career as a symphony musician, Michelle is a sought-after solo and chamber musician, and has performed with numerous touring Broadway companies. Michelle is an active teacher and clinician throughout British Columbia and is on faculty at the VSO School of Music.