MUSICIANS
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 Olivier Thouin began his violin studies at the age of four. First a pupil of Hratchia Sevadjian, he was awarded the Prix avec Grande Distinction at the Montreal Conservatoire where he studied with Sonia Jelinkova. He pursued his tuition in Prague with Ivan Štraus at the Academy for the Arts. He also took part in Igor Ozim’s Masterclasses in Bern and in Blonay (Switzerland).
Olivier Thouin was the winner of the 1997 Prix d’Europe as well as the Canadian Music Centre Prize, also awarded at that competition in Montreal. He was the recipient of the “Prix Cécile-Mesnard-Pomerleau” for his active work as Concertmaster of the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra, touring throughout Asia, Europe and Israel. In the United States, his activities brought him to Tanglewood where he received the Jules C. Reiner Violin Award, as well as the prestigious Marlboro Festival. He was invited to take part in concerts celebrating 50 years of Marlboro in New-York, Philadelphia and Boston. In 2002, Olivier Thouin was given the Young Canadian Musicians’Award (Toronto) which allowed him to further his career throughout Canada. A very active chamber musician, Olivier Thouin has played with artists such as Anton Kuerti, Marc-André Hamelin and Rudolf Jansen. He has given complete live cycles of the Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann and Fauré Sonatas with pianists Suzanne Blondin and François Zeitouni and has been one of the members of Trio Contrastes (1998-2003). He made his critically acclaimed debut as a recitalist in Toronto and in Calgary. As a soloist, Mr. Thouin has appeared with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal, Les Violons du Roy and the McGill Chamber Orchestra. He was Interim Associate Concertmaster of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa (2004-2006) and a Violin and Chamber Music teacher at McGill University (2006-2007). He is currently Concertmaster of the Orchestre Symphonique de Longueuil and the McGill Chamber Orchestra. |
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 Violinist Nadia Francavilla is both an accomplished recitalist and outstanding chamber musician. She played for eight years with the Arthur-LeBlanc String Quartet, performing at major concert halls in Canada and Japan. Since 2002, she has been a member of the Bozzini Quarter, which makes frequent tours of Canada, the United States and Europe. Nadia has been a member of the MCO since 2001.
She received solid musical training under the direction of Mauricio Fuks. In addition, she was invited to participate in the Tanglewood Festival during the summers of 1982, 1983, and 1984. In 1982, she won first place in the Quebec Music Competitions followed by several other prizes, which included first place at the CIBC National Festival of Music Competition in 1987 and first place in the music competition held at McGill University in 1988. Nadia Francavilla is also a member of the Motion ensemble which explores new horizons in improvisation, electronic and aleatory music. Formed in 1998, this group has already commissioned thirty original works. Current projects include tours of New York City (2003) and Western Canada (2004).In addition, Radio-Canada and CBC draw on her musical experience for premieres and recordings of Canadian works. |
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 Born in Montreal, Geneviève Beaudry started her musical studies at a very young age. Graduated from the Conservatory of Music of Montreal, she also studied at the Utrecht Conservatory (Netherlands) and the Sienna Chigiana Academy (Italy).
A versatile musician, she has been concertmaster of the Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivières from 1990 to 1993. A committed chamber player, she was member of the Quatuor Bozzini with whom she played important concerts in New York and Buffalo, among numerous other performances. Invited in major festivals (Ottawa, Orford, Lanaudière), she can often be heard on CBC. |
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 Originally from Bucharest, Rumania, Andra started her studies in violin at age seven, at the Lycée d’Art Georges Enesco and continued her education there until college level.
She arrived in Canada at the age of nineteen, finished her studies at the Université de Montréal with a Bachelor’s and then a Master’s Degree in violin performance. Since then, she has divided her career between teaching violin to primary school students, and public performances, primarily as a chamber orchestra performer and a symphony orchestra performer with ensembles like the McGill Chamber Orchestra and La Pietà. |
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 Heather Schnarr began playing the violin at the age of five with her father John. She went on to receive an Honours Bachelor of Music degree in Performance from Wilfrid Laurier University, and now lives in Montreal. Recently she toured and recorded a CD and DVD with La Pieta and Angele Dubeau, toured and was recorded by CBC Radio with the Ensemble Contemporain de Montreal, and toured Mexico with Orchestre Baroque de Montreal as part of the Festival Internacional Cervantino. She also plays with Orchestre Metropolitain de Montreal, La Chapelle de Montreal, and Orchestre de Chambre McGill. Heather has been a student and coach at Kincardine Summer Music Festival since 1992. She teaches privately in two city schools as well as The Orchard Academy, a studio she shares with two colleagues. |
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 Veronica Thomas studied the violin with Hratchia Sevadjian. She was a finalist in both the Quebec and Canadian music competitions several times and took first prize at the Prix dExpression musicale in 1984 and 1986. Veronica won the audition for principal second violin and later assistant concertmaster in the Orchestre des Jeunes du Québec. She then went on to play for several years with Les Jeunes Virtuoses de Montréal and the Ottawa String Quartet. Veronica is presently principal second violin in the Laval Symphony Orchestra as well as the McGill Chamber Orchestra and is a member of Les Grand Ballets Canadiens Orchestra. |
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 Frédéric Lefebvre began playing the violin at age 4 with Les Petits Violons de Jean Cousineau. In 1988 he was admitted into the class of Raymond Dessaints at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal. Between 1990 and 1997, Frédéric received a scholarship from the Fondation des Arts de Laval and was awarded the Scholarship of Excellence in 1995 from the McAbbie Foundation. In 1997 he completed his studies winning the "Prix du Conservatoire".
A member of the McGill Chamber Orchestra, the Amati Ensemble and the Romulo Larrea tango ensemble, he can also be heard performing with artists such as Luciano Pavarotti, Charlotte Church, Rod Stewart, Diana Ross, Ginette Reno, Jimmy Page, and Robert Plant. He participates regularly on CD recordings, television and radio programs, and in movies. Since September 2002, Frédéric Lefebvre has been teaching violin and is conductor for strings at the Marcel Vaillancourt School at the Laval School Board. |
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 Montreal violist, Martine Gagné has begun her flourishing career as concert performer and chambrist. She has performed with the MCO for the past three seasons and has also collaborated with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra and le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne. A graduate of the Conservatoire de Montréal, Martine is in the process of completing an "Artist Diploma" at McGill University under André Roy. |
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 Czech-born cellist Katerina Juraskova is a graduate of the Prague Conservatory. A winner of several national competitions, she was awarded a full scholarship to attend a the International Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad, Switzerland, where she studied chamber music with Sir Yehudy Menuhin, Jeremy Menuhin, Alberto Lysy, Pierre Amoyal and the cello with Radu Aldulescu. After having obtained her Master’s and European Diploma at the Conservatoire Européen de Musique de Paris, France, she was engaged as a principal cellist of the Prager Symphonikers in Czech Republic.
In 1996 Katerina came to Montreal to pursue her advanced studies at the Conservatoire de Musique du Québec a Montreal under the guidance of Denis Brott. She was engaged by the McGill Chamber Orchestra and has regularly appeared at the Montreal Chamber Music Festival. In 1997 Katerina was chosen as one of 12 scholarship recipients to attend the Gregor Piatigorsky Seminar for Cellists at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She won several awards such as, the Esperia Foundation Award, Santa Barbara, CA, the Merit Award and the Gabor Rejto Fellowship from the Music Academy of the West, Santa Barbara, and the Fonorola Young Artist Award, Montreal. A winner of the McGill/ CBC Concerto Competition in 1999, Katerina was offered a recital by the CBC affiliate. After receiving her Master’s Diploma at McGill University, where she studied the cello with Antonio Lysy, she was engaged as a principal cellist of the Young Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra in Montreal. Her exploration of the world of Canadian contemporary music as a cellist of the Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal led, among other unique opportunities, to a collaboration with a Montreal based dance company l’Agora de la dance and to a most recent engagement with another dance company Jose Navas’ Flak with whom she toured extensively. In April 2003 Katerina appeared as a soloist with the McGill Chamber Orchestra. 2004-2005 is her fourth season as a principal cellist of this Canada’s most established chamber music ensemble. A recipient of the Max Stern Music Fellowship she will complete her doctoral studies at McGill University in December 2004. Miss Juraskova has performed widely in such venues as the Theatro Colon in Buenos Aires, at the Evian Festival in France, Quebec in Tokyo Festival in Japan, Goteborg Dance and Theatre Festival in Sweden, Montreal Chamber Music Festival and Festival International de Lanaudière in Canada. |
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 Élizabeth Dubé began studying the cello at the Polyvalente Pierre-Laporte. She then went on to study with Denis Brott at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal where she obtained her diplôme d'études supérieures. She has received bursaries from the McAbbie Foundation and numerous Festivals (l'Aria International summer Academy, Music Academy of the West and Dallas Summer Festival) where she specialized in chamber music. She appeared as soloist with L'Orchestre de la Polyvalente Pierre-Laporte, Orchestre du Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal, Jeunes Virtuoses de Montréal, and La Chapelle de Montréal.
Élizabeth Dubé started her orchestral experience with Orchestre des Jeunes de Montréal, under the baton of Mario Duchesne, and l'Orchestre du Conservatoire de Musique du Québec, conducted by Raffi Armenian, Franz Paul Decker and Jacques Lacombe. She specialized in California with Jeffrey Tates and Yoav Talmi. She then joined the Jeunes Virtuoses de Montréal as section leader, La Chapelle de Montréal and Umea Symfoni Orkester in Sweden . She is now a member of the McGill Chamber Orchestra, l’Ensemble Tango Montréal , Quatuor Racines with Denis Plante and Quatuor Artémuse of Marie-Andrée Ostiguy. We can also see her in popular and classical music scenes with Mario Pelchat, Annie Villeneuve, l’Orchestre Métropolitain and more... |
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 Denis Chabot has been a member of prestigious symphony orchestras in Canada, Finland and Spain. His career as a double bass player has taken him to the furthest corners of the Americas, Asia and Europe, and across the musical and performance spectrum. He has played tango in Buenos Aires, baroque in Mexico, chamber music in London, folk in Winnipeg, new music in Helsinki and still more. He has participated in international festivals, concerts, competitions, film music, musical comedies and numerous recordings.
Mr. Chabot is currently principal double bass with the Romulo Larrea tango Ensemble, the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec, the Orchestre des Grands Ballets Canadiens and the McGill Chamber Orchestra. He also holds the position of personnel manager for the McGill Chamber Orchestra and artistic coordinator for the Festival international de Lanaudière. Mr. Chabot completed his post-graduate orchestral training at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in the UK and holds a degree in performance, with distinction, from McGill University. He also played with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada from 1983 to 1986. |
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