Sponsors
Nic Carlucci, violin
As a musician, Carlucci has experience as both a chamber and orchestral musician. His keen interest in chamber music has led him across North America and parts of the Southern Hemisphere in both his studies and as a performer. Locally, Carlucci performs with several ensembles, most notably Magisterra Soloists International Chamber Players (of which he has also functioned as a core member of the administrative team) and as a violinist with Quartet di Altezza. His orchestral and other ensemble playing includes engagements with London Symphonia (formerly Orchestra London Canada), Windsor Symphony, International Symphony Orchestra, & Kammerchor Baroque, to name a few.
Carlucci prides himself on instilling passion and energy in the playing of budding violinists of all levels, while ensuring they develop a solid technical foundation that will endure the test of time. Starting his career, he spent ten plus years building his private violin studio. After completing a master’s degree in Violin Literature and Performance with acclaimed German Violinist Annette-Barbara Vogel, he was appointed the position of Violin Lecturer at Western University, now cross-listed with roles in both Music Performance and Music Education departments. He was also appointed Violin Instructor at Wilfrid Laurier University’s precollege String Academy of which he is the primary violin and group class instructor. In addition to teaching and building curriculum for several music programs, Carlucci has been known to adjudicate for music festivals, awards and sit on nomination committees. His students have been recognized with many accolades over the years.
Carlucci’s other primary violin instructors include Professor Jerzy Kaplanek and members of the Penderecki String Quartet, Mel Martin, and Mary-Elizabeth Brown.
Annette-Barbara Vogel, violin
Annette-Barbara Vogel’s rich international performing career has featured her as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician in over 35 countries across 6 continents.
Considered one of the finest German violinists of her generation, she is renowned for her “authoritative and highly sensitive performances,” and “formidable technique, stunning musicality, and stage presence that transmits to orchestra and audience alike.” Gramophone Magazine has lauded “Vogel’s perfect intonation,” while Classical CD Review has proclaimed her “the most ideal exponent a composer could hope for.” Her exceptional musicianship has been recognized by numerous prestigious solo prizes and scholarships across both Europe and North America.
At eleven years old, Vogel was the youngest student ever accepted to the Folkwang-Hochschule Essen, where she later completed her solo and chamber music diplomas “summa cum laude.” Her early training as a violinist included several years of study at Amsterdam’s Sweelinck Konservatorium under legendary Dutch violinist, Herman Krebbers. Already a professional touring musician at age sixteen, Vogel was selected to study for one month at the Menuhin Academy under Sir Yehudi Menuhin. With her piano trio, Trio Alani, she later studied chamber music under Walter Levin (LaSalle Quartet) at the Musik-Akademie Basel, before enrolling in the Artist Diploma program at Los Angeles’ University of Southern California. Vogel completed an Artist Diploma “summa cum laude” under Dorothy Delay at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory and was later chosen to perform the Brahms Violin Concerto under the baton of Keith Lockhart at a Gala concert honouring Delay’s seventy-fifth birthday.
Vogel’s prolific recording career as soloist and chamber musician has produced more than fifteen commercial albums under Avie Records, Bluegriffin Recordings, Cybele Records, Eroica Classical Records, and Harmonia Mundi Germany. Her 2011 release of “Französische Komponistinnen” received the British IRR Outstanding Recording Award.
As a champion of lesser-known works, Vogel has met high critical praise for her many ground -breaking recordings of works for the violin by composers such as Hans Gál.
Her CD of violin sonatas by Ethel Smyth, Elfrieda Andrée, and Mel Boni has been released on the UK-based Toccata label in August 2021 and was listed in the top 10 of Naxos Sweden within the first week of the release.
Previous appointments include an artistic residency with the “Monticello Trio” at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville and violin professorships at both the Folkwang-Hochschule Essen and at the University of Iowa. Currently a Full Professor, Vogel accepted her appointment at Western University in 2004, where she continues to serve as the head of the string area and is in high demand as a pedagogue and chamber music coach.
Annette-Barbara is the 2020 recipient of the Forest City London Music Award in the solo classical instrumental category.
Brett Kingsbury, piano
Brett Kingsbury enjoys a diverse performing career as both a soloist and a collaborative artist. Brett is pianist for the Madawaska Chamber Ensemble, which has performed extensively to great acclaim, and he has worked with many other ensembles and performers, including the Borealis and Penderecki string quartets, members of the Hamilton Philharmonic and Toronto Symphony Orchestras, and violinist David Gillham. At concerts for the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society and at the University of Toronto, Scarborough Campus, Brett performed Ferruccio Busoni’s
Fantasia Contrappuntistica, a daunting and rarely heard work that was the topic of his doctoral dissertation.
Brett is currently an assistant professor at the Don Wright Faculty of Music at Western University, where he teaches studio piano, Performance Research, Piano Literature. His research and teaching focus on exploring ways in which music theory and history can enlighten and enhance the performer’s understanding of music in performance. Brett is also a sessional lecturer at the University of Toronto Scarborough and a former faculty member at Brock University, and he is very active as an adjudicator for festivals across the province. While a student at the University of British Columbia, he was named R. Howard Webster Fellow at Green College. Brett studied with Leslie Kinton at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, and he received his Doctor of Musical Arts while studying with Robert Silverman at the University of British Columbia.
Catarina Teican, piano
Élise Desjardins, piano
Elise Desjardins started her training at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montreal where she received the highest distinction of « Premier Prix
» for piano and for chamber music. Shortly thereafter, she became the recipient of many grants to help pursue graduate studies at the Indiana
School of Music.
At the Conservatoire, Ms Desjardins developed a passion for chamber music while studying with Yuly Turowsky( member of the Borodine Trio)
and at indiana with Rotislav Dubinsky( member of the Borodine Trio) Upon returning from her studies, she joined other musicians involved in
the Montreal chamber music scene such as Jutta Puchhammer, Richard Roberts, Lise Beauchamp, Michel Bettez, Ali Yazdanfar.Ms
Desjardins is frequently sought after as an accompanist for her unique playing abilities, demonstrating great intensity and warm sensibility.
She currently holds a teaching-coach position at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montreal. Every summer since 1998 she is part of the
faculty of International Domaine Forget Academy and Summer institute in Galway Ireland where she shared the stage with great musicians
such as Roberto Diaz, Bruno Giurana, Steeve Dann, David Stewart, Thomas Wiebe, Hansjorg Shellenberger.
Her association with Jutta Puchhammer brought her since twenty years over Europe, Canada and the united States. She recorded also two
programs on CD « Phantasiestuke » and « German romantic works » that were well received by critics from Fanfares, Strad and Scena
Musicale magazines.
» for piano and for chamber music. Shortly thereafter, she became the recipient of many grants to help pursue graduate studies at the Indiana
School of Music.
At the Conservatoire, Ms Desjardins developed a passion for chamber music while studying with Yuly Turowsky( member of the Borodine Trio)
and at indiana with Rotislav Dubinsky( member of the Borodine Trio) Upon returning from her studies, she joined other musicians involved in
the Montreal chamber music scene such as Jutta Puchhammer, Richard Roberts, Lise Beauchamp, Michel Bettez, Ali Yazdanfar.Ms
Desjardins is frequently sought after as an accompanist for her unique playing abilities, demonstrating great intensity and warm sensibility.
She currently holds a teaching-coach position at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montreal. Every summer since 1998 she is part of the
faculty of International Domaine Forget Academy and Summer institute in Galway Ireland where she shared the stage with great musicians
such as Roberto Diaz, Bruno Giurana, Steeve Dann, David Stewart, Thomas Wiebe, Hansjorg Shellenberger.
Her association with Jutta Puchhammer brought her since twenty years over Europe, Canada and the united States. She recorded also two
programs on CD « Phantasiestuke » and « German romantic works » that were well received by critics from Fanfares, Strad and Scena
Musicale magazines.