Best known as the concertmaster of the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, Marie Bérard is also a sought-after chamber musician, soloist, recording artist and teacher.
Ms. Bérard received her training at the Trois-Rivières Conservatory and further studies took her to the University of Toronto where she studied with David Zafer. Other teachers include Lorand Fenyves, Sydney Harth and Nathan Milstein.
Highly regarded as an interpreter of contemporary music, Ms. Bérard’s recording of A Paganini by A. Schnittke was voted “best performance of the year” by the CBC Radio audience and in 2002, she released a recording of a concerto by Henry Kucharzyk for violin and brass ensemble.
Ms. Bérard is a regular performer at numerous chamber music festivals, notably the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, The Blair Atholl festival in Scotland and Domaine Forget in Charlevoix, Québec and holds the position of Associate Concertmaster of the Mainly Mozart festival orchestra in San Diego, California.
Marie was recently heard in a performance of “Time Chant” by Wolfgang Rihm with the Esprit Orchestra and in a performance of the Brahms Double Concerto with the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra.
In the fall of 2000, Ms. Bérard joined the faculty of the Glenn Gould School in Toronto and is an active member of their chamber ensemble “ARC” with whom she toured China in 2006. The ensemble has also recorded two discs of chamber music for Sony Records the first of which was nominated for a Grammy Award.Marie plays a 1767 Pietro Landolfi violin.
Teng Li made a splash in the Toronto music scene by landing the Toronto Symphony Orchestra Principal Viola position at the astonishing age of 21.Ms. Li gives recitals in Toronto , Ottawa , Philadelphia , Chicago , Washington DC , and New York . David Patrick Stearns of the Philadelphia Inquirer noted “she…played with a sparkling freshness you usually hear in your dreams.” As a concert artist, she has appeared as a soloist with TSO, as well as the Shanghai Opera Orchestra, National Chamber Orchestra, Santa Rosa Symphony, Munich Chamber Orchestra, and the Haddonfield Symphony. Her performances have been broadcast on CBC Radio 2, National Public Radio, WQXR ( New York ), WHYY ( Pennsylvania ), and WFMT (Chicago). She has performed as Principal Viola for the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, New York String Orchestra, Marlboro Music Festival Orchestra, and the Chinese Youth Orchestra.
A recipient of numerous awards, Teng Li has won first prize at the Johannson International and the Holland-America Music Society competitions, and second prize at the 2003 Primrose International Viola and the Irving M. Klein International String competitions. She is also a winner of the Astral Artistic Services 2003 National Auditions.
An accomplished chamber musician, Miss Li has participated in the festivals of Niagara ( Ontario ), Marlboro, Santa Fe , Music from Angel Fire, and the Rising Stars Festival in Caramoor. She has performed at Germany ’s Moritzburg Chamber Music Festival and Italy ’s Rome Chamber Music Festival. She was recently presented in concert with the Guarneri Quartet in New York , and has performed at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and with the 92nd St. “Y” Chamber Music Society. She is a member of the prestigious Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society Two and of Trio Morisot.
Miss Li began playing the violin at age 5 in her native China , and switched to viola at age 12. She entered the Central Conservatory in Beijing in 1992, and at age 16 was accepted to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia , where her teachers were Michael Tree and Joseph DePasquale.
Miss. Li plays on an Amati Viola on loan from Dr. William Waters to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
Winona Zelenka, a graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Toronto and of Indiana University, was a student of Vladimir Orloff, Janos Starker and William Pleeth. She had her concerto debut at the age of thirteen with the Calgary Philharmonic and her solo debut at Carnegie Recital Hall at the age of seventeen; she subsequently began her professional career at the age of twenty-two as associate principal of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. She has been a member of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra since 2001, and has been acting principal cellist since 2004; she is also assistant principal cellist of the Santa Fe Opera orchestra.Winona is a dedicated recitalist and chamber musician who plays regularly on the Les Amis, Syrix, Amici and Offcentre series in Toronto. Most recent solo performances include Don Quixote with the TSO and concerti with the Huronia Sinfonietta, the Scarborough Philharmonic and the Canadian Sinfonietta; this coming October will feature Winona with the Mississauga Symphony playing the Lalo concerto.
Winona is also featured as solo cellist in several feature films, including “Being Julia” and the upcoming Atom Egoyan film”Adoration”. Winona's playing has been described by critics as ‘breathtaking’, ‘effortless’ and ‘a revelation’.