Banff International String Quartet Festival

Barry Shiffman enjoys a diverse career as a musician, educator, and administrator. He was co-founder of the St. Lawrence String Quartet (SLSQ) and currently serves as both the Associate Dean and Director of Chamber Music at Glenn Gould School, and Director of the Phil and Eli Taylor Performance Academy for Young Artists at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. 

During his 17 years with the SLSQ he appeared in over 2,000 concerts in venues around the globe, and recorded several critically acclaimed discs under an exclusive contract with EMI Classics. While with SLSQ, Shiffman served as artistin-residence at Stanford University from 1998 to 2006 and as visiting artist at the University of Toronto from 1995 to 2006. 

Shiffman has also served in numerous roles at Banff Centre, including Director of Music Programs (2006-2010), Artistic Director of Summer Classical Music Programs (2010-2016), and Director of the Banff International String Quartet Competition since 2006. During his tenure at Banff Centre he introduced new programming in classical music performance, composition, popular music, and jazz and oversaw the dramatic growth of the Banff International String Quartet Competition, including the successful launch of the Banff Centre International String Quartet Festival in 2017.

In 2018, Shiffman was appointed Artistic Director of Rockport Music in Massachusetts, overseeing all classical programming for the organization including a five-week summer chamber music festival at the venerable Shalin Liu Performance Center. From 2009-2017, he was Executive Artistic Director of Music in the Morning Concert Society in Vancouver. A sought-after juror, he has served on the violin jury of the Tchaikovsky and Montreal Violin Competitions, and the String Quartet Competitions of London Wigmore Hall, Lyon, and Geneva.

Shiffman received his formal studies at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto, University of Toronto, Utrecht Conservatory, Hartt School of Music, Juilliard School, and Yale University. Summer studies included Banff Centre, Tanglewood, and Aspen. He is also  the recipient of the Longy School’s Nadia Boulanger Prize for Excellence in the Art of Teaching, and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Calgary.

Photo by Stuart Lowe

James Ehnes is one of the world’s foremost violinists and a favorite guest of many of the world’s most celebrated orchestras and concert halls. Recent orchestral highlights include the National Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Orchestre National de France, Sydney Symphony, and Hong Kong Philharmonic. Alongside his concerto work, Ehnes maintains a busy recital schedule and is the Artistic Director of the Seattle Chamber Music Society. His extensive discography has won many awards, including two Grammys, three Gramophones, and 11 Junos. He began violin studies at the age of four, debuted with l’Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal at age 13 and graduated from The Juilliard School in 1997, winning the Peter Mennin Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Music. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a Member of the Order of Canada, and is a professor at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. James Ehnes plays the “Marsick” Stradivarius of 1715.

Photo by Ben Ealovega

James Ehnes, violin
Amy Schwartz Moretti, violin
Che-Yen Chen, viola
Edward Arron, cello

“They meshed together like the old friends they are, themes passing seamlessly, unison writing blending perfectly as solo themes emerged, and the ebb and flow managed beautifully.” (The Strad)

Formally established in 2010 at the Seattle Chamber Music Society, where they maintain a yearly residence, the members of the Ehnes Quartet have played chamber music together in various formations for more than 20 years. The quartet’s highly refined, sensitive and expressive performances have delighted audiences and critics across North America, Europe, and Asia, and have made them one of the most sought-after chamber groups performing today. Their award-winning discography includes quartets by Barber, Beethoven, Schubert, and Sibelius.

Photo by Jenna Poppe

Adrian Steele and Phoenix Avalon, violins
Devin Moore, viola
Joshua McClendon, cello

Winners of the 14th Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2022 and a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant, the New York City-based Isidore String Quartet was formed in 2019 with a vision to revisit, rediscover, and reinvigorate the repertory. The four began as an ensemble at the Juilliard School, and following a break during the global pandemic reconvened at the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival in the summer of 2021 under the tutelage of Joel Krosnick. The ISQ has also studied with Joseph Lin, Astrid Schween, Laurie Smukler, Roger Tapping, Misha Amory, Atar Arad, Miriam Fried, and Paul Biss. Their 23/24 season featured appearances in Berkeley (Cal Performances), Boston (Celebrity Series), Washington DC (Phillips Collection), New York (92nd St. Y), Chicago, Baltimore, Ann Arbor, Denver, Houston, La Jolla, Aspen, Vancouver, Calgary, and at Dartmouth College, and Spivey Hall in Georgia, among many others. European highlights from the last year include Edinburgh, Lucerne, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Hamburg’s ElbPhilharmonie.

Photo by Jiyang Chen

Hao Zhou, violin
Lucy Wang, violin
Aiden Kane, viola
Tate Zawadiuk, cello

The Viano Quartet are one of the most sought-after performing young ensembles today and are currently in-residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Bowers Program from 2024-2027. Since winning First Prize at the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition, they have traveled to nearly every major city across the globe, captivating audiences in New York, London, Berlin, Vancouver, Paris, Beijing, Lucerne, and Los Angeles. The quartet was named the inaugural June Goldsmith Quartet-in-Residence for the Music in the Morning series in Vancouver until 2025, where their focus will be to commission new works and lead extensive community engagement initiatives. The quartet has also held residencies at the Curtis Institute, Colburn Conservatory, Northern Michigan University, and Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University. The Viano Quartet’s chief mentors include faculty of the Curtis Institute and Colburn Conservatory, as well as members of the Dover, Guarneri, and Tokyo string quartets. The quartet’s name was created to describe the four individual instruments playing together both harmony and melody, creating a unified instrument called the “Viano”.

Photo by Kevin Condon

Rooted by a sibling bond, the Cheng² Duo (pronounced Cheng Squared Duo) transfixes listeners through its impassioned expressivity and contagious joy. The pair have been making music together for nearly their entire lives, officially performing as the Cheng² Duo at their 2011 Carnegie Weill Recital Hall debut. Since then, their artistry has left lasting impressions across the globe. In the 2023/24 season, the duo will appear as guest soloists with the Banatul Philharmonic (Romania), embark on extensive tours in Canada, South Africa, and India, and present recitals in Switzerland, the UK, and US. In the vanguard of creative programming, the duo is equally committed to presenting traditional masterworks, rediscovering neglected repertoire, and championing the music of their time. Since 2013, they have commissioned and arranged 15 new works. Cheng² Duo has released four critically acclaimed albums on Centrediscs and audite, and received two 2024 JUNO nominations for their latest album, Portrait. Raised in Ottawa, Bryan and Silvie are currently based in Berlin and New York City.

Photo by Andrej Grilc

Assaff Weisman
Itamar Zorman
Guy Ben-Ziony
Tibi Cziger

Now in its second decade, the Israeli Chamber Project is a dynamic ensemble comprising strings, winds, and piano, that brings together the most distinguished musicians for chamber music concerts and educational outreach programs both in Israel and abroad. Based both in Israel and in New York, the ensemble was created so performers could give back to the communities where they began their musical education and to showcase Israeli culture. The ICP’s tours have garnered rave reviews and established the ensemble as a major artistic force on both sides of the Atlantic. These tours include appearances in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, New York, London, San Francisco, Ottawa, and Beijing, as well as in remote towns where access to live chamber music is extremely rare. ICP is a strong advocate for music education and for expanding the chamber music literature by commissioning both new works as well as new arrangements of existing works.

Photos by Yael Ilan

For over 30 years, two-time Juno Award winning pianist/composer Andy Milne has demonstrated boundless versatility, collaborating with artists spanning multiple genres. A fearless improviser and respected voice at the heart of New York’s creative jazz scene, he has recorded and toured throughout the world with Ravi Coltrane, Ralph Alessi, Carlos Ward, Carla Cook and Steve Coleman, and has collaborated with a range of artists including Andrew Cyrille, Sekou Sundiata, Avery Brooks, Bruce Cockburn, Fred Hersch, Ben Monder, Dianne Reeves, Jen Shyu and Tyshawn Sorey. Milne has also scored films, including seven Star Trek themed documentaries for acclaimed actor/director William Shatner and the recent CBC Television series “Black Life: Untold Stories”. He has released 12 recordings as a leader or co-leader, is a Yamaha Artist and a full-time assistant professor of music at The University of Michigan. Milne has received numerous awards and commissions, including the prestigious Civitella Fellowship in Italy.

Photo by Anna Yaskevich

A writer, scholar and critic, Jeremy Eichler is the author of Time’s Echo, an acclaimed new book on music, war and memory that was named “History Book of the Year” by The Sunday Times and hailed as “the outstanding music book of this and several years” by the Times Literary Supplement. Chosen as a notable book of 2023 by The New York Times, The New Yorker, and NPR, Time’s Echo won three National Jewish Book Awards including “Book of the Year,” and was a finalist for the UK’s premier non-fiction award, the Baillie Gifford Prize, whose jury described it as “a masterpiece of non-fiction writing.”

In summer 2024, Eichler concludes his 18-year-tenure as chief classical music critic of the Boston Globe and takes up a newly created professorship in music history and the public humanities at Tufts University. He also travels to Madrid and Barcelona for the launch of the Spanish edition of Time’s Echo, one of eight foreign language translations recently published or forthcoming. And during the 2024-2025 season, he serves as the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s inaugural Writer-in-Residence.

Formerly an NEH Public Scholar, Eichler is the recipient of an ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for music criticism and a fellowship from Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. He earned his PhD in modern European history at Columbia, and his writing has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker among many other national publications.

Photo by Tom Kates

David Harrington is the artistic director, founder and violinist of the Kronos Quartet. For 50 years, San Francisco’s Kronos Quartet has combined a spirit of fearless exploration with a commitment to continually reimagine the string quartet experience. In the process, Kronos has become one of the most celebrated and influential groups of our era, performing thousands of concerts worldwide, releasing more than 70 recordings of extraordinary breadth and creativity, and collaborating with many of the world’s most accomplished composers and performers. Through its nonprofit organization, Kronos Performing Arts Association (KPAA), Kronos has commissioned more than 1,100 works and arrangements for string quartet—including the recently completed 50 for the Future library of free, educational repertoire. Kronos has received more than 40 awards, including three Grammy Awards and the Polar Music, Avery Fisher, and Edison Klassiek Oeuvre Prizes—among the most prestigious awards given to musicians.

Photo by Mark Allan

As founding cellist of the critically acclaimed Afiara Quartet, Mr. Fung is a winner of the Concert Artist Guild International Competition, Young Canadian Musicians Award, 2nd prizes at Munich ARD and Banff International String Quartet Competitions, and the Szekely Prize for Best Interpretation of Beethoven. As a soloist, Mr. Fung has appeared in recital at Carnegie Hall, and with Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Kronos Quartet, and DJ Kid Koala. In addition, he served as a jury member for numerous competitions including the Banff International String Quartet Competition and Eckhardt-Gramatte National Competition. Mr. Fung received an Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School and an MBA from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. He is the Executive & Artistic Director of Vancouver’s Music In The Morning and founder and CEO of the Creative Edge Group. He plays on a cello made in 1787 by Benjamin Banks, on lifetime loan to him from an anonymous donor.

Photo by Shevaun Williams

Canadian violinist Robert Uchida, Concertmaster of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, enjoys a varied career as a soloist, orchestral and chamber musician, and educator. His debut recording of Andrew Violette’s Sonata for Unaccompanied Violin won international acclaim, with Strings Magazine praising his “ravishing sound, eloquence and hypnotic intensity.”

Robert has been a concerto soloist with orchestras including the Alberta Baroque Ensemble, Edmonton Symphony, Kingston Symphony, Ottawa Symphony, Red Deer Symphony, Symphony New Brunswick, Symphony Nova Scotia, Orchestre de la Francophonie, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada.

Robert is Artistic Director of the Longshadow Music Festival in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. He has taught and performed at festivals throughout North America including the Arizona MusicFest, Banff International String Quartet Festival, Jackson Hole Chamber Music, Music by the Sea, National Academy Orchestra, National Arts Centre Young Artists Program, New Brunswick Summer Music Festival, Rosebud Chamber Music Festival, Scotia Festival, Sewanee Music Festival, Summer Solstice Music Festival, and was Artistic Director of the Acadia Summer Strings Festival from 2010-2013.

Before joining the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Robert was Concertmaster of Symphony Nova Scotia in Halifax. He performed on a Juno-nominated recording with Sarah Slean, and recorded Requiem 21.5: Violin Concerto by Tim Brady, which won Classical Recording of the Year at the East Coast Music Awards. As a guest concertmaster, he has worked with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic, Ottawa Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Royal Flemish Philharmonic, and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

A passionate teacher, Robert is a violin instructor at the University of Alberta, and has held teaching positions at Acadia University and the Manhattan School of Music Precollege. His students have continued their studies at the Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music and Guildhall School in London, have won major international competitions, and perform in ensembles in North America and Europe.

Robert holds a Master’s Degree in Violin Performance from the Manhattan School of Music in New York and a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Ottawa. His teachers and mentors include Andrew Dawes, Morry Kernerman, Patinka Kopec, Heratch Manoukian, David Stewart, and Pinchas Zukerman. Robert loves volunteering and is honoured to have been inducted into the Ronald McDonald House’s Character Club in Edmonton. He performs on the "Dawes, de Long Tearse" Guadagnini violin with Vision Solo Titanium strings by Thomastik-Infeld Vienna.

Photo by Erik Visser