Thursday, September 12, 2019

Violinist Gillian Smith Launches Her Album with Jennifer King

Past recipient Gillian Smith launches her upcoming album Into the Stone, featuring music for solo violin by women Canadian Composers Kati Agócs, Alice Ping Yee Ho, Veronika Krausas, Chantale Laplante, and Ana Sokolović on the Leaf Music label. Her Halifax launch includes special guest, NSTT recipient, Jennifer King on piano. 

Image and Bio from https://gilliansmithviolin.com/
Wedn, Sept 25, 7 p.m. 
Paul O’Regan Hall 
Halifax Central Library
5440 Spring Garden Road 

Admission is free.

Saturday, October 5, 7 p.m.
Glenn Gould Studio 
250 Front Street West


Artist Bios:

A dynamic and intuitive performer, Gillian Smith enjoys a varied and exciting performance career as a violinist. Deeply committed to performing music by contemporary composers, she has recorded two CDs with members of the Acadia New Music Society on the Centrediscs label: Live Wired, which features the music of Derek Charke, Jérôme Blais, and Anthony Genge, and In Sonorous Falling Tones, which features the music of Derek Charke and which was nominated for an East Coast Music Award for Classical Recording of the Year in 2018. She can also be heard on a recording of the chamber music of Carmen Braden that will be released in November 2019.

Gillian Smith has appeared at such series and festivals as the Acadia Performing Arts Series, the East Coast Music Awards, Inner Space Concerts, the Music Room Chamber Players, Open Waters Festival, Shattering the Silence Festival, and Sunday Music in the Garden Room. She has also performed and recorded as an orchestral musician with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Winnipeg Symphony, and Symphony Nova Scotia.

A dedicated teacher, Gillian Smith serves as instructor of violin and viola at the Acadia University School of Music and as head of the upper strings department at the Maritime Conservatory of Performing Arts. Her students have won top prizes and awards in regional and national competitions.

Gillian Smith holds degrees in violin performance from the Eastman School of Music (B.Mus.), the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (M.Mus.), and the University of Minnesota (D.M.A). Her teachers have included Jorja Fleezanis, Camilla Wicks, Peter Salaff, and Philippe Djokic.

As described on Maritime Conservatory of Performing Arts, the energetic and insightful, Jennifer King is a versatile pianist who is equally at home on the concert stage, in the classroom and teaching studio. She is in high demand as an adjudicator, coach, and clinician and has firmly established herself as a sought-after talent across Atlantic Canada.

Jennifer worked as staff pianist and part time faculty member at Acadia University’s School of Music from 2003. She currently works as a private piano instructor, coach and free-lance pianist based in Halifax. She is excited to join the faculty at MCPA in 2017. Ms. King has performed in hundreds of recitals and concerts as a collaborative pianist, chamber musician and as a soloist. Jennifer can be heard in concert alongside some of Canada’s most respected singers and musicians.

Ms. King holds a Masters of Music degree in solo piano performance from McGill University, postgraduate diplomas from the University of Reading in the UK as well as the Royal Academy of Music in London, England. Her accolades include two scholarships from the Nova Scotia Talent Trust, and an Award of Appreciation from the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia in recognition of her contributions to musical life in the province. Recently Jennifer performed outside for 6 hours on the Halifax waterfront with artist Holly Carr for Nocturne Art at Night Festival. She has her first solo recording of all night inspired music – O Mistress Moon! due for release this Spring/Summer 2017.

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