Ang Li

• Placed in the top 8 semi-finalists of the October 2010 BNDES International Piano Competition "Guiomar Novaes", Rio de Janeiro
• Winner of the 2007 Contemporary Record Society Competition, 1st prize and 5 special prizes at the 2003 Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal competition and many others
• Live broadcast performance from the Kennedy Centre in NYC, celebrating the Juilliard School’s centennial year
• Specializing in thematic programs and showcasing stunning technique, see www.anglipiano.com

Duo Concertante

Julia Halfyard

• Chosen to showcase at Contact East, September 2010 in Nova Scotia

• Featured performer at the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad’s presentation of Artistic Fraud’s “Fear of Flight”-- last season’s hilarious and hugely successful show, a large-scale choral, vocal and theatre production exploring the fears of a group of tremulous travelers on a plane together. Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland mounted this show with the help of 6 of Canada’s top playwrights, and it features music by Julia Halfyard’s longtime collaborator, Jonathan Monro.
• Appeared with great success in the Antigonish Performing Arts Series in January 2010
• Invited to participate in the exclusive Yale Cabaret Conference (in 2007), where New York producer Erv Raible (booker of the legendary Eighty-Eights Club in NYC) wrote a letter of recommendation for Julia following that audition in which he stated: “Julia immediately impressed the faculty with her voice, wit and humor, and fantastic stage presence.”
• Proving her diversity, Julia is one of the artists featured on David Chafe’s 2007 award-winning gospel album “Bright and Beautiful”
  

The Zodiac Trio

• Appeared in Winnipeg’s Virtuosi Concerts Series in October, with audience comments ranging from “technically spectacular” to praise for its “Youth, enthusiasm, impeccable technique and superb musicality”

• Fall 2010 – the Trio performed on the Schneider Series in New York, considered by many to be a launching pad for the careers of such artists as Peter Serkin, the Guarneri String Quartet, and Yo-Yo Ma.

• Other 2010-11 highlights included performances at The Four Seasons Performing Arts Centre in Toronto, Berklee College of Music in Boston, Boston Conservatory, Bennington College, University of California Berkeley, Old First Concerts in San Francisco and Salle Cortot in Paris, among others. The season also featured the ensemble in residency at the Berklee College of Music, Boston Conservatory and University of California Berkeley.
• Showcased November 19, 2010 at Montreal’s international CINARS conference
  

Bowties

• April 2011: Bowties performs a 6-city tour of Manitoba, visiting Virden, Pinawa, Carberry, St. Martin, Neepawa & Carman

• February 2010: Bowties’ performance for Halifax’s St. Cecilia Society elicits audience comments:” “A rare and amazing blending of talents. Great fun too. “

• Duo Concertante—the classical half of BOWTIES--“thrilling, beautiful and personal“(University of Michigan) artists, whose performances from  England’s Wigmore Hall and China’s Shanghai Concert hall to Canada’s National Arts Centre connect them with audiences on a personal level while displaying the artistry and virtuosity that has earned them numerous awards and accolades.  Having just returned from their fourth UK tour, the Duo is preparing for summer performances at the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, the Festival of the Sound, the Niagara Festival and their own Tuckamore Chamber Music Festival in St. John’s, NL.

• Master fiddler Gordon Stobbe along with acclaimed guitarist Greg Simm bring their expertise in the huge world of traditional music to BOWTIES, with performances from the Yukon to Baffin Island to Louisiana and everywhere in between. Gordon’s fame as a fiddler and teacher take him everywhere from Halifax to Hollywood, and his latest CD has been lauded as “exuberant”, “excellent”, and “memorable”. In addition to his work with Bowties, Greg Simm has been directing, producing and performing with artists such as Natalie McMaster, Lennie Gallant, and the Mamas And Papas’ Denny Doherty, to name just a few.

Raffi Altounian

• Featured on a Centrediscs CD release of new works by Canadian composer William Beauvais entitled “Invisible Cities”(CMCCD 14809). Mr. Altounian performs on this project as part of a quartet in a performance of 4 quartets by William Beauvais.

• In February, 2010, Raffi Altounian performed in a concert to promote the launch of “Invisible Cities”, in duo performances with Mr. Beauvais, as well as in guitar quartet performances with Rob MacDonald and Michael Kolk.
• “Invisible Cities” has been broadcast on CBC Radio, NPR, and has made the Top Ten for CJSW FM in Alberta . As a chamber musician, Mr. Altounian performed in a live-to-air broadcast for CIUT Radio, featuring works from this recording.

• Past collaborations with William Beauvais have included a series of solo blues pieces entitled “Well Tempered Blues” published by Mel Bay in 2003. Mr. Altounian also premiered and was the dedicatee of a major solo piece entitled “Bound By Shadows” which is now included in the Royal Conservatory of Music Guitar Syllabus. Raffi Altounian and William Beauvais are now in the midst of an exciting new guitar duo project entitled “Music of the Americas”. Repertoire will include works by William Beauvais, Scott Joplin, Leo Brouwer, Antonio Lauro, Manuel Saumell amongst others.