For further information on this concert and the Continuum Series through Virtuosi Concerts, please visit this link: https://virtuosiconcerts.ca/continuum

Please join us for an evening of fine music featuring Didem Basar:  https://didembasar.com/

* Patrick Graham: https://patrickgrahampercussion.com/

* Momoko Matsumura, viola & violin

Originally from Osaka, Japan, Momoko Matsumura enjoys a varied
career playing orchestral and chamber music, as well as historically
informed performances of baroque music on period instruments.
Based in Winnipeg, she performs regularly with the Winnipeg
Symphony and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra. While in the
United States, she was a member of the Hartford and New Haven
Symphony Orchestras and the Plymouth Philharmonic where she
held the position of principal second violin. She has also played with
the New World Symphony, Osaka Philharmonic, Osaka Century
Orchestra, Norwalk Symphony, Symphony in C. Momoko holds
degrees from Kyoto City University of the Arts and Montclair State
University where she was a fellowship student of the Shanghai String
Quartet

* Jennifer Thiessen, viola & Artistic Director, Virtuosi Concerts

Jennifer Thiessen enjoys interpreting repertoire of all eras for the viola and the viola d’amore, with particular experience in historical baroque performance, chamber music, and contemporary creative music. She worked as an independent musician based in Montreal for two decades, joining such ensembles as Ensemble Caprice, collectif9, La La La Human Steps, and Ensemble SuperMusique for concerts, recordings, and tours. Jennifer creates new music using voice, viola, and electronics for her singer-songwriter project Daily Alice, and with her duos: Park Sounds with percussionist Ben Reimer, S[ILK]S, with sound artist Andrea Young, and the JUNO-nominated Toninato/Thiessen with saxophonist Ida Toninato. Since returning to Manitoba in 2021, she has performed locally for GroundSwell, the Rosamunde festival, send+receive festival with Yannis Kyriakides, Brandon Chamber Players with Marika Galea and Claire Morrison, and regularly with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. Jennifer is a creative writer and contributes music journalism to Musicworks Magazine. She accepted the role of Artistic Director of Virtuosi Concerts in December 2021. Within a multiplicity of artistic adventures, she is grounded in a passion to create meaningful experiences for herself and her listeners.

and School of Music Faculty: Kerry DuWors, violin – Marika Galea, bass – Leanne Zacharias, ‘cello

Kerry DuWors

With “exceptional intonation and a tangible empathy” (Gramophone Magazine), Canadian violinist Kerry DuWors is an acclaimed soloist, chamber musician, and Associate Professor at Brandon University. Described as having a “commanding combination of strength, sweetness and brightness” (WholeNote Magazine), she has performed across Canada, the US, Japan, Central Asia, Europe, Mexico and New Zealand. She recently toured Portugal, Armenia and Georgia with Juno-award-winning jazz pianist and composer David Braid. DuWors has won prestigious awards including Grand Prize at the 26th EckhardtGramatté Competition, Felix Galimir Award for Chamber Music Excellence, and two Canada Council Career Development Grants. She is a four-time laureate of the Canada Council for the Arts’ Musical Instrument Bank. DuWors currently plays on a modern Felix Krafft violin modelled after the 1735 ‘Plowden’ Guarneri. 2023 projects include guest artist residencies and Sonata Seminar at Indiana University with long-time duo526 piano partner Futaba Niekawa, Turkish-Classical Music project “Continuum” for Winnipeg’s Virtuosi Concert Series, Prairie Debut violin-piano recitals in Alberta and Saskatchewan, Manitoba première of Luis Ramirez’s Immigration Suite, and classical-folk-electronic-hip- hop collaborations with violist Ryan Davis a.k.a Radia for GroundSwell.   http://www.kerryduwors.com

Marika Galea

Marika Galea is an award-winning Canadian performer, composer and professor. Best known as a jazz bassist, she earned a spot as one of CBC Music’s 2017 35 best Canadian jazz artists under 35. Galea’s work (featured on her 2020 release, Nuance) explores the space between improvised jazz, narrative songwriting, and hypnotic soundscapes. As a bass player, she has supported artists including Terence Blanchard, Cyrus Chestnut, Vincent Herring, Ralph Peterson Jr., Rachel Therrien, Jason Palmer, L’Orchestre national du jazz de Montréal, Basia Bulat, Tim Kingsbury (Arcade Fire), Samian, Jake Clemons (E Street Band), U.S. Girls and Laura Niquay. Her collaborations have garnered nominations and wins for JUNO, Golden Globe, Academy, Polaris, Iris, RIDM and HotDocs Awards. She has taught at McGill University, McGill Conservatory and Berklee College of Music, and is currently an assistant professor at Brandon University. She has also taught workshops at McGill Executive Institute and School of Continuing Studies, Malta Jazz Festival, Monterey Next Generation Jazz Festival, Prince Edward County Jazz Festival and the University of Manitoba’s Canadian Jazz Summit.

Leanne Zacharias

Cellist Leanne Zacharias performs across genres and geographies, with unique concerts and installations presented in museums, art galleries, chimneys, stairwells, rowboats and other unorthodox sites by the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, LandMarks2017, the International Cello Festival, Austin’s New Music Coop, Winnipeg Design Festival, Iceland’s Nes Residency, Open Ears Festival, Agassiz Festival, Winnipeg Symphony New Music Festival, Sound Symposium (NFLD), Churchill’s Northern Studies Research Centre and Winnipeg’s Warming Huts Art & Architecture Competition.  From the National Arts Centre to the Venice Biennale to the Andy Warhol Museum, she performs widely as soloist and in ensembles including the Australian Art Orchestra, Houston Symphony Orchestra, Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and ORFIX in Mexico. She collaborates, records, and tours extensively with songwriters and composers including John. K Samson, the Mountain Goats, Eric Platz, Robert Honstein, Travis Weller, the Hylozoists, Nicole Lizee’s SaskPower, and her long-time collaborator, Christine Fellows. She recently premiered Nicole Lizee’s new cello concerto and appeared as soloist in Andrew Balfour’s Notinikew at Montreal’s Place des Arts.

On faculty at Brandon University, Leanne co-directs Wheat City Nuit Blanche, A Wild Studio (Canadian National Parks) and has taught at the Rosamunde Academy, Cadenza, Prairie Cello Institute, Domaine Forget International Festival, Hybrid Intensive (San Francisco) and lectured at the Parsons School of Design in New York, the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s 10x20x20 series, and Banff Research in Culture Workshop. Her solo album Music for Spaces was released on Redshift Records in 2021.

Tickets available at the door.

$20 Adults

No admission fee for Music and Conservatory students.