The Artists

 

James Ehnes

James Ehnes began playing violin by the age of five. He won numerous competitions in Canada as a teen and in 2001, he won the Juno Award for Best Classical Album. In January 2002 Ehnes was named Young Artist of the Year at the Cannes Classical Awards.  Ehnes graduated from the Juilliard School in 1997 where he was a student of Sally Thomas and is now an international performer and one of the most prolific recording artists in any style of music (with a total of 21 recordings as of 2007). He plays on a 1715 "Ex Marsick Stradivarious" which belongs to the Fulton Collection.

His recording of Paganini's 24 Caprices, made forTelarc in 1995, was acclaimed as a fine recording of this set of incredibly difficult pieces. In 2005, he was awarded a prestigious Avery Fischer Career Grant and in 2007 he received a Juno for Classical Album of the Year: Large Ensemble or Soloist(s) with Large Ensemble Accompaniment for Mozart: Violin Concerti - James Ehnes/ Mozart Anniversary Orchestra CBC.

Ehnes's 2007 recording of Elgar's violin concerto was characterized by the classical music magazine Gramophone as "a performance guaranteed to make you fall in love all over again with this sublime music." In January 2008, Gramophone made the recording as an Editor's Choice commenting that it "can only boost Ehnes's standing as one of the most gifted and charismatic fiddlers around." In February 2008, Ehnes won a Grammy award in the Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with Orchestra) category for his Barber/Korngold/Walton: Violin Concertos album.

Andrew Armstrong

Praised by critics for his passionate expression and dazzling technique, pianist Andrew Armstrong has delighted audiences around the world. He has performed solo recitals and appeared with orchestras in Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the United States, including performances at Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, and Warsaw's National Philharmonic. He has performed with such conductors as Peter Oundjian, Itzhak Perlman, and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, and in chamber music with the Alexander, American, and Manhattan String Quartets, as a member of the Caramoor Virtuosi at the Caramoor International Music Festival, and as a member of the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players in New York City.