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Thirteen Strings. Photo: Anastasia Krachkovskaya

Thirteen Strings: 50 Years in the Community

By Kaitlyn Chan on 2 February 2026 Canadian Music, Chamber Music, Classical Music, Interviews, Ottawa, Strings

Founded in 1976 by conductor Brian Law and string players from the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra celebrates 50 years of music-making this year. The 13 string players, accompanied by highly-acclaimed guests, present an innovative anniversary season, featuring new commissions and collaborations with friends of the orchestra. A proud member of the Ottawa community, Thirteen Strings keeps its local impact—and plans to build even stronger connections—the focus of its 2025-26 anniversary season. Last season, the orchestra moved to a more democratic leadership model with a committee of principal players, some board members, and Executive and Artistic Director…

Snow Bai (erhu) with Toronto Festival Orchestra conducted by Yong-yan Hu

Review | Li Delun Music Foundation Celebrates East-Meets-West

By Amanda Wong on 6 January 2026 Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Orchestral, Piano, Strings, Toronto, Vocal, World Music

With the new year comes a host of celebrations, and the Li Delun Music Foundation’s East-Meets-West New Year’s Concert is no exception. An impressive and relatively ad hoc Toronto Festival Orchestra gathered to play a program of—you guessed it—both Eastern (primarily Chinese) and Western music to ring in the new year. Named for Li Delun (1917-2001), the pioneering Chinese conductor, the foundation carries forward his lifelong mission to make classical music universally accessible, without age or socioeconomic discrimination. Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, Li helped bridge Eastern and Western classical traditions—a legacy the foundation honours through its…

Newswire | Curtis Appoints Internationally Acclaimed Violist and Alumna Teng Li to Faculty

By Newswire on 18 December 2025 Arts Industry, Classical Music, Employment, Newswire, Strings

PHILADELPHIA, PA—December 18, 2025—Curtis Institute of Music is excited to announce the appointment of globally renowned violist and alumna Teng Li (’05) to its performance faculty, effective in the 2026–27 school year. Li, principal viola of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and a founding member of the Rosamunde String Quartet—part of the Curtis Artist Management roster—will join Curtis’ faculty beginning fall of 2026. As a seasoned orchestral and chamber music artist, and a celebrated soloist, Li further deepens the perspectives available to students. Her expertise also strengthens the school’s unique team-teaching model, ensuring students can benefit from multiple viewpoints. Not only does this help…

Ali Kian Yazdanfar’s “Gray Zone”: Bringing together contrasting elements

By Benjamin Goron on 10 November 2025 Multimedia, Strings, Visual Arts

Often, chance works in mysterious ways. That’s how a glance at a painting by Ferdos Maleki in a Magog art gallery transported double bassist Ali Kian Yazdanfar to that artist’s studio in San Diego. It is another Maleki painting, Gratitude III, that graces the cover of the bassist’s new album, Sayeh-Roshan, released this month on the Leaf Music label. Like this painting, the album conceals unforgettable encounters and exchanges across its 18 tracks, the fruit of several years of work that has finally materialized. “Several desires are at the origin of the album: to show another side of the double…

New Releases (Dec. 2025)

By La Scena Musicale Team on 10 November 2025 Classical Music, Opera, Orchestral, Strings, Vocal

This section is an advertising supplement. To announce here, contact [email protected] Monica Pearce: December Essential Opera, Maureen Batt (soprano), Erin Bardua (soprano), Danielle Buonaiuto (soprano) Leaf LM2049 Release: Dec. 5, 2025 Essential Opera’s December is a one-act opera for three sopranos and string quartet by Monica Pearce. The work follows Julia and Natasha as they prepare to visit Julia’s parents for the first time together as a couple. Between airport security, last-minute packing and the subtle tension of family introductions, December captures the anticipation, vulnerability and humour that accompany love in its early stages. In Flanders Fields Jan Järvlepp, London…

Contestant Élisabeth Pion

Review | Honens Finals: The Quintets and the Concerti

By Viktor Lazarov on 28 October 2025 Music Competition, Orchestral, Piano, Strings, West

Disclosure: this article was published without the author’s knowledge of final results. Finals I: October 23, 2025 The first finals round of the Honens International Piano Competition featured all three finalists performing Franck, Brahms, and Dvořák piano quintets with the Isidore String Quartet. The New York City-based ensemble are recipients of a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant and winners of the 14th Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2022. A seemingly promising match of youth, talent, and ambition with each competing pianist. Yet this pairing conceals a more complicated reality: the Isidore Quartet contributes to each candidate’s evaluation in their final…

Mécénat Musica | 5NextGen Program

By Emma Yee on 28 October 2025 Arts Industry, Classical Music, Dance, Multimedia, Opera, Strings, Visual Arts

Mécénat Musica 5NextGen program has invited founders/artistic/executive directors between the ages of 25 and 39 from Orchestre Agora, ArtCrush, Musique 3 Femmes, HausMusique, and Orchestre Philharmonique & Choeur des Mélomanes (OPCM) to become Ambassadors-in-Residence, working to create an initial $1 million endowment fund in perpetuity for each of their organizations. As cellist and HausMusique Co-Artistic Director Cameron Crozman describes: “Since its inception, the [Mécénat Musica] program has offered an unprecedented opportunity for Quebec-based organizations to encourage their community of visionary donors to support the creation of endowment funds … It starts with education: informing donors that there exists in Quebec…

Mécénat Musica | Crowdfunding Grant Recipients

By Hal Kowalewski on 28 October 2025 Arts Industry, Education, Montreal, Musical Theatre, Opera, Strings, Winds

INFUSION BAROQUE Mécénat Musica’s support of Infusion Baroque culminated in the group’s 2024 album East is East. According to the group’s violinist, Sallynee Amawat, the album is a “dynamic, intercultural collaboration of artists from Western European, Persian and Indian traditions.” Since its inception in 2013, Infusion Baroque has aimed to draw new audiences to early music. Its four members—violinist Amawat, as well as Alexa Raine-Wright (baroque flute and recorder), Andrea Stewart (baroque cello) and Rona Nadler (harpsichord)—prioritize historical accuracy. “Infusion Baroque’s practice has been to champion rare and underheard voices in the field of early music through research and close…

Newswire | Free music lessons with two Montreal Symphony Orchestra cellists

By Newswire on 16 October 2025 Montreal, Newswire, Strings

Montreal Symphony Orchestra cellists Genevieve Guimond and Gary Russell are excited to announce they are accepting new students this January! The Montreal Cello Ensemble offers intensive music training to talented Montreal children, with a focus on breaking financial barriers to ensure access to high-quality music education. Every child admitted into the program receives either a full or partial scholarship that includes instruction, the use of an instrument, and accessories. No prior musical experience is necessary. In fact, almost all of the students we admit have no prior musical training. The application deadline for this unique opportunity is December 20th, 2025.…

Photo: Stuart Lowe

Rising Stars | Mira Kardan – Shean Strings Competition

By Kaitlyn Chan on 4 October 2025 Interviews, Strings

“There is really nothing I love more than spending time with my cello,” says Mira Kardan. The young cellist grew up with two musician parents who, through their dedication to the arts, encouraged Kardan to pave her own path as a musician. With their support and guidance, she has discovered one of her greatest passions in life. Earlier this year, the American cellist competed at the 2025 Shean Strings Competition with a program featuring works by Bach, Ligeti, Debussy, Popper, and Shostakovich. “It was really exciting to prepare a program that was completely diverse, not one work similar to another,”…