It’s a beloved summer tradition at CBC Music: our classical “30 under 30” list, celebrating the accomplishments of Canada’s hottest young classical musicians.
They’re winning big competitions and prizes, making exciting debuts, releasing new albums and graduating from top music schools — and we think they’re amazing.
Scroll down to get acquainted with this year’s inductees into our classical “30 under 30” community, from oldest to youngest.
Tune in to CBC Music’s About Time on Monday, July 29, from noon to 3 p.m., for Tom Allen’s special “30 under 30” edition of the show.
And if there’s a rising classical music star you’d like us to know about, tell us about them in the comments or hit us up on X via @CBCclassical using the hashtag #CBC30under30.
Matthew Boutda, choral conductor and tenor
Age: 29
From: Toronto
“Music is life!” exclaims Matthew Boutda, sounding a lot like choral music’s Dani Rojas — and in many ways, it’s an apt comparison. Over the past year or so, he’s been selected to take part in conductors’ workshops with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, the Vancouver Chamber Choir and the Elmer Iseler Singers, refining his craft with professionals in the choral arts. “Communication between myself and the choir [and] finding ways to foster intrinsic motivation with the people we work with is something I am constantly working on,” he says.
With degrees from Western University and the University of Toronto under his belt, Boutda is now a doctoral student in choral conducting at McGill’s Schulich School of Music, where he worked as principal conductor of the McGill Concert Choir over the past year. His mentor there is Jean-Sébastien Vallée, “someone who encourages you to find your voice as a choral artist.” When Boutda returns to Montreal this fall, it’ll be as conductor of the McGill University Chorus for the 2024-25 season.
Tafelmusik’s 2012 recording of Handel’s Messiah made a big impression on him (“the phrasing and musical nuances throughout this recording are very tasteful”), and a dream project for Boutda would be to lead a performance of J.S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor (“I am just in awe of the depth and beauty”). He’s also in awe of his wife, Courtney, whom he married last October.
Daniel Dastoor, violinist
Age: 29
From: Montreal
Last fall, Daniel Dastoor and the other two members of the Rilian Trio won the $22,225 first prize, the audience prize, and the prize for the best performance of the commissioned piece at the Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition in Norway. While the cash is welcome, so are the opportunities that come with it: a weeklong residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Waterloo, Belgium; a performance on Aug. 12 at the Copenhagen Summer Festival; and a concert tour of Norway in January 2025. Closer to home, the Rilian Trio will be the guest of Calgary Pro Musica‘s Horizons Series on Nov. 16. And the icing on the cake? Dastoor has taken possession of a tremendous violin to play at these engagements: the 1700 Taft Stradivari, on loan from the Canada Council for the Arts’ musical instrument bank.
Speaking of cake, Dastoor admits to having a sweet tooth — “ice cream, chocolate and desserts in general” — which makes Paris a favourite destination. “I love the feel and look of the city, and most especially the boulangeries found on every block,” he says. A role model for Dastoor is violinist Janine Jansen. “I find myself inspired by her commitment to expression, mastery of colours and musical storytelling,” he reflects. He also credits James Ehnes’s album J.S. Bach’s Six Sonatas & Partitas for Solo Violin with getting him hooked on violin. “I grew up listening to this album, and it was both a source of inspiration, and my introduction to many of these incredible works.” Fun fact about Dastoor: he’s got undergraduate and graduate degrees in computer science in addition to his numerous music diplomas.
Carolyn Farnand, violist
Age: 29
From: Halifax via Ottawa
Last October, Carolyn Farnand ran her 12th marathon (it was her first world major race) in Chicago. “I nailed a personal best time and had a fantastic day,” she notes. She has since run her 13th marathon, and evidently the pavement isn’t the only place she’s unstoppable: in May, she won the assistant principal violist audition at Symphony Nova Scotia, where she’s been a member of the orchestra since September 2023. She’ll be acting principal violist for the coming concert season, which includes a performance of Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring Suite in October. “This piece holds a special place in my heart for its moments of intimate, gentle and powerful music,” she says. In November, she’ll join pianist Jennifer King for one of Cecilia Concerts’ sensory-accessible recitals at the Halifax Central Library, which also happens to be a favourite destination on her days off: “It’s heaven with a fifth-floor coffee shop.”
Farnand gives back to the community through her role as coach with the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra. “Youth orchestras have been a crucial part of my musical journey, from the Ottawa Youth Orchestra to my wonderful summers with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada,” she reflects. Among her mentors, she singles out Steven Dann, her teacher at the Glenn Gould School (“instrumental in shaping me as an artist”), and Neal Gripp, her viola coach at the NYOC (“a significant inspiration to me, musically.”) Farnand admits to an obsession with the “unique sound and interesting colour” of the heckelphone and says her dream project would be doing a concert tour with her favourite person, clarinettist Eric Braley, whom she married in Montreal last summer.
Queen Hezumuryango, mezzo-soprano
Age: 29
From: Kitchener, Ont.
“Being from the musical theatre world, I was initially apprehensive of the rigid rules that govern opera, especially those that pertain to repertoire,” muses Queen Hezumuryango, but she says Jessye Norman changed her perception. “She seemed to be exempt from those rules: from Carmen to Salome to Aïda, she always sang the music she loved in her own unique way.” Hezumuryango’s heart leads her to the music of Hector Berlioz — “a world where love is the greatest force in the world,” she describes. “In his orchestrations, love is an everlasting flame or a tsunami, a corrosive drug or the most delicate rose petal.”
A graduate of l’Université de Montréal, Hezumuryango is a returning member of the Canadian Opera Company’s 2024-25 Ensemble Studio. Fans in Central Ontario can catch her singing Rosina in Rossini’s Barber of Seville at Highlands Opera Studio in Haliburton on Aug. 22 and 24. (She goes for the opera program, but says she stays because “this placid village with spotty wifi helps me recalibrate and centre myself.”) In the coming season, she’ll sing her first main stage role at the COC (Countess Ebba Sparre in La Reine-garçon) and then, next May, she’ll sing Lola in the COC’s one-night-only concert version of Cavalleria Rusticana. Her dream? To sing an opera in Kirundi, her mother tongue. “There are so many folk tales that would make really dynamic and captivating shows,” she enthuses. “If there are any East African composers out there who would like to collaborate on a cycle of art songs, please reach out!”
We invited Hezumuryango to Temerty Theatre at the Royal Conservatory of Music to sing an aria from Bizet’s Carmen with pianist Kevin Ahfat.
Danielle Greene, violinist
Age: 28
From: St. John’s
Danielle Greene is spending the summer in Europe, playing with the Verbier Festival Orchestra in Switzerland, seeing concerts, hiking and meeting up with old friends. It’s a change of scenery before she heads back to Alberta to resume her duties as a tenured member of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, where she’s looking forward to their performance of Fauré’s Requiem in November, for personal reasons: “My mother and I sang this piece together at Carnegie Hall in 2017,” she recalls. “The day before the performance, we received the news that my mom’s father had passed away suddenly. We felt like we were sending him into the heavens as we sang. It was surreal, magical and highly emotional.”
These days, Greene’s singing is limited to “belting in the shower and road trip sing-alongs” because she’s too busy being amazing on the violin. In May, she was a finalist at the 2024 E-Gré Competition, and last summer, she took part in the European American Musical Alliance’s Summer Music Institute in Paris, where she performed Brahms’ Piano Quintet with some Juilliard string students and pianist Emile Naoumoff.
“A dream project for me would be to play a concerto with the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra, the first symphony I ever played in professionally,” says Greene. She loves the “dance-like characteristics” in Tchaikovsky’s music (“the second movement of his 5th symphony will forever be the gateway to my heart!”) and when she’s not playing violin, she bakes, tends to her plants and gets outdoors on her recently acquired paddle-board.
Olivier Bergeron, baritone
Age: 28
From: Montreal
In March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Olivier Bergeron returned home from France, where he’d been freelancing and studying. He quarantined at his parents’ cottage — and stayed there for two years. “I ended up taking near-complete control over their garden and built elevated planters with my uncles so I could grow my own vegetables,” he recalls. “I love everything about gardening: the patience it requires, the calm it imposes and the beauty it brings into my life. It’s very similar to singing.”
Bergeron and his green thumb moved back to Paris earlier this year — “there’s much more opportunity for singers, especially if you’re passionate about recital work and baroque music,” he notes — although he’ll continue to divide his time between there and here. “I was given the opportunity to record my first album of mélodie française alongside the person who introduced me to it back when I was his student at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, Olivier Godin.” Nuit Blanches will be released this fall, but you can already hear an advance track: Debussy’s “Le promenoir des deux amants.”
In the 2024-25 season, Bergeron has concerts lined up at Wigmore Hall and Salle Cortot, but for now, he’s performing a recital with pianist Chloé Dumoulin (see below) at the Lanaudière Festival, recording songs by Reynaldo Hahn for an upcoming album, and preparing for a performance of Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin with pianist Michael McMahon on Nov. 24. Among all these things, he’ll find time to drink champagne and revel in his new status as an uncle — “which makes my life lovelier in a myriad of ways,” he beams.
Liam Ritz, composer
Age: 28
From: Toronto via Hamilton, Ont.
Last September, the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra opened its season with Liam Ritz’s Scherzo. “As a Hamilton native, I’ve had a lifelong love for this amazing organization and I’m incredibly fortunate that they’ve been so supportive of my artistic work throughout the years,” he says. It kicked off a busy season for this U of T grad: his work Three Inventions, for violin and cello, received its Japanese premiere in Osaka; his Four Folkless Songs, for harp and violin, were premiered in June during the National Youth Orchestra of Canada’s Chamberfest; and Duo Holz (Michael Murphy and Aysel Taghi-Zada) performed his newly commissioned piece From Earth, to Seeds, for violin and shō. “I’ve had the pleasure of working with Michael Murphy in his typical role as a percussionist, however this was my first time writing a shō part for him — always an exciting challenge working with a new instrument!” Speaking of exciting challenges, Ritz has been selected as the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s RBC affiliate composer for the next two seasons.
While it’s all highly impressive, Ritz is quick to add: “Hands down the most important thing that happened to me in the past year was marrying my wonderful husband, Dustin.” After honeymooning in France and Italy in May, they returned in time for Ritz to go to Brunswick, Maine, to participate in the Bowdoin International Music Festival’s composition program. He dreams of composing a large-scale concerto one day. That is, if he can find the mental space: “Any time not spent thinking about music is dedicated to thinking about food — cooking food, eating food, watching TV shows about food, and a personal favourite: thinking about your next meal while you’re still eating the current one. It’s almost a full-time job!”
Anne-Frédérique Gagnon, guitarist
Age: 27
From: Lévis, Que.
Last October, Anne-Frédérique Gagnon released her debut album, Bridge, a collection of works by François Couture. It includes his Guitar Sonata No. 2, of which she’d given the premiere five months earlier, during the celebrations surrounding the 100th anniversary of the Faculty of Music of Laval University. “I only had a week to learn the piece, and so I worked with François to play it the way he intended,” she recalls. She followed that up in June with another album, Virtuoses romantiques, featuring works she studied while completing her advanced training program with Pascal Valois at the Conservatoire de musique de Saguenay.
Gagnon’s journey actually began on violin, but everything changed when her father played AC/DC’s album Black Ice. “I remember hearing the crisp sound of Angus Young’s Gibson,” she recalls. “I started being obsessed with the electric guitar, picturing myself having my own rock band and going on worldwide tours.” But classical guitar soon lured her from the electric model, and the rest is history.
Travelling to Spain in 2020 to do the guitar master program at the University of Alicante was pivotal for Gagnon — “I just can’t get enough of this country,” she says — and she has returned every year since. She’ll be there later this month, to take part in the Camino artes guitar workshop. “We play concerts every night in venues around the town of Carrión de los Condes,” she describes. “We also have a new audience every day, as it consists mainly of pilgrims walking the Camino de Santiago.”
Akhil Jobanputra, vocalist
Age: 27
From: Burnaby, B.C.
“In June 2023, I presented my Praveśikā — essentially my stage debut — as per the curriculum set out by one of my gurus, Pandit Arijit Mahalanabis,” recalls Akhil Jobanputra. The concert was presented by Jobanputra’s non-profit, the Indian Classical Music Society of Vancouver. “It was challenging to prepare and present three different sub-genres of Hindustani vocal music: khayal, dhrupad, and ghazal. They each demanded something different from me in terms of voice production, improvisational movement and overall esthetics.” The success of that performance propelled him to India for the first time since 2017 to visit his other guru, Pandit Arun Dravid. There, he gave a concert alongside two Mumbai-based artists, Swapnil Bhise on tabla and Vanraj Shastri on sarangi. “This was not only my first professional concert in India, but also my first live performance in front of my guru.”
With his self-confidence boosted, Jobanputra finally passed his driver’s exam. “This may seem trivial, but it really isn’t,” he says. “I’ve never felt comfortable behind the wheel. I failed my test three times, always just shy of passing and psyching myself out toward the end.” Now, with his driver’s licence, he says he can get himself to his favourite hiking trails on the Sunshine Coast.
In May, Jobanputra gave a lecture-demonstration on dhrupad at the Seattle Asian Art Museum. He’d like to finish some ragas that he’s been working on, but scrolling through Instagram reels (his guilty pleasure) is a distraction. “Although, if I’m scrolling through cat videos, then I no longer count it under the guilty category,” he notes. “We all deserve more cat videos in our feeds!”
Solina Lee, cellist
Age: 26
From: Edmonton
This spring, Solina Lee completed her master’s in cello performance at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music, and for her graduation recital, she enlisted 11 other cellists to play Julius Klengel’s Hymnus. “The piece starts by introducing each cello by stacking a chord from the bottom to the top, like the sun rising,” she describes. “I wasn’t sure if it was possible to coordinate around 12 individual schedules. But, in some miraculous way, we were able to find time together without a hitch. It was like destiny!” Now, destiny has led her back home to Edmonton (“I’m happiest when I’m close to my family and my friends”), where she created Wild Rose Chamber Music, a concert series. “This project came from my love of chamber music and a way to answer my question on how to program diverse composers in an honest and compelling way,” she explains. Its inaugural edition took place in late June.
Lee says the “charisma” in Han-Na Chang’s cello sound convinced her to pursue a career in music, and she credits Brian Manker, her cello teacher at McGill, with showing her “that you can be a successful musician without compromising on kindness.” And there’s a poignant story behind Lee’s decision to take up the cello in the first place: “I grew up with two older sisters, and my middle sister, Sophia, was the first one to play the cello. I remember she loved everything about it. She died when she was nine and I was seven years old. I began learning the cello about a year after her passing.”
Duncan Stenhouse, bass-baritone
Age: 26
From: Calgary
“As a kid, if I was ever asked what music I liked, I’d very forcefully say ‘anything but opera,'” recalls Duncan Stenhouse. But hearing Samuel Ramey’s voice as the Beast in 2014’s animated TV miniseries Over the Garden Wall changed his mind. “Maybe loving choir wasn’t all there was to singing,” he wondered at the time. Fast-forward to today, and Stenhouse has just completed his voice studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London, England, and will return to Canada this fall to begin his tenure as a member of the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio, having won third prize in its 2023 Centre Stage Competition.
His remaining weeks in London will be spent immersed in the music of Puccini, making his role and company debut as Colline in Longborough Festival Opera’s production of La bohème, and singing in the chorus for Opera Holland Park’s revival of Tosca. “It’s a big summer of Puccini for me!”
And while Puccini is great, for Stenhouse nothing beats the “grandiose majesty” of Verdi’s operas. “I first sang Verdi at the start of my master’s program when I brought [the aria] ‘Come dal ciel’ from Macbeth to one of my lessons, worried my teacher would tell me it was a few years away,” he reminisces. “It quickly became evident that this repertoire really suited my voice.” The following year, Stenhouse sang the role of Zaccaria in a concert performance of Verdi’s Nabucco in London. “It was the only show of mine my Granny ever got to see before she passed,” he says. Coincidentally, Nabucco opens the COC’s new season and Stenhouse will sing the role of the High Priest of Baal. “It all feels full-circle and surreal. I’m sure every night I’ll have my Gran on my mind.”
Florence Laurain, flutist
Age: 25
From: Montreal
“I still can’t believe I have my dream job,” says Florence Laurain, pinching herself, even though she’s held the second flute position in l’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal since March 2023 (tenured since March 2024). In November, they’ll do a concert tour of Europe, with stops in London, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Paris, Berlin, Munich and Vienna.
Laurain loves the symphonies of Gustav Mahler — “They are such wonderful constructions, with such emotion and colours,” she describes — and that’s what she played earlier this summer, in Switzerland, as a returning member of the Verbier Festival Orchestra. She loves it there, having studied at the Haute école de musique de Genève. It’s also where she met her boyfriend. “I can swim in the lake and see the Alps,” she muses. “I can’t get enough of the mountain views, it’s magic for me.”
In June, back in Montreal, Laurain cast a spell of her own, mesmerizing the jury of the Prix d’Europe competition, where she played music by J.S. Bach, Sergei Prokofiev, Denis Gougeon and Philippe Gaubert and won three prizes. She credits her mother with immersing her in classical music, especially Beethoven’s symphonies, as a child. “I think this made me very sensitive to how to play classical and Romantic music and know the style without even realizing it,” she reflects. When she’s not practising — “breathing, as dumb as it sounds, is one of the technical skills I am still trying to master,” she says — Laurain plays table tennis, chess, and does crosswords.
Eric Prodger, trombonist (bass and tenor)
Age: 25
From: Gatineau, Que.
Readers in Winnipeg, meet Eric Prodger, the newly confirmed principal bass trombonist of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, whose 2024-25 season is packed with some of his “bucket list” repertoire: Sibelius’s 7th, Tchaikovsky’s 6th, Debussy’s La Mer, Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegel and Berlioz’s Harold in Italy. “It’s going to be quite a sonic journey,” he says. (Insider intel: if you’re looking for Prodger after a WSO concert, you’re apt to find him eating chicken at Wee Johnnys.)
More than just a career, music is a lifestyle for Prodger: “Music allows me to travel, meet fascinating people and constantly challenge myself,” he explains. One such person is James Markey, bass trombonist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. “I was fortunate enough to study with Jim for about two years,” Prodger recalls. “During that time, he completely dispelled the old saying, ‘Don’t meet your heroes.’ He’s one of the nicest people in the business and had a profoundly positive influence on my life, both musically and personally.”
Prodger has a strong connection to Montreal, where he did some of his studies. “The level of artistry and dedication in the music community there is inspiring, and I always learn something new when collaborating with local artists.” He did just that on July 28 at La Maison symphonique, wrapping up a Beethoven symphony cycle with l’Orchestre de la francophonie. Days off might be spent golfing (“the breathing techniques and mental discipline I use in my trombone practice often translate well to my golf game”) or satisfying his craving for Asian cuisine — “the simplicity of sushi, the comforting warmth of ramen, the bold flavours of Korean barbecue, the communal experience of hot pot.” Bon appétit, Eric.
Brandon Figueroa, tubist
Age: 24
From: Tofino, B.C.
“You are a goldfish attempting to swim in a shark tank.” That’s how a seasoned tubist from a major orchestra cautioned Brandon Figueroa when he decided to make the jump from jazz clarinet to classical tuba performance. “I didn’t know what I was getting myself into, swapping jazz standards for symphonies,” he now recalls. Well, it was a good move, if Figueroa’s recent experiences are any indication. He was acting principal tubist of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra from 2021 to ’22, and while there, he taught tuba students at the University of Manitoba’s Desautels Faculty of Music. In May, he was the tubist for the National Arts Centre Orchestra’s mentorship program for a second consecutive year. They performed Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloe and Mahler’s Symphony No. 5. “The experience remains indescribable,” he says.
Interesting fact about Figueroa: his great-uncle was a decorated major league baseball pitcher. “Baseball runs through my veins,” he says. “I played for many years and would have pursued it if I wasn’t pursuing music.” In fact, another MLB player has had a huge influence: “Zack Greinke has spoken about his anxiety publicly,” he explains, adding, “I’ve suffered from anxiety for a long time. Zack has taught me to keep going. In your lowest lows, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.” For Figueroa, one of the brightest lights shines in the realm of pop music: “Nothing gets the adrenaline flowing for me before my tuba warm-up than jamming out to some Dua Lipa,” he says.
Chloé Dumoulin, pianist
Age: 24
From: Montreal
Growing up, Chloé Dumoulin absorbed her parents’ music: not only Chopin, Brahms and Beethoven, but also Radiohead, U2 and Gorillaz. “I still listen to them,” she says, “and to add to the list, I need to name [English singer-songwriter] James Blake, one of my current favourite artists.” Blake’s allure may have influenced her decision to hop the pond to London, England, where she’s currently halfway through her artist diploma at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. “Studying with Ronan O’Hara in this magical city has been so exciting and probably the deepest life-changing experience I’ve had,” she reflects.
Inspired by Martha Argerich (“her playing brings me excitement, tears and electricity”) and Charles Richard-Hamelin (“sophisticated and touching, sincere and well-thought-out at the same time”), Dumoulin recently conquered her fear of international piano competitions by entering the Concurs Internacional Maria Canals in Barcelona. “This gave me confidence in my playing, I got to meet fantastic musicians from all around the world, and the city was simply breathtaking — a true source of joy.” In June, back in Montreal, she won the $5,000 third prize at the Prix d’Europe competition.
Another source of joy for Dumoulin is food. She loves cooking, dining out and watching TV series like Top Chef. This summer, before returning to London, she’s performing all over Quebec — and, presumably, indulging in the Haitian cuisine (a particular passion) widely available in her hometown.
Dabin Zoey Yang, violinist
Age: 24
From: Toronto via Seoul, South Korea
Later this summer, Dabin Zoey Yang is moving to New Haven, Conn., to begin her master of musical arts degree at Yale University on a full scholarship and robust stipend. “I’ll be studying with the amazing violinist Augustin Hadelich,” she swoons. In June, to mark the culmination of six years studying at McGill’s Schulich School of Music, Yang decided to enter the Prix d’Europe competition. “I wanted to have a final performance in front of people in Montreal,” she says. But she had not expected to win the $50,000 first prize. “What a crazy way to end it! I’m thankful that the audience liked my performance.” As part of her prize, she’ll give recitals in Amos and Val d’Or, Que., in October and she’ll perform as a soloist with l’Orchestre symphonique des jeunes de Montréal next March.
Yang’s teacher at McGill has been Andrew Wan, concertmaster of l’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. “Leading the entire orchestra and communicating with the conductor all the time requires a huge responsibility,” she notes, “but I think he shines the most onstage. I want to become like him one day.” She’s also a fan of Kerson Leong — “an amazing violinist with crazy technique” — and senses a personal connection to the compositions of Dmitri Shostakovich: “I feel very natural expressing my emotions with his music.” Offstage, you’re apt to find Yang thrifting for vinyl LPs, bowling, binge-watching Friends or window-shopping and café-hunting in Old Montreal.
Martin Bui, percussionist
Age: 24
From: Edmonton
The past year marked a full circle for Martin Bui: after completing his master’s in percussion performance from California State University, Long Beach, he returned to his hometown as principal percussionist of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra for the 2023-24 concert season. He says “every concert is a blessing,” but singles out their “beast” of a concert in May as a highlight: Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, Ravel’s La Valse, and Avner Dorman’s Piano Concerto No. 3. And while Bui is happy to be home, he does long for the people, food and pre-rehearsal mountain rides in Boulder, Colo., where he has been assistant timpanist with the Colorado MahlerFest Orchestra.
Bui’s paternal grandparents are his role models. “They came to Canada in the ’70s, after the Vietnam War, and raised my dad and his siblings here,” he explains. “I can’t fathom the struggle and sacrifice they’ve had to make so their grandchildren could have the opportunity for a future in Canada.”
He says his ideal day off is a quiet one (“life as a percussionist is pretty noisy,” he notes), but when he wants to crank the volume, he turns to the music of Shostakovich: “The guy is metal,” he says, “and I’m not just talking about the bombastic timpani and percussion parts. His composition style is so recognizable and undeniably him.” Fun fact: Bui plays drums in a country cover band with his friends, and rumour has it he’s a Cadillac Ranch pro. “Growing up in Alberta does things to you.”
Luca Ortolani, oboist
Age: 24
From: Ottawa
In April, Luca Ortolani won the $8,000 National Arts Centre Orchestra Bursary as well as the competition’s $1,500 Sturdevant Prize for orchestral excerpts, named in honour of former NACO principal trumpeter Douglas (Pace) Sturdevant. “These awards are both very meaningful to me because I grew up attending NACO concerts [and] the orchestra is the reason I fell in love with classical music,” Ortolani says. “It’s especially moving for me to have been awarded the Sturdevant Prize as it was Pace Sturdevant himself who, early on, encouraged me to pursue a life in music.” That life will lead Ortolani to Los Angeles this fall to continue his training with Eugene Izotov at the Colburn School — “a dream of mine,” says the young oboist, who completed his bachelor of music with Sarah Jeffrey at U of T and his master’s with Titus Underwood at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music.
“I think every orchestral player secretly wishes they played the cello,” Ortolani admits, although he had a good time in May, as one of two oboists taking part in NACO’s mentorship program. “The last two months have been very surreal for me!” When he’s not busy making an arsenal of reeds (“to meet the demands of my performances and school activities,” he explains), Ortolani blows his budget on albums. “I have a decent audio setup and I love all aspects of collecting LPs: the sound of vinyl recordings, the liner notes, the cover art — everything.”
We invited Ortolani to Temerty Theatre at the Royal Conservatory of Music to play one of Schumann’s Romances with Kevin Ahfat.
Thalia Navas, bassoonist
Age: 24
From: Ottawa
Recent Juilliard grad Thalia Navas has spent the past year playing second bassoon with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, where recent highlights include Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde. She’s also over the moon to have taken her love of rock-climbing to a new level. “Since moving to Vancouver, I’ve had the opportunity to climb outside in Squamish, one of the best places in the world for climbing,” she beams. “Getting to transfer all the skills I’ve learned indoors to real rock has been amazing and has made me fall in love with the sport even more.”
When she’s not scaling cliffs, Navas is listening to the “beautiful melodies, complemented by the most interesting harmonies” of Prokofiev’s music. “I always find that my part in isolation feels like it shouldn’t fit with the rest of the orchestra, but it always works somehow,” she notes. But even Prokofiev takes a back seat to Taylor Swift, especially her album Folklore, released during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I was feeling discouraged because all performances came to a complete stop, with no end in sight,” she recalls. “This album not only gave me so much joy, but it also reminded me that it’s possible to create art during such times.” No surprise that Navas has attended not one, but two concerts in Swift’s Eras tour.
Astrid Nakamura, violinist
Age: 24
From: Toronto
Earlier this summer, when Astrid Nakamura returned to Vermont for her third chamber music intensive at Yellow Barn, her case contained an exciting new instrument: the Eckhardt-Gramatté Joachim Georges Chanot I violin, on loan from the Canada Council for the Arts. “It really matches my style of playing and has a big personality,” she says. With degrees from the Royal Conservatory’s Phil and Eli Taylor Academy and McGill’s Schulich School of Music under her belt, Nakamura recently completed her master’s at Rice University in Houston, Texas, where a highlight was joining Dacamera‘s young artists fellowship program. “We do a mix of teaching in elementary schools and performing classical concerts around Houston,” she explains. “I love how the program breaks the cookie-cutter idea of a classical musician, and challenges me to think outside the box.”
In May, as a member of the Houston-based new music collective Musiqa, Nakamura travelled to Geneva, Switzerland, for the AI for Good Global Summit. “We had dancers from NobleMotion, scientists from the University of Houston Brain Center, and our quartet from Rice,” she describes. “The dancers used EEG caps to read their brain activity during the performance.”
Nakamura’s own brain is stimulated not only by music, but also fragrances. “Exploring scents is so interesting to me. I like finding strange notes — my favourites are vinyl and tomato leaf,” she says, adding that a dream project would be “creating an olfactory exhibit with a perfumer and merging music with smells.” We’re into it!
Andrew Busch, percussionist
Age: 23
From: Toronto
Those outside the percussion community may not know that April 27 is Ontario Percussion Day, and this year, celebrations took place in Windsor — 30 minutes from Andrew Busch’s hometown, Amherstburg. “A group of percussion and composition friends from U of T and the Glenn Gould School came to perform,” he recounts. “My parents offered to host all seven of us so we could save money. There’s something heartwarming about seeing your friends with big smiles on their faces, wandering in the same spaces, stores and restaurants that you visited throughout your childhood. My heart was truly full for the entirety of the weekend.”
But evidently not too full to receive the news that he’s this year’s recipient of the $15,000 Michael Measures Second Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada. “I submitted recordings that I am incredibly proud of,” he says, “and it felt amazing to hear that the hard work paid off.” Busch took part in the NYOC’s chamber music intensive in June before joining the “fantastic section of young, talented percussionists” for the orchestra’s Horizons tour of Ontario and the Prairies in July.
Another recent highlight for Busch was playing in the final concert of Esprit Orchestra’s 2023-24 season, alongside one of his teachers and mentors, Ryan Scott. “The icing on the cake was getting to perform John Adams’s Harmonielehre — one of my all-time favourite orchestral works.” Fans can catch the U of T Percussion Ensemble’s Kairos Percussion Quartet, which Busch co-founded, at Toronto Music Garden on Aug. 25, a presentation of Toronto Summer Music.
Jammie Lee, pianist
Age: 23
From: Winnipeg via South Korea
In April, Jammie Lee won the $10,000 first prize at the Women’s Musical Club of Winnipeg’s McLellan Competition, playing Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in the final round — “particularly special because it was the piece I performed for my orchestral debut at the age of 15,” he points out. He also won an “absolute platinum award” in the over-18 category of the inaugural U.S.–Canadian International Music Competition in March. Adding to these musical achievements was an important personal milestone for Lee: he returned to Korea for the first time in 10 years. “Being there brought back a flood of nostalgic and heartwarming memories,” he says.
This fall, Lee will rise to a new challenge, but it’s not what you’d expect: he’s been accepted into med school at the University of Manitoba. “Balancing academic excellence with major musical activities has been a unique challenge, often requiring sacrifices along the way,” he reflects. “There were moments when I doubted whether I could successfully pursue both passions, but this experience taught me that anything is possible with diligence and motivation.”
Before taking up a stethoscope, Lee says his summer plans include recording music by Bach, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Liszt. “Having a good recording is incredibly valuable, as it can be used for auditions, competitions, or simply as a personal benchmark to look back on,” he explains. He’s got his sights set on the Sendai International Music Competition in June 2025. We like his chances.
Carys Sutherland, hornist and writer
Age: 22
From: Halifax via Stratford, Ont.
Citizens of Halifax: meet Carys Sutherland, recent Juilliard grad and the new principal hornist of Symphony Nova Scotia. Highlights of her first season with the orchestra will include Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 — “but I’m most excited to perform Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante as a soloist alongside my amazing woodwind colleagues,” she says.
Before settling into her new role, Sutherland is attending this summer’s Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont. In June, she toured England and Scotland with Juilliard415, playing the treacherous baroque horn part in Bach’s Mass in B Minor. (The Opera Today reviewer described her playing as “seemingly fearless.”) Last November, she and three friends played Schumann’s Konzertstück for Four Horns with the Juilliard Orchestra. “I also wrote the program notes for that concert, among others at Juilliard, which is a newfound pursuit of mine,” she adds.
“Lip trills are my Sisyphean boulder,” admits this self-described sci-fi and fantasy nerd, who often spices up her horn warm-ups by watching analyses of Dune and Game of Thrones on YouTube. She also compares herself to a tortoise: “Not only because of the ‘shell’ of my horn case on my back, but because I’m an introvert, and once I come out of my shell I’m very loving and talkative.” Slow and steady wins the race, Carys!
Renée Qin, harpist and composer
Age: 22
From: West Vancouver
Renée Qin credits The Sound of Music for captivating her, and setting her on this current path. “Listening to its songs throughout my childhood, I was inspired to learn the piano at an early age and pursue music more seriously,” she recalls. That pursuit led her to Stanford University in California, where she recently graduated with a bachelor of arts with honours in both music and economics. A highlight was performing Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp at Stanford’s Bing Concert Hall on May 19. “Bing Concert Hall has fantastic acoustics and has hosted many legendary artists,” she describes. “Performing with a fantastic group of Bay Area professional musicians was both an honour and an absolute thrill.”
During the spring term, she also worked as a teaching assistant for Professor Paul Milgrom, a Nobel Prize laureate in economics.”I facilitated learning among students on how market design can solve real-world problems, further enhancing my own understanding of matching and auction theories.”
After all that, she recharged her batteries this summer by attending a John Legend concert, a magic show by Shin Lim, and Cirque du Soleil’s O. “These live performances inspire my personal approach to curating my own concerts,” she reflects. Those include a performance early next year featuring her own compositions alongside a selection of her audiovisual projects. Offstage, Qin loves the “thrilling blend of adventure, science and drama” in Doctor Who, the music Joe Hisaishi composed for Hayao Miyazaki’s films, and hanging out with her cat, Dolce.
Rachel McFarlane, composer
Age: 22
From: Toronto
“Working on the score of a Disney or Pixar movie would be an absolute dream for me,” says Rachel McFarlane — and before long, that dream seems destined to come true. She’s currently studying at the Berklee College of Music with a double major in games and interactive media scoring and film scoring, and was recently awarded the EA/Berklee Charting Change Scholarship, which comes not only with financial support but also mentorship from a team of industry leaders. She has also been commissioned to compose an orchestral work for the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Oscar Peterson School, and a piece for mezzo-soprano and chamber ensemble for the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra’s Songs of Hope project. She’ll follow that up with an orchestral work for the SPO in 2025.
McFarlane singles out Stephanie Economou as especially inspiring: “She was the first woman to win a Grammy for best video game score,” she explains. “But it’s not just her work that motivates me — it’s her entire journey. Watching her break barriers and achieve such high levels of success in a male-dominated industry shows me that it’s possible to reach my dreams, too.” McFarlane spends her (steadily decreasing) spare time baking. “It’s a creative outlet that’s just as fulfilling as making music,” she points out. Fun fact: she grew up in a soccer family. “Before diving into music, I was always out on the field showing off some pretty nice moves,” she remembers. “It’s been a while since those days, but I still love kicking the ball around whenever I get the chance.”
Keshav Srinivasan, violinist
Age: 20
From: Winnipeg
This fall, Keshav Srinivasan will return to Chicago for his third year as a dual degree student (violin performance, economics and data science) at Northwestern University. “One of the best parts of studying in the Chicago area is taking the ‘L’ train to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra every chance I get,” he says. For the 2024-25 season, he’ll also be riding to rehearsals and performances with the Civic Orchestra, the CSO’s renowned training program. “[It’s] beyond my wildest dreams,” he enthuses. “It will give me a taste of what it takes to be a professional orchestral musician.” He’s extra excited to play Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 under Carlos Prieto next April.
As the recipient of an award of excellence from the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, Srinivasan has been enjoying his summer performing in its Horizons tour, especially as concertmaster for Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra — “a 45-minute beast of a piece, and I am up for the challenge,” he says.
In addition to music, tennis has been a lifelong passion for Srinivasan, who learned to play in the lane behind his grandparents’ house in Winnipeg. “I love everything to do with tennis — playing, discussing, watching,” he says, and Roger Federer has been his biggest inspiration: “During his tennis career, he was the most exciting player to watch because of how effortless he made every shot seem. I’d like to get to a level in my violin playing that I can make my difficult passages look as effortless as his down-the-line backhand shots.”
Emad Zolfaghari, violist
Age: 19
From: Oakville, Ont.
The past 15 months have been epic for Emad Zolfaghari: on June 22, he won the $15,000 first prize and the audience prize at the Primrose International Viola Competition, held at the Colburn School in L.A. Earlier in the year, he was one of two students from the Curtis Institute of Music selected for the 2024 edition of Curtis on Tour, a seven-city American concert tour during which he played string sextets alongside Curtis faculty and alumni. “I learned so much about touring professionally, and had lots of fun,” he recalls. He also won the $13,000 first prize at the 2023 Irving M. Klein International String Competition in San Francisco, setting up a solo performance with the Santa Cruz Symphony in January 2025. A month before the Klein Competition, he performed as soloist with l’Orchestre Métropolitain and Yannick-Nézet-Séguin. “An experience I will never forget!”
To keep himself grounded, Zolfaghari looks to his father. “He immigrated to Canada from Iran when he was 20 with absolutely nothing and worked extremely hard to provide my siblings and me with a better life,” he reflects. “He always reminds me to stay humble, work hard, be grateful and never forget where I came from.”
So far this summer, Zolfaghari has already been in Ohio for Cleveland Chamberfest, and Calgary for Chamberfest West. Fortunately, there’s still time for his annual family hang at his grandmother’s cottage in Sainte-Justine, Que., where he’ll swim, go fishing and four-wheeling, and — most importantly — sleep in. “These weeks in the summer are magical.”
Jimmy Lee, pianist and composer
Age: 18
From: West Vancouver via Hong Kong
“No more high school — yay!” enthuses recent Langley Fine Arts School grad Jimmy Lee. And while he’s excited to begin his next chapter, high school was an enriching experience: at his school’s 2023 music festival, he won the award for best music composition for his string quartet Spooky Cat, which got performed by the Rose Gellert String Quartet last November; he also won the award for Canadian Music (advanced/senior piano) and a Leonard Woods Memorial Scholarship.
It gets even better: in May, Lee won the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra School of Music’s Future of Excellence Competition. “Panache is the word that encapsulates Jimmy’s performing style,” says Lee’s teacher, Bogdan Dulu, who’s a Jemini Foundation Chair in Piano at the VSO. “He’s a natural-born performer, and we all got to witness that.” As a result of his win, Lee will perform as soloist with the VSO in the coming concert season.
Another pianist performing with the VSO this season is Lang Lang, who’ll play Camille Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 2 on Oct. 4, a date circled in red on Lee’s calendar. (He’s a big fan.) Lee also draws inspiration from Japanese pianist Hayato Sumino (“his effortless touch and playing style inspire me to be totally relaxed when performing, to only focus on the music itself”) and Chinese composer/producer Chen Yu Peng, known for the music he wrote for the action/role-playing game Genshin Impact. “I consider video games a form of art,” Lee says. “Well-made music, art and programming, combined, can create an amazing experience for the player.” He does admit to spending too much time gaming — time that he says would be better spent working on control at the piano: “It’s easy to just play loud, but harder to play softly and accurately with micro-management of each note.”
Ryan Wang, pianist
Age: 16
From: West Vancouver
In June, Ryan Wang gave a recital at the Vancouver Playhouse, a presentation of the Glenn Gould Foundation. It was a poignant homecoming for the teen piano sensation, who’s currently studying at Eton College in the U.K. In May, he completed his artist diploma at another school, the École normale de musique de Paris, where he received the highest mark among his classmates for his recital exam, and won the 2024 Prix Cortot for his efforts — the youngest recipient in that prize’s history. Back at Eton, Wang is looking forward to playing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with his school’s symphony orchestra in June 2025. This September, he’ll play Rach 2 with the Brandenburg Sinfonia at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.
Along with Bruce Liu, Alim Beisembayev, and Yunchan Lim, Wang was featured in the Fondation Louis Vuitton’s New Generation Piano series in Paris, and gave a solo recital there in March 2023. That same month, he was the youngest musician to appear on Classic FM’s Rising Stars: 30 sensational musicians under 30.
Wang names Frédéric Chopin as his favourite composer — “his music comes from the soul” — and singles out the Chopin Institute’s album Best Mazurka Performances, 1927-2015 as especially meaningful to him. It includes performances by Kate Liu, whom Wang admires. “She can make the piano sing long, beautiful phrases and her sound and timing are magical.” But there’s more to life than piano: “I love skiing, even though everyone tells me to be careful of my fingers,” he says. Hitting the slopes at Whistler earlier this year tops his list of achievements.
Sunny Ritter, pianist
Age: 14
From: Toronto
“My mission as a musician is to wage war against war through music’s healing power.”
Now, you might say striving for world peace is a rather lofty goal for a classical musician, but then again, you may not know Sunny Ritter, the youngest musician on this year’s list — and possibly the wisest. “If I play beautifully enough, then the music will mend and transcend what divides us,” she continues. “Conflict will vanish, peace will prevail, and we’ll all be one at heart.”
Ritter is currently working toward that goal as an undergraduate at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg in the studio of Pietro De Maria. In April and July 2023, she played Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 in the Golden Hall of Vienna’s famed Musikverein. “I was like, pinch me, I’m dreaming! Yet I felt totally at home,” she recalls. In May, she won the “absolute” top prize at the 13th Amigdala International Music Competition in Sicily. “It was amazing to play in the shadow of Mount Etna,” she says, adding, “if that doesn’t put a spark in your playing, nothing will.” Closer to home, Ritter won first prize in her age category at the 2024 Omni Competition, organized by l’Orchestre Métropolitain, and on June 4, she performed in the Fondation de la Place des Arts’ Future Stars showcase, an annual benefit concert that raised $650,000 for arts accessibility and inclusion. Fans in the Toronto area can catch her return engagement with Sinfonia Toronto, performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 on May 3, 2025.
