Anna Banaszkiewicz

Anna Banaszkiewicz was born in Częstochowa, Poland in 1981. She started her violin education at the age of 7 at the Specialist Primary School of Music in Częstochowa and continued at the Specialist Secondary School of Music in Częstochowa where she finished with distinction in 2000. She studied in Łódź with Prof. Iwona Wojciechowska and in Poznań Academy of Music with Prof. Bartosz Bryła where she graduated from in 2005 with a Master of Music Degree. In 2004 she was a guest student at the Musikhochschule in Lübeck, Germany with Prof. Maria Egelhof. From 2005 - 2006 she studied at the Royal College of Music, London, on the Postgraduate Diploma in Performance course. She studied violin with Berent Korfker and baroque violin with Adrian Butterfield.

Anna has participated in many masterclasses in Poland, UK, Spain and Italy: with Giuliano Carmignola (Accademia Musicale Chigiana), Eduard Grach, Andriy Viytovich, Evgeny Grach, Catherine MacIntosh and Maria Egelhof among others. She has also participated in orchestral courses in Austria, Slovenia and Italy. She has appeared several times as a soloist with the Częstochowa Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as with school and international youth orchestras. She has played in many venues across Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, Austria, Switzerland and Slovenia.

In 2007 she was a member of Southbank Sinfonia, London, a professional orchestra for young graduates from British conservatoires. The programme included concerts with such conductors and soloists as Antonio Papano, Barry Wortsworth, Michael Collins and Raphael Wallfisch. She also performed Brahms Violin Concerto with the orchestra during the Anghiari Festival, Italy, and also took part in many chamber music activities within the orchestra, including a concert at the Wigmore Hall, in London.

Anna is a member of two permanent chamber music groups: The Turner Piano Quintet, with which she has performed widely within London and in Switzerland, France and Poland, and the early music ensemble La Musica del Mondo, with which she has appeared in many prestigious venues in London, including the National Gallery. La Musica del Mondo has also been a recipient of the Fossat Award, and recently have (been - get rid of this word) qualified for the 6th Osaka Chamber Music Competition and Festa in Japan.

Currently Anna is a freelance violinist playing with leading UK orchestras including the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

Emma Elkinson

Irish-born flutist Emma Elkinson is a musician of remarkable talents and diverse interests whose extensive performing experience runs the gamut from contemporary chamber music and concerto soloist appearances to performances with the Ukrainian Mandolin Orchestra and a concert for the Pope.

Emma has appeared as a concerto soloist, orchestral player, chamber ensemble musician and recitalist across Ireland and in Canada, Italy, Scotland, Germany, Denmark and France. A member of the chamber music ensembles Fluterra and the Ardeleana Trio, she is also principal flutist for the Etobicoke Philharmonic. Other performance credits include appearances with Opera Interna (with John Burke and CONTACT contemporary music); the Patria Theatre Company for performances of R. Murray Schafer's The Enchanted Forest; the University of Toronto's New Music Festival, Wind Ensemble and Symphony Orchestra; and concerts with the Dublin Symphony Orchestra, Hibernian and St. Cecilia Orchestras, Aradia Ensemble, Mooredale Concerts, Jubilee Festival Orchestra and many others. With a keen sense of humanitarian and community spirit, she also performs regularly at hospitals, hospices, homes for the aged and other similar venues.

As a soloist Emma has appeared with the University of Toronto and Etobicoke Symphony Orchestras, Dublin Concert Band, and the Irish Youth Wind Ensemble, playing modern and baroque flutes and recorder. She has given solo recitals at the National Concert Hall, National Art Gallery, the Bank of Ireland, Trinity College Dublin and University of Toronto. Upcoming engagements in 2007-08 include concerto performances with the National Orchestra of Ireland, the Etobicoke Philharmonic Orchestra and the Christchurch Baroque Orchestra.

Playing baroque flute and recorder, Emma has appeared with the International Bach Festival under Helmuth Rilling, Toronto Chamber Choir, the Menno Singers, London Early Music Festival, Kaus Borealis, and in recital with Alison Melville and harpsichordist Borys Medicky. She was also principal flutist in the Tafelmusik's 2005 Baroque Summer Institute.

She has recorded with the Aradia Ensemble for Naxos, played on the soundtrack of the award-winning film In America, and was flutist for the Kieser award-winning composition by Christopher Pierce, performed and recorded at the Glenn Gould Studio for the CBC.

Neil Luck

Neil completed a BMus in music at the Unversity of Surrey, Guildford where he studied with Sebastian Forbes and Stephen Goss, and has recently graduated from the RCM with a Masters degree in composition, awarded with distinction, studying with Michael Zev Gordon, Kenneth Hesketh and David Burnand. Neil was supported in his studies by the RWV trust, a Constant & Kit Lambert award, an Astor award, and the AHRC. Recently Neil was also awarded a scholarship to study compostion at the Dartington International Summer School with John Woolrich and Tansy Davies.

Neil’s compositional practice focuses on various approaches to non-standard notations, in particular those which implicate either the composer’s own body/movement in construction, or directly engage with the physiology of performance techniques themselves. This interest has lead to several interdisciplinary collaborations with the visual artist Sam Belinfante, including the Turtle show at the Slade college of Art, and the 3’30” project with cellist Natalie Clein, and a percussion quartet for Sankorfa.

Performers of Neil’s music include GEMINI, Clive Williamson, The Contemporary Consort, The Composer’s Ensemble, New Century Players, Lawrence Cummings, Sankorfa, Cantilena Orchestra, AJAJA.

Ian McAndrew

Ian McAndrew was born in Vancouver, Canada on 4th January 1958 into a family of amateur musicians. Training in Highland dancing from the age of 4 and subsequent lessons on the bagpipes made way for piano and music theory studies in his teens. As well, he gained choral singing experience in his church and the Vancouver Bach Choirs, and began acting in school plays and musicals. Early attempts at composition, including a song, a string quartet and an opera, La Mort de l'Amour, all written before the age of 14, were abandoned by the composer, who recognized and was frustrated by their derivative and banal nature.

This keen interest in music led naturally to McAndrew's attending the University of British Columbia as an opera major, studying voice and stagecraft with French Tickner and composition with Dr. Stephen Chatman. During his university years he continued to perform in choirs and with local amateur theatre companies.

After working for Pacific Opera Association as Production and Acting General Manager, in 1981 McAndrew moved to Toronto, where he has performed frequently with Toronto Operetta Theatre, St. Anne's Music and Drama Society, and was a founding member of The Victoria Scholars Male Vocal Ensemble in 1993. During this time he also wrote two full-length stage plays, I'll Go Where Hugo and Going Down Under, as well as several short plays and musicals for elementary school production, and was a member of the Tarragon Theatre's Six Playwright's Unit in 1983-1984.

In 1998, at the age of 40, McAndrew began to return his attention to composition. In addition to writing several short vocal, choral and chamber pieces, his first opera, Benjamin Brown, a one-act chamber work for young audiences, was composed in 1999 and recorded in 2000.

His full-length chamber opera based on the story of the Trojan princess and prophetess, Cassandra , with a libretto by Saskatchewan-born playwright Gordon Portman, received its world premiere in concert on 25 May 2003. Although the opera drew only a small audience it was well-received, and a critic in Opera Canada magazine praised McAndrew's " closely-argued" music "recalling the jagged lines and piquant sonorities of Frank Martin combined with the rhythmic vitality of Hindemith ."

McAndrew and Portman are now working on a full-scale opera based on the life of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Mother of Kings.

The Sinfonia for String Orchestra, Op.25 was written in the summer of 2007 for the Classical Music Consort at the request of Ashiq Aziz.

Adam Sherkin

Composer and pianist Adam Sherkin is a dynamic and versatile musician who commands a multi-dimensional approach to classical performance and composition. Noted for innovative programming and engaging presentation, Adam has worked with a considerable amount of chamber ensembles and orchestras both in capacity of player and composer.

A graduate of the Royal College of Music in London, teachers there included David Sawer (composition) and Andrew Ball (piano). Keen to perform both in solo and chamber contexts, Adam has participated in a variety of events including a presentation with the Park Lane Group's Composer Symposium. He has enjoyed debuts of his works at St. James Piccadilly, the National Portrait Gallery, London and The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester. Recital activities with The Westers Trio have taken him to St. Martin-in-the-Fields and Covent Garden, among others.

Performances of Adam's works in Canada have included the premiere of Quartet No. 1, "Toward a Royal Theme" (2004) in April 2004 by Soundstreams Canada. A recently written work for orchestra, Terra Incognita (2004), was read and recorded by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in February of 2004 and premiered in April of 2005 by the Royal Conservatory Orchestra in Toronto under the direction of Alain Trudel.