MUSICIANS

CELLO

Cellist, Sabina Sandvoss, was born into a musical family and received a cello on her fourth birthday. Since then she has enjoyed a musical life attending countless concerts and receiving many diverse artistic influences.

Sabina studied in the Advanced Performance Program at Mount Royal Conservatory where she had the privilege to perform in masterclasses with cellists such as Laurence Lesser, Gustav Rivinius, Alan Harris, Melissa Kraut, Estelle Choi, Tanja Tetzlaff, Colin Carr, and Johannes Moser. Sabina has successfully participated in numerous competitions including winning the Rotary C3 Concerto Competition and first prize in the Frank Simpson Concerto Competition. This granted the opportunity to perform both the Dvorak Cello Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations in the spring of 2022. Additionally, she has advanced to the Provincial and National levels in both the Calgary Performing Arts Festival and the Canadian Music Competition on numerous occasions. Sabina received her early tutelage from her mother, cellist, Beth Root Sandvoss and performs on a cello handcrafted by her father, Christopher Tilman Sandvoss.

VIOLIN

Kyungrok Moon obtained a master's in Music Performance at the University of Toronto with Remi Pelletier. In 2017, she received her MMus in violin performance from the University of Alberta with Robert Uchida and Guillaume Tardif. In 2022, her string quartet was the winner of the U of T Felix Galimir Chamber Music Award. She plays with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra as a section viola regularly. She is the winner of the Alberta Baroque Ensemble Competition. Recently, Kyung Rok Moon has also attended several festivals at home and abroad, including the Toronto Summer Music Festival, the Salt Spring Chamber Music Festival (Canada), The Del Lago(Mexico) Schlern International Music Festival (Italy), and the Shanghai Music Festivals. Kyung Rok Moon has been the recipient of several distinctions, including the Beryl Barns Memorial Scholarship, Queen Elizabeth II Scholarship, Alberta Graduate Student Scholarship, and Kathy Hogan Memorial Scholarship. She had a masterclass with Nancy Dahn, Taras Gaborah, Jonathan Crow, and Juan Miguel Hernandez. She is the principal of the viola section of the Kingston Symphony Orchestra.

FLUTE

Lei Lei is a recipient of the highest award, the Golden Bell Award for flute competition. Lei Lei received full scholarships from the Manhattan School of Music and Indiana University School of Music, where she completed her master's degree and Artist Diploma in flute performance. She has collaborated with renowned conductors such as Krzysztof Penderecki, Carl St. Clare, Arther Fagen, Gilbert Varga, and Stefan Lano, participating in numerous concerts and opera performances. Due to her outstanding professionalism, she was a teaching assistant and associate lecturer of flute at Indiana University in the United States, accumulating a wealth of teaching experience. Lei Lei has also achieved third place in the prestigious NSAL competition in the United States.

CELLO

Praised for her "huge musicality, depth of interpretation, and technical expertise needed to distinguish oneself in the music profession" (Manhattan International Music Competition), cellist Emma Schmiedecke was most recently awarded a Silver Medal in the Professional Category of the 4th Manhattan International Music Competition. Awards and prizes include the Temerty Family Foundation Scholarship, the George Martin/Hans Thatcher Clarke Scholarship, the Christopher Bunting Scholarship, the Clive Allen Fellowship, the Denise lreland & Harry Underwood Fellowship, the Ingeborg and Angela Kramer Award, a McGill University Graduate Dean's Award, and first prize in the Bravura Philharmonic and Bergen Philharmonic Young Artist Competitions. As an advocate for contemporary music, she has worked closely with composers Joan Tower, George Tsontakis, John Corigliano, Ana Sokolovic, and Susan Botti, and has performed with the Da Capo Chamber Players, Fifth House Ensemble, Against the Grain Theatre Company, Novarumori Ensemble, and the Contemporaneous New Music Ensemble. She holds a doctorate in cello performance from the University of Toronto and also holds degrees from McGill University, the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music, the Bard College Conservatory of Music, and Bard College.

VIOLIN

Joelle Crigger has served as concertmaster of The Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra, the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the North York Concert Orchestra. As a soloist, Joelle has performed with multiple orchestras including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. An avid chamber musician, Joelle travelled to France in 2024, where her quartet performed at the Conservatoire de Lyon’s New Music Festival. As well, she recently performed with the TSO Chamber Soloists as part of an octet led by violinist James Ehnes. A versatile musician, Joelle is well-versed in playing a variety of fiddle styles and is a past winner of the Canadian Open Junior Fiddle Championship.

A recipient of numerous scholarships and the Stingray Rising Stars Award, Joelle earned her Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance from The University of Toronto, where she studied with Jonathan Crow. She is currently a full scholarship student at the Glenn Gould School of Music.

VIOLIN

Currently, Eiko is a Violin Player of Sinfonia Toronto. She has been a violinist of Hong Kong Sinfonietta over a decade and performed across the world prestigious concert halls, including Carnegie Hall, La Maison Symphonique, Taipei National Hall, Takemitsu Memorial Hall, Suntory hall etc. She received her Master Degree and Bachelor of Music from the Tokyo College of Music. She was awarded fellowship and scholarship from the Mozarteum International Summer Academy, the Symphony Orchestra Academy of the Pacific and Asian Youth Orchestra. She also took part in many recording projects.She was chosen as a student for master classes conducted by the concertmasters of world renowned orchestras.

VIOLIN

A passionate and dedicated young artist, violinist Amanda Yee is originally from Ottawa and started her musical journey at the age of three. She soon joined the Ottawa Suzuki School of Music and has since established several successful performance and study credits in the industry. Amanda graduated from Canterbury High School for the Performing Arts in 2020 where she played many side-by-side concerts with the National Art Center Orchestra (NACO), one of Canada's premier professional orchestras. In her youth, Amanda was a member of the Ottawa Cappies Orchestra (2015-18), Ottawa Junior Youth Orchestra (2015) and Ottawa Youth Orchestra (OYO) (2018-2020). She had the privilege to study under the guidance of Grace Bruno, Donnie Deacon – formally the Principal Second violinist of NACO and Music Director of Ottawa Youth Orchestra Academy, and the late Yehonatan Berick.

VIOLIN

A native of Hong Kong, Kenneth started playing violin at the age of 7. By the age of 12 he was accepted into the Interlochen Arts Academy. He went on to finish his studies at the Peabody Conservatory of Music and McGill University. His Teachers include Dennis Kim, Violaine Mealancon, Felicia Moye and Denise Lupien. While attending McGill University, Kenneth was generously sponsored by the Sir Kenneth Fun Ping Fan Foundation Trust I.

Prior to Joining the Kitchener- Waterloo Symphony in 2019, Kenneth spent one season with the Thunder Bay Symphony. He maintains a busy freelance schedule and can be seen performing regularly with other orchestras in Canada, such as the Toronto Symphony, Toronto Concert Orchestra and Hamilton Philharmonic. Besides maintaining a busy performance schedule, Kenneth is currently teaching at the Laurier Academy of Music and Arts and is the conductor for the Preludium Strings Orchestra of the Kitchener Waterloo Youth Orchestra program.

CELLO

Cellist Joshua Morris earned a Doctor‘s，a Master’s degree and a Graduate Diploma from the McGill University, studying with Brian Manker. He received his Bachelor’s degree from Oberlin Conservatory, where he studied with Amir Eldan. An avid chamber musician, Morris is a co-founder of Ensemble Urbain, a Montréal-based conductorless string ensemble that brings its performances to spaces beyond the traditional concert hall, and specializes in works by underrepresented composers. As cellist of the Milton String Quartet, he won the 2017 Fischoff National Chamber Association Grand Prize and Senior String Division Gold Medal, the 2016 McGill Chamber Music Competition, and participated in the McGill International String Quartet Academy in 2016 and 2017. Morris appeared as soloist with the McGill Symphony Orchestra in November 2017, performing Schumann’s Cello Concerto. In 2016, Morris was named winner of the Schulich School of Music’s Golden Violin Competition, and the Jeunesses Musicales’ Peter Mendell Award.

VIOLIN

Taiwanese violist Colman (Bing-Luen) Yang is currently a first-year master’s student studying at the University of Toronto under the guidance of Professor Theresa Rudolph, where he has received the Terence Clarkson and Cornelis van de Graaff Graduate Scholarship. A native of Taiwan, Colman first took up the violin with Lu, Jia-Min when he was in grade two, and later he switched to the viola in grade seven when joining the school’s string ensemble. His previous teachers include Wu, Yu-Shan, Deng, Qi-Quan (vice principal violist of the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan) and He, Jun-Heng (principal violist of the Taipei Symphony Orchestra).

As a chamber music enthusiast, he regularly performs chamber music with friends both in Canada and Taiwan, recent highlights include his appearances at the Isabel Bader Centre with members of NYO Canada, and also in the concert series at the Eslite Concert Hall in Taipei with his friends. Recently, he played the Mozart string quintet in C with OSM principal cellist Brian Manker at the Von Kuster Hall at Western University and works by Vivaldi and Piazzolla with renowned Canadian violinist Blake Pouliot at the Isabel Bader Centre in Kinston, Ontario. 

Colman has had many orchestral experiences, including performances of Mozart’s “Magic Flute” and Dvorak’s ninth symphony “The New World” at the National Concert Hall (Taipei) with Hsin-Tien High School. He has been selected to join the National Youth Orchestra of Canada (NYOC) from 2019 to 2022, and he recently toured with NYOC in many Canadian cities including Kingston, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City, and Toronto in the Summer of 2022. During his free time, he enjoys travelling around the world and dining at fine Japanese Omakase restaurants.