A native of Toronto, Laura completed her Bachelor of Music in Performance at the University of Toronto with Douglas Stewart and subsequently spent two seasons with the National Academy Orchestra of Canada directed by Boris Brott. She completed her Diplôme d’Études Superièures II under the direction of Marie-Andrée Benny at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, receiving the prestigious Prix avec Grande Distinction à l’unanimité in 2008. Laura has also benefited from the teaching of such renowned artists as Emmanuel Pahud, Mathieu Dufour, Robert Langevin, Eyal Ein-Habar, Camille Churchfield, Jeffrey Khaner, Leone Buyse, Carol Wincenc, Peter Lloyd, Paul Edmund Davies and William Bennett. Flutist and co-artistic director of Portmantô, a chamber music ensemble and composer residency based in Montréal, she also plays with Orchestre 21, has freelanced with l'Orchestre de la Francophonie Canadienne and participated in projects with Code d’accès and Pazzia Contemporary Performing Collective, and is an avid teacher. Laura is currently pursuing a Masters of Music in flute performance with Denis Bluteau at l'Université de Montréal.

Elliott began playing the cello at age 11 with Sonja Adams. He completed a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance at the University of Western Ontario, studying piano with Gwen Beamish, cello with Thomas Wiebe and conducting with Jerome Summers, acting as conducting assistant for the Western Symphony Orchestra for their 2005-06 season. Elliott holds an Associateship in Piano Performance with the Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto) and he received the Silver Medal from the RCM for highest mark in Grade X piano in the Atlantic Region. He has won many awards in music festivals in Fredericton and London, Ontario, receiving an honourable mention in the 2005 Ontario Provincial Festival and runner-up in the Ontario Registered Music Teachers Association Young Artists' Competition. Elliott has performed with the Western Symphony Orchestra, Symphony New Brunswick, the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra and the Fredericton Chamber Players. He holds a Masters degree in Piano Performance from the University of Ottawa, which he completed under the direction of Stéphane Lemelin.

Yolanda Bruno, violin

Yolanda Bruno has been studying the violin since the age of five with Joan Milkson, David Stewart and Elaine Klimasko. Six-time finalist and two-time winner at the Canadian Music Competition, Yolanda has won first prize in several concerto competitions, and has received numerous scholarships. She has performed with the Thirteen Strings Chamber Ensemble, the Ottawa Youth Orchestra and several community orchestras.  Yolanda has attended Encore Summer Institute (Cleveland, Ohio), Le Domaine Forget Summer Music Academy (Saint Irenée, Quebec), Morningside Music Bridge at Mount Royal College (Calgary, Alberta), the Junior Young Artists Program (Ottawa, Ontario) and the Orford Arts Centre (Magog, Quebec).  Last summer, she performed at the Casalmaggiore Summer Music Festival in Italy. Yolanda is currently pursuing a Bachelor's of Music at McGill University.

Isaac picked up the viola at age 13, having previously studied the violin. He has been the assistant principal viola of l'Orchestre de la Francophonie Canadienne, and the principal viola in many other orchestras, including the Montreal Youth Orchestra, the National Youth Orchestra of Canada and the McGill Symphony Orchestra. Isaac has participated in such summer festivals as the Orford Arts Centre, Scotia Fest and the Domaine Forget Academy (where he had the opportunity to play chamber music with Krista Bennion-Feeney and Jean-Michel Fonteneau). Isaac is pursuing his Licentiate in Viola Performance at McGill University, under the direction of Professor Andre Roy.

Woosol Cho, violin/viola

Woosol began studying the violin in Korea at the age of seven and continued her studies upon immigrating to Canada in 1998. She has been a member of the Ottawa Youth Orchestra, the Junior Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra and l’Orchestre de la Francophonie Canadienne. Woosol has studied at the Domaine Forget Summer Music Academy and the Orford Arts Centre with a number of prestigious teachers, including David Stewart, Martin Chalifour, Regis Pasquier and Yehonatan Berick. She is currently a member of the University of Ottawa Orchestra and the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra. Woo holds a Baccalaureate in music performance from the University of Ottawa, where she studied violin with David Stewart and viola with Rennie Regehr, and she is currently completing a Masters degree in viola performance under the direction of Rennie Regehr.

Shasta Ellenbogen, viola

Shasta began playing the viola under the instruction of Yvrose Philippe-Auguste at the age of 12, and later studied with NACO associate principal violist Jethro Marks. She has been a member of the Ottawa Junior Youth Orchestra, the Ottawa Youth Orchestra, the Junior Thirteen Strings, and l'Orchestre de la salle, and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, with leading positions in each. Shasta has attended Le Domaine Forget Summer Music Academy and the Morningside Music Bridge Summer Program, and has performed as a soloist with l'Orchestre de la Salle, the Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra and the Ottawa Chamber Orchestra. She attended Pinchas Zukerman's Junior Young Artist's Program in the summer of 2004. This year, Shasta was a winner of the Prinses Christina Concours in Holland, and the Vic Pomer prize in the National Arts Centre Orchestra's Bursary Competition. She will be a member of the Britten-Pears Orchestra for the Aldeburgh Festival in England. Shasta studied at the Amsterdam Conservatory with Nobuko Imai from 2005-2007, and at the Guildhall School in London, England with Sven Arne Tepl from 2007-2008. She spent the 2008-2009 academic year teaching viola in India and is currently freelancing in Ottawa and Montreal.

Hailing from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Ellen holds a Bachelor of Music in Harp Performance from McGill University. A player of both classical and celtic harp, she has performed in the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra, Scotia Festival Orchestra, World Youth Orchestra of Jeunesses Musicales, McGill Symphony Orchestra, Opera McGill, Contemporary Music Ensemble, Leiderwolfe Opera Collective, Opera de Camera and the Sarah Burnell Band. Ellen is a former student of Elizabeth Jane Baldry, Karen Rokos and Jennifer Swartz, and has participated in masterclasses given by Rita Costanzi, Catherine Michel, Judy Loman and Erica Goodman. She is currently freelancing in Montreal.

Chad Heltzel, piano

Chad is a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen, Michigan, and holds a bachelors degree from the Glenn Gould School in Toronto, where he studied with John Perry. He has attended many festivals across North America and Europe, including the Prague Master Classes, Aspen Music Festival, the Banff Centre, and the Orford Centre for the Arts. Chad has participated in master classes and lessons with such leading pedagogical figures as Claude Frank, Sergei Babayan, Leon Fleisher and Carl Schachter. He has been heard on national radio in the United States and Canada as both soloist and chamber musician, and has performed with orchestras in both Toronto and Montreal. As well, Chad has appeared as a guest soloist with the Oregon Symphony. He is currently completing his doctorate in piano performance at l'Université de Montréal, under the direction of Marc Durand.

Sheila Jaffé, violin

Montreal-born Sheila Jaffé was introduced to music by her parents, both professional cellists. Raised in south Florida, she began playing the violin at the age of 6, taught by her grandmother Ghislaine Dufour. Following three years of private lessons with Mrs. Dufour and Johanne Perron (Sheila's mother), Sheila started taking lessons with Sergiu Schwartz, violin professor at the HARID Conservatory (now Lynn University) in Boca Raton, Florida. Sheila was concertmaster of the Florida Youth Orchestra Junior Symphony by the age of 11, and at 13, she went to Quebec City to study with Catherine Dallaire at the Quebec Conservatory of Music, where she was offered the Wilfrid-Pelletier Scholarship. Sheila has participated in and won several competitions, including the Concours provincial de musique de Sillery. Sheila completed secondary school in the Pierre-Laporte music program (studying with Francine Pépin), after moving to Montreal in 2005. She was then admitted into the violin studio of professor Claude Richard at l'Université de Montréal with a $2000.00 entrance scholarship. Sheila is currently concertmaster of l'Orchestre de l'Université de Montréal and first violinist of the Alaya String Quartet. (Photo courtesy of Jackie Iannotti.)

Thaddeus began playing the cello at the age of 6. He has studied with National Arts Centre Orchestra (NACO) cellists Amanda Forsyth, Margaret Munro Tobolowska, and Donald Whitton, and currently studies with Yegor Dyachkov at McGill University. Winner of the 2001 New Sun Orchestral Bursary and 2007 National Arts Centre Orchestra Bursary Competition, Thaddeus has been a member of the Ottawa Youth Orchestra, the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, the McGill Symphony Orchestra and the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra. He has performed as a soloist with the Ottawa Youth Orchestra, the Parkdale United Church Orchestra and the National Arts Centre Orchestra, and participated in the NAC Young Artists Program. Thaddeus plays on a cello made by Ottawa luthier Guy Harrison.

Olga began her studies of the violin in Minsk, Belarus at the age of six. She played associate principal second violin for the Ottawa Youth Orchestra for the 2004-2005 season, led by former Ottawa Symphony Orchestra concertmaster John Gomez, and is a former member of the Junior Thirteen Strings and the Canterbury High School String Ensemble. She has participated in many masterclasses with such renowned violinists as Mauricio Fuks, and was part of Pinchas Zukerman's Junior Young Artist's Program in the summer of 2005, where she worked with NACO violinist Elaine Klimasko. Olga was a first violinist of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada during the 2005 season, and performed as concertmaster during some of their pieces in the 2006 and 2007 sessions. She studies with Montreal violinist Jonathan Crow at McGill University.

Adam began playing the piano at the age of four, studying with Sally Robinson. He picked up many wind instruments throughout middle school, including saxophone, clarinet, and the bass clarinet. Adam is a former member of the All-Star Band, Canterbury Concert Band, Stage Band, and Motown Band "Otis Lives". In 2002 he founded his own band, the Bamboozlers, where he played guitar and piano until 2007. Adam was assistant music director of the 2005 Canterbury High School production of My Fair Lady, and music director of You're A Good Man Charlie Brown (fall 2005, directed by Alex Leafloor) and Pippin (spring 2007, directed by Amanda Kellock). Adam has played bass clarinet in the Ottawa Youth Orchesta and the University of Ottawa Wind Ensemble. He holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from l'Université de Montréal and is currently freelancing in Ottawa.

A native of Chatham, Ontario, Joel plays regularly with the Sudbury Symphony Orchestra and has performed with the Toronto Sinfonietta, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Orchestra London Canada, the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, and various period-performance groups across Ontario including the Nota Bene Period Orchestra. Since his arrival in Ottawa in 2008, Joel has appeared on stage with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, and l’Orchestre symphonique de Gatineau. An alumnus of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada (2004) and the National Arts Centre's Summer Music Institute (2009), he is a current member of l'Orchestre de la Francophonie Canadienne and is completing graduate studies at the University of Ottawa. Joel is also active as a private oboe instructor and freelance editor.

Greg Weeks started playing cello at the age of seven in the Suzuki School of Music. Since then, he has been a regular participant in the Kiwanis Music Festival, winning numerous scholarships and trophies for both cello and voice. In June 2003, Greg won the Thirteen Strings scholarship and then joined the Junior Thirteen Strings for their 2003-2004 season. He has been involved in several summer schools, including Le Domaine Forget Summer Music Academy, where he played in masterclasses led by Timothy Eddy and Matt Haimovitz. Greg traveled with a group of young musicians to perform at the World Expo 2005 in Nagoya, Japan. He studied with principal cellist of the Ottawa Chamber Orchestra, Kirk Starkey, and participated for two years in Kirk's cello workshop, Sonore, which performed in August 2005 at the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival. Greg is pursuing a Bachelor's of Music Degree at McGill University, studying with Yegor Dyachkov. He plays a 2010 cello by Ottawa luthier Guy Harrison.

Alexander Wenzowski began playing the trumpet at the age of nine, following several years of piano lessons. He has studied both at the University of Ottawa with Karen Donnelly, and at McGill University with Russ DeVuyst and Edward Carroll. Currently on a year of academic leave from McGill, he expects to complete his BMus in Trumpet Performance in 2009. Alexander is well known for his beautiful tone, and regularly performs as a soloist. He enjoys playing many different styles of music, with various ensembles; runs the brass quintet Boréale Brass; and has been a member of the Ceremonial Guard's professional marching band for two years. As an orchestral musician, Alexander frequently appears with professional groups in Montreal and Ottawa, and is currently a member of the Orchestre Symphonique Pop de Montréal. (Photo courtesy of Jackie Iannotti.)