Joshua Peters (winner)
Born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Joshua Peters began his violin studies as a student of Gwen Hoebig and Karl Stobbe. He continued his studies at the Schulich School of Music and at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, studying with Jonathan Crow, Denise Lupien and Ian Swensen. He is currently studying at the Schulich School of Music with Axel Strauss.
Particularly drawn to the performance of chamber music, Peters has collaborated with many renowned musicians including Menahem Pressler, Kim Kashkashian, André LaPlante, Steven Dann, and members of the Emerson, Concord, St. Lawrence, Guarneri and Pacifica quartets. He has also studied chamber music with members of the Alban Berg, Guarneri, Cleveland, Juilliard, Kronos, Miró, and Takács String Quartets. He has appeared as a soloist with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra on numerous occasions, as concertmaster of the McGill Symphony Orchestra, and as a member of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. Dedicated to the performance of contemporary music, Peters has been coached by and performed works of prominent composers John Adams, Krzysztof Penderecki, Richard Wernick, Christos Hatzis, T. Patrick Carrabré and Randolph Peters. He was also a member of the McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble from 2010-2012.
Peters is the First Prize Winner of the 2015 Eckhardt-Gramatté Music Competition, the First Prize Winner of the 2014 WMC Doris McClellan Competition, and also wishes to acknowledge the support of the Sylva Gelber Foundation and the Manitoba Arts Council. Peters plays on a ca. 1869 J.B. Vuillaume Violin and Vuillaume model bow, on generous loan from the Canada Council for the Arts Musical Instrument Bank.
Elizabeth Skinner
Intrigued by the violin, Elizabeth Skinner began studying at the age of 9 in her hometown of Victoria, Canada. Since then she has gone on to be recognized as an engaging and diverse performer winning solo and chamber awards in Canada and the United States, including concerto competitions in both British Columbia and Georgia. She has enjoyed the role of concertmaster with the McDuffie Center String Ensemble, the McGill Symphony Orchestra, and the McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble. She has had the privilage of working with conductors including Ward Stare, Robert Spano, Eric Jacobson, Janos Sandor, Matthias Pintscher, Pablo Heras-Casado and Alexis Hauser, as well as performing with musicians such as Amy Schwartz Moretti, David Halen, Robert McDuffie, Axel Strauss, Eric Nowlin, Marc Coppey, Kurt Muroki, Huw Watkins, Pedja Muzijevic and the members of the Zebra Trio.
As an active performer and chamber musician, Elizabeth has performed at music academies and festivals in Banff, Quebec, Toronto, North Carolina, Indiana, Florida, New York, Moritzburg Germany and Rome, Italy. In May 2013 she graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor degree in violin performance from the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, USA.
She recently completed her Masters degree in violin performance at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music and is continuing her studies there as she pursues her Doctorate of Musical Arts degree under the instruction of Axel Strauss. In the summer of 2015 she was the winner of the Canadian Music Competition 19-30 years strings category as well as Jeunesses Musicales du Canada’s Peter Mendell Award.
