Biography

Ariel Barnes
Cellist Ariel Barnes enjoys a diverse career as a soloist and both chamber and orchestral musician. With colleagues Mary Sokol-Brown and Andrew Brown, Ariel formed the Trio Accord, a Vancouver-based string trio, which the Victoria Times Colonist praised for its “enchanting,” “exhilarating,” and “extremely moving” performances.

Over the past several years, Ariel Barnes has appeared as a soloist, in recitals and in chamber music concerts across Canada, the United States, and Mexico. As a member of the Borealis String Quartet, he has been a guest at Festival Vancouver, the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, the Mendocino Music Festival in California, and Music at Port Milford, in Ontario. Equally comfortable in genres of music ranging from the baroque to modern times, his engagements have included evenings of Mozart’s chamber music to contemporary solo cello recitals. He is currently Principal Cello of the Vancouver Opera Orchestra, a member of the CBC Radio Orchestra, and a regular guest with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and Turning Point Ensemble. Ariel has recorded for Centrediscs, CBC Radio (including Espace Musique), CBC Television, Integrity Music, Za Discs, Disney Films, and Funktopus Records. His principal teachers have included Daniel Domb at the University of Toronto, Bruce Uchimura at Western Michigan University, Craig Weaver of the Seattle Symphony, and Eric Wilson at the University of British Columbia. In addition, he has received coaching from Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Janos Starker, Lawrence Lesser, Lorand Fenyves, and members of the Guarneri, Cleveland, Orford, and St. Lawrence String Quartets.

Trio Accord’s debut recording on Skylark Records of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations is due out in the spring of 2008.

Brian Wagorn
Canadian pianist Bryan Wagorn, hailed by Radio-Canada as an “exceptional artist,” has appeared throughout Canada, the United States, Europe, and Asia. He has recorded for CBC Radio, Radio-Canada, and Rogers Television. Recently, he appeared at New York’s Steinway Hall, where his performance of music by Azerbaijanian composer Franghiz Ali-Zadeh was described by the New York Times as “haunting.”

Bryan Wagorn is a laureate of the Canadian Music Competition and the Concours Jeunes Artistes, for which he was declared one of Canada’s most promising young artists. In 2003, he received the Mitchell Sharp Promising Young Artist Award from the National Arts Centre of Canada, and has also received support from the Marusia Yaworska Foundation. He has appeared at New York’s Lincoln Center, in Toronto’s Glenn Gould Studio, in Salzburg’s Wiener Saal and at Ottawa’s National Arts Centre. Bryan Wagorn has toured China with violinist David Stewart and the Tabaret Ensemble, and has been heard on Radio-Canada in performance with pianist Stéphane Lemelin.

During the past four summers, Bryan Wagorn has been invited to participate in the National Arts Centre’s “Summer Music Institute” directed by Pinchas Zukerman, where he has worked closely with Joseph Kalichstein, Benita Valente, Michael Tree, and members of the Orion String Quartet. In 2007, Bryan returned as faculty to their Young Artist Program for Junior Strings.

Bryan Wagorn holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Ottawa, where he studied with pianist Stéphane Lemelin. He studied previously with Claude Labelle at the Université de Montréal, and is currently a Master’s candidate at the Mannes College of Music, studying with Jacob Lateiner.