About Elinor Frey:

Hailed as an "impeccable cellist" by Montreal's La Presse, "a superb cellist" by the Syracuse Post-Standard, and an "unquestionable and robust talent" by the Giornale di Brescia, Elinor Frey's recent accolades include the 2009/10 Fulbright Grant to Italy, as well as the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Canada Graduate Scholarship, and a Canada Council for the Arts grant facilitating her work on Italian baroque and modern unaccompanied cello music.

The 2010-11 seasons find Elinor in both North America and Europe, performing such works as Bernstein's Three Meditations with the Grand Junction Symphony, Colorado, Schumann’s Cello Concerto with the Rogue Valley Symphony in Ashland, Oregon. She will give recitals and master classes at Istanbul Technical University, Turkey, and, as a baroque cellist, concerts with Ensemble Caprice and Ensemble Masques.

Elinor's recent appearances have included unaccompanied cello recitals and master classes at the American Academy in Rome, Cornell University, Dartmouth University, Bowdoin College, Mesa State University, and Ithaca College. A passionate advocate of new music, Elinor is currently cellist of Ensemble KORE in Montreal, Her debut album, Dialoghi, was released in 2008 on the Yarlung Records label.

elinorfrey.com

Programme note:
Italian cellist-composers contributed some of the most original and sumptuous Baroque works for the instrument. Their modern heir, Giovanni Sollima, has penned Lamentatio, combining rock-style riffs with a Sicilian lament that the cellist must sing while playing! Toronto-born composer Chris Paul Harman studied the cello as a young man; in 2006 he wrote his intense and demanding solo Sonata, inspired by Bach’s Suite No. Six for solo cello and commissioned by Harbourfront Centre for the Toronto Music Garden.