Born in Prince George in 1977, Jonathan Crow began the Suzuki violin method at age six and continued studies at the Prince George Music School. When he was fifteen, Jonathan studied at the Victoria Conservatory of Music with Sydney Humphreys and attended the Banff Centre Master Class Program. He earned his Bachelor of Music in Honours Performance from McGill University, studying with Yehonatan Berick.

Upon graduation from McGill University, Mr. Crow joined the Montreal Symphony at the age of 19 as Associate Principal Second Violin, and won the Associate Concertmaster chair 5 months later. He was appointed Concertmaster in 2002, a position he held until 2006, becoming the youngest Concertmaster to lead a major North American orchestra. Jonathan is currently Head of Strings and Assistant Professor of Violin at McGill University.

In May 1997 Jonathan performed Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in a special benefit for the Victoria Symphony under the baton of Sir Yehudi Menuhin. Lord Menuhin was so impressed that he invited him to perform again with the Vancouver Symphony in April 1998. Jonathan continues to perform in North America, having been featured as soloist with most major Canadian orchestras including the Montreal, Kingston, London, National Arts Centre, Victoria and Vancouver Symphony Orchestras, under the baton of such conductors as Charles Dutoit, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Kent Nagano, Mario Bernardi and João Carlos Martins. He is heard frequently on Chaîne Culturelle of Radio-Canada, CBC Radio Two, and National Public Radio, along with Radio France, Radio Allemand, and the RAI in Europe.

An avid chamber musician, Jonathan has performed at chamber music festivals throughout North America, South America and Europe including the Banff, Ravinia, Orford, Domaine Forget, Seattle, Montreal, Ottawa, Incontri in Terra di Sienna, Alpenglow, Festival Vancouver, Pernambuco (Brazil), and Strings in the Mountains festivals and has also performed in concert with musicians from the Guarneri, Emerson, Vermeer and Tokyo Quartets.

As an advocate of contemporary music he has premiered works by Michael Conway Baker, Eldon Rathburn, Barrie Cabena, Ernest MacMillan and Healey Willan, and includes in his repertoire major concertos by such composers as Ligeti, Schnittke, Brian Cherney and Bernstein. Mr. Crow has recorded for CBC, Oxingale, and Atma labels.

Canadian violinist Andrew Wan is equally at home as a soloist, as a chamber musician and as an orchestral musician. In August of 2008, he was named Co-Concertmaster of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, making him one of the youngest concertmaster of a major North American symphony. He appeared as soloist with the Montreal and the Toronto symphony orchestras, the Juilliard Orchestra and the Aspen Sinfonia. La Presse hailed his performance of Elgar’s Violin Concerto with the MSO as one of the top two musical events in 2007.

Mr. Wan received his Bachelor’s and Master’s of Music degrees from the Juilliard School and he is the sole violinist to be accepted into the distinguished Artist Diploma Program at Juilliard in 2008. He continues his studies with Masao Kawasaki and Ron Copes. Last October, he was among the ten recipients of the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Emerging Artist Awards. In 2009, he will perform with the N-E-W Trio in Italy, the Ensemble Ditto in Korea, the MSO and the New Orford String Quartet in Canada.
 

Second-prize winner of the 2006 Walter W. Naumburg competition, violist Eric Nowlin has performed extensively throughout the United States as well as abroad. He has been described by the Springfield News-Leader (MO) as “having a full, warm tone, expressive phrasing, and effortless technical command that suggest an artist twice his age” and by the Santa Cruz Sentinel as “displaying the remarkable capabilities of the viola, with a rich tone and sensitive interpretive skills”.

Performances have included solo engagements with the Springfield Symphony in Missouri, Santa Cruz Symphony, Peninsula Symphony and the Kumamoto Symphony in Japan, as well as recitals in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Mexico. He is a regular member of the Jupiter Chamber Players in New York City, and also tours with Musicians from Marlboro and Musicians from Ravinia’s Steans Institute. In addition to solo and chamber music performances, Mr. Nowlin was recently appointed to the position of Associate Principal Viola with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Nowlin received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, as a scholarship student of Samuel Rhodes.

Eric Nowlin plays on a 1700 Matteo Goffriller viola, a generous loan from the Rachel Elizabeth Barton Foundation.
 

Principal Cello of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra since 1999, Brian Manker has been playing string quartets passionately since he was a teenager and even today, it still evokes strong emotions from him.

When he was about 15 years-old, his father took him to a concert of the Guarneri Quartet. Sitting in the front row, young Brian Manker was completely captivated and this event changed the course of his life forever.

Mr. Manker has performed throughout North America as a member of the Harrington String Quartet and the Atlanta Chamber Players. Grand Prize winner of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, he has participated in many music festivals, including Norfolk, Blossom, Chamber Music East, Roundtop, Swannanoa, Ottawa and Domaine Forget. He has also performed for radio and television broadcasts for the CBC in Canada, WFMT in Chicago and WQXR in New York. Currently a member of the faculty of music at McGill University, Brian Manker has also taught at West Texas State and Emory universities.