Valdstyn Trio

Biography

Mana Shiraish

Mana Shiraishi has played as a soloist and a chamber musician in many countries in Europe, Asia and North America and is a sought-after violin teacher. She is a member of Chamber Orchestra Appassionata, Auriolus Quartet, Creo Trio and Duo Ventapane. In 2011, Duo Ventapane received Smetana award and Bartók award from the IBLA Grand Prize International Music Competition and toured the United States in 2012 where it held performances in Radford University, New York University and Carnegie Hall among other venues. Her recent projects include promotion of all violin and piano works of Polish composer Karol Szymanowski and a project called “The Three Faces of Kreisler” that explores output of Fritz Kreisler, famed violin virtuoso and composer. She also made a recording of violin and piano works by Ferenc Liszt.

In 2002, she was chosen to enjoy chamber music collaboration with Midori Goto at Midori's career 20th anniversary concert in Japan. She participated in a concert tour “Mozart meets Jazz” with Paquito D'Rivera and Makoto Ozone, and made an appearance at music festivals such as Martha Argerich's Meeting Point in Beppu, La Folle Journée au Japon, Takefu International Music Festival, Blueridge International Chamber Music Festival, Stěkeň Chamber Music Festival and at the Czech Music Festival in Oita.

Mana Shiraishi graduated from Toho Gakuen School of Music (BMus) under Tsugio Tokunaga and Toshiya Eto and from McGill University (MMus) where she studied with Jonathan Crow and Mark Fewer.

Pierre-Alain Bouvrette

A graduate from the Montreal Conservatory and the Eastman School of Music in the studio of Pamela Frame where he was teacher assistant, Pierre-Alain Bouvrette was also a prize winner at the 2003 International Chamber Music Competition of Val Tidone in Italy. A guest participant at the Chamber Music Festival of Costa Rica on two occasions, he was also invited to join the Takacs Quartet at the 2001 String Quartet Seminar in Boulder, Colorado.

Pierre-Alain has collaborated with artists such as Malcolm Lowe, the Ying Quartet and Oleh Krisha. An active chamber musician, he is also a member of the Ponticello Cello Quartet since 2007 and has joined the Molinari Quartet in the summer of 2007.

Martin Karlíček

Martin Karlíček's piano playing has been described as “inspiring, rich, sensitive, stylistically taut and arresting, precise, crisp, brilliantly controlled, wonderfully colourful and always imaginative.” He performs and lectures regularly in the Czech Republic, Germany, Canada, U.S.A. and Japan.

Aside from establishing his reputation as a dynamic promoter of Czech music, Mr. Karlíček's large solo and chamber music repertoire includes works from all periods. Championing contemporary classical music, he introduced several world premieres such as Félix Frédéric Baril's piano concerto Déviations, Martin Matalon's Las siete Vidas de un Gato as a North-American premiere and a world premiere of Tekeni-Ahsen by Denys Bouliane. In 2008 he and a Japanese violinist Mana Shiraishi established Duo Ventapane and in 2011, Creo Trio.

Mr. Karlíček gathered awards and prizes from several international music competitions winning the Bedřich Smetana International Piano Competition, the South Bohemian International Piano Competition and the Prague-Vienna-Budapest International Summer Academy Competition. He received awards for performances of contemporary compositions, chamber music collaborations and for solo performances of music by Bedřich Smetana, Béla Bartók, Ferenc Liszt, Leoš Janáček and Bohuslav Martinů.

Martin Karlíček studied at the Academy of Music in Prague (B.Mus., M.Mus.), Utrecht Academy of the Arts in Holland and at McGill University in Montreal in Canada (M.Mus., D.Mus.). Presently, he is teaching piano at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University.

Back to current season