Lumina Concert: Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition Winner's Tour: Joshua Peters and Katherine Dowling
Joshua Peters, violin
Born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Joshua Peters began his violin studies at the age of four as a student of Gwen Hoebig and Karl Stobbe. He continued his studies at McGill University with Jonathan Crow, Denise Lupien, and Axel Strauss, and at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as a student of Ian Swensen.
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, 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 on numerous occasions with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, as concertmaster of the McGill Symphony Orchestra, and as a member of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
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.
Katherine Dowling, piano
Praised by the New York Times for her “crystalline performances, gestural expressiveness, and careful attention to color,” pianist Katherine Dowling has performed across North America and the United Kingdom. Following two seasons as a fellow of the Tanglewood Music Center, Katherine was awarded the Henri Kohn Memorial Prize and appointed to the contemporary ensemble-in-residence of the center, the New Fromm Players. She joined Gruppo Montebello in 2011, an all-star chamber ensemble directed by Henk Guittart, whose recordings appear on the Etcetera label. Katherine is further familiar to audiences through her association with The Banff Centre, where she has held numerous solo and collaborative residencies. She has enjoyed working with esteemed artists including the Jupiter String Quartet, Shauna Rolston, Joel Sachs, Marc Destrubé, composers John Harbison, Anthony Cheung, Marco Stroppa, and David Lang, and visual artist Andrea Büttner.
Katherine credits her teacher, Gil Kalish, as the major influence in her musical life.
About the Competition
The Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition is the most important annually held contemporary music competition for exceptional emerging Canadian performing artists in piano, voice, and strings.
Established in 1976, the Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition (commonly called the E-Gré Competition) discovers, develops, and promotes exceptional young Canadian performing musicians who show artistic proficiency, knowledge, and keen interest in Canadian and international repertoire of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Young artists, alternating annually among piano, voice, and string categories, perform for two panels of nationally and internationally distinguished juries in three levels of competition.
In the preliminary round, applicants submit recordings for blind review by three independent jurors who select 8-9 semi-finalists to attend the competition weekend at Brandon University in Brandon, Manitoba. The semi-final and final rounds are live recitals performed BU’s exquisite Lorne Watson Recital Hall for an esteemed panel of jurors and enthusiastic audience members. All recitals are streamed live for national and international audiences.
The jury members also offer master classes to the competitors and talented musicians from the community on the final day of the competition. Other weekend highlights include the Gala concert performed by the jurors, as well as the commissioned composer’s presentation attended by the competitors, local musicians and composers, and enthusiastic audience members. Shortly after the competition, the winner performs recitals during a 3-week residency at the prestigious Casalmaggiore International Festival in Italy before the cross-Canada winner’s tour in November.
For 38 years, the annual E-Gré Competition & Winner’s National Tour have played a significant role in the early careers of Canadian performers recognized nationally and internationally for their achievements in music. E-Gré prize-winners include Officers of the Order of Canada Jon Kimura Parker, Ben Heppner, Louise Bessette, and James Ehnes.
The E-Gré Competition fosters the creation of new music by leading Canadian composers by commissioning a test piece each year. Through the creation of 34 new works and encouraging the performance of Canadian compositions since 1976, the E-Gré Competition is helping to build a musical cultural legacy for Canada.
