The first cellist to win Grand Prize at the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal Competition (2019), and the first-ever Canadian laureate at the prestigious Paulo International Cello Competition (2018), 23-year-old Bryan Cheng continues to captivate critics and audiences alike with his “absolutely astonishing” (La Presse) command of the cello, “dreamy beauty” (Süddeutsche Zeitung), and his “abundant facility, innate musicality, and sense of joy” (New York Concert Review). He made his solo debut at age 10 with the Orchestre de chambre I Musici de Montréal, his sold-out Carnegie Hall recital debut at 14, and his Elbphilharmonie debut in 2018 with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. Solo highlights of recent and upcoming seasons include engagements with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Panamá, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Symphonieorchester der UdK Berlin, Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim, and Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, as well as the Springfield (MO), Kingston, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Okanagan, Niagara, Lahti, and Schleswig-Holstein symphonies; a coast-to-coast Canadian tour with the National Youth Orchestra as winner of the Canada Council for the Arts’ Michael Measures Prize; and a residency with the Orchestra of the Americas. He has collaborated with such esteemed conductors as Matthias Pintscher, Susanna Mälkki, Peter Oundjian, Joshua Weilerstein, Steven Sloane, and Jonathan Darlington. As cellist of the Cheng² Duo and chamber musician, Bryan performs extensively across the globe. 2020-21 season highlights include recitals in Dresden, Los Angeles, New York, Ottawa and Montréal; a European tour of the Duo’s Beethoven 250 project, Ludwig & Beyond; and appearances at Belgium’s Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, Germany’s Elbphilharmonie and Kammermusikfestival Spannungen, Russia’s Trans-Siberian Art Festival, and Italy’s Trasimeno Festival. He has released a trilogy of albums on German label audite—Russian Legends (2019), Violonchelo del fuego (2018), and Violoncelle français (2016)—which has been critically-acclaimed in a dozen countries. Formerly studying with the late Yuli Turovsky and Hans Jørgen Jensen, Bryan is now in the studio of Jens Peter Maintz at the Universität der Künste Berlin. He plays the ca. 1696 Bonjour Stradivari cello and ca. 1830 Shaw Adam bow, generously on loan from the Canada Council Musical Instrument Bank as First Laureate of its 2018 Competition.

Lauded for her “extraordinarily varied palette” (WholeNote Magazine) and “purely magical” playing (New York Concert Review), pianist Silvie Cheng illuminates musical works with her exquisite touch at the keyboard. Since her Carnegie Hall solo debut in 2011, she has performed as both soloist and collaborative pianist across the globe, from New York’s Steinway Hall to Brussels’ Flagey Hall, and Montréal’s Maison Symphonique to Shanghai’s Poly Theatre. As guest soloist with orchestra, Silvie most recently made her debut with the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra in 2018 and will debut with Symphony Nova Scotia in the 2019-20 season. An active recitalist, she regularly presents concerts at the National Arts Club in New York, where she is currently based. She has won top prizes at the Thousand Islands International Piano Competition, Heida Hermanns International Piano Competition, Lillian Fuchs Chamber Music Competition, and numerous national competitions in her native Canada. A passionate advocate of new music, Silvie has given over forty world premieres since 2010 in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Cornell University, and the National Gallery of Canada. With an extraordinary ability to connect with the next generation and with audiences both on and off the stage, she is a teaching-artist of the Manhattan School of Music’s Distance Learning program and of the Bridge Arts Ensemble. Silvie received her ARCT performance diploma from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Manhattan School of Music in New York. Her musical mentors have included Jeffrey Cohen, Menahem Pressler, and Angela Hewitt.