Ben Bolt-Martin, cello, is a graduate of Wilfrid Laurier University (‘96) in orchestral performance, studying with Paul Pulford of the Penderecki Quartet, and also of the University of Western Ontario (2004), studying with Tom Wiebe. He also studied at the graduate level at University of Wisonconsin, Milwaukee’s Institute of Chamber Music with Wolfgang Laufer of the Fine Arts quartet. Ben has played cello with the Stratford Festival since 2001. He is also principal cello with the Georgian Bay Symphony and plays with the Georgian Bay String Quartet. Ben lives in Waterloo with his wife Liz and three cats.

Linda Choi, violin, was born in Toronto and was a scholarship student at the Young Artists Program Academy in Toronto with Victor Danchenko and Atis Bankas. She graduated from McGill University with a Licentiate in Violin Performance and was a graduate student at the Cleveland Institute of Music. With a passion for teaching young children, she is a certified Suzuki Violin Teacher with the Oakville Suzuki Association. Linda performs with many orchestras and smaller ensembles in Ontario including the Hamilton Philharmonic and the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, and is a Mentor for the Young Artists program with the Oakville Symphony.

Paul Earle, principal violin, began his musical training at age thirteen. He earned his Artist Diploma in performance from the University of Western Ontario and continued studies at the Royal Conservatory. He has played for the Kitchener-Waterloo, Windsor, London, and Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestras and currently is a regular with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra. He has been soloist with the Windsor Symphony, Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Orchestra, and the Northern Ontario Music Festival Orchestra. Paul is, at present concertmaster of the Georgian Bay Symphony in Owen Sound. He has played on recordings for radio broadcast, and also plays electric violin for several pop groups. Paul makes his home in Guelph.

Megan Jones earned a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance from the University of McGill in the year 2000, graduating with high distinction. Ms. Jones currently plays as a substitute violin with the Kitchener Waterloo, the Windsor Symphony Orchestra, the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra and several other symphonies across Ontario. She has been an Associate Mentor for several years with the National Academy Orchestra under maestro Boris Brott, and is the orchestra manager and librarian for the Brott Music Festival. Ms. Jones began teaching at the International Music Academy in Mississauga, in 2003 and purchased the Academy from the original owner, Lois Wells-Bernard, in 2008. She teaches piano, violin, voice and all levels of theory at the Academy as well as maintains the school and its 9 other teachers. In the past few years, Ms. Jones has performed several solo concertos with the Deep River Symphony Orchestra and the Timmins Symphony. Ms. Jones has been fortunate enough to play in the opera Salome with the Canadian Opera Company.

Praise Lam, violin, is a recipient of numerous awards and scholarships who is emerging as a highly active soloist, chamber musician and orchestral musician both in Canada and abroad. In 2002, Praise was invited to play for the Canadian Ambassador to China and the Director of the Canada Arts Council in Beijing. Since capturing the 2003 Emerging Performing Arts Award at the Mississauga Arts Awards, Praise’s solo performances has taken her from her hometown orchestral stage with the Mississauga Philharmonic Orchestra to television appearances with Rogers Cable & CBC to Hollywood’s 20th Century Fox Newman Scoring Stage in Los Angeles, California. Praise holds an ARCT Diploma from the Royal Conservatory of Music, a Bachelor of Music Performance degree and a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Toronto and has also spent two years at the Beijing Central Conservatory of Music. Praise also had the opportunity to play for such esteemed musicians as Jose Luis Garcia, Mauricio Fuks, and members of the St. Lawrence String Quartet, the Orford String Quartet, and the Prazak String Quaret. A student of Canadian composer Larysa Kuzmenko at the Royal Conservatory, Praise Lam won the Ettore Mazzoleni Memorial Composition Scholarship and the Dr. Igor Kuchivnsky Memorial Composition Scholarship for three years.

Veronica Lee, viola. Korean-Canadian violist Veronica Lee has been an active chamber musician throughout North America.  Performing in acclaimed chamber music festivals, Veronica has worked with some of the world’s leading musicians.  Veronica has been featured as a fellow in Toronto Summer Music Festival for the past three years.  During this time, she has performed publicly with acclaimed string musicians as Martin Beaver, Chris Costanza, Dong-Suk Kang, Mark Fewer, Sharon Wei, Laura Samuels, Ernst Kovacic, Ian Swensen and Brandon Vamos.
As a devoted chamber musician, Veronica has performed in numerous string ensembles at various festivals, including the St. Lawrence String Quartet Seminar, Toronto Summer Music Chamber Music Institute, McGill International String Quartet Academy, Banff Chamber Music Residency and the Scotia Festival of Music.
Veronica has completed her Bachelor of Music with honours in Viola Performance at University of Western Ontario.  She also holds Master’s Degree in Chamber Music Performance at the McGill Schulich School of Music, under the guidance of André Roy, Philip Dukes, and Wolfram Christ.  In 2015, Veronica Lee Goering graduated from the Artists Diploma Program at the GGS under the guidance of Steven Dann.  Currently she is playing in orchestras in the Greater Toronto Area including Toronto Concert Orchestra, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra and Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra.

Iain McKay was born in Brantford and began to play the violin at the age of 4. He received his Bachelor of Music degree in Violin Performance from the University of Toronto, studying with Annalee Patipatanakoon. He has toured extensively throughout Canada and the United States as a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada and the National Academy Orchestra of Canada. As a freelance musician in the Toronto area he has performed with many chamber groups and ensembles including the Brantford Symphony, Toronto Concert Orchestra and Orchestra London. In 2015, Iain won the position of Principal Second Violin with the Thunder Bay Symphony, and he currently resides in the Toronto area where he teaches and performs regularly.

Dr. Jennifer Martyn, violin, enjoys a busy career as performer, teacher, and researcher. Her performance career has taken her across Canada, as well as to Europe and Asia. Martyn has performed with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Kingston, Ottawa, and Windsor Symphonies, the Talisker Players, l’Ensemble Prisme, and Duo Felice, and has been a guest concertmaster with several orchestras, most recently the North York Concert Orchestra and the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra. A sought-after teacher and adjudicator, Martyn especially loves to work with children. She currently teaches at the University of Toronto and the North York Suzuki School of Music, and directs the young children’s choir at Metropolitan Church in Toronto. Martyn holds degrees in violin performance from the University of Toronto (DMA, BMus), and Mannes College (MMus) in New York City.

Daniel Payne, violincello, is a native Londoner who holds an undergraduate from the University of Western Ontario in history and music, his teaching certificate, a degree in Musicology (with thesis), and has recently completed another Master’s programme in Library Information Science. Daniel began his career as a performer playing with the London Youth Orchestra and the UWO Symphony Orchestra. Since then he has played with groups including the Sarnia Clarion Orchestra, and in numerous regional string quartets and chamber ensembles. His special interest in Baroque music has led him to be an active continuo in UWO’s Early Music Studio, London’s Parnassus, Hamilton’s Te Deum Choir and Orchestra, and Arcady. Highlights in his career include three seasons at the Glenn Gould Studio with Te Deum, performing with the eminent Dutch violinist Japp Schroeder (1998, 1999), and Handel’s Messiah with Arcady (1999 to present).

Filip Stasiak, Double Bassist, holds a Diploma in Chamber Music from Wilfrid Laurier University, a MMus in Literature and Performance from the University of Western Ontario, and a BMus from Wayne State University in Detroit. His primary instructors have included the late Detroit Symphony Bassist Maxim Janowsky, members of the Penderecki String Quartet, and UWO professor Jeffrey Stokes.  In addition to university training, Stasiak has spent multiple summers at the Orford Arts Centre studying with world renowned double bass virtuoso Joel Quarrington. As a performer, Stasiak is currently a member of the Niagara Symphony and the International Symphony, and works as a freelance player with orchestras, chamber ensembles, and music theatre productions throughout Ontario. A recent interest in period performance has led Stasiak to study with Tafelmusik at both their Summer and Winter institutes, and subsequently to perform with Toronto’s Talisker Players and the Aradia Ensemble.  As an educator, Stasiak maintains a large private studio in London Ontario and is a double bass instructor in the Music Education Department at Western University.

Rose Soenen, harpist. Rose Soenen is a professional Harpist based in Toronto. She received her Bachelor of Music in Orchestral Harp Performance under Lori Gemmell at Wilfrid Laurer University in 2016, where she was a winner of their 2015 Concerto competition. She also holds her grade 9 Royal Conservatory of Music certificate in piano and her grade 8 Canadian Conservatory certificate in voice.
Rose is a busy performer and private harp instructor. She is the Stratford Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Harpist, and frequently plays with the Etobicoke Philharmonic, the Ancaster Symphonia, and the Fanshawe Chorus London Orchestra players, as well as being a substitute player with the Kitchener Waterloo Orchestra and the Cambridge Symphony. Rose also works as the Harp Instructor for the Niagara Symphony’s Summer music camp, and is a busy chamber musician, performing with a variety of vocalists and instrumentalists, including Duo Niro, a harp duo specializing in pop music covers. Rose began pursuing her Masters of Instrumental Performance at the University of Toronto in 2020.

Miriam Stewart-Kroeker is a young, emerging cellist based in Kitchener-Waterloo, and recent graduate of McGill University with a Master’s degree in cello performance under the direction of Matt Haimovitz. Miriam has collaborated with a number of orchestras and choirs, both as a soloist and orchestral musician, but her passion remains rooted in chamber music. Miriam performs regularly for several chamber music series, including the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society, Guelph Connections Chamber Music Series, Conrad Grebel Noon Hour series and more. In 2013, Miriam completed a winter residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts in solo and chamber music. Miriam’s chamber ensembles were the recipients of the Penderecki String Quartet Chamber Music Prize for two consecutive years (2009-10), and won the Canadian Music Competition in 2011 with the Zwickau Piano Quartet. She has participated in summer chamber music and orchestral programs, including QuartetFest, the Tuckamore Chamber Music Festival in Newfoundland, and the National Academy Orchestra with conductor Boris Brott. A native of Hamilton, Ontario, Miriam has had the opportunity to study with a number of renowned cellists, namely Paul Pulford and Matt Haimovitz. Miriam is a graduate of Wilfrid Laurier University, receiving an Honours Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance as well as a Diploma in Chamber Music Performance.  She currently holds the position of principal cellist with the Georgian Bay Symphony.