Travels in Music

Baroque violinist Michelle Odorico is a familiar presence in Toronto’s early-music world, performing regularly with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Opera Atelier on tours that have carried her across four continents — from the theatre at the Palace of Versailles to concert halls in Melbourne and Puerto Rico.

A native of Pickering, Ontario, she holds degrees from the University of Ottawa and the University of Toronto, where she studied Baroque violin with the late Jeanne Lamon — the very musician Way Bach When was created to honour. She also appears with the Gallery Players of Niagara, Nota Bene Baroque Players, and the Elixir Baroque Ensemble, and is on faculty at the Hamilton Suzuki School of Music.

With equal facility as both a violist and period violinist, Emily Eng enjoys a diverse musical life in orchestras and chamber ensembles with either gut or steel at her fingertips. Her work includes engagements with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, the Canadian Opera Company, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, Academy Concert Series, Chatham Baroque, Soundstreams, Esprit Orchestra, the Toronto Consort, Handel and Haydn Society, and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. In 2023 she joined the National Ballet of Canada Orchestra as a section viola member.

Ms. Eng has a full all-ages studio of private violin students whom she is mentoring as the next generation of classical music lovers and audience members. She studied at the Interlochen Arts Academy, the Juilliard School, the Glenn Gould School, and the Amsterdam Conservatory. She plays on a late-18th-century German violin affectionately called “Wormy” after its worm-chewed wood, and a 2019 Italian viola modelled after Gasparo da Salò by Filippo Fasser.

Outside of musical life, Ms. Eng has been training in martial arts since 2001 and is a licensed practitioner of Thai Massage. She is also an active volleyball-mom, kungfu-mom, and former bass-mom to Ayelen.

Canadian violinist Victoria Yeh’s unique style is dynamic and progressive. Classically trained, Yeh combines musical heritage with the edginess of progressive fusion. She lights up the stage with her energy and distinctive style, captivating audiences across the country. Victoria performs a wide range of original music and uniquely reinvented classic covers.

Yeh performs both acoustically and with her red electric violin, appearing as a solo artist and with her band, The Spirit Awakens. She’s also a member of jazz-fusion band Paul DeLong’s ONE WORD, prog-rock band Art Griffin’s Sound Chaser, and folk band Shipyard Kitchen Party, and has performed as a feature soloist with various orchestras. An avid improviser, she has performed alongside such artists as Christian Howes and Rob Tardik.

A musical chameleon, Victoria has recorded on countless film, television and music projects in genres ranging from atmospheric avant-garde to hip-hop and electronica, folk and fiddle to ethno-world and rock. She recently composed and recorded an original score for a soon-to-be-released documentary on the Canadian Boreal forest. Her latest album, Spirit Awakens — composed during her year as Artist-in-Residence for the Heliconian Club — is suffused with her passion for fusion jazz and classical music.

Recognized for the past five years with the top Platinum and Gold awards for Best Music Lessons in Grey County and Peterborough, Victoria specializes in classical and improv, working primarily with intermediate to advanced youth and adults seeking to reconnect with music and expand their relationship with their instruments through positive and creative exploration.

Hi there, you can call me Kate. I’m thrilled to be performing in Thornbury for the first time, although having been born and raised in Owen Sound it feels like a homecoming. Born into a household of three older piano-playing siblings and a steady stream of piano students, I asked for piano lessons at age 4 — already competitive, I didn’t want to fall behind when my cousin began hers at 3. At 5 I knew I wanted to be a concert pianist, having won my first scholarship for sight reading at the Grey County Kiwanis Music Festival.

After an RCM diploma, a degree at the University of Toronto and a second from the University of Colorado at Boulder, I began a doctoral degree in Piano Performance at the Eastman School of Music. I’ve been collaborative pianist and coach for numerous singers, repetiteur and coach for the Canadian Opera Company, accompanist for many choirs, a partner in multiple chamber groups, and soloist with orchestras in Canada and the U.S., travelling England, France, Iceland, the US and Canada as performer and clinician. I began teaching in the voice area at the University of Toronto and Western University, and completed a doctorate in Collaborative Piano at the University of Michigan.

Eventually a health crisis set me on a healing journey, showing me the way back to authentic music-making with joy on my own terms. I’m now working with all ages using vibration and frequency through piano, voice, violin, drumming and various other tools.