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Fundraising Concerts
We do not have any fundraising concerts scheduled at this time, but check back later for details on our summer garden tea and concert coming up in August.
Kathryn Wiebe
Violinist & Creative Director
Originally from Windsor, Ontario, Kathryn is an active & versatile freelance musician recently settled on Vancouver Island. Her passionate and intuitive musicianship has brought her the opportunity to perform with many ensembles around Canada and the USA, including the Victoria Symphony, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Victoria Baroque Players, Windsor Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra London, & Detroit Civic Orchestra.
After much success in local musical competitions, Kathryn furthered her study and love of music at University of Toronto and University of Michigan under the instruction of Yehonatan Berick as a merit scholar.
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During this time, She served as concertmaster in University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra. She is an avid arranger for Cascadia Quartet & ensembles and has worked as arranger for a number of musical projects around Canada. She is especially thankful to numerous mentors and teachers that have helped nuture her talent, such as Lillian Scheirich, Michael Colgrass, The Gryphon Trio, Shauna Rolston, Katheryn Votapek, Régis Pasquier, and The Pacifica Quartet
Tyson Doknjas
Violinist
Tyson brings so much fun and excellence to the Cascadia Quartet. Full of cheer, adventure, & wit, he is always smiling and engaging so well with listeners and fellow musicians. He is also an avid arranger for the ensembles, and is so proud to call beautiful Vancouver Island home where he lives with his wife & fellow violinist, Kathryn Wiebe.
He is a member of the Victoria Symphony and performs with various groups on Vancouver Island, including Pacific Opera Victoria, Sidney Classical Orchestra, and Galiano Ensemble of Victoria. He studied violin performance at the University of Victoria, and during his years there was concertmaster of the Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra.
Tyson has participated in various orchestral programs across the country, including the National Academy Orchestra in Hamilton, and Symphony Orchestra Academy of the Pacific in Powell River. He is an active teacher, bringing along the next generation of young players.
Jessica Pickersgill
Violist
Jessica started violin at the age of 6 and viola at 14. From there, her musical life took off. She won multiple chamber and solo awards including the Louis Shermann Concerto Competition, the coveted Roberto and Mary Wood Scholarship, and performed in masterclasses with Pinkus Zukerman, Moshe Hammer and the Lafayette String Quartet.. A full scholarship sent her to the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University for a Bachelor of Music in Viola Performance under Asst. Principle of the Minnesota Orchestra, Rebecca Albers; and the violist from the Emerson String Quartet, Lawrence Dutton. In 2016 she earned a Masters in Viola Performance at the New England Conservatory in Boston,Cum Laude, under Dimitri Murrath, Avery Grant Recipient and William Primrose Competition winner.
Throughout college, Jessica has worked with top musicians in the world including Hsin-Yun Huang, Richard Aaron, Roberto Diaz, Robert McDuffie, as well as the Emerson, Borromeo, St, Lawrence, Ehnes, and Cavani String Quartets who prepared her to perform in many professional concerts alongside Toby Appel, Julie Albers, David Ying, and others. She's worked with noted conductors, including Michael Tilson-Thomas, Hugh Wolf, Benjamin Zander and Robert Spano as well as rock, pop and jazz musicians like John Patitucci, Mike Mills(REM), Chuck Leavell (Rolling Stones).
She's been accepted to summer festivals like the Banff Masterclass Program, Domaine Forget, Icicle Creek, Amelia Island Chamber Festival, the Quartet Program in NY, and the Rome Chamber Music Festival in Italy.
Only now starting her professional career, Jessica has already performed in halls around the world including Symphony Hall-Boston, Spivey Hall-Atlanta, Le Poisson Rouge-NYC, Palazzo Barbarini-Rome, and Capella Hall-St. Petersburg to name a few. Students have found her to be a patient and gifted teacher. She's also had the opportunity to teach at the Victoria Conservatory of Music under the mentorship of Michael Van der Sloot in 2015. A native of Victoria, BC, Ms. Pickersgill is excited to again offer performances and music instruction in her hometown.
Erin Tinney
Cellist
Cellist Erin Tinney currently lives in Victoria, British Columbia. She is a graduate from the University of Victoria with Masters & Bachelor degrees in cello performance. She has performed with the Prince George Symphony, The Galiano Ensemble of Victoria and was principal cellist in the University of Victoria Symphony Orchestra. An avid chamber musician, she also received training through Lafayette String Quartet's chamber music program.
Erin is also a passionate educator in the community. Working with the LSQ's string mentorship program at UVic, Erin would connect with many string music teachers and aspiring students in many high schools, middle schools and elementary schools in the Victoria area. Currently, she boasts a large private studio of budding cellists, and is a lead instructor through Harmony Project Sooke, a non-profit organization founded in Los Angeles, with a mission to promote positive social change through musical education. Working with youth has been an exciting and rewarding experience for Erin, and she finds that discovering creative solutions to current problems and constantly learning more about music with a positive spin is an extremely valuable and meaningful way to build musical community. Erin has studied cello with Pamela Highbaugh-Aloni, Paula Kiffner and John Doerksen, Paul Katz, John Kadz and Shauna Rolston.
