2026 Artists
Sarah loves J.S. Bach, and J.S. Bach loves Sarah. (She) played Bach beautifully. Then she introduced her audience to some sumptuous composers and explored their ties to Bach and each other. We heard far more than we expected to. Then...more Bach revealed even more richness and complexity. Thank you Sarah!
-- audience member, Tobermory, ON.
Performers
Photo Credit: Gary Moon
Sarah Pratt-Parsamian, violin
Originally from Listowel, ON, and currently based in New York, NY, acclaimed violinist Sarah Pratt-Parsamian enjoys a diverse and exciting musical career. She has been a prizewinner at the Jeunesses Musicales International Violin Competition, and Silver Medal winner in the Canadian National Music Competition. At the age of 14 she made her solo debut with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra at the Guelph Spring Festival in Ontario, and since has performed as soloist with orchestras in Canada and the U.S., including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Stratford Symphony Orchestra, and the National Arts Center Orchestra in Ottawa.
An avid chamber musician and recital artist, Sarah has performed across Canada and the United States, including Stratford Summer Music Festival, the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society, the Arts and Letters Club, Heliconian Club (Toronto), the British Art Museum (New Haven, CT), Bargemusic (New York, NY), the Detroit Institute of Art (Detroit, MI), Clefworks (Montgomery, AB), and others. She performs regularly on the Musica Reginae series in Queens, NY, and is the founder and Artistic Director of Music on the Bruce.
Sarah is a temporary member of the New York City Ballet Orchestra. She also performs regularly as a substitute with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic, with whom she has traveled on tours across the United States, Europe and Asia. She is a member of the New York City Opera Orchestra, a position she has held since 2006. Sarah has served as guest concertmaster of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Florida Orchestra, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, and others.
Sarah holds a Bachelor in Performance Degree from the University of Toronto, Master’s Degree and Artist Diploma from Yale University, and Doctor of Musical Arts from SUNY Stony Brook. When her violin is resting, Sarah can be found jogging on park trails, climbing trees with her children, hiking with her camera, or curled up on the couch with a good book and a glass of wine.
Shane Kim, violin
Toronto-born violinist Shane Kim has been a member of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra since 2012. Prior positions include principal violinist of the IRIS Chamber Orchestra and concertmaster appearances with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, and at the Aspen, Spoleto-Charleston, and Lakes Area music festivals.
Winner of the Orford String Quartet Award, Shane has performed chamber music at the Ravinia Festival, Taos Chamber Music Festival, and Encuentro de Musica in Santander, Spain. He has served as a resident artist at the Toronto Summer Music Festival. As a founding member of the XIA String Quartet, Shane has performed and given master classes across Canada.
Shane is currently Violin Coach of the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra.
Caitlin Boyle, viola
A JUNO-nominated performing artist, Caitlin Boyle concertized extensively for thirteen years with the Cecilia String Quartet. She won several international awards including Banff, Bordeaux, and Osaka String Quartet Competitions. The quartet was the John D. Stewart String Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Toronto from 2015-2018, where they coordinated the chamber music program, as well as holding positions as Adjunct Professors.
Currently she plays with the Isabel String Quartet, string-quartet-in-residence at Queens University and is a member of Sinfonia Toronto and the Niagara Symphony Orchestra. She has also performed and toured with orchestras such as the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Symphony Orchestra, and the Schleswig-Holstein Orchestral Academy.In addition to her performance schedule, she teaches at the Hamilton Suzuki School of Music and through the Hamilton Music Collective, An Instrument for Every Child.
Rachel Desoer, cello
Rachel Desoer is a Canadian cellist. She studied at the Juilliard School, Oberlin College, McGill University and the Banff Centre. She graduated from Oberlin in 2008 with a Bachelor of Music degree.
Rachel was the cellist of the Cecilia String Quartet from 2010 to 2018. In this ensemble Rachel toured extensively around the world, recorded 4 albums on the Analekta label and taught chamber music at the University of Toronto.
Touring has allowed Rachel to perform at such inspiring venues as Wigmore Hall, The Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Konzert Haus Berlin and many more.
The Cecilia Quartet also made educational programming a priority and performed hundreds of presentations for schools. In 2014, the quartet created a concert series called Xenia concerts specifically designed for children on the autism spectrum and their families. Exemplifying their commitment to the equal representation of women in music, Rachel spearheaded the commissioning of 4 string quartets by Canadian women composers in 2016.
Rachel continues to play recitals and concertos with orchestra regularly. She has worked in orchestras, most notably, the National Arts Centre Orchestra and the Canadian Opera Company. Currently, Rachel is the principal cellist of Symphony Nova Scotia. She performs on a Vuillaume from ca. 1850, generously loaned by the Symphony Nova Scotia Society.
Joanna Diindiisikwe Simmons, soprano
Joanna is an Ojibwe artist from Lindsay Ontario, with maternal ties to Saugeen tract treaty territory 45 1/2. She is a graduate of the Glenn Gould School of Music, participating in both the Performance Diploma and Artist Diploma programs. Joanna sang the lead role of Sara Riel in the Canadian Opera Company's production of Louis Riel in 2017. In 2019, she sang the lead role of Native Girl in Pacific Opera Victoria's tour of Missing, a chamber opera based on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
Joanna is the Artistic Director of Loose Tea Music Theatre, and is a founding member of the Toronto metal band 'Seven Moons'.
Dominik Franken, viola
Dominik Franken was born and raised in Germany and studied the violin and viola with concertmaster Erich Brand. Dominik played in the German Youth Orchestra, Bonner Sinfonietta and the Brand Quartet. After immigrating to Canada in 1987 he pursued a career in farming and as an Investment Advisor. The viola is always part of his life, playing in several orchestras, as a chamber musician and as the “Sow” in Cow and Sow (look it up on ITunes). Dominik retired to Myles Bay in 2019 to make more music in all different forms and shapes. In 2022 he started "Lions Head Summer Music", a one-week celebration of classical music!
Featured Composers
Frank Horvat, composer
Frank Horvat is "one of the most inventive songwriters to come out of the contemporary scene in Canada" (WholeNote Magazine) — a multi-genre composer who has "carved a niche for himself among today's composers, wearing his fragile heart on his sleeve" (CBC Classical).
His work moves between themes of love, the environment, and social justice, drawing on deeply personal stories while giving listeners space to ponder their own.
With over twenty albums across labels including ATMA Classique, Centrediscs, Redshift, and Navona Records, his compositions have premiered on five continents and aired on networks including BBC Radio 3, CBC, HBO, Netflix, Discovery, and Vice. Music for Self-Isolation was named one of CBC Classical's Top Five Albums of 2021. His sound installations have been exhibited across three continents, including at the 2024 Venice Biennale, Surface in India, and Museo Novecento in Florence, bringing the sounds of the Arctic into some of the world's most celebrated art spaces.
The inaugural recipient of the McMorrow Music Award for contemporary composition and an Associate Composer at the Canadian Music Centre, Horvat has been invited to residencies including the Banff Centre, UBC’s Woodhaven Eco Culture Centre and the Arctic Circle Expedition.
Born in Ottawa, a graduate in composition from the University of Toronto, he lives by the lake in Toronto with his wife and manager, Lisa. Frank Horvat has received commissions from celebrated artists and institutions including Christina Petrowska Quilico, David Jalbert, NUMUS, Protection International, Sinfonia Toronto, and the Vancouver Bach Choir. Discover his latest work at frankhorvat.com.
Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, poet
Photo and bio coming shortly...
Music on the Bruce gratefully acknowledges the support of the Ontario Arts Council and the government of Ontario, the SOCAN Foundation, Bruce Power, and the Town of South Bruce Peninsula
