Academy Concert Series ... Enjoy life more with Music!
Rona Goldensher -- Originally from New York City, Rona Goldensher completed her studies at the Mannes College of Music with Dora Schwarzberg and Shirley Givens and subsequently studied baroque violin with Nancy Wilson and Stanley Ritchie. She has performed extensively with leading period instrument ensembles throughout North America including Aston Magna, Waverly Consort, and Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra (New York), Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (San Francisco), City Musick (Chicago), and Seattle Baroque and she was a longtime core member of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. Rona is a frequent chamber music collaborator in Toronto and elsewhere, and in addition to the Windermere String Quartet, performs with the Talisker Chamber Players and the Klezmer trio Hu-Tsa-Tsa, which recently released its first CD, The Well Tempered Klezmorim. Rona resides in Toronto with her husband, Ray, and their magnificent golden retrievers, Penny and Lincoln.
Sharon Burlacoff studied piano performance in New York City and historical keyboard performance at Cornell University with Malcolm Bilson before returning to the community where she was born and raised, to establish The Kingsway Conservatory of Music. As a performer, she focuses on 18th and early 19th-century repertoire, usually performed on her replica of a Viennese piano by Anton Walter from circa 1802. She has played for The Mozart Society, the ROM "Musically Speaking" Series and the Academy Concert Series, among others. As an active adjudicator, piano, history and certified Kodály and Orff instructor, she puts her academic credentials and love of teaching to varied use with students ranging from babies to diploma level pianists. Sharon holds an MA degree in musicology from the University of Toronto, an MFA degree in Piano Performance from the State University of New York, and an Honours Bachelor of Music in performance from the University of Western Ontario.
Jani Papadhimitri -- As a successful performer of great works, a dedicated violin teacher, an innovative composer, and a scholar and explorer in the pedagogical area, Jani Papadimitri is distinguished for his extensive contribution as an artist in the field of classical and contemporary music. He earned the highest mark in the Violinist Diploma from the College Artistic School of Tirana, Albania and later graduated with a first class honours degree in violin from the Academy of Arts at the University of Tirana. He has worked as a concert-master and Art Director at the Opera Ballet of Tirana, as concert-master with the Piraeus Symphony in Greece, and as violin professor at the University of Tirana. He has performed around the world in concerts for solo violin, violin and orchestra, and chamber music covering a wide repertoire of classical and contemporary works. He has also composed a great number of works, including the Ballet "The Eagles", works for orchestra, chamber music, and violin solos. Jani Papadhimitri is now a member of the Sinfonia Toronto Ensemble, as well as violin teacher at Philharmonic Music Ltd. and the Columbus Centre, Toronto.
Alexander Kats -- Russian-trained concert pianist and teacher Alexander Kats is a graduate of Moscow's prestigious Gnessin Institute. He studied under Professor Lina Bulatova, who wrote of him: "Alexander Kats is a talented virtuoso artist who combines stylistic diversity with depth of interpretation." As a soloist, he has appeared in major concert halls across Russia, performing with a number of symphony orchestras. For several years, he taught piano at Ufa University of the Arts, where he was head of the piano faculty and was also a consulting teacher for the Republic of Bashkiria. He won a Chopin Society Prize in Israel, and made solo broadcasts on Israeli National Radio. Since emigrating to Canada in 1991, he has become well known to classical music audiences as a soloist, recitalist, accompanist and ensemble artist. He has appeared at Walter Hall, Glenn Gould Studio, the Toronto Centre for the Arts, and has organized and performed in a series of concerts at St. George the Martyr Anglican Church, as well as at venues in other Ontario cities. Currently, he serves as music director for St. Margaret’s in the Pines Anglican Church in Scarborough, and has been the accompanist for Hart House Singers at UofT and for the Ryerson Oakham House Choir. In addition, Alexander Kats maintains a busy private teaching schedule, and is often sought after to consult young aspiring performers.
Laura Jones -- Laura Jones comes from Brandon, Manitoba, and it was at Brandon University that she started her formal music education. transferring to the university of Toronto, she completed a bachelor's Degree, and went on to receive her Master's degree in Performance from the university of Michigan. She has been member of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra since 1989. She is the principal cellist of Nota Bene Period Orchestra, and has performed and recorded on the Naxos label with Aradia; as a gambist she has performed with Toronto consort and the Toronto Chamber Choir. An avid chamber musician, she plays both cello and viola da gamba with the chamber music groups L'Intemporel, The Talisker Chamber Players, and Musick's Hand-maid, in addition to the Windermere String Quartet.
Paul Jenkins
-- Paul Jenkins cultivates an eclectic musical career as a keyboardist and tenor. A longtime member of the Toronto Consort, he has appeared with many of Canada's leading early music groups, including Tafelmusik, Aradia, the Purcell and Bach Consorts, Opera Atelier and La Nef. Other collaborations include Apollo's Fire, the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra, the Windsor and Toronto Symphony Orchestras, Opera in Concert, the Toronto Chamber Choir, the Esprit Orchestra, I Furiosi, Musica Divina, the Canadian Chamber Ensemble, and Toronto Masque Theatre, among others. He has recorded on the Dorian, Eclectra, CTAH, SRI, Naxos, Helicon and early-music.com labels. Paul accompanies singers in Alexina Louie's television mini-opera Justifiable Homicide. He accompanied Russian counter tenor Vyatcheslav Kagan Paley in his New York debut recital and received critical praise for his recording of Thomas Svoboda's Duo Concerto for Trumpet and Organ with Charles Schlueter, Principal Trumpet of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Paul Jenkins is Organist of Blessed Sacrament Church in Toronto. Recent organ recitals include St. David’s Cathedral in Wales, the Scherer Organ in Tangermünde, Germany and the Brandenburg Dom. Paul is restoring the former Philipsville Baptist Church in Leeds County, an 1865 stone building designated by the Ontario Heritage Foundation, for use as an arts studio, gallery and concert venue. Educated in Britain and Canada, Paul Jenkins holds a Master of Music Degree in Performance from the University of Toronto. His teachers included Colin Tilney, Douglas Bodle, Christopher Hogwood and Stephen Cleobury.Anthony Rapoport
-- Anthony Rapoport is principal violist of Sinfonia Toronto and a founding member of the Aradia Ensemble, with whom he has recorded over a dozen internationally released CDs of baroque music on period instruments. On tour as soloist with Aradia, he was acclaimed as “a splendid violist” by the New Zealand Herald. Anthony received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Juilliard School in New York.
