Sean Lin is a freelance clarinetist and performer based in the Greater Toronto Area. While not a musician by trade, Sean has been playing the clarinet for nearly 20 years and is highly active in the community music scene in Toronto. Though largely self-taught, Sean’s learnings with esteemed pedagogues Richard Thomson, Susan Barber-Kahro, and Le Lu have been invaluable. Ensembles that Sean has played with include the Toronto Sinfonietta, Greater Toronto Philharmonic, Rosedale Symphony, and the Hart House Symphonic Band (in which he previously played as principal clarinet for over 10 years). Sean has also participated in the community program of the Toronto Summer Music Festival, where he performed with Gabriel Radford and Michael Chiarello of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. In addition to orchestral playing, Sean is also an avid chamber musician who often performs in chamber groups at recital series such as OpenScore and Appassionata at the University of Toronto.
Sean joined the Hart House Orchestra in 2018 and has been serving as principal clarinet since 2022. As the winner of the 2023 Concerto Competition, Sean is thrilled to be playing Weber’s 2nd Clarinet Concerto with the group in his first ever performance of a full-length concerto.
Apart from music, Sean’s other hobbies include photography, tennis, and skating. Sean graduated from the University of Toronto with an M.Eng and BASc in mechanical engineering, and currently works as a data analyst at Loblaws, making bank for Mr. Bank.
Sofia Mycyk is currently completing her Masters degree in Piano performance at the Université de Montréal under the tutelage of the renowned pedagogue Prof. Marc Durand. Previous teachers included Patricia Zander at the New England Conservatory in Boston as well as Bonnie Nicholson, Kathleen Solose and Nadia March in Saskatoon. She received her Royal Conservatory of Music Performer’s ARCT Diploma in 2004 with First Class Honors with Distinction.
Catherine Manoukian won the grand prize at the 1994 Canadian Music Competition at the age of twelve and has never looked back. She was born in Toronto, began violin studies with her father, and made her first stage appearance at the age of four. From 1994 to 2000, Catherine studied with the late, world-renowned violin pedagogue Dorothy Delay of New York.
A student of the Curtis Institute of Music, Katya Poplyansky started her violin studies with Professor Oleg Pokhanovski in Winnipeg in 2002. Five years later, at the age of fifteen, she began her Bachelor of Music at Peabody Conservatory, studying with Victor Danchenko. Although the youngest student at the school, she was runner-up in Peabody’s William Marbury Competition, open to all string majors. Still studying with Professor Danchenko, as well as with Atis Bankas, she then continued her BM at the Glenn Gould School, before moving to Curtis in 2009. Over the last few years, she has also had the opportunity to play for leading violinists such as James Ehnes, Oleh Krysa, Martin Beaver and Aaron Rosand.
Prize-winning violinist Amir Safavi began his violin studies when he was five years old. A graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Music (ARCT), he received the Gold Medal for the highest mark on the Performance Examination in Canada. Amir has won numerous grand prizes and awards at the provincial and national levels, including the first award in the Strings Open (2008) and Diploma (2007) levels of the Provincial Finals Competition (OMFA), the ACNMP national award for the most promising performer of the festival, the Most Promising Performer award of the Toronto Kiwanis Music Festival, along with other best of festival awards throughout Canada. As well, he was selected as the Canadian representative for the 2009 ASTA National Solo Competition, held in the United States.