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PROGRAM OVERVIEW
Two vastly different musical worlds collide in this program for piano quintet, pairing the emotional intensity of Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich with the sweeping lyricism of Czech Romantic composer Antonín Dvořák.
Written during the political uncertainty of the Soviet era, Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57 draws listeners into a world of tension, mystery, and raw energy. The music shifts from haunting stillness to sharp, explosive momentum, revealing a composer navigating fear, pressure, and artistic expression under immense scrutiny. Even for first-time concertgoers, the emotional atmosphere feels immediate, cinematic, and deeply human.
In contrast, Dvořák’s Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major, Op. 81 radiates warmth, beauty, and melodic richness. One of the great voices of the late Romantic era, Dvořák was deeply inspired by Czech folk traditions, and this beloved work flows effortlessly between intimate reflection, spirited dance rhythms, and soaring melodies filled with optimism and joy.
Together, these two masterpieces showcase the remarkable emotional range of chamber music — from darkness and tension to warmth and celebration — offering a concert experience that is both deeply moving and vividly alive.
PROGRAM
Bagatelles, Op. 47
Antonin Dvořák
V. Poco allegro
Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57
Dmitri Shostakovich
I. Prelude (Lento)
II. Fugue (Adagio)
III. Scherzo (Allegretto)
Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major, Op. 81
Antonín Dvořák
I. Allegro, ma non tanto
III. Scherzo (Furiant): Molto vivace
IV. Finale (Allegro)
THE ARTISTS
David Lakirovich
VIOLIN
David Lakirovich was born in Brisbane, Australia, and started his violin studies at the age of three with his father, Jacob Lakirovich. David has taken part in various master classes with renowned violinists such as Felix Andrievsky, Nelly Shkolnikova, Jose-Louis Garcia, Pinchas Zukerman,Victor Tretyakov, Maurico Fuks, Haim Taub, Pavel Vernikov, and Michael Frischenschlager. His teachers have included David Zafer in Toronto, Arkadij Winokurow and Boris Kuschnir in Vienna, Vadim Gluzman and Shmuel Ashkenasi in Chicago, and William Preucil in Cleveland.
David has performed in many recitals and concerts in Australia, USA, Canada, Israel and Europe, including solo performances in Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall, Bronfman Auditorium in Tel Aviv, Stradivari Museum in Cremona, Italy, along with solo performances with the Calgary Philharmonic, Scarborough Symphony, York Symphony, and Chicago College of Performing Arts Symphony Orchestra. He also performed in the “Young Stars of the Young Century” concert in George Weston Recital Hall for the Vladimir Spivakov International Charity Foundation. He performed in a Stradivari Society concert in Chicago, playing on the 1692 ‘Lord Falmouth’ Stradivari. He has also performed solo on Chicago WFMT 98.7 Classical Radio. An avid chamber musician, he has collaborated with Peter Salaff, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Ilya Kaler, Mark Kosower, Atar Arad, William Wolfram and Vadim Gluzman. He has also collaborated and performed with ensembles that include the Pacifica Quartet, Cavani Quartet, and the Vermeer Quartet, and has performed in the Jupiter Chamber Players in New York and the North Shore Chamber Music Festival in Chicago. In 2014, his quartet at the Cleveland Institute of Music won “Quartet of the Year” in the Hvide Sande Festival in Copenhagen, Denmark. He has also performed at the Instrumental Society of Calgary on several occasions.
David has participated in and achieved top honours in numerous violin and chamber music competitions around the world. He was a participant at the Keshet Eilon International Violin Mastercourse in Israel for two summers, as well as the Pinchas Zukerman Young Artist Program in Ottawa.
David Lakirovich was a faculty member of the Rochetta Ligure Masterclass in Palazzo Spinola, Italy, and has been on faculty at the Cremona International Music Academy since 2013. In 2017-18, he served on the faculty of the Mount Royal Conservatory in Calgary, and has given numerous masterclasses and seminars in their Advanced Performance Program. He also taught at the University of Calgary the same year. He is currently on faculty at the Vancouver Academy of Music and the VSO School of Music.
David completed his Undergraduate Degree at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University in 2013 with Shmuel Ashkenasi and Vadim Gluzman, and his Master’s Degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2015 with William Preucil. He previously served as the Associate Concertmaster of the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra in Columbus, Ohio, and played 3 seasons with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra (2 years as Tutti 1st Violin, and 1 year as the Assistant Concertmaster). He was also invited to perform as guest Associate Concertmaster with the Jalisco Philharmonic during the entire summer of 2015 in Guadalajara, Mexico, as well as guest Concertmaster of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra in April and November 2019.
David joined the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra as the new Assistant Concertmaster at the beginning of the 2018/19 season. Due to a generous gift by an anonymous donor in Boston, David plays on a 1920 Stefano Scarampella violin.
Ji Eun Jenny Lim
VIOLIN
As the winner of The Artist’s International competition, Ji Eun Lim was awarded a debut recital at the Carnegie Weill hall the following year; and also made her debut at the Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center with the Juilliard Orchestra after winning the Juilliard competition. In Korea, she made her debut with Leipziger Kammer Orchester in the 2001 Seoul International Music Festival, and also was the soloist with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra in the New Year’s Gala Concert. Ji Eun has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras including Leipziger Kammer Orchester, Italian Chamber Orchestra, Corelli Chamber Orchestra, Novgorod Philharmonic, Irkutsk Philharmonic, Aspen Baroque Orchestra, Lake George Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, Busan Philharmonic, Korean Symphony and many other major orchestras in South Korea. She toured playing recitals, chamber music concerts and international festivals in Australia, Austria, Canada, China, England, Finland, England, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, and USA.
After her education with Gerard Kantarjian in Canada, Ji Eun achieved her Bachelor’s, Master’s degree and Professional studies program at the Juilliard School in New York. Her studies continued with legendary artists such as Arnold Steinhardt(Guarneri Quartet), Donald Weilerstein(Cleveland Quartet) and Norbert Brainin(Amadeus Quartet).
Also devoted in teaching, Ji Eun taught violin and chamber music at YonSei University and HanYang University in South Korea, and also at Montpellier International Music Academy and International Sommerakademie Schloss Heiligenberg. Ji Eun was one of principle players in conductor-less chamber Orchestra, the renowned Hwaum Chamber Orchestra for many number of years.
Isabelle Roland
VIOLA
Isabelle is a native of Canada, but was raised dividing her time between Paris and Vancouver. Isabelle received a Bachelor of Music from the University of Victoria studying with Jaroslav Karlovsky and obtained a Masters in Performance at the Cleveland Institute where she was a student of Heidi Castleman, Lynn Ramsey Irvine, and Robert Vernon.
From 1990-2001, Ms. Roland was Assistant Principal viola of the Victoria Symphony, where she appeared many times as a soloist including a performance under the baton of Sir Yehudi Menuhin. Isabelle was the founding member of the Savitri Quartet with whom she performed for CBC radio broadcasts, as well as a collaboration with mezzo soprano, Susan Platts. From 1996-1998, Ms. Roland served as Assistant Principal viola with the Colorado Festival in Boulder, Colorado.
Since settling permanently in Vancouver in 2002, Isabelle has appeared as a soloist with the Sinfonia of the North Shore and the West Coast Symphony. Currently, she is Principal viola with Sinfonia of the North Shore, a member of the Vancouver Opera, and performs regularly with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and the National Broadcasting Orchestra. Ms. Roland also enjoys a busy chamber music career performing with Trio Accord, Music In The Morning, West Coast Chamber Music, and is a member of the Tantalus String Quartet. In addition to her busy performing career, Isabelle joins her love of music and children teaching viola and violin at VAM, and by joyfully caring for her two young sons, Nicholas and Kai, with husband, Steve Mason.
Joseph Elworthy
CELLO
Artistic Director of the Academy Chamber Players, President & CEO of the Vancouver Academy of Music
Joseph Elworthy, driven by his passion for music education and performance, has graced the stages of Alice Tully Hall, Suntory Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress, and Sejong Hall as a featured soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. His exceptional contribution to Canadian
arts and culture has earned him the prestigious title of Fellow of the Royal Conservatory of Music. His music, a testament to his dedication, is available on the EMI, Sony, Archetype, Naxos, CBC and Bose record labels.
Elworthy began his cello studies at the Vancouver Academy of Music (VAM) under the tutelage of Audrey Nodwell, then studied for many years with Eric Wilson. In addition to receiving the Sylva Gelber Award, Joseph has received multiple Canada Council career grants. Mr. Elworthy is a graduate of the Juilliard School and Yale University, where he received the Aldo Parisot/Yo–Yo Ma Prize, the highest honour issued by Yale University to a graduating cellist. Mr. Elworthy has been a visiting artist at the Beijing Conservatory, Harvard University, the Royal Northern College of Music, Cremona International Music Academy, and the Royal Conservatory
of Music.
Joseph Elworthy is artistic director of the Amati & amp; Stradivari Players at VAM, with whom he has performed and internationally toured, including a recent Cambridge University residency. Mr.Elworthy is also co-artistic director of the Sea to Sky Summer Chamberfest. Joseph Elworthy served as Western Music Advisor for the Haw Par Music Foundation, a collaborative educational initiative linking Vancouver and Hong Kong, from 2012 to 2023. Prior to his appointment as VAM’s President & CEO in 2011, Mr. Elworthy was a member of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra for twelve years. Joseph plays on a cello made by Ian Crawford McWilliams, modelled on the legendary ‘Sleeping Beauty’ cello of 1739 by Domenico Montagnana.
Ian Parker
PIANO
Magnetic, easy-going, and delightfully articulate, Canadian pianist/conductor Ian Parker captivates audiences wherever he goes. As a pianist, he has appeared with top Canadian orchestras including the symphonies of Toronto, Quebec, Vancouver, Victoria, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Orchestre Métropolitain, and the Calgary Philharmonic. In the U.S., orchestral highlights include the San Francisco, Cincinnati, National, Santa Barbara, Richmond, and Honolulu symphonies as well as the Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom, to name just a few. During the 2019/20 season, Mr. Parker will make his debuts with the Savannah and Bakersfield symphonies, and will return to the Pensacola and Okanagan symphonies, among others.
In addition to his work at the keyboard, Ian Parker is currently in his second season as music director and principal conductor of the VAM Symphony Orchestra at the Vancouver Academy of Music. Working with some of Canada’s most promising young orchestral players, Mr. Parker programs and conducts four concerts per season in Vancouver’s historic Orpheum Theatre. In July 2020 he will lead the orchestra in a 50th anniversary tour throughout China. He is also artistic director of the Resonate chamber music series at the Kay Meek Centre in North Vancouver.
An enthusiastic recitalist, Mr. Parker has performed across the United States, Europe, Israel, and throughout Canada on tours with Debut Atlantic, Jeunesses Musicales du Canada, and Piano Six. Recital highlights include the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, UCLA, the University of British Columbia, and collaborative performances at the Hawaii International Music Festival and the Morgan Library in New York City.
Mr. Parker’s recordings include a CD with the London Symphony conducted by Michael Francis featuring three piano concertos: Ravel Concerto in G, Stravinsky Capriccio, and Gershwin Concerto in F, released by ATMA Classique, and an all-fantasy solo CD including fantasies of Chopin, Schumann, and Beethoven on Azica Records. Additionally, CBC Records released a recording of three Mozart concertos for one piano (K. 467), two pianos (K. 365), and three pianos (K. 242) featuring Mr. Parker and his two cousins, Jon Kimura Parker and Jamie Parker, with the CBC Radio Orchestra and Mario Bernardi on the podium.
First Prize winner at the 2001 CBC National Radio Competition, Ian Parker has also won the Grand Prize at the Canadian National Music Festival, the Corpus Christie International Competition and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra Competition. At The Juilliard School, he received the 2002 William Petschek Piano Debut Award and, on two occasions, was the winner of the Gina Bachauer Piano Scholarship Competition. Heard regularly on CBC Radio, he has also performed live on WQXR (hosted by Robert Sherman) in New York.
Born in Vancouver to a family of pianists, Mr. Parker began his piano studies at age three with his father, Edward Parker. He holds both the Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School, where he was a student of Yoheved Kaplinsky. While at Juilliard, he was awarded the Sylva Gelber Career Grant by the Canada Council for the Arts, presented annually to the “most talented Canadian artist.”