ANNA REDEKOP - viola

A  native of London, Ontario, Anna started studying violin at the age of 10. She took up viola in her teens at the suggestion of her teacher, Sandra Stark, and immediately developed a fondness for the instrument. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in French Language and Literature from the University of Western Ontario, at the same time studying privately with Ralph Aldrich. Ultimately, she decided to pursue music full-time.

Anna has studied with founding Juilliard String Quartet violinist Robert Koff in Boston, as well as at the Royal Conservatory of Music with Rennie Regehr and Steven Dann. In addition to her role as the Madawaska Quartet’s founding violist, she performs regularly as an orchestral and chamber musician with groups such as the National Ballet of Canada, Esprit Orchestra, Toronto Operetta Theatre and the Queen of Puddings Music Theatre. She has also worked for the past nine years as violist for the Shaw Festival, where she is a member of the String Quartet in Residence, the Blue Spruce Quartet.

CBC broadcasts include numerous chamber and orchestral performances throughout Canada. Anna has also performed and recorded with pop artists such as the Cowboy Junkies, Jann Arden, Anne Murray, Bruce Cockburn, Sarah Slean and Tom Cochrane. She has performed at the Juno Awards and has played on recordings for various film and television soundtracks.

Anna is also passionate about travelling and about introducing Classical Music to new audiences wherever they can be reached. Her teaching experience includes private instruction in Toronto as well as at the National and Inter-Provincial Music Camps.

Anna plays a viola made by Johann Lotter in 2006.

Hear Anna - click here

LESLIE KINTON - piano

Leslie Kinton was born in Toronto and studied the piano with Pierre Souvairan and Boris Berlin, as well as composition with Samuel Dolin. He also studied the piano in New York City with Jeaneane Dowis and Karl Ulrich Schnabel. Mr. Kinton has a PhD in music theory from the University of Toronto with a specialization in Schenkerian analysis. His dissertation was an exhaustive study of Dvořák’sSymphony No. 7 with two of the world’s most renowned Schenkerian theorists, David Beach and Edward Laufer.

   From 1976 to the present, as a member of the Anagnoson & Kinton piano duo, Leslie Kinton has performed throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. The duo has played with the major orchestras across Canada including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Winnipeg Symphony, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Calgary Philharmonic, Symphony Nova Scotia, the Victoria Symphony, and the CBC Vancouver Orchestra. They have a discography of nine recordings. Anagnoson & Kinton are on CBC radio almost every week, and they have also broadcast on the BBC, National Public Radio in the U.S.A., Hilversum Radio in Holland, Hong Kong Radio, and Radio Suisse Romande. In December 2004, they had an eight-concert tour of China. They returned for another eight concerts in October of 2006. In December 2007, Anagnoson & Kinton performed in Prague as part of the annual Martinů Festival in the Czech Republic. In October 2008 they gave recitals and masterclasses in St. Petersburg, Russia as part of the 8th Annual Conservatory Festival in Glazunov Hall.

   Leslie Kinton is one of Canada’s best-known and most sought-after chamber musicians. Fellow artists he has performed with include Bryan Epperson, the St. Lawrence Quartet, the Madawaska Quartet, Martin Beaver, Ifor James, Joel Quarrington, the Amici Chamber Ensemble, Erika Raum, Steven Dann, Mark Fewer, Dennis Brott, James Sommerville, James Campbell, Joaquin Valdepeñas, Raymond Luedeka, Avram Galper, Nora Shulman, the York Winds, and actor Colin Fox (for Strauss’s Enoch Arden).

   Mr. Kinton is a founding member of ARC (Artists of the Royal Conservatory), the resident chamber ensemble of the Glenn Gould School.  He is on the faculties of both the Don Wright Faculty of Music at The University of Western Ontario and the Glenn Gould School at the Royal Conservatory of Music.

Hear Leslie (he's the pianist on the left in the spot light)  - click here