Matthew Hayes, owner and violinist

Matthew received his Bachelor of Music degree with Honours from Wilfrid Laurier University in 2004, studying modern and baroque violin with Jeremy Bell (Penderecki String Quartet) and Julie Baumgartel (Tafelmusik, Nota Bene). 

As a violinist Matthew has performed with the Mississauga Symphony, Guelph Symphony, Waterloo Chamber Players, Chestnut Hall Camerata, Spiritus Ensemble, Royal City Musicial Productions, Community Players of New Hamburg (as concertmaster and string coach), recorded music for film including Deportation at Breakfast (2002), Lenore (2008) and The Getouts (2008) and been broadcast on CBC Radio. He has also participated in festivals such as the Windsor Canadian Music Festival and the Spoleto USA Festival (Charleston, South Carolina).

As the owner of Duo d'Amore, Matthew is excited to consult with you regarding music for your wedding ceremony, reception or corporate event. His warm and friendly personality and in depth knowledge of both classical music performance and customer service will make planning the musical portion of your event easy and fun.

Robin Lynn Braun, violin, Vancouver BC

Canadian born violinist, Robin Lynn Braun began her musical studies at age five at the Suzuki String School with Martha Kaliniak where she showed great promise and talent.

As a winner of the 1994 Ontario Youth Competition, she made her debut at the Centre In the Square Raffi Armenian Theatre. In 1998 she was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada. Ms. Braun has appeared as soloist with the Winnipeg Symphony, Kitchener Waterloo Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Mississauga Symphony, Sarnia Symphony and has given recitals throughout Canada, USA, Brazil, Mexico, Europe Asia. 

Ms. Braun has been invited to several prestigious summer music festivals. Recently she participated at the American Institute of Musical Studies (Graz, Austria), The National Academy Orchestra (Ontario), The Festival of the Sound (Ontario), International Music Festival (Mexico), 2002 and 2003 European Music Festival (Hamburg, Germany), Orvieto Musica Chamber Festival (Orvieto, Italy) and QuartetFest (Waterloo, Ontario). 

Ms. Braun has given master classes at the Yewon Arts School in Seoul, Korea the Universidade Federal Do Rio Grande Do Sul Instituto des Artes in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of British Columbia. She has performed in Master Classes around the world for violin protégés as, Mauricio Fuks, Jamie Laredo, Martin Chalifour and Aaron Rosan. 

Ms. Braun has completed with Honors a Bachelor of Music degree in Performance at Wilfrid Laurier University where she was a student of Jerzy Kaplanek and a Masters of Music degree at Indiana University where she was a student of Mimi Zweig. Ms.Braun held a position of Assistant Instructor of Violin at Indiana University for two years and taught for the Summer String Academy Program at Indiana University. 

During the sumer of 2006 Ms. Braun was invited to play First Violin with the Canadian Opera Company for the complete Wagner Ring Cycle. During the summer of 2007 Ms. Braun was given the position of Principal Second Violin for the National Academy Orchestra. That summer collaborated with renown musicians as Marc-Andre Savoie, Mark Skazinetsky, Agnes Grossman and Richard Roberts.

This past summer Robin was invited to join the First Violin Section of the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) Opera Orchestra in Graz, Austria.

Immediately following her studies in the States, Ms. Braun became a member of the KW Symphony for the 03/04 Season. Robin is thrilled to join the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra First violin section for her 5th season. Miss Braun has recently join the teaching faculty at AVA Music school in North Vancouver, where she enjoys teaching young talented kids the joys of learning Violin competitively or just for pure fun.

Robin enjoys teaching, running, climbing all with her puppy "Truck" and her Fiancee and artistic companion Mauricio.

Pamela Hinman, violin, Toronto ON

Pamela Hinman is from Calgary Alberta, Canada, where she began studying violin at the age of three. She continued her musical education at the Conservatory of Mount Royal College, where she was a member of the Academy program and received her Music Performance Diploma. She continued to complete her Bachelor of Music Degree in Performance at the University of Calgary. 

Pamela has been highly involved in Toronto.s music scene since relocating there in 2004. She is a member of the highly acclaimed Via Salzburg Chamber Orchestra, performing chamber music with internationally renowned musicians such as Andre LaPlante, Steven Isserliss, and Mayumi Seiler. Pamela also works regularly with the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, performing a wide range of operas including Wagner's Ring Cycle. As a teacher, she is actively involved all over the city in many different settings including Branksome Hall, the Classical Music Conservatory, privately, and most recently with The Hammer Band, an outreach program providing violin lessons to underprivileged kids in Toronto. She is currently completing a Master's Degree at the University of Toronto in Music Performance, graduating in December 2008.

Rachel Pomedli, cello, Toronto ON

Rachel Pomedli recently spent a year in Japan as a member of the international Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra, under the baton of Maestro Yutaka Sado. Rachel holds a Master of Music degree from Yale University and a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Toronto. Her principal teachers have been Andras Fejer, Judith Glyde, Aldo Parisot and Shauna Rolston.

As a member of the Vinca String Quartet, formed at Yale, Rachel was a graduate assistant to the Takacs Quartet at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The Vinca Quartet were prizewinners at the 2005 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in South Bend, Indiana, and visiting artists at the Aspen Music Festival, Vail Music Festival, and the International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove, England.

Rachel has participated in the Spoleto USA Festival (Charleston, South Carolina) the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival (Norfolk, Connecticut), the National Orchestral Institute (College Park, Maryland), and spent six summers at the Banff Centre for the Arts. She has performed in masterclasses for Janos Starker, Desmond Hoebig, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi and Ralph Kirshbaum; and intensively studied chamber music with Laurence Lesser and the Tokyo, Takacs and Juilliard String Quartets.

Emily Hau, violin, Toronto ON

Emily received her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in violin from the University of Houston.  She studied under the guidance of the distinguished artist Fredell Lack, and the concertmaster of Dallas Symphony, Emanuel Borok. Emily has been the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships from the University of Houston, the University of Toronto, the Starling Endowment, and the Canadian Aldeburgh Foundation. She has performed in master classes for artists including Ruggiero Ricci, James Buswell, Kyung Sun Lee, Charles Castleman and Rachel Podger.

A vibrant young violinist, Emily spent several summers abroad at music festivals that include Banff, Britten-Pears, Schlern and Pacific Music Festival. Her musical experiences over the years, have allowed her to study, as well as perform, under some of the most renowned teachers and conductors of our time. Emily has previously studied with Zhang Yun Zhang, Lorand Fenyves and Paul Kantor. She has played under conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Andrey Boreyko and Robin Ticciati. Her recent engagements has allowed her to travel throughout Canada, the United States, Japan, Italy, Jamaica, England and Germany. In addition to performing with Duo d'Amore, Emily is principal second violin of Sinfonia Toronto.

Erika Nielsen, cello, Toronto ON

Erika completed her Artist Diploma at the Glenn Gould School with David Hetherington. This past June she performed as a member of the Symphony Orchestra of the Pacific (dir. Arthur Arnold) and studied with Katinka Kleijn of the Chicago Symphony, and with Denis Brott at the Toronto Summer Music Academy. Recently she completed a cross-Canada tour with Alberta's Canadian University College Chamber Orchestra.

Described as a “colorful cellist of many temperaments", Erika is also a proud graduate of Queen's University as a student of Wolf Tormann, and studied further with Shauna Rolston, and at the Domaine Forget, QC. She has performed in master classes for Hans Jorgen-Jensen, Anthony Elliott, Iseut Chuat, Thomas Weibe, Philippe Muller, Tanya Prochazska, Paul Marleyn, and also appears regularly with the Kingston Symphony. Erika also performed with Grammy-award winning artist Kanye West at the Air Canada Centre and MTV Canada, with The Trews at the CNE, and is a member of \Klezfactor, a jazz-klezmer ensemble and Muskox, featuring music by Michael Smith, which earned an Ontario Arts Council Grant towards their upcoming CD release this fall.

 Sean Kemp, violin Ottawa ON

Originally from London, England, Sean recently moved to Ottawa rom Halifax, Nova Scotia.

He started playing the violin at the age of six and went on to recieve his musical training at the Royal College of Music in the UK where he studied with Tessa Robins and Rodney Friend. He later studied acting at The State Institute of Cinematography, Moscow, Russia.

Sean comes from an extremely diverse artistic background. As a violinist he has performed as a soloist with the Parnassus ensemble at venues across the UK. He also performed with a broad variety of ensembles under such distinguised conductors as Sir Neville Mariner, Sir David Wilcox and Sir Colin Davis. He was in great demand as a chamber musician in the UK oftem performing for members of British and European royalty.

Since moving to Canada, Sean has workedregularly with Symphony Nova Scotia, the Thunder Bay Symphony and continues to work with multiple ECMA award winner Lennie Gallant. He is currently guest principal second violin with the Ottawa Symphony.

Lauren Klein, violin, Victoria BC

Lauren studied violin in Halifax with Jan Wicha and the Maritime Conseratory of Music, then completed a Bachelor of Music at Wilfrid  Laurier University with Jerzy Kaplanek and a Master of Music Performance at the Univeristy of Victoria with Sharon Stanis. 

She has  played with numerous orchestras, including the university symphonies, chamber ensembles, baroque and early music ensembles, and many string  quartets, trios, and piano trios. She attended Quartetfest 2006 in Waterloo, Scotia Festival of Music, and the Tafelmusik Summer Baroque Institute.

She currently maintains an active career with several local symphony and chamber orchestras and teaches classical violin in Victoria, BC.

Catherine Little, cello, Montreal QC

Nova Scotia cellist Catherine Little is currently studying cello with Johanne Perron in the Masters Performance program at the Université de Montréal. Catherine has an Honours Bachelor of Music from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, where she studied cello with Paul Pulford and chamber music with the Penderecki String Quartet. She also took a year-long cultural exchange to France, studying with Jacques Froger at the Conservatoire Nationale de Musique et de Danse in La Rochelle. Catherine has played in many orchestras and chamber music festivals, including the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, the Wilfrid Laurier and Université de Montreal Symphony Orchestras, the "Quartetfest" chamber music festival in Waterloo, Ontario, the Domaine Forget Summer Music Academy in Charlevoix, Quebec, the Tuckamore music festival in St. John's Newfoundland and the Scotia Festival of Music in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Apart from her studies of classical repertoire, Catherine has most recently discovered an interest in improvising, new music and teaching, but she is most devoted to and enthusiastic about chamber music.

Claire Gallant, cellist, Halifax NS

Claire Gallant has been a professional cellist in her native Halifax for many years. She has performed with kanYe West, Anne Murray, and Scotia Festival of music, among others. Her most recent project has been performing with Halifax's collaborative theatre company Zuppa Theatre Co. in their two latest productions, including tours to Boston, Vancouver and Toronto. In 2004 she earned her Masters of Music degree, with merit, from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England. She also holds an Honours Bachelor of Music in Performance degree from Wilfrid Laurier University, has been a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, and has performed at Chamber music festivals in Italy and in England's Lake district.

Claire has also at both the Juno Awards and the East Coast Music awards, and done studio work for East Coast bands Matt Mays, hey rosetta!, Brent Randall, Laura Peek, and The Heavy Blinkers.