Shauna Rolston

Shauna Rolston (born 31 January 1967) is a Canadian cellist. Rolston was born in Edmonton/Alberta. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shauna Rolston, Cellistwww.shaunarolston.com

Celebrated Canadian cellist, Shauna Rolston is recognized by the press, peers and fans alike to be one of the most compelling and distinctive musical voices of her generation. Praised for her blazing technique and her ability to captivate the imagination and touch the heart of each audience member, Shauna continues to delight and astonish with a busy schedule of concerts, recordings and world premieres.

Shauna Rolston was born in Edmonton, Alberta (Canada). Her parents, pianist Isobel Moore and violinist Thomas Rolston - professional musicians, prominent music educators, and faculty members at the University of Alberta - introduced Shauna to the cello. Her father had an instrument maker create a one-eighth size cello which was presented to Shauna on her second birthday. Shauna’s first instruction was with cellist Claude Kenneson, a trio member with her parents, and author of Musical Prodigies: Perilous Journeys, Remarkable Lives (Amadeus Press, 1999) an insight into the lives of 44 musical prodigies, which begins with an intimate portrait of Shauna. At the age of four she began playing chamber music with her parents and while they recognized her exceptional musical ability, they limited her public appearances and never marketed her as a prodigy. Consequently, Shauna emerged from childhood without the damaged psyche that afflicts so many young prodigies. By the age eleven she was playing on a full size cello, an 1824 Chanot that she has been playing ever since. When Shauna was twelve, the family moved to Banff where her parents founded and were appointed Co-Directors of the year-round Music and Sound Program at the Banff centre. Consequently, Shauna was given the opportunity to play for a plethora of renowned guest artists from many disciplines including Zoltan Szekely, Gyorgy Sebok, Luciano Berio, William Primrose and Igor Oistrach, as well as cellists Janos Starker, Zara Nelsova (1918-2002), Gabriel Magyar and Aldo Parisot. She also performed in recital and recorded with Menahem Pressler, and at the age of thirteen played for famed cellist Leonard Rose who invited her to study with him at Juilliard. At the age of fourteen, Shauna was the youngest member, along with violin prodigy Joshua Bell, to attend the Geneva Conservatory in Switzerland where she studied with Pierre Fournier, and later at the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh (England) where she also studied with William Pleeth. At sixteen, she made a spectacular debut at New York's Town Hall, with her mother at the piano. Following her formative studies at the Banff Centre and abroad, Ms. Rolston earned undergraduate (Art) and graduate (Music) degrees at Yale where she studied with the distinguished cellist and pedagogue Aldo Parisot. While pursuing her degrees, she also served as his teaching assistant, and toured widely as a highly in-demand soloist, performing with many of the world’s most renowned conductors.

Gifted prodigy turned masterful innovator, Shauna Rolston has long been a passionate advocate for new music. She has had an astounding number of works written for her. In one season alone she premiered five concertos written for her, while continuing to make a stunning impression with such traditional staples as the Elgar and Saint-Saens concertos. The list of distinguished composers who have written for her and whose works she has premiered include fellow Canadians, Kelly-Marie Murphy, Heather Schmidt, Oskar Morawetz, Bruce Mather, Christos Hatzis and Chan Ka Nin, as well as Krzysztof Penderecki, Gavin Bryers, Mark Anthony Turnage, Rolf Wallin, Augusta Read Thomas, and Karen Tanaka. Two Canadian music icons, the late Jean Coulthard (1908-2000) and Violet Archer (1913-2000) – mentors since she was a toddler - introduced her to theory and analysis of music and wrote for her. More recent commissions and premieres include three double concerti for cello and flute by Karen Tanaka, Ron Royer, and Kelly-Marie Murphy, a cello concerto with orchestra and children’s choir by Gary Kulesha, cello concerti by Chris Paul Harman and Larysa Kuzmenko, and “Icicles of Fire”, "Fantasy" and "Synchronicity", three compositions for cello and piano by Heather Schmidt. Exciting and original projects demonstrating Shauna’s tremendous versatility include four groundbreaking double concertos: Ron Royer’s concerto for cello and flute (Patrick Gallois -premiered with Sinfonia Finlandia), Douglas Schmidt’s “Carbon Concerto” for carbon cello and accordion (Joe Marcerollo), and two featuring Ms. Rolston with the composers as performers: Heather Schmidt’s concerto for cello and piano and David Braid’s concerto for improvising cello contemporary jazz piano. While Shauna promotes Canadian composers, her collaborations are global and include a concerto for cello and choir by Arvo Pärt, and a concerto for cello and flute (Patrick Gallois) by Karen Tanaka (Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France).

Since her New York City Town Hall debut at the age of 16, Shauna continues to perform regularly around the world appearing in recital and concerto engagements in London, Paris, Copenhagen, Budapest, Rome, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Seoul, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Sao Paulo, Prague, Ankara, Bursa, Toronto, Montreal, New York, Boston, Washington, Los Angeles, Saint Louis, Denver and San Diego. She was the featured artist at the 1988 Olympics and has performed at many prestigious international festivals including the Casals festival in Puerto Rico, the Kuhmo Festival in Finland, the Gubbio Festival in Italy, the San Miguel Festival in Mexico, the Tivoli Festival in Denmark, the Stavanger Festival in Norway, the Newport, Sandpoint, Ohio, Maryland, and Britt festivals in the USA, the Banff Festival of the Arts and the Orford Festival in Canada as well as the new music festivals in Winnipeg, Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa. She has collaborated with conductors Krzysztof Penderecki, Yannick Nézet-Séguin Mario Bernardi, William Eddins, Bramwell Tovey, Hans Graf, Andrew Davis, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Marin Alsop, Pavel Kogan, Andreas Delfs, Keith Lockhart, Kenneth Jean, Uri Meyer, Peter Bay, Sam Wong, George Hansen, Andrey Boreyko, Alexander Rudin, and Yoav Talmi, among others.

As a chamber musician, Shauna has performed and recorded with many pre-eminent artists and ensembles including the Gallois Quintet, and pianist Menahem Pressler. Her current artistic partnership with pianist Heather Schmidt began in 2002 at the Winnipeg New Music Festival. In 2003 they were invited to join the Governor General of Canada’s 2003 state delegation abroad and in 2006 Shauna and Heather were invited to join the roster of renowned Canadian artists making up Canada’s prestigious touring ensemble “Piano Six/Piano Plus”.

Recent highlights include 20 recitals with the quarter finalists of the Honens International Piano Competition, at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico with the China Philharmonic as soloist in the Concerto Grosso for three cello soloists by Krzysztof Penderecki under the direction of the composer and with the Vancouver, Victoria and Banff Festival Orchestras in premiere performances of Doug Schmidt’s concerto written for her entitled “Granny’s Aching Back”. She has also appeared as soloist with the Utah, Winnipeg and Toronto Symphonies and in recital at the Lincoln Center in New York, in Calgary, Toronto, at the Banff Festival of the Arts and the Orford Festival in Canada, the Ohrid Festival in Macedonia, the Canada Dance Festival and the Belize, San Miguel, New Generation, El Paso Pro-Musica, and Elora Music Festivals.

A prolific recording artist, her discography includes two CDs that are included on a global list of 13 “Cello Recordings to Please Discriminating Audiophiles” (Benjamin Ivry). Shauna’s latest CD “Dreamscape” features unique arrangements of popular classics for solo cello and cello ensemble transcribed and written for her by Claude Kenneson and conducted by Keri-Lynn Wilson. Her latest video “A Pairing of Swans” with prima ballerina Evelyn Hart (directed by Veronica Tennant) was premiered at the 2004 International Moving Pictures Festival and was recently nominated for a GEMINI award. Two of Shauna’s previous videos “smokin f-holes” with Squeezplay, and “Words Fail” with dancer and choreographer, Peggy Baker, are featured regularly on BRAVO. Current and upcoming projects include multiple CD recordings-one with The Art of Time Ensemble featuring Sarah Stean (Maple Music), a profile interview for BIOGRAPHY, a film entitled “Synchronicity” (RedStar Films) for BRAVO which explores the remarkable artistic partnership between Shauna and Heather Schmidt, a fashion/art exhibition “Iconic Beauty” by Canadian fashion designer, Rosemarie Umetsu featuring fashion portraits of 21 of Canada's most renowned female musicians, artists, actors, dancers and authors, an art project with artist, author and designer Rolland Proulx, an article in Spirituality & Health magazine, and “The Rolston Project”, a full-length audio recording that will feature Shauna playing as soloist in twelve artful arrangements of Canadian indie rock bests from such great bands as The Arcade Fire and The Hidden Cameras. She is also featured in the books “The Great Cellists” (Margaret Campbell) and “The Popular Guide to Women in Classical Music” (Anne Gray).

The exceptional diversity of Shauna’s artistry is reflected in the diversity of the awards she has received including: International Press Award (Ohrid Festival), Winner of Best Classical CD – West Coast Music Awards (“This is the Colour of my Dreams”) which is dedicated to concerti written for her by Christos Hatzis, Kelly-Marie Murphy, Chan Ka Nin and Heather Schmidt, and Winner of Best Short Film (“Trio”-Alberta Motion Picture Association, directed by Veronica Tennant) which features music performed by Shauna and her parents, Thomas and Isobel, Winner of the Classic CD Magazine Award, United Kingdom, and the youngest recipient of the Pro Musicis International Award. She was also awarded the Canada 125th Anniversary Medal for significant contributions to Canada, the Alberta Achievement Award and was declared “One of the Leaders of the Future” by Macleans Magazine.

In addition to her busy concert and recording schedule, Shauna is a passionate and devoted educator. Her University teaching responsibilities include graduate courses in advanced performance studies which explore diverse methodologies that can be applied to daily practice and class performances such as Feldenkrais, Kinesiology, Alexander Technique, Yoga, Naturopathic Medicine, Personal Training, Psychology and Psychophysiology of Musical Performance, Hypnosis for Musicians, Biofeedback and Stress Management for Musicians. She also teaches cello performance classes designed to enhance the performance opportunities for cellists and to encourage critical thinking and analysis of performance issues and repertoire. Shauna’s teaching philosophy clearly reflects her personal journey: “ My teaching has to do with freedom, creativity, trust, and the science of the physical self as the ultimate expressive instrument. I have no formula, simply principles I adhere to strongly. Exploration is at the centre of my work. I am innately curious about all of the variables of sound, nuance, texture, and movement. I’m fascinated by the art of expression through the cello, and technique as an extension of the mind and creative spirit of each student. I view performances as pauses in the journey, pauses to share with an audience and with peers. Then to reflect, reevaluate, rediscover and reinvent and move on until the next pause. In trying to articulate the many layers of the creative process to my students, I find that I am constantly reexamining my own strategies and inspired to ask new questions. There are no concrete answers, just the accumulation of an endless number of possibilities, defined in terms of the ever-changing palette of sound and colour and nuance, and the subsequent techniques which evolve as a result of pure determination to communicate. I can only help my students to ask more and more questions, to free themselves of the notion of limits and boundaries. I try to help them integrate the process of decision making as a natural extension of the ongoing process of creativity, to value and trust the knowledge they have at that moment, to trust it enough to share it without compromise.” In 1994 Shauna Rolston joined the music faculty of the University of Toronto where she is a Professor and Head of the String Department. She is also a regular Visiting Artist for the Music and Sound Programs at the Banff Centre.

Diskography

*"The Romantic Cello", 1983
*"Morawetz, Bruch, Fauré, Dvorak, Bliss", 1991
*"Saint-Saëns: Chamber Works", 1994
*"Cello Sonatas", 1995
*"Elgar and Saint-Saëns: Cello Concertos", 1995
*"Intimate Baroque", 1995
*"Strauss, Debussy and Barber Sonatas", 1995
*"Squeezplay", 1997
*"Les Disques SRC Collection", 1999
*"Shauna Rolston, Cello", 2001
*"This Is the Colour of My Dreams", 2001
*"Shauna and Friends", 2004