Audition Cafe

Introduction

Calvin Cheng has been serving as the concertmaster of the North Bay Symphony Orchestra since September 2016. During 2015-2016 he was a section violinist in the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.

Calvin received his Artist Diploma in Violin Performance from The Glenn Gould School of The Royal Conservatory of Music, where he studied under Paul Kantor and Barry Shiffman. At The Glenn Gould School, he was the recipient of both The John Bruce Duncan Scholarship and The Stephen Staryk Violin Scholarship. He has also completed one year of the Master of Music program in Violin Performance at Indiana University, where he studied under Mark Kaplan. He has a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance from the University of Toronto, where he studied under Annalee Patipatanakoon and Mark Skazinetsky. At the University of Toronto, he was the recipient of the John Moskalyk Memorial Prize and the Monica Ryckman Scholarship in 2011, and the John Dan Scholarship in 2010.

In July 2014 he played violin in a violin-cello duo, and performed in Taipei, Taiwan, at the Chinese Culture University. In 2013 he participated in the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme with full scholarship, and performed as a section violinist in the Britten-Pears Orchestra at the Aldeburgh Festival in Aldeburgh, UK. In August 2013 he was an active participant at the Mozarteum International Summer Academy in Salzburg, Austria, studying with Kurt Sassmannshaus.

He has played in masterclasses and lessons for violinists such as Donald Weilerstein, Miriam Fried, Yehonatan Berick, Soovin Kim, Mimi Zweig, Mark Fewer, Jacques Israelievitch, and the St. Lawrence String Quartet. From 2012-2014, he was a section violinist in the Royal Conservatory Orchestra, and had been Assistant Concertmaster, as well as Principal Second Violin. In 2011, he was Concertmaster of the University of Toronto Opera Orchestra; also in 2011, he won first place at the Kiwanis Music Festival of Greater Toronto for the String Trophy Class.

Calvin was born in Taipei, Taiwan, and moved to Toronto, Canada with his family at the age of 6, the same year he started playing the violin.