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The final concert of Sinfonia Toronto’s Masterpiece Series for 2008-2009 will feature the great Canadian violin virtuoso Alexandre Da Costa. He will be heard in Kreisler’s beloved violin favourites.

Music Director Nurhan Arman will conduct Mozart’s ‘The Hunt’ and Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances, one of composer’s most beautiful and folkloric works. Canadian composer Heather Schmidt’s beautiful Serenade will receive its Canadian premiere.

ALEXANDRE DA COSTA was born in Montreal, Canada, in 1979. He showed an uncommon interest for both the violin and piano at a very early age. By the age of nine, he had the astounding ability to perform his first concerts with stunning virtuosity on both instruments, which brought him recognition as a musical prodigy. His chosen professional career as a violinist began very early and he was soon performing regularly as soloist with orchestra as well as in recital.

In 1998, at the age of 18, he received a Master’s degree in violin and a First Prize from the Conservatoire de Musique du Québec where he studied with Johanne Arel. Concurrently, he also received a Bachelor’ s degree in Piano Interpretation from the faculty of music of the University of Montreal. From 1998 to 2001, he studied at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofia in Madrid with the violin master Zakhar Bron, teacher of violinists such as Maxim Vengerov and Vadim Repin. In 2002, he won the Sylva Gelber Foundation Award for best Canadian artist under 30 years old. Between 2003 and 2006, after winning the Musical Instrument Bank competition of the Canada Council for the Arts, he played the 1689 Baumgartner Stradivarius.

Winner of many prestigious national and international first prizes, he appeared as soloist in nearly 1000 concerts throughout Canada, the United States, Mexico, France, Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Romania, Japan, China, Taiwan, etc. Alexandre Da Costa performed in major halls such as Vienna’s Musikverein, Berlin’s Philharmonie, Hamburg’s Musikhalle, Madrid’s National Auditorium, Beijing’s Poly Theater, etc., and played with prestigious orchestras such as the London Royal Philharmonic, the Bergen Philharmonic, the Berlin Symphony, the Hamburg Symphony, the Vienna Symphony, the Montreal Symphony, the Toronto Symphony, etc.
His latest CD release, Vivaldi Four Seasons with the chamber orchestra of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, was received with a very warm enthusiasm by the press and the public. Other recordings include Mozart’s violin & viola duos, concerti by Tchaikovsky & Bruch, Bach & Ysaye solo sonatas, Spanish works by Turina, de Falla, Nin, Albeniz, etc.

There will be a free post-concert reception, giving audience members a chance to meet the Mr. Da Costa, the orchestra members and Maestro Arman.

Getting there: To get to Grace Church by public transport, use the subway to get to the St. Clair station on the Yonge line. Transfer to the streetcar and travel west on St. Clair to Russell Hill Road. Then walk north 2 blocks to Lonsdale Road. Or travel to the St. Clair West station and use the streetcar to travel east to the corner of Russell Hill and St. Clair. On weekdays only, the Forest Hill bus leaves the St. Clair West station every 20 minutes and travels north on Spadina, stopping at the corner of Lonsdale one block from the church. Parking can be found on-street at most times of day. Paid parking is available on Lonsdale, and free parking on Russell Hill southbound weekdays and weekends, or northbound after business hours on weekdays. On Sunday, the parking places in front of Bishop Strachan School on the northeast corner of Lonsdale are also available for use by churchgoers.

For more information contact: Margaret Chasins
Phone: 416-499-0403
Email: sinfoniatoronto@sympatico.ca

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