An extremely versatile musician, Peter is equally at home performing with major orchestras, premiering new works of music, and recording in the studio. He currently plays Principal Bass for Toronto Philharmonia and Sinfonia Toronto, and has performed with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, and the National Ballet of Canada. He has been privileged to work with some great conductors, including Pinchas Zuckerman, Helmuth Rilling, Simon Streatfeild, and Jukka-Pekka Saraste. Peter has premiered numerous contemporary works with Arraymusic, Tapestry New Opera Works, New Music Concerts, Continuum, and Esprit Orchestra.

His interest in New Music has continued with three major operatic premieres at the Banff Centre, and a Canadian touring production of Beatrice Chancy with Queen of Puddings Productions. He is fortunate to have worked personally with some of the foremost New Music composers including Mauricio Kagel, Alexander Goehr, and George Crumb. Active in the Toronto recording industry, Peter has been on many broadcasts for CBC, and can be heard on numerous movie soundtracks, as well as classical recordings for Arraymusic, composer Linda Catlin Smith, and the Juno Award winning CD of the Toronto Symphony performing works of Sibelius.

Sarah received her formative musical training in Japan. Studying under Koichiro Harada, who was a founding member and first violinist of the internationally acclaimed Tokyo String Quartet, she gained a Bachelorʼs degree in Music Performance from the prestigious Toho Gakuen Music School in Tokyo. She moved to Canada to continue her studies with the late Lorand Fenyves and went on to attain a Master of Music in Performance from the University of Toronto and an Artist Diploma from the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory. Sarahʼs chamber music experience includes frequent concerts, workshops, recordings, and TV and radio broadcasts in North America, Europe, and Asia. She is a founding member of the Madawaska String Quartet and Seraphine Piano Trio, and has also participated in Master Classes at Aspen Music Festival, the Banff Center for the Arts, Orford Arts Centre, and Lucca Opera, Italy.

As an active and versatile freelancer she has performed with the Toronto Symphony, Canadian Opera Company, Esprit Orchestra, the National Ballet of Canada, Tapestry New Opera, Arraymusic Ensemble, and Soundstreams Canada. She frequently gets booked to play in top musicals. Sarah has also accompanied Rod Stewart, Diana Krall, K-OS, Andrea Bocceli, Cowboy Junkies, Mary J. Blige, Sarah Slean, and Blue Rodeo. Sarah is currently on the faculty of the Royal Conservatory, Toronto.

Cellist Mary-Katherine Finch holds both Bachelor and Master degrees in performance from the University of Toronto. She performs frequently in recital with pianist Ron Greidanus. Playing an authentic baroque cello, she has appeared with Aradia, Baroque Music Beside the Grange, Grand River Baroque Festival and Toronto Masque Theatre. In the area of new music, she regularly collaborates with the ensembles Toca Loca and Ergo, and has premiered several chamber works of Canadian composers. Mary-Katherine frequently plays with the larger ensembles of the Mendelssohn, Isler, Amadeus and Elora Festival Choirs.

Saxophonist Wallace Halladay captures the qualities of the modern virtuoso, being at home in numerous styles, from the traditional to jazz and beyond. A specialist in the performance of contemporary music, he has commissioned and premiered numerous works. A soloist with the Vancouver Symphony and Esprit Orchestras, he also inaugurated the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony’s “Intersections” Series. He recently worked with Philippe Leroux on the North American premiere of his saxophone concerto in Montréal. He recorded the two saxophone Sequenzas of Berio and the Colgrass concerto for NAXOS and is in demand as a performer with new music groups across Canada and the US.

Wallace holds a doctorate from the Eastman School of Music, and studied at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam with Arno Bornkamp. Wallace was the 2009 recipient of the prestigious Virginia Parker Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts, the first woodwind player to be awarded in its 25-year history. Wallace is a Conn-Selmer Artist and plays Selmer (Paris) saxophones.

Allison Wiebe (M.Mus; A.R.C.T.) is currently on the Piano Performance Faculty at the University of Western Ontario in London, ON, and on top of being an active performer and chamber coach, she maintains a private studio in Toronto where she resides. As a senior piano member of the College of Examiners at the Royal Conservatory of Music, she also recorded components of the new Perspectives compact disc recordings launched Winter 2008.

Allison has extensive experience adjudicating music festivals around the country and particularly enjoys the Alliance for Canadian New Music Projects Contemporary Showcase competitions. As a soloist, she performs and collaborates regularly and received a grant from the Canada Council of the Arts to perform as a semi-finalist in the 24th Annual Eckhardt-Gramatte National Music Competition for the Performance of Canadian Music held in May 2001.

Jerry Pergolesi is a founding member and artistic director of Contact Contemporary Music. Jerry earned a Bachelor of Music from the University of Windsor where he studied composition and advanced theory with Jens Hanson and percussion with Carl Harris. He received a Master of Music in Performance from the University of Toronto where he studied with Russell Hartenberger. In addition to specializing in contemporary concert music, Jerry has studied Middle Eastern music and theory with George Sawa, African drumming and dance, Javanese Gamelan and performs with various independent recording artists.

Sincere performances of bold and engaging repertoire have established guitarist Rob MacDonald as one of Canada’s most exciting performers of new music. As both a soloist and chamber musician his persistent quest for fresh repertoire regularly leads to the creation of new works and the presentation of rarely heard pieces. He has performed with Soundstreams Canada, Madawaska String Quartet, Canadian Opera Company, Amadeus Choir, Queen of Puddings Music Theatre, Talisker Players and Toca Loca. Alongside virtuoso guitarist, Tracy Anne Smith, he is co-founder of ChromaDuo, an ensemble actively commissioning, premiering, and performing new repertoire throughout North America. Their debut recording, Hidden Waters, has been called ‘nothing short of inspirational’ (Simon Powis, Classical Guitar Review) and ‘modern guitar music at its most powerful, extending the form and substance of the guitar to give the listener an almost orchestral experience’ (Kirk Albrecht, Minor 7th).