Jennifer King & Gillian Smith

Jennifer King

Energetic and insightful, Jennifer King is a versatile pianist, equally at home as a soloist and collaborator on the concert stage. She has established herself as a sought-after talent across Atlantic Canada. She has received recognition for her contributions to the musical life of Nova Scotia with scholarships from the Nova Scotia Talent Trust, nominations for Classical Album of the Year at the East Coast Music Awards and Music Nova Scotia Awards, and an Award of Appreciation from the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia in recognition of her contributions to musical life in the province.

Jennifer has released three albums: her debut release of night-inspired music with O Mistress Moon (2018), Doolittle: Minute Études “Excerpts” (Live) (2019), Twilight Hour : Collected Stories for Piano (2020), and in 2022 released O Mistress Moon: Canadian Edition. This album is a sequel to her successful earlier recording of the same name featuring works by Canadian composers. The project features twelve contemporary piano works selected by King for their relationship to the environment, especially the moon, outer space, and the night. For this project, Jennifer teamed up with Halifax music producer Leaf Music to release twelve singles. Each of the monthly releases corresponds to a full moon in the calendar, beginning in February 2021 and continuing to January 2022. This album has garnered a recent Music Nova Scotia nomination for Classical Album of the Year.

In 2022 - 2023 Jennifer is curating, hosting, and performing in eight Cecilia Concerts Sensory Accessible Concert Series and also performing chamber music at Sunday in the Garden Room Series at Acadia University, Music at Trinity, and the Scotia Festival Chamber Players Series in Nova Scotia. She performed live and recorded concerts with Jane Archibald (soprano) for the Cecilia Concert series and for the Scotia Festival Chamber Players Series. Even with the challenges of 2021, to date, Jennifer has given three solo live-streamed concerts for the Open Waters Festival, for the 40th celebration of the Association of Canadian Women Composers on International Women’s Day, and in April for the Scotia Festival Chamber Players Series featuring music from her three albums in combination with video and projections.

King moved to Nova Scotia from England in 2003, where she was an active musician and teacher. She has presented hundreds of recitals and concerts in many of Atlantic Canada’s concert series and alongside some of Canada’s most respected singers and musicians. She has also performed several Canadian premieres with three recent solo piano works dedicated to her by composers Derek Charke, Richard Gibson, and Amy Brandon. Jennifer enjoys exploring the world of classical music in the 21st century, whether with new music or past musical gems. She is not averse to taking risks and trying new ways of presenting and drawing in audiences previously unfamiliar with the wealth of music written for the piano.

Jennifer holds a Master of Music degree in solo piano performance from McGill University, a Bachelor of Music from Acadia University, and completed postgraduate diplomas at the University of Reading in the UK and the prestigious Royal Academy of Music in London England. In addition, she was a scholarship holder at the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music School, “the cradle of chamber music teaching in America” in Blue Hill, Maine, and a grant for contemporary music studies at the Britten Pears School of Advanced Musical Studies in the UK.

She presently sits as a member of the Atlantic division of the Canadian Music Centre.

Gillian Smith

A dynamic, versatile, and intuitive Canadian violinist, Gillian Smith released her debut solo album, Into the Stone, on the Leaf Music label in 2019. This album features works for solo violin by Kati Agócs, Alice Ping Yee Ho, Veronika Krausas, Chantale Laplante, and Ana Sokolović. Into the Stone was nominated for the 2020 Classical Recording of the Year by the East Coast Music Association (ECMA). David Olds of The WholeNote magazine called Into the Stone “a stunning debut album by a rising star”, and La Scena Musicale wrote, “Gillian Smith demonstrates a great skill and mastery…magnificently appropriates Canadian repertoire”. A track from the album, Inside the Stone by Veronika Krausas, was selected by Spotify as a Classical New Release pick in September 2019.

Gillian Smith has recorded two CDs with members of the Acadia New Music Society on the Centrediscs label: Live Wired, which features the music of Derek Charke, Jérôme Blais, and Anthony Genge, and In Sonorous Falling Tones, which features the music of Derek Charke and which was nominated for an ECMA for Classical Recording of the Year in 2018. She can also be heard on a recording of the chamber music of Carmen Braden, Songs of the Invisible Summer Stars, which was released on the Centrediscs label in September 2019. The American Record Guide wrote of Songs of the Invisible Summer Stars, “exquisitely and beautifully performed, this is a gem”. Songs of the Invisible Summer Stars was nominated for an ECMA for Classical Recording of the Year in 2020. Gillian Smith’s solo and chamber music recordings have been broadcast on radio on stations across Canada and in the U.S. and the U.K.

Gillian Smith has appeared in recital and as a chamber musician at such series and festivals as the Acadia Performing Arts Series, the East Coast Music Awards, Inner Space Concerts, Musique Royale, the Music Room Chamber Players, Open Waters Festival, Shattering the Silence Festival, and Sunday Music in the Garden Room, and at the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto.

Gillian Smith gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and FACTOR.

A dedicated teacher, Gillian Smith serves on the violin faculty of the Maritime Conservatory of Performing Arts in Halifax, NS and has served as instructor of violin and viola at the Acadia University School of Music. She also maintains a private teaching studio at her home in Bedford, NS. Her students have won top prizes and awards in local, regional, and national competitions, including first prizes in the Canadian Music Competition and the FCMF National Music Festival, as well as the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Gold Medal.

Gillian Smith holds degrees in violin performance from the Eastman School of Music (B.Mus.), the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (M.Mus.), and the University of Minnesota (D.M.A). Her teachers have included Jorja Fleezanis, Camilla Wicks, Peter Salaff, and Philippe Djokic.

Tickets available at the door

$20/adult, $10 student