Joanna G’froerer
enjoys a career as an orchestral player, chamber musician, soloist and educator. She has been principal flautist of the National Arts Centre Orchestra (NACO) of Canada since 1992. She regularly performs as a soloist with the NACO, and has appeared with many of Canada’s other fine orchestras and ensembles. She has been featured in chamber music festivals across Canada and at Brazil’s Festival de Campos do Jordão.

Rachel Mercer
is principal cello of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa and artistic director of the 5 at the First Chamber Music Series in Hamilton. She plays with the Mercer-Park Duo, and was a member of JUNO-winning Ensemble Made In Canada (2008–20) and the Aviv Quartet (2002–10). An advocate for new Canadian music, Mercer has commissioned over 25 works for cello, including concertos, solo and chamber music.

Kevin Mallon
Irish/Canadian conductor Kevin Mallon studied composition with Peter Maxwell Davies and conducting with John Eliot Gardiner, alongside singing and Baroque violin. He was concertmaster with Le Concert Spirituel and Les Arts Florissants in Paris before moving to Canada to take up posts with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and the University of Toronto. In 1999 he founded the Aradia Ensemble, with whom he has made over 50 recordings for Naxos. Mallon is music director of the Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra and has recently been appointed artistic director of Symphony in the Barn in Ontario.

Thirteen Strings Chanber Orchestra
Founded in 1976, Thirteen Strings is one of Canada’s leading chamber orchestras, consisting of thirteen professional string players currently directed by award-winning conductor, Kevin Mallon. The orchestra’s repertoire is diverse, covering music from the Baroque era to the 21st century. It maintains a strong focus on celebrating and promoting Canadian talent, having commissioned more than a hundred new works from Canadian composers. The Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra made its debut on Naxos in 2015 with a recording of Franz Beck’s Symphonies, Op. 2.