Nancy Dahn, Guest Faculty
Hailed as an artist "so genuinely interesting to listen to one forgets how good her technique is" (Halifax Chronicle Herald), Canadian violinist Nancy Dahn has created an international career as half of the acclaimed Duo Concertante with her husband, pianist Timothy Steeves. She has appeared in recital in London (Wigmore Hall), Germany (Am Neuendorfer Anger, Berlin), Chicago (Dame Myra Hess Series), New York City (Music of the Americas; Trinity Church), Ottawa (National Arts Centre), Beijing (Forbidden City Concert Hall), and Los Angeles (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) and performs at summer festivals such as the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, Huntsville Festival of the Arts, Sound Symposium, Cactus Pear Music Festival, Sound Symposium, Colours of Music Festival, Baie des Chaleurs Chamber Music Festival, and the Tuckamore Festival, where she is co-artistic director. Duo Concertante is heard frequently on CBC Radio and also has appeared on TV Ontario's Studio 2 and Bravo!'s “Classical Now” series. Nancy Dahn has been an artist-in-residence at the Glenn Gould Professional School, Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and Bishop's University in Lennoxville, Quebec and regularly gives guest masterclasses at universities across Canada and the United States.
With Timothy Steeves, Nancy Dahn has released three commercial recordings on the ATMA Classique label: `a deux (music of Ravel, Beethoven, Brahms and Stravinsky), Of Heart and Homeland (music of Janacek, Dvorak, de Falla, Parker, Smetana) and Wild Honey (new Canadian repertoire written especially for the Duo). Critics have described Nancy's playing as “vigorous, passionate . . . red-blooded and romantic . . .”(Rick Phillips, CBC's Sound Advice) and praised their “exceptional warmth and intimacy of presentation” (Ottawa Citizen). All three recordings received Best Classical Recording nominations at the 2000, 2003, 2005 East Coast Music Awards. In April 2009, the Duo releases its fourth CD, It Takes Two (Marquis Classics/EMI Canada), featuring encore pieces arranged for the Duo by Canadian composer Clifford Crawley. Nancy and Tim record another CD in June 09, which will feature works written for and premiered by the Duo by Murray Schafer, Chan Ka Nin, and Kati Agocs.
As a soloist, Nancy Dahn has performed concertos by Beethoven, Bruch, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bach, Mozart, Saint-Saens, Vivaldi, Piazzolla, Part, Lou Harrison, and Andrew MacDonald with orchestras in Canada and the United States. In 2008, the Halifax Chronicle Herald praised her “powerful musical instincts and flawless technique” in her performance of the Bruch Concerto. She recently presented the world premiere of Alice Ho's double concerto Capriccio Ballo, written for Duo Concertante with the assistance of the CBC, and in 2007 performed Marjan Mozetich's concerto Affairs of the Heart.
Dahn received her training at the New England Conservatory of Music, The Juilliard School, and the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she completed a doctorate in violin performance with Donald Weilerstein. She participated in numerous summer festivals, including the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Britten Pears Festival, the Taos School of Music and the Tanglewood Music Centre as a Fellow for three summers. She was the winner of numerous competitions, including the concerto competitions of the Cleveland Institute and New England Conservatory.
Prior to joining the faculty at Memorial, Nancy Dahn taught violin and chamber music at the Cleveland Institute of Music as an assistant to Donald Weilerstein. Her students have been accepted for graduate studies at schools such as The Juilliard School, Rice University, New England Conservatory, University of Toronto, Peabody Conservatory, San Francisco Conservatory, and the Glenn Gould Professional School. Former students also now hold positions in major Canadian orchestras, including the Vancouver Symphony, Winnipeg Symphonies, Canadian Opera Company Orchestra and National Ballet Orchestra. She is currently Professor of Violin and Viola at Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador where she lives with her husband and two children, Clara and Sasha.