Catherine Manoukian (born June 2, 1981) is an

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

ist.

Biography

Background and early life

Catherine Manoukian was born in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

. Her parents were professional violinists and met at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, where her father studied with

Carlo Van Neste Carlo Van Neste (1 April 1914 in Antwerp – 12 July 1992 in Brussels) was a Belgian violinist. He was part of the ''Trio Reine Elisabeth'' with the pianist Naum Sluzsny Naum Sluzsny (1914–1979) was a Swiss-born concert and chamber pianist. ...

and her mother studied with

Arthur Grumiaux Baron Arthur Grumiaux (; 21 March 1921 – 16 October 1986) was a Belgian violinist, considered by some to have been "one of the few truly great violin virtuosi of the twentieth century". He has been noted for having a "consistently beautiful t ...

Career

Catherine Manoukian's professional career started when she won grand prize at the Canadian Music Competition at the age of twelve. The same year, she made her orchestral debut with the

Vancouver Symphony Orchestra The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (VSO) is a Canadian orchestra based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The VSO performs at the Orpheum, which has been the orchestra's permanent home since 1977. With an annual operating budget of $16 million, it is ...

playing Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 1. Since then, she has played with many major North American and international orchestras, like; the

CBC Radio Orchestra The CBC Radio Orchestra was a Canadian orchestra based in Vancouver, British Columbia, that was operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Until the early 1980s CBC had a number of orchestras located in Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, and Hal ...

, the

Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra The Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra is an orchestra based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The orchestra gives the majority of its performances in the Jack Singer Concert Hall at Arts Commons. It is also the resident orchestra for the Calgary Opera, A ...

, the

Boston Pops Orchestra The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, specializing in light classical and popular music. The orchestra's current music director is Keith Lockhart. Founded in 1885 as an offshoot of the Boston Symp ...

, the

Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra The Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra ( tr, İstanbul Devlet Senfoni Orkestrası or İDSO) is a Turkish symphony orchestra based in Istanbul. Founded in 1945 as the Istanbul Municipality City Orchestra, its first principal conductor was Cemal Reş ...

, the

Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra The is recognized as the oldest symphony orchestra in Japan. It was founded in 1911 and debuted at the original Matsuzakaya store in Nagoya as the . It relocated to Tokyo in 1938. As of 2005, it has 166 members. The orchestra plays frequently a ...

, the

Tokyo Symphony Orchestra The or TSO, was established in 1946 as the Toho Symphony Orchestra (東宝交響楽団). It assumed its present name in 1951. Based in Kawasaki, the TSO performs in numerous concert halls and serves as pit orchestra for some productions at Ne ...

, the Osaka Century Orchestra, and the

Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra The Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra (''ANPO'') (Armenian: Հայաստանի ազգային ֆիլհարմոնիկ նվագախումբ) is the national orchestra of Armenia. It was founded in 1925 as a symphony orchestra of the Yerevan S ...

, and has worked with such conductors as

Mario Bernardi Mario Bernardi, (20 August 1930 – 2 June 2013) was a Canadian conductor and pianist.Jukka-Pekka Saraste Jukka-Pekka Saraste (born 22 April 1956) is a Finnish conductor and violinist. Biography Saraste was born in Heinola He was trained as a violinist. He later studied conducting at the Sibelius Academy with Jorma Panula in the same class as Esa-Pek ...

Keith Lockhart Keith Alan Lockhart (born November 7, 1959) is an American conductor. He is the Conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Chief Guest Conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra, and the Artistic Director of the Brevard Music Center in North Carol ...

Roy Goodman Roy Goodman (born 26 January 1951) is an English conductor and violinist, specialising in the performance and direction of early music. He became internationally famous as the 12-year-old boy treble soloist in the March 1963 recording of Alle ...

Peter Oundjian Peter Oundjian (born 21 December 1955) is a Canadian-American violinist and conductor. Early life Born in Toronto, Ontario, as the youngest of five children from an Armenian father and English mother, Oundjian also claims Scottish ancestry throug ...

Tomomi Nishimoto Tomomi Nishimoto (西本智実) is a Japanese conductor. Biography Tomomi Nishimoto was born in Osaka, Japan on 22 April 1970. Her experience learning to play the piano from her mother at the age of three as well as her mother's musical influence ...

, Seikyo Kim,

Eduard Topchjan Eduard Topchjan ( hy, Էդուարդ Թոփչյան; born in Yerevan) is an Armenian conductor, the principal conductor and artistic director of the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra. Biography Topchjan studied violin at the Yerevan State Musical Co ...

, and

Jonas Alber Jonas Alber (born March 11, 1969) is a German conductor and violinist based in Berlin. He was appointed general music director of the Staatstheater Braunschweig in 1998, becoming Germany’s youngest conductor to hold such a position at the time ...

. She has played on the major stages of such cities as New York, Washington D.C., Boston, Los Angeles, Toronto, Paris, Tokyo, and Osaka, and has appeared as a chamber musician at the Aspen, Caramoor, and Newport International Festivals. She has often played novel and unusual repertoire, and recorded a CD of transcriptions for violin of Chopin's music as a teenager. Many of the transcriptions, among them the Cello Sonata, were commissioned by her.

Education

Manoukian's education history is unusual for a musician. She did not go to a music school, but trained privately as a violinist with

Dorothy DeLay Dorothy DeLay (March 31, 1917 – March 24, 2002) was an American violin instructor, primarily at the Juilliard School, Sarah Lawrence College, and the University of Cincinnati. Life Dorothy DeLay was born on March 31, 1917, in Medicine Lodg ...

in New York as well as with her parents in Toronto. She also received independent lessons in core musical subjects like harmony and chamber music. This gave her the time to also pursue a non-musical education. She has an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

(with high distinction) and has done graduate-level work in philosophy (focusing on areas like epistemology and the philosophy of mind). She is now on sabbatical from the PhD programme in philosophy at the

. Manoukian attributes her interest in philosophy to a desire since childhood to understand what musicians do, from a wider perspective than just playing allows. This has recently grown into a project to apply her philosophical thinking to theories about teaching and developing professional artists. She credits

for instilling this interest in her.

Instrument

Manoukian plays on an ex-

Eugène Ysaÿe Eugène-Auguste Ysaÿe (; 16 July 185812 May 1931) was a Belgian virtuoso violinist, composer, and conductor. He was regarded as "The King of the Violin", or, as Nathan Milstein put it, the "tsar". Legend of the Ysaÿe violin Eugène Ysaÿe ...

, 1861

Jean Baptiste Vuillaume Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume (7 October 1798 – 19 March 1875) was a French luthier, businessman, inventor and winner of many awards. His workshop made over 3,000 instruments. Early life Vuillaume was born in Mirecourt, where his father and gra ...

violin. She uses bows by

Eugene Sartory Eugene may refer to: People and fictional characters * Eugene (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Eugene (actress) (born 1981), Kim Yoo-jin, South Korean actress and former member of the sin ...

c.1910.

Personal life

Manoukian is married to conductor

Stefan Solyom Stefan Solyom (born 26 April 1979, Stockholm) is a Sweden, Swedish conductor and composer. He is the nephew of the Swedish-Hungarian pianist János Solyom. As a student Solyom attended the Adolf Fredrik's Music School in Stockholm. He studied hor ...

. They live in Sweden.

Discography

*Elegies and Rhapsodies (1998) *: Catherine Manoukian, violin *: Akira Eguchi, piano * Chopin on Violin (1999) *: Catherine Manoukian, violin *: Akira Eguchi, piano *Lyricism (2002) *: Catherine Manoukian, violin *: Satoshi Sando, piano *Catherine Manoukian, Violin (2006) (

Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throughout his life as a major compo ...

A minor and

Khatchaturian Aram Ilyich Khachaturian (; rus, Арам Ильич Хачатурян, , ɐˈram ɨˈlʲjitɕ xətɕɪtʊˈrʲan, Ru-Aram Ilyich Khachaturian.ogg; hy, Արամ Խաչատրյան, ''Aram Xačʿatryan''; 1 May 1978) was a Soviet and Armenian ...

Violin Concertos) *: Catherine Manoukian, violin *:

, orchestra *:

, conductor

Biography

Background and early life

Career

Education

Instrument

Personal life

Discography

See also

References

External links