Canadian-born violinist Kerry DuWors has earned accolades for her “poise and maturity” and “spellbinding expression,” and has been praised for always finding “the music behind the notes” (Winnipeg Free Press). Winner of the 26th Eckhardt-Gramatté Competition, Ms. DuWors made a début Canada-wide recital tour with pianist Lydia Wong in 2003. Hailed as a “dynamic performer,” she has collaborated with internationally acclaimed soloists and chamber music ensembles including James Ehnes, Yo-Yo Ma, Isabel Bayrakdarian, Rena Sharon, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Angela Cheng, Denise Djokic, Martin Fröst, Marc-André Hamelin, Andrew Dawes, Scott St. John, the Lafayette, St. Lawrence and Penderecki Quartets, and the Gryphon Trio. She has studied and performed with Lorand Fenyves, Laurence Lesser, Charles Castleman, Bernadene Blaha, Krzysztof Penderecki, Elizabeth Wallfisch, Jeanne Lamon, Pamela Frank, Erika Raum, Gwen Thompson, Paul Katz, and the Ying Quartet.
At home in many musical genres, Ms. DuWors has given performances across Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Italy, Germany, and New Zealand. Recent performances at Jordan Hall (Boston), Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall (New York), Caramoor Festival (Katonah, NY), Philharmonic Society of Orange County (California), the Banff Centre for the Arts, Beethovenfest (Bonn), RadialSystem V – New Space for the Arts (Berlin), Semperoper (Dresden), Baryshnikov Arts Center (NY), Northern Lights Music Festival (Mexico), National Arts Centre, Montreal Chamber Music Festival, Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society, Vancouver Recital Society, Maureen Forrester Young Canadian Artist Series (Stratford Summer Music Festival), Agassiz Chamber Music Festival (Winnipeg), Aeolian Concert Series (London, ON), Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society, and the Gustin House Concert Series (Saskatoon). Numerous broadcasts on CBC’s Galleria, Music Around Us and In Performance. Ms. DuWors has been a soloist with the Winnipeg Symphony, Red Deer Symphony, Montreal Chamber Orchestra, Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, and Brandon Chamber Players; and has toured the U.S. with the Galileo Piano Trio, and toured British Columbia with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra.
Ms. DuWors recently joined The Knights, an ensemble based in New York City devoted to expanding the orchestral concert experience with diverse and innovative programming and the intimacy of chamber music, for performances with Yo-Yo Ma, a tour of Germany with Jan Vögler, and the world première of Yotam Haber’s New Ghetto Music with singer-songwriter Christina Courtin.
Dedicated to commissioning and performing new music, Ms. DuWors has given the world premières of several works for violin including Arlan Schultz’s Entwirren and Jodi Vander Woude’s (H) in 2004, and David R. Scott’s Double Concerto for Violin and Cello written for her in 2006. She has performed in Toronto’s SoundaXis Festival featuring the music of Steve Reich, joined the Eastman School of Music’s new music ensemble Ossia for a Toru Takemitsu project, and has recently performed works by Jordan Nobles, Christos Hatzis, Kelly-Marie Murphy, T. Patrick Carrabré, Elizabeth Raum, Jocelyn Morlock, and Andrew P. MacDonald. She is a founding member of The Boundary Ensemble based in Regina, Saskatchewan and made up of artists from across North America who come together to make music, share ideas and inspire collaborations through the arts.
While maintaining a demanding concert career as soloist and chamber musician, Ms. DuWors is a dedicated mentor and teacher and is Assistant Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at Manitoba’s Brandon University. She began music studies in Saskatoon, SK; continued at the University of Victoria (B. Mus.) with Ann Elliott-Goldschmid of the Lafayette String Quartet; the Banff Centre for the Arts; and the University of Toronto (M. Mus.) as a student of Lorand Fenyves. At the University of Toronto, she was the recipient of many prestigious awards and scholarships including the Eaton Graduate Scholarship, the Yo-Yo Ma Fellowship for Strings, a Canada Council Career Development Grant for Emerging Professional Classical Musicians, and the Felix Galimir Award for Chamber Music Excellence.
Ms. DuWors is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Performance & Literature at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. Under the mentorship of Charles Castleman and Dr. Jean Barr at Eastman, she formed duo526 with pianist Futaba Niekawa in 2011. The duo completed two short-term residencies at the Banff Centre in the fall of 2011 and 2012 where they worked intensively with Roger Tapping, Mark Steinberg, the Lafayette String Quartet, Hardy Rittner, and Henk Guittart.
A four-time winner of the Canada Council for the Arts Musical Instrument Bank Competition, Ms. DuWors currently plays on the 1902 Enrico Rocca violin.