GUILLAUME TARDIF, violin
“A very fine violinist of truly high caliber and individuality” – Zvi Zeitlin

Violinist Guillaume Tardif is frequently featured as a soloist in Canada and abroad. He has been heard on national and international radio and television networks, and has been praised for his recordings and virtuoso compositions for the violin. His first international engagement came at the invitation of the Canadian Embassy in Peru, in the Brahms Concerto with the Lima Philharmonic Orchestra. The press reported that “the young soloist counts on a solid technique and plays with taste and flair.” (El Comero). Soon after, he was granted the use of a Stradivarius violin by the Eastman School and focused his attention on the set of Caprices by Paganini, which he first presented at St. John’s Cathedral in New York, and at CBC Montreal. Since then, Guillaume Tardif has performed the Paganini cycle and a large repertoire to critical acclaim around the world: “Youth, joy, enthusiasm, passion, love, energy, and pride are all states of the soul observed in this rare interpretation of the 24 Caprices by Paganini by Canadian violinist Guillaume Tardif, an artist who like few in the present time are capable to unite technique and musicality and transform them into virtuosity." (Consular Review, Brasilia).

Guillaume Tardif has similarly generated enthusiasm for major concert works with orchestra by Paganini, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Sarasate, Vivaldi, Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Ravel, Louie and Castelnuovo-Tedesco. A guest of the Canadian embassies in Brazil and Sweden, he was featured in Brahms’ Double Concerto at Itamaraty Palace in Brasilia, and in solo programs at the University of Uppsala and Royal College of Music in Stockholm, Sweden. He has collaborated with many leading artists in sonata settings: with Malcolm Bilson at Cornell University, William Corbett-Jones at San Francisco State University, with Kristian Bezuidenhout, Alexander Tselyakov, Jacques Després, and Roger Admiral, among others. He further explored the chamber music repertoire with clarinetist Michel Lethiec, cellist Tanya Prochazka, violinists Charles Castleman, Martin Riseley, Ricardo Odriozola, and others. In the realm of contemporary music, Tardif premiered or recorded many new or rare works. Of note, he performed Black Angels for electric string quartet in the presence of composer George Crumb, and issued an album of rare encores from Joseph Szigeti’s estate collection. He is also author of a number of cadenzas, solo violin transcriptions, and arrangements with piano.

Various scholarships allowed Guillaume Tardif to study with prominent musicians and pursue a number of artistic projects. He graduated with a first prize in violin from the Quebec Conservatoire, received national distinctions for solo performances at the Canadian Music Competition, and was one of the youngest doctoral graduates (DMA) from the Eastman School of Music. He was invited to join the Amadeus Ensemble in Toronto and the Eastman Virtuosi at Alice Tully Hall, New York. He later founded and toured with the Eastman String Ensemble, which was invited to join Bobby McFerrin for a spectacular Mozart performance at the Eastman Theater. He was also concertmaster for the Canadian Chamber Orchestra at the Winspear Centre in Edmonton and recently conducted the Green Arts Chamber Orchestra at the Taegu Arts Center, South Korea. In Alberta, Guillaume Tardif leads a string quartet concert series with principal members of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and recently served as president of the Alberta String Association. He also served as jury member for many provincial and national competitions (Eckhardt-Gramatté, the Federation of Canadian Music Festivals). He has been a guest artist at many music institutions in Europe and Asia, including the Grieg Academy in Norway, the Turku and Jyväskylä Academies in Finland, the Amsterdam and Groningen Conservatories in the Netherlands, the Academy of Sciences and Miskolc University in Hungary, the Academy of Performing Arts in Hong Kong, Andong University in South Korea, and several universities in Brazil.

Guillaume Tardif is Associate Professor and String Coordinator at the Department of Music, University of Alberta. www.guillaume.tardif.com