Smetana’s Quartet no.1: A Life in Four Movements

^{Summer 2025}

Godwin Friesen is a pianist and composer from the Canadian Prairies, exuberantly discovering where a life in music can take him. Winning the 2022 Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal Competition has led to several collaborations with the orchestra in his current hometown of Montreal. First prize in the 2023 Trondheim International Competition with the Rilian Trio (Daniel Dastoor and David Liam Roberts) has opened doors to professional engagements in Europe and across Canada. Godwin’s musical formation began with singing and playing in the Friesen Family Band. An early piano teacher, Sheila Wright, introduced him to composing; his new compositions inspired by the Psalms have become an important element of his performances, including in his recent duo tours organized by Prairie Debut. After five formative years learning from pianist Bonnie Nicholson in Saskatoon, he studied with John O’Conor at the Glenn Gould School in Toronto and then with Henry Kramer and Jean Saulnier at l’Université de Montréal, where he finished a master’s in 2024.

Justin Saulnier is a 20-year-old violinist from Orléans, Ontario. He made his orchestral solo debut at age 12 with the Ottawa Chamber Orchestra and has since performed with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Métropolitain, Canada’s National Arts Center Orchestra, the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, the McGill Symphony Orchestra, the Pembroke Symphony Orchestra and the Sinfonia de Montréal, having worked with prominent conductors including Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Tomas Netopil and Alexis Hauser. Justin has received many awards, notably the first prize in the Eckhardt-Gramatté, in the Golden Violin and in the NACO Bursary competitions, second prize in the Concours OSM, the grand prize in the Orchestre Métropolitain OMNI Competition, the Concours et Festival de Lanaudière, the Nicole Sénécal Prize, and the McGill Concerto Competition. He was also a finalist at the London Classic Violin Competition. Justin has also enjoyed being concertmaster in the Music Academy of the West Festival Orchestra, the National Youth Orchestra, and the Ottawa Chamber Orchestra, among others. He is currently pursuing his undergraduate degree with full scholarship at McGill University with Andrew Wan.

Justin plays on a 1680 Ruggeri from Cremona, and a Louis Gillet bow, generously loaned to him by the company Canimex Inc. from Drummondville.

Sydney Adedamola is a violinist in the first violin section of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. A member of the OSM since 2023, she holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California, where she studied with Bing Wang, Margaret Batjer, Dr. Lina Bahn, and Glenn Dicterow. She is also a recipient of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Beckmen Resident Fellowship and the Los Angeles Orchestra Fellowship. Sydney has always loved music, but it was after attending a concert by the Boston Symphony Orchestra that she decided to become a musician. When she’s not performing with the Orchestra, Sydney devotes her time to her dog, Remi, enjoys taking Pilates and yoga classes, and loves going on hiking adventures.

Winner of the the Pirastro Prize for an Outstanding Young Talent at the 2021 Oskar Nedbal International Viola Competition held in Czech Republic, the violist Sebastian Gonzalez Mora is also the winner of the grand prize at the Chœur de la Montagne Competition (2018 and 2021) and the grand prize at the MDA-Québec Competition (2018). In February 2024, Sebastian  won a section viola position at the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.

Having completed his university studies under Jocelyne Bastien at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal and Victor Fournelle-Blain at McGill University, Sebastian is often heard as a soloist and chamber musician at the Festival Unisson, the Montreal Chamber Music Festival, at Allegra Chamber Music and at Musica Camerata Montréal. Sebastian Gonzalez Mora is also a member of the Vatra Quartet.

Sebastian plays on a viola Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, Paris (1851), and a Roger François Lotte bow courtesy of Canimex.