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.