Ingrid Matthiessen
First Violins
Ingrid Matthiessen would gladly have taken up the cello, but since rental costs were lower for violins, she opted for the smaller member of the string family … a winning choice, since a few years later she was attending The Juilliard School and studying with Sally Thomas and Szymon Goldberg. She has many fond musical memories to relate, such as her performance with the OSM at the United Nations in the 1990s, the time she played at a birthday celebration for Prince, and performing at the official opening of The Limelight in New York City in 1983. Her first appearance with the OSM dates back to March 12, 1987.
Hometown: Halifax
Academic institution(s) attended: The Juilliard School
Musical first love: Beethoven’s Violin Concerto
Prizes and scholarships: Canada Council for the Arts, Nova Scotia Talent Fund, Chester Educational Foundation
Favourite composer(s): Prokofiev, Bartók, Shostakovich, Johann Sebastian Bach
Favourite work(s): Prokofiev’s Symphony no. 5, Bach’s Goldberg Variations performed by Glenn Gould, Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night, Mendelssohn’s String Octet, the slow movement of Schubert’s “Cello Quintet”
Recent recordings: The soundtrack to Alegria for the Cirque du Soleil
Other interests: Horses
If you hadn’t chosen to become a musician, you would be … : A horse breeder
Is there anything you would like to add?: I would have walked 500 km in the snow for a chance to work with David Bowie!
