Abby Walsh is a violinist in the first violin section of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. A member of the OSM since 2022, she completed a master’s degree at Rice University in Texas, as well as an artist diploma, a bachelor’s degree, a college diploma, and a preparatory studies diploma at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal.
She won third place and the Audience Choice Award at the Orford Music Award in 2020, and is a laureate of the Pierre-De Saurel Classical Music Festival-Competition (2018) and the Sherbrooke Music Festival-Competition (2015). She has also received numerous grants, including the Jeunesses Musicales Canada Foundation AIDA Fund, the Sylva Gelber Music Foundation Award, the Bourse d’excellence and the Bourse de Prestige S. & A. Bouchard from the Conservatoire de musique et d’art dramatique du Québec Foundation in 2019, as well as the Bourse Canimex.
What inspired her to become a musician? “I’ve always loved sharing music with my audience—revealing all the colors and nuances of the violin and evoking emotions, both in myself and in the people in the room,” she says. “That’s what inspired me, and continues to inspire me, to be a musician today: sharing the art of music.”