"Clemens Merkel's unconventional sound defines a new sensibility in contemporary music, through its intimate purity of tone, its settled understanding of microtonal or unconventional harmonic language, and its unhurried sensitivity. He is well known for innovative interpretations of Bach and John Cage, and is sought after by composers worldwide as an inspiration for new repertoire. His diverse collaborators range from the Wandelweiser collective to Montréal's Musique Actuelle community, and from emerging experimentalists to today's most revered composers.

For over a decade, Merkel's unusual sound has fused with that of the Quatuor Bozzini, considered one of the world's leading string quartets. Together they have mentored an entire generation of creators through the Composer's Kitchen; have released numerous critically acclaimed albums on their collection qb label; undertake multiple tours annually to be featured at festivals worldwide; and maintain a profound impact on the music scene across Canada and Europe in particular. They nourish Montréal audiences with unusual self-produced events that bridge worlds and cross boundaries of style, generation and culture.

Following an early career in Europe, where he contributed to the continent's leading ensembles, Merkel has made Montréal his home since 2000. He supports and advocates for new music in Québec and in Canada, and is regularly sought after as speaker, curator and adviser. His presence is felt in academia as well, through articles written for the Revue Circuit, and through his teaching at Concordia University. He's a passionate chef and lives in Montréal's Portuguese neighborhood together with his wife Isabelle Bozzini and children Félix and Béatrice."

" "... classical music without pretence... " is Alissa Cheung's approach to her multi-faceted career. A native of Edmonton (Alberta) violinist and composer, Ms Alissa Cheung (BSc '07, BMus '09, MM '13), is a tenured member of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra (ESO) since 2010 and will move to Montréal in January 2015 to join the Bozzini Quartet.

She has been involved with the Alberta Baroque Ensemble, and has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in Canada, USA, Europe and Japan. Career highlights include performances at Carnegie Hall and Suntory Hall, and solos with the ESO and the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Orchestra. Ms Cheung has been featured in Vue Weekly Magazine and Edmonton Sun, and was aired on CBC, CKUA, and WKPN Radio.

An adamant interpreter of new music, Alissa has performed numerous contemporary works and was an Artist in Residence at the Bang on a Can Summer Festival (2011), at the and at the Lucerne Festival Academy (2013).

As a composer, her works have been performed at the Tonus Vivus Festival of New Music (Edmonton), Jordan Hall (Boston), Morse Recital Hall (New Haven, CT), and the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal. Upcoming projects include a commission by the Arx Duo and the Bass Line Road Ensemble. Ms Cheung studied composition with Hannah Lash (Yale) and Piotr Grella-Mozejko (Edmonton).

In addition to private teaching, Ms Cheung has been Sessional Instructor at King's University College and faculty member of the Alberta College Conservatory of Music. Educational outreach initiatives include being a Teaching Artist with ESO's Adopt-a-Player Program and with the National Arts Centre's Music Alive Program.

Ms Cheung's principal violin teachers were Marian Moody, Ranald Shean, Broderyck Olson (Edmonton), Thomas Williams (McGill), and Ani Kavafian (Yale). Other influential coaches include Malcolm Lowe, Mark Fewer, Rafael Rosenfeld, Kyoko Hashimoto, and members of the former Tokyo, Juilliard and Concord string quartets."

"Stéphanie Bozzini. Born Montréal, Québec, 1974. Performer (viola)

Stéphanie Bozzini is a founding member of the Bozzini Quartet, a new music string quartet which performs regularly in major festivals throughout Canada, the United States, Europe and South America. Her curiosity and interest in a number of musical styles, from historically informed period instrument playing to contemporary improvisation, have led her to become a remarkably versatile musician.

Solo performances include Huddersfield (UK), Ostrava Days Festival (Czech Rep), NY MUSIK (Sweden), and REDCAT CalArts (Los Angeles). She is principal viola with Arion, and plays regularly with other baroque music groups including Tafelmusik, Theatre of Early Music and SMCQ. Stéphanie has been a long-time collaborator with contemporary ensembles Bradyworks and Kore, as well as Ensemble Lunaire (Zürich). Major orchestral engagements include the Tonhalle of Zurich and the Winterthurer Stadtorchester, and chamber orchestras such as I Musici and Les Violons du Roy. Other chamber music projects have led to performances at The Banff Centre for the Arts, the Tonhalle Zurich, and the Festival des Îles du Bic. Stéphanie Bozzini teaches viola at the Music Department, Concordia University in Montréal."

"Isabelle Bozzini. Born Montréal, Québec, 1969. Performer (cello).

A passionate chamber player, cellist Isabelle Bozzini is dedicated to exploring two parallel worlds - new music of all kinds and music on period instruments. This endeavour continuously challenges her and nourishes her artistic aspirations.

She is a founding member of the Quatuor Bozzini which since its inception in 1999 has become one of Canada's leading string quartets on national and international scenes. Playing close to forty concerts per year, the Bozzinis produce their own concert series in Montréal including the Salon des compositeurs + Composer's Kitchen event. They tour several times per year in Europe, the US and Canada and have launched the label collection qb in the Fall of 2004 in collaboration with DAME. Isabelle Bozzini also works with Kore Ensemble, and various improvising artists such as Malcolm Goldstein, François Houle, Benoît Delbecq, Diane Labrosse and Jean Derome. Having collaborated for many years with Joël Thiffault and the Montréal Baroque Orchestra, Isabelle Bozzini now plays regularly with Ensemble Arion. She also plays with Idées Heureuses, Ensemble Caprice, the Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal, and French harpsichordist and conductor Hervé Niquet."

"Gyula Csapó - Pápa, Hungary, 1955, Composer.

Gyula Csapó hails from the rich Hungarian musical tradition. Beyond his Liszt Academy diploma (Budapest), he went to study to IRCAM in Paris and completed his Ph.D. with Morton Feldman in the United States (1989). He taught at SUNY-Buffalo, McGill and Princeton Universities. He is Full Professor of Composition and Music Theory at the University of Saskatchewan, and also holds a Habilitation Doctorate from the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. Csapó received the 2009 ARTISJUS Prize "Composition of the Year" for his Concerto for Viola and a Changing Environment (recorded on Hungaroton, 2010), numerous grants and commissions such as his 2011 Canada Council Grant for the string quartet Déjà? Kojâ? commissioned by the Bozzini Quartet. Csapó's music is performed worldwide, (at venues like The Juilliard School, Lincoln Center, New York, Royal Festival Hall, London, U.K., Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam (with Continuum, Toronto, Canada), CBC Radio and the Montréal New Music Festival, Tessara Autumn Festival in Tokyo). The ARMEL Opera Festival and Competition made Csapó's tetra-lingual opera Phèdre its entry work for international opera companies in 2014. Csapó published a large series of scores with Editio Musica and was selected to the roster of Universal Music, whose Contemporary Music Catalogue describes him as follows: "His music grew out of the minimalism of the 1970-s, to which his early analytical minimalism, drone systems and timbral sensitivity responded by giving it a new dimension. Early exposure to the music of Cage, Feldman, Kurtág, Boulez, Stockhausen and Xenakis and the Budapest New Music Studio merely strengthened his pursuit of his own unmistakable path in works quintessentially Csapó without ever a reminiscence or a repeat. His career led him from Hungary through Paris to New York and Canada, and this trajectory endowed him with a truly global musical outlook that he carefully and consciously cultivates. His music, once heard, is impossible to forget due to its often timeless beauty, referencing multiple traditions while being exceptionally innovative; finding a voice for the general and the highly individual alike, and creating unique narratives and dramaturgies that embrace and mesmerize its listeners worldwide." In 2014 Csapó became elected as a member of the prestigious Széchenyi Academy of Arts and Letters (Budapest, Hungary). The year 2015 will hear the world premiere of the complete quartet Déjà? Kojâ? Parts I-II-III, the European premieres of Tool az Óperencián (2012) and a new work Trilce V de César Vallejo (2014) for eight-stringed guitar and baritone voice with falsetto."