Mark Fewer
Violin, Distinguished Guest artist
Mark Fewer will be joining us August 13-18.
In a career that now spans over three decades, Mark Fewer has been an interpreter of music past and present in virtually every genre and setting you will find a violin in. From appearances at famed concert halls such as Carnegie, Wigmore and Salle Pleyel, to venues such as Bartok House (Budapest), the Forum (Taipei) and Le Poisson Rouge (NYC), Fewer has appeared as featured guest soloist with ensembles ranging from the Zapp Quartet of Amsterdam, the Fodens-Richardson Brass Band (UK), the Chieftains, Stevie Wonder and his band, and the major symphonies of Toronto, San Francisco, Melbourne and more.
He has premiered over 200 works, with more than 50 of those written specifically for him. Canadian jazz icon Phil Dwyer wrote his Juno-winning work Changing Seasons for Fewer, citing his “seemingly clairvoyant skills at interpretation”. When giving the Canadian premiere of John Adams’ The Dharma at Big Sur for 6-string electric violin and orchestra, the Globe and Mail
referred to his performance as “intrepid”. His extensive and unique discography includes appearances on multiple Juno-winning
recordings, one Grammy winning recording, a Prix Opus, and, most recently, an ECMA for Best Instrumental of the Year for his latest album Alikeness.
He has held the positions of Concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony, Artist-in-Residence at Stanford University, William Dawson Scholar at McGill University, and Artist-in-Residence at the Glamorgan Festival in Wales. As a chamber musician he was a founding member of the Duke Piano Trio, violinist with the SuperNova and St. Lawrence String Quartets, and was an original
member of the ARC Ensemble. He is currently first violinist of the Axelrod String Quartet at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC, where the group performs and records exclusively on Stradivari and Amati instruments from the museum’s famed collection. He is also a jazz violinist, having shared the stage with Dave Young, Brad Turner, Jodi Proznick, Jim Doxas, Jan Jarczyk, Pekka Kuusisto, Suba Sankaran, Aaron Davis and many more.
Mr. Fewer was the founding Artistic Director of the SweetWater Music Festival and is now in his 8th season in the same role at Stratford Summer Music. This last year he was named to CBC’s In Concert Hall of Fame, which celebrates Canada’s greatest classical musicians of all time. He is an Associate Professor of Violin at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto and is honoured to be a Senior Fellow at Massey College.
In a career that now spans over three decades, Mark Fewer has been an interpreter of music past and present in virtually every genre and setting you will find a violin in. From appearances at famed concert halls such as Carnegie, Wigmore and Salle Pleyel, to venues such as Bartok House (Budapest), the Forum (Taipei) and Le Poisson Rouge (NYC), Fewer has appeared as featured guest soloist with ensembles ranging from the Zapp Quartet of Amsterdam, the Fodens-Richardson Brass Band (UK), the Chieftains, Stevie Wonder and his band, and the major symphonies of Toronto, San Francisco, Melbourne and more.
He has premiered over 200 works, with more than 50 of those written specifically for him. Canadian jazz icon Phil Dwyer wrote his Juno-winning work Changing Seasons for Fewer, citing his “seemingly clairvoyant skills at interpretation”. When giving the Canadian premiere of John Adams’ The Dharma at Big Sur for 6-string electric violin and orchestra, the Globe and Mail
referred to his performance as “intrepid”. His extensive and unique discography includes appearances on multiple Juno-winning
recordings, one Grammy winning recording, a Prix Opus, and, most recently, an ECMA for Best Instrumental of the Year for his latest album Alikeness.
He has held the positions of Concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony, Artist-in-Residence at Stanford University, William Dawson Scholar at McGill University, and Artist-in-Residence at the Glamorgan Festival in Wales. As a chamber musician he was a founding member of the Duke Piano Trio, violinist with the SuperNova and St. Lawrence String Quartets, and was an original
member of the ARC Ensemble. He is currently first violinist of the Axelrod String Quartet at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC, where the group performs and records exclusively on Stradivari and Amati instruments from the museum’s famed collection. He is also a jazz violinist, having shared the stage with Dave Young, Brad Turner, Jodi Proznick, Jim Doxas, Jan Jarczyk, Pekka Kuusisto, Suba Sankaran, Aaron Davis and many more.
Mr. Fewer was the founding Artistic Director of the SweetWater Music Festival and is now in his 8th season in the same role at Stratford Summer Music. This last year he was named to CBC’s In Concert Hall of Fame, which celebrates Canada’s greatest classical musicians of all time. He is an Associate Professor of Violin at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto and is honoured to be a Senior Fellow at Massey College.
