Skylark Artists
Jane Coop, piano
Pianist Jane Coop, one of Canada’s most prominent and distinguished artists, was born in Saint John, New Brunswick and grew up in Calgary, Alberta. For advanced studies her principal teachers were Anton Kuerti in Toronto and Leon Fleisher in Baltimore. At the age of nineteen she won First Prize in the CBC’s national radio competition, and this, along with First Prize at the Washington International Competition, launched her career. In the early years she made recital debuts at Wigmore Hall and Carnegie Recital Hall (now called Weill Hall) and was invited to tour the New England States as soloist with the National Arts Centre Orchestra and Mario Bernardi in 1976.
Coop’s love of chamber music has led her to collaborate with artists from many parts of the world. Her longtime association with violinist Andrew Dawes, and her more recent partnership with cellist Henry Shapard have given her the opportunity to delve into the sonata literature of Beethoven, a body of music to which she feels particularly drawn. Summer festivals in North America and Europe have provided venues for performances with the Manhattan, Miami, Audubon, Orford, Lafayette, Colorado, Seattle, Angeles and Pacifica String Quartets, and such luminaries as Barry Tuckwell, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi and Antonio Lysy. For the past thirty years Coop has been a cherished faculty artist at the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, collaborating with members of the Juilliard String Quartet and other renowned string players.
Her commitment to teaching is centred around her long-time position at the University of British Columbia’s School of Music in Vancouver, where she was a senior professor and more recently Head of the Piano Division. In 2003 she was designated Distinguished University Scholar by the university’s president, and in 2007 she received a Killam Teaching Award. In 1992 she was the founding Artistic Director of the Young Artists’ Experience – a summer chamber music program for young students which took place in Whistler, BC. Its mandate was to give the participants a wide exposure to art and life, thus offering in the daily schedule yoga, singing, composition, poetry, and visual art as well as music.
Coop’s reputation has inspired international competition organizers to invite her to judge the Cliburn, Kapell, Dublin, Hilton Head, Honens, Bachauer and Beijing Piano Competitions. She has also been a jury member for the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards, the Glenn Gould Prize, the Hnatyshyn Foundation Developing Artists.
Grants and various Canada Council grant awards. Her sixteen recordings, three of which have been nominated for Juno awards, have garnered glowing reviews and have been heard on classical radio programs in many countries.
In December 2012 Jane Coop was appointed to the Order of Canada, our country’s highest honour for lifetime achievement. In addition, in 2019 she was appointed to the Order of British Columbia.
Ms. Coop is a Steinway Artist.
www.janecoop.com
Jane Coop Management — Canada
Andrew Kwan Artists Management Inc.
1105 Leslie Street, Ste. 1604
tel: (416) 445-4441
fax: (416) 445-7744 www.andrewkwanartists.com
Henry Shapard, cello
Henry Shapard is Co-Principal Cello of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he took up in July 2025. Prior to his seat in the LPO, he served from 2020 as Principal Cello of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Highlights of his tenure in British Columbia included several performances as the featured soloist with the VSO, most notably the Strauss Don Quixote under the baton of Leonard Slatkin.
As a cello section leader, Henry is in demand around the world, appearing in Guest Principal roles with the LPO and the Queensland Symphony Orchestra as well as guest Co-Principal with the Oslo Philharmonic.
As a concerto soloist, Henry’s recent engagements include the Vancouver, Yale, Prince George, and Lima symphonies, the PRISMA Festival Orchestra, and Parlando (New York City). Notable chamber music collaborations include a long-term partnership with pianist Jane Coop.
Henry was Professor of Cello at the Vancouver Academy of Music from 2023-2025, and maintains an ongoing relationship with the Academy. He has also been visiting faculty at the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM), the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA), and given masterclasses at Yale and Oberlin, among others.
In May 2020, Henry graduated with distinction in History from Yale University, where he received numerous university prizes. During his time there, he also studied cello with Ole Akahoshi and conducting with William Boughton, whom he assisted at the Yale Symphony. In his last year as a Yale student, he was also Principal Cello of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra, appointed by the late Bramwell Tovey.
Raised in Cleveland, Ohio, where he was an enthusiastic student of Richard Weiss, Henry holds a deep commitment to stewardship, frequently organizing workshops for incarcerated individuals in his home state.
Donna Brown, voice
Donna Brown's voice has been described as "shimmering," "luminous," "gem-like in its brilliance," "crystal clear." She has graced the stages of Paris, London, Tokyo, Berlin, Vienna, Rome, Sao Paulo, Caracas, Tel Aviv, Toronto, Vancouver, Philadelphia, San Francisco, performing an extensive repertoire, ranging from opera, oratorio, recital and chamber music, to contemporary and even alternative music.
Ms. Brown has sung with the leading orchestras and opera houses of the world, under such conductors as Sir John Eliot Gardner, Helmuth Rilling, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Bernard Haitink, Kent Nagano, Daniel Barenboim, Kurt Mazur, Carlo Maria Giulini, Jeffrey Tate, William Christie. She has worked on the opera stage with directors John Copley, Robert Wilson, Peter Brook, Jonathan Miller, Pier Luigi Pizzi, Lotfi Mansouri, Steven Wadsworth ...
Ms. Brown has been hailed as a remarkable interpreter of Art Song and has sung in over 150 recitals with such pianists as Stephane Lemelin, Philippe Cassard, Roger Vignoles, Menahem Pressler, Michel Dalberto, Maria Joao Pires, Jane Coop, Michael McMahon, Bruce Ubukata, Stephen Ralls, Peter Tiefenback, Françoise Tillard, Alain Planes, and Jean Marc Luisada.
A visiting professor at the Yonsei University in Seoul, the Fondacion Scola Cantorum, in Caracas, the Bachakedemie in Santiago de Compostela, she currently teaches voice at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montreal, and continues to sing in recitals and concerts throughout the world.
Andrew Dawes, violin
Andrew Dawes (d.2022) was first violinist of the Toronto-based Orford String Quartet throughout its existence from 1965 to 1991, touring North America, Asia and Europe in some 2000 concerts. Following their debut at Carnegie Hall, the quartet gave premiere performances of more than 40 Canadian works, and made 50 recordings,
including the complete Beethoven Quartets.
Between 1996 and 2006, Dawes partnered with Jane Coop to perform and record the ten Beethoven Sonatas for piano and violin. The two musicians also recorded, with members of the Orford, the Piano Quartets of Mozart, which was nominated for a Juno award.
As an educator, Dawes was Professor of Music at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, Professor Emeritus of the School of Music, UBC, and Distinguished Visiting Scholar and Catherine Thornhill Steele Chair in Music at McGill University. He was also a member of the board of directors of the Saint James Music Academy, and a director of the Vancouver Academy of Music’s Chamber Music Institute.
Dawes served as a juror at music competitions including the London International String
Quartet Competition, the Coleman Chamber Music Competition, and the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. He was chair of the Banff International String Quartet Competition from 1989 to 2004.
In 2013, upon his receiving the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, the National Film Board of Canada produced a tribute to Dawes entitled Dynamic Range, written and directed by Lisa Jackson.