Biography
Kerry DuWors
“exceptional intonation and a tangible empathy” (Gramophone Magazine)
“commanding combination of strength, sweetness and brightness” (WholeNote Magazine)
Canadian-born violinist Kerry DuWors has earned accolades for her “poise and maturity” and “spellbinding expression,” and has been praised for always finding “the music behind the notes” (Winnipeg Free Press). Winner of the 26th Eckhardt-Gramatté Competition, Ms. DuWors made a début Canada-wide recital tour with pianist Lydia Wong in 2003. She performs across Canada, the US, Japan, Central Asia, Europe, Mexico, and New Zealand.
Recent projects include guest artist residencies at Indiana University and Sonata Seminar at Brandon University with duo526 piano partner Futaba Niekawa, Turkish-Classical Music project “Continuum” for Winnipeg’s Virtuosi Concert Series, Prairie Debut violin-piano recitals in Alberta and Saskatchewan with Katherine Dowling, Manitoba première of Luis Ramirez’s Immigration Suite, tours in The Netherlands, Ireland and Brazil, classical-electronic collaborations with violist Ryan Davis/Radia for GroundSwell, performances at the Dream Big Collaborative Conference and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, and the launch of the “Vietnamese Roots” audio-visual project featuring music by Vietnamese composers Nguyen Văn Quy and Tôn-Thât Tiêt.
Ms. DuWors has collaborated with internationally acclaimed soloists and chamber music ensembles including James Ehnes, Yo-Yo Ma, Isabel Bayrakdarian, David Braid, Michael Kim, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Angela Cheng, Denise Djokic, Martin Fröst, Marc-André Hamelin, Andrew Dawes, Scott St. John, Rena Sharon, Martin Beaver, The Knights, collectif9 and the Lafayette, St. Lawrence and Penderecki Quartets. She has studied and performed with Lorand Fenyves, Charles Castleman, Laurence Lesser, Bernadene Blaha, Krzysztof Penderecki, Elizabeth Wallfisch, Jeanne Lamon, Pamela Frank, Erika Raum, Gwen Thompson, Paul Katz, and the Ying Quartet.
At home in many musical genres, Ms. DuWors has given performances across four continents in acclaimed venues and festivals: Jordan Hall (Boston), Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall (New York), Caramoor Festival (NY), Philharmonic Society of Orange County (California), the Banff Centre for the Arts, Sumida Triphony Hall (Tokyo), Beethovenfest (Bonn), RadialSystem V – New Space for the Arts (Berlin), Semperoper (Dresden), Baryshnikov Arts Center (NY), Northern Lights Music Festival (Mexico), National Arts Centre, Montreal Chamber Music Festival, Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society, Vancouver Recital Society, Maureen Forrester Young Canadian Artist Series (Stratford Summer Music Festival), Agassiz Chamber Music Festival (Winnipeg), Aeolian Concert Series (London, ON), Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society, and the Gustin House Concert Series (Saskatoon). Numerous broadcasts on CBC’s Galleria, Music Around Us and In Performance. Ms. DuWors has been a soloist with the Winnipeg Symphony, Saskatoon Symphony, Red Deer Symphony, Montreal Chamber Orchestra, Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, and Brandon Chamber Players.
Dedicated to commissioning and performing new music, Ms. DuWors has given the world premières of several works for violin including Arlan Schultz’s Entwirren and Jodi Vander Woude’s (H) in 2004, David R. Scott’s Double Concerto for Violin and Cello written for her in 2006, and Ryan Davis’ “Diamond Up, Diamond Down” in 2023 for GroundSwell. She has performed in Victoria’s SALT New Music Festival, Toronto’s SoundaXis Festival featuring the music of Steve Reich, joined the Eastman School of Music’s new music ensemble Ossia for a Toru Takemitsu project, and has performed works by Canadian composers Luis Ramirez, Kevin Lau, Ian Cusson, Marjan Mozetich, Jordan Nobles, Christos Hatzis, Kelly-Marie Murphy, T. Patrick Carrabré, Elizabeth Raum, Jocelyn Morlock, and Andrew P. MacDonald.
Ms. DuWors is a dedicated mentor and teacher and is Associate Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at Manitoba’s Brandon University. She began music studies in Saskatoon, SK; continued at the University of Victoria (B. Mus.) with Ann Elliott-Goldschmid of the Lafayette String Quartet; the Banff Centre for the Arts; The Castleman Quartet Program; and the University of Toronto (M. Mus.) as a student of Lorand Fenyves. At the University of Toronto, she was the recipient of many prestigious awards and scholarships including the Eaton Graduate Scholarship, the Yo-Yo Ma Fellowship for Strings, a Canada Council Career Development Grant for Emerging Professional Classical Musicians, and the Felix Galimir Award for Chamber Music Excellence.
Ms. DuWors began a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Performance & Literature at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY in 2010. Under the mentorship of Charles Castleman and Dr. Jean Barr at Eastman, she formed duo526 with pianist Futaba Niekawa in 2011. The duo completed two short-term residencies at the Banff Centre in the fall of 2011 and 2012 where they worked intensively with Roger Tapping, Mark Steinberg, the Lafayette String Quartet, Hardy Rittner, and Henk Guittart. They have also been artists-in-residence at Avaloch Farm Music Institute and Leighton Artist Studios at the Banff Centre. Their two albums, Ballade (2014) and Duo Fantasy (2019) were released by Parma Recordings/Navona Records and received rave reviews. “They are a beautifully balanced duo” (Gramophone Magazine) and they “create an art that goes beyond mere interpretation…the personality of the two musicians expands out with a creative attitude towards the world” (Sonograma Magazine). duo526 mentors the next generation of duo players through their annual Sonata Seminar at Brandon University and the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University.
A four-time winner of the Canada Council Musical Instrument Bank Competition (2003-2015), Ms. DuWors graciously played the 1902 Enrico Rocca, 1747 Palmason Januarius Gagliano, and the 1820 Joannes Franciscus Pressenda violin. She currently plays a modern instrument by Felix Krafft modelled after the famous 1735 “Plowden” Guarneri del Gèsu.
