Winners of the 2011 Young Artists' Competition

Senior Winner - Blake Pouliot

The first sign of Blake Pouliot’s unusual musical abilities was exhibited at age three. After hearing a song on the radio he advised his mother if she sang it in a different key. At age six, Blake began piano and violin lessons. With his perfect pitch his technique on both instruments developed quickly and he would often come home from the movies, sit down at the piano and play the entire theme - chords and all.

After receiving many awards and scholarships at age eleven Blake made his concerto debut with the Toronto Trinity Chamber Orchestra. Since then he has played with dozens of orchestras and was honoured to be one of 27 young musicians from around the world, brought together by Pinchas Zukerman, to play a concert at Canada’s National Arts Center on Canada Day, July 1st 2009. In November of 2010 he performed a violin solo at Roy Thompson Hall with The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, on the same day his musical composition for piano, Starlight On Water, won first prize at the Canadian Contemporary Music Festival.

In June of 2011 he was invited, along with nine other young violinists from around the world, to perform at a violin symposium at Juilliard School of Music in New York, under the aegis of Itzhak Perlman. In addition to violin and piano, Blake played viola, cello, clarinet, and trumpet in school bands, was voted prime minister of his school, and even found time to do some acting - playing the lead role in two award-winning short movies: The Bicycle, that won 2005 Film Of The Year in Montreal, and A Bend In The Road, that won first prize at Malibu California and a bronze award at Worldfest in Houston Texas in 2007.

Blake is seventeen years old. He is currently the concertmaster of the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra, a member of the Young Artist Performing Academy of The Royal Conservatory of Music, and has done master classes with many internationally known musicians including Pinchas Zukerman, Yo Yo Ma, James Ehnes, Leila Josefowicz, Henning Kraggerud, Joel Smirnoff, Glenn Dicterow, and Leonidas Kavakos. His principal teachers have been Marie Berard, concertmaster of the Canadian Opera Company, and Erika Raum of the Royal Conservatory.

Blake will perform the Carmen Fantasy by Paolo de Saraste at our November 13 concert in the Burlington Performing Arts Centre.

Senior Winner - Clarisse Schneider

Clarisse Schneider has been a participant and winner of many local and provincial music festivals. Most recently she was the winner of the Marta Hidy Concerto Competition with Orchestra Toronto. Clarisse was also the winner of the Ontario Music Festival Association (OMFA) for Diploma Class 2010. She was the best of Strings winner for YIP's Music Festival in 2009 and best of Class and Grade for YIP's Music Festival in 2007 and 2008.

Clarisse was the junior concerto winner for Symphony Hamilton in 2008. Clarisse has played with the Toronto Youth Symphony Orchestra for the past 2 years. She has held the position of concert master with the Mississauga Youth Orchestra and the Halton Youth Orchestra. Her musical journey is under the tutelage of Corey Gemmell and Marie Berard.

Clarisse is 17 years old and is a grade 12 student Loyola Catholic Secondary School in Oakville. Clarisse has represented Oakville for the Halton Catholic District School Board as an elected Student Trustee for two consecutive years. She is currently the Catholic Board Council president of the Ontario Student Trustees Association. She has played left wing for the Oakville Hornets since she was five and will always make time to be part of a hockey team.

Clarisse will perform Wieniawski's Violin Concerto #2 at our December 11 concert at The Royal Botanical Gardens.

Junior Winner - Emma Carina Meinrenken

Emma Carina Meinrenken, age 12, is a student of Atis Bankas in the Young Artist Performance Academy of the Royal Conservatory of Music. Since she started playing the violin at the age of 4, Emma has won top awards in many festivals and competitions. These include a 1st place award at the 2009 Ontario (provincial) Music Festival and 1st place awards at the 2009 and 2010 Canadian (National) Music Competitions. She has been a recipient of many scholarship awards, including the Sid Oue Memorial Scholarship for ‘most promising student’ in 2009 and 2010. Last year, Emma made her debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in the Junior Concert Series of Spring 2010. Emma has been an invited soloist in a number of music festivals and recitals across Ontario, including summer festivals in Parry Sound (Festival of the Sound) and Niagara-on-the-Lake (Music Niagara). Emma is performing on a 1700 Joannes Tononi violin, generously on loan from Geo. Heinl and Co.

On her free time, Emma enjoys playing piano and chamber music, studying marine animals, drawing pictures, riding bicycle and reading adventure novels.

Emma will perform the 5th Movement of Lalo's Symphonie Espagnol at our December 11 concert at The Royal Botanical Gardens.

Pratik Gandhi - Guest Conductor

Pratik Gandhi, a native of Markham, Ontario, holds degrees in music education (B.Mus.) and conducting (M.Mus.) from the University of Western Ontario. He maintains a very busy schedule as a conductor, percussionist, drummer, composer/arranger, and clinician. In his young career, he has conducted orchestras (including the Windsor Symphony in 2008), wind bands, chamber works (Histoire du Soldat, 2008), musicals (Sweeney Todd, 2006), operas (Suor Angelica, 2008), and choirs, and has given numerous premieres of new works (notably Jodi Vander Woude's Quiet you with my love, for soprano, women's chorus, and orchestra, in 2008). With Pratik as its music director, Soup Can Theatre's inaugural production, Love is a Poverty You Can Sell, was selected to be part of the Best of Fringe showcase at the 2010 Toronto Fringe Festival. Pratik also serves as assistant conductor and principal percussionist of both the Richmond Hill Philharmonic Orchestra and the Toronto Youth Wind Orchestra.

Pratik will appear with Symphony on the Bay as Guest Conductor for the June 24, 2012 concert "A Musical Summer Solstice" at St Matthew's on the Plains Anglican Church.