Sarah Velasco
Sarah Velasco is a Canadian violinist who performs regularly in North America, Asia and Europe. She has appeared as soloist with the CSU Philharmonic, the Georgia Philharmonic, the Toronto Sinfonietta, the Toronto Cultural Orchestra, Orchestra London, the OS-M Orchestra, the Kindred Spirits Orchestra and the Orchestre du Cœur. She has won several competitions, including the Springboard Prize, the London Rose Bowl and twice the Sid Oue Memorial Prize.
For three years, Sarah was a member of the Lausanne Soloists ensemble, conducted by Renaud Capuçon. She has performed at the Rocamadour Festival, the La Roque d’Anthéron Piano Festival, the Variations Musicales de Tannay and the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, among others. She also plays chamber music and has taken part in numerous festivals in France, the United States, Canada, Austria and Switzerland.
She has taken part in masterclasses given by renowned artists such as Shmuel Ashkenazi, Dmitri Berlinsky, Patrice Fontanarosa, Ilya Gringolts, Ilya Kaler, David Kim, Mikhail Kopelman, Igor Volochine, Krzysztof Wegrzyn and Pinchas Zukerman. In autumn 2018, she joined the Association Les Concerts du Cœur in a duo with French guitarist Guillaume Geny.
Sarah is also a jury member for several competitions for young musicians, including the Toronto Kiwanis Music Festival, Pickering GTA Music Festival, and Ottawa Kiwanis Festival.
Her teachers include Victor Danchenko, Erika Raum, Aaron Rosand, Sergiu Schwartz, Mark Skazinetsky, and Yuuki Wong. She obtained her Bachelor of Music with Magna Cum Laude honours, a Master Concert in 2018 with the HES-SO Music and Performing Arts Domain prize, and a Master of Specialised Music Performance, soloist orientation, at the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne (Valais site).
Guillaume Geny
Born in Digne-les-Bains, France, Guillaume Geny is a guitarist who performs regularly in Europe as a soloist and in various chamber music ensembles, including the Quatuor Tastiera, the Trio Reynold and Duo64. As arranger and
composer for these ensembles, he contributes to the development of the guitar repertoire, always seeking to push back the limits of the instrument. Sharing and mediating music play a major role in his artistic and educational projects. He has taught guitar at conservatoires and music schools in France and Switzerland, where he is currently based at the Conservatoire de Lausanne and the EMVR site de Savigny.
He began his career as a guitar accompanist before studying classical guitar at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Départemental de Manosque. After further training at the Conservatoire d’Aix en Provence, he joined the HEMU – Haute École de Musique de Lausanne in 2015, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts, a Master’s degree in Music Pedagogy and a Master’s degree in Music Performance. He studied with Serge Nigon, Arnaud Sans, Cécile Lê Duy, Alberto Vingiano and George Vassilev, and gained further experience with other great guitarists such as Alberto Ponce, Roland Dyens, Celso Machado, Alex Garrobé, Pedro Mateo Gonzáles, Marco Socias and Zoran Dukic.
Winner of several international competitions in Europe, including the Aschaffenburg gitarrentage competition in Germany, the Concours International de musique espagnole d’Albi in France and the Concours International de guitare classique de Versoix in Switzerland, he regularly performs as soloist on concertos by Antonio Vivaldi, Joaquin Rodrigo, Mario-Castelnuovo Tedesco and Léo Brouwer.
