Douglas McNabney, Artistic Director
Born and raised in Toronto, violist Douglas McNabney is one of Canada’s most distinguished chamber musicians. He has enjoyed an international performing career with appearances in Holland, Belgium, France, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Germany, Ireland, Great Britain, Switzerland, Mexico, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, as well as performances throughout Canada and the U.S.A. He has recorded for, among others, BRT (Brussels), Radio Bremen, RTE (Dublin), Finnish Broadcasting (Helsinki), Sudwestdeutscher Rundfunk (Karlsruhe), Norwegian Radio (Oslo), Radio Sweden (Stockholm), NPR (USA), and the CBC. His recording on the Oxingale label of the Mozart Divertimento with Jonathan Crow and Matt Haimovitz was nominated for a Juno in 2007 and his Dorian recording of Mahler with the Smithsonian Chamber Players was nominated for a Grammy in 2008. He has recorded for Dorian, Amberola, Marquis, Oxingale, and CBC Enterprises labels.
As one of Canada’s most active chamber musicians, he has appeared as guest artist with the leading chamber music groups and societies across Canada. His chamber music partners include Canadians Marc-André Hamelin, Louis Lortie, André Laplante, Anton Kuerti, James Ehnes and internationally renowned soloists Menachem Pressler, Steven Isserlis, Jamie Buswell, William Preucil, Miriam Fried, among many others. He has performed with the SuperNova Quartet, the Crow-Haimovitz-McNabney Trio, the Orfordto.org/”; Quartet, the Penderecki Quartet, the Alcan Quartet, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, the St Lawrence Quartet, Sante Fe Pro Musica, Millennium, the Gryphon Trio, the Allegri String Quartet, le Quatuor Artur Leblanc, Amici, New Music Concerts (Toronto), the Toronto Chamber Players, Amadeus Ensemble, Scotia Chamber Players, the Acadia Chamber Players, the Winnipeg Chamber Music Society, Musica Camerata de Montréal, and Les Chambristes de Montréal. He has appeared in most of the major festivals in Canada including le Festival international du Domaine Forget, le Festival international de Lanaudière, Orford; International Festival, Galway International Festival (Ireland), Music at Speedside, Festival du Bic, the Scotia Festival, Kammermusikfest Kloster Kamp, Linfort (Germany), Festival of the Sound, the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, BargeMusic, (New York), Festival Canada, Music at Blair Atholl (Scotland), Festival de musique de chambre de Montréal, le Club musical de Québec, and many others.
Also renowned as an arts administrator, Douglas McNabney was Artistic Director of the Domaine Forget Music Festival and Academy from 2001 until 2005. He was Chair of the Department of Performance of McGill University from 2004 to 2008 during a period of extensive renewal and growth of the Faculty. In 2009, Douglas McNabney was responsible for the artistic direction of the Haydn 2009 project at the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal where the complete cycle of all 68 String Quartets was performed in one week. The event featured guest quartets from across North America and Europe and renowned Haydn scholars in conference with a total public attendance in excess of 6,000 entries.
Douglas McNabney is currently Professor of Chamber Music at the Schulich School of Music of McGill. He also pursues a busy schedule of appearances as soloist and guest artist in festivals and with chamber music societies and ensembles across Canada and Europe. He was appointed Artistic Director of Toronto Summer Music in August 2010.
