Canada's Musical Instrument Bank Announces 2023 Recipients

21 musicians will be afforded the three-year loan of a fine instrument following auditions in Toronto

The Musical Instrument Bank, which is administered by the Canada Council for the Arts, holds more than twenty fine instruments by makers including Stradivari, Gagliano, and Pressenda.

As part of the Musical Instrument Bank Competition and following an extensive application process, 32 musicians were invited to the live audition stage in Toronto. Then, the final 21 players were selected and ranked, with the rankings determining the order in which musicians were allowed to sample and choose their instruments from the Bank.

The full list of recipients is as follows:

• Alice Lee | 1689 Baumgartner Stradivarius violin
• Andrea Stewart | 1824 McConnell Nicolaus Gagliano II cello
• Astrid Nakamura | ca.1830-1850 Eckhardt-Gramatte Joachim Georges Chanot I violin
• Bryan Cheng | ca. 1696 Bonjour Stradivarius cello
• Cameron Crozman | ca. 1750 Gennaro Gagliano cello
• Christopher Hwang | 1929 Carlo Giuseppe Oddone cello
• Christopher Whitley | 1900 Stefano Scarampella violin
• Daniel Dastoor | 1700 Taft Stradivarius violin
• Daniel Hass | 1730 Newland Joannes Franciscus Celoniatus cello
• David Baik | 1871 Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume violin
• Emma Meinrenken | 1717 Windsor-Weinstein Stradivarius violin
• Eva Aronian | 1715 Dominicus Montagnana violin
• Gregory Lewis | 1768 Miller Januarius Gagliano violin
• Julia Mirzoev | 1747 Palmason Januarius Gagliano violin
• Kumiko Sakamoto | 1820 Joannes Franciscus Pressenda violin
• Leland Ko | A Spanish cello attributed to Joannes Guillami of Barcelona, Spain and bearing a label dated ca. 1769 / ca. 1830 Shaw Adam cello bow
• Lucy Wang | ca. 1700 Bell Giovanni Tononi violin
• Shannon Lee | 1902 Enrico Rocca violin
• Tiffany Yeung | 1869 Jean Baptiste Vuillaume violin (with Vuillaume model bow)
• Vivian Kukiel | 1851 Jean Baptiste Vuillaume violin
• Yu Kai Sun | 1757 Carlo Tononi Bolognese Violin

The Musical Instrument Bank was established with a $100,000 bequest from the Barwick family, as well as fundraising from Montréal businessman William Turner and Montréal cellist Denis Brott. A number of prominent Canadian musicians have benefited from the Bank, including Lara St. John, Alexandre Da Costa, Martin Beaver, Judy Kang, Denise Djokic, Marc Djokic, and Roman Borys.