Works for violin solo and duo by Bach, Ysaye, Prokofiev, and Spohr

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			Stephen Sitarski, Concertmaster, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony and a Member of the Canadian Chamber Ensemble (CCE) An Oakville, Ontario native, Stephen Sitarski enjoys an incredibly varied career as a violinist and musician.  Acclaimed nationally in performances of Baroque music through to contemporary and jazz, he is also a recognized conductor, adjudicator, teacher and music administrator. Currently Concertmaster of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony (since 1997), he has also led many other Canadian orchestras such as the Vancouver Symphony and Ottawa’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, as well as orchestras in the United States and Europe. He frequently appears as soloist with orchestra and, along with much of the standard repertoire, performs concertos written especially for him by Canadian composers Glenn Buhr and Kelly-Marie Murphy.

He is 1st Violin of the Canadian Chamber Ensemble, a founding member of Trio Laurier, and is a regular participant in diverse chamber groups and festival events both nationally and internationally with many of Canada’s finest musicians.

Routinely heard throughout Canada on disc and on live radio broadcasts, Sitarski has also performed countless television and film scores.  In addition, he has arranged music for the Emperor Quartet and Quartetto Gelato.

In recognition of his outstanding artistic contribution to the Kitchener-Waterloo community, he was awarded the 2002 Kitchener-Waterloo Arts Award for Music.

Lance Ouellette, Associate Concertmaster, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony. Lance Ouellette began his musical studies in Saint John, NB. As the violin was always the main focus, Lance also excelled at the piano, voice and saxophone. From an early age, Lance participated yearly at local and provincial music festivals winning numerous awards for violin, piano, and voice as well as receiving silver medals from the Royal Conservatory of Music in all three disciplines. While still in high school Lance was a violinist with Symphony NB as well as concertmaster of the NB youth orchestra under Nurhan Arman with whom he also studied violin. At the age of fifteen, Lance had the opportunity to sit in the concertmaster chair of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada under the direction of Simon Streatfeild and the following year he sat co-concertmaster for the NYO tour of Japan under the direction of K. Akiyama.

In 1996, Lance came to Toronto to study at U of T with Atis Bankas. During that time, he won 1st prize at the national finals of the Canadian Music Competition representing Ontario, 1st prize at the FCMF National Music Festival playing Glazounov's violin concerto, a solo recital radio broadcast by CBC, and was awarded a two week seminar in Quebec at Domaine Forget as part of the Jeunes Artistes de Canada competition. Mr. Ouellette was also a featured artist for the 50th Anniversary Gala for Jeunesses Musicales, the Canadian Chamber Academy, the International School for Musical Arts, Symphony NB, York Symphony, and performances for Prime Mentors of Canada honoring N. Goldschmidt and Maureen Forrester. Recently, he was featured on violin as the recording artist for the character of "Ethan" on Showtime/Showcase's hit series QAF.

Lance first came to Kitchener-Waterloo in the fall of 2002 pursuing a post-graduate Diploma in Chamber Music at Wilfrid Laurier University under the tutelage of members of the Penderecki String Quartet. During his year at WLU Lance sat co-concertmaster and in the spring of 2003, Lance was the winner of the Ken Murray Concerto Competition resulting in an opportunity to play a movement of Mendelssohn's violin concerto with the KWS.

In September 2003, Lance won the audition for a one year interim position as the 2nd Associate Concertmaster of the KWS. In 2004 he was then offered another year as interim and in 2005, Lance Ouellette was appointed to the position of 2nd Associate Concertmaster.

As a musician, Mr. Ouellette is very active in the Kitchener-Waterloo community. He has performed at the openings of the new Kitchener city market and Perimeter Institute, noon hour concerts at WLU and First United Church, and the KWCMS as well as many other performances in and around the KW area. Along side of a busy performing schedule, Lance enjoys teaching violin to a private studio of 13 students. His violin students have won awards at Kiwanis Music Festivals and many of them are members of the KWYSO.

Aside from music, Lance avidly enjoys gardening, mountain biking, painting, being pulled around on roller blades by his two dogs and in winter, he enjoys training the dogs in agility.