About

Musique Royale is delighted to present a rich program of viola and piano works with the Ezra Duo, whose artistic collaboration was formed while violist Jacob Clewell and pianist Sasha Bult-Ito were students at the Glenn Gould School.

Violist Jacob Clewell stands in the vanguard of musicians of his generation. Gold Medalist of the 2017 Vancouver International Music Competition, his recent performances include solo and chamber appearances at the Scotia and Green Lake music festivals, as a fellow at Music by the Sea in Bamfield, BC, at the Festival Pablo Casals in Prades, France, and frequent recitals in Canada, England, and the United States. He has served as principal violist of the Royal Conservatory Orchestra under maestros Gabor Takacs-Nagy and Bramwell Tovey, and at the Eastern and Marrowstone music festivals under maestro Gerard Schwarz. In May 2018 he made his first solo appearance in Chicago’s Symphony Center, appearing on the VIMC winners’ tour with works by Henri Vieuxtemps. Highlights for the 2018-19 season include solo recitals in Vancouver and Santa Fe, and the premier of Paint : Music, a long-term collaboration with painter Karen Mosbacher. Jacob holds degrees from the Cornish College of the Arts and Stony Brook University, and in May 2018 received his Artist Diploma from The Glenn Gould School. His principal teachers have been Mara Gearman, Nicholas Cords, Lawrence Dutton, and Steven Dann, with additional study in Europe with Yuko Inoue, Roger Chase, and Nobuko Imaï.

Alaskan pianist Sasha Bult-Ito has appeared as soloist with orchestras in both the United States and Europe. She made her orchestral solo debut with the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra at age seven after winning the Fairbanks Symphony Concerto Competition, of which she was a rare, three-time first-place laureate. Sasha performed in Koerner Hall as a finalist of the Glenn Gould School Annual Concerto Competition, and was a semifinalist of the 2015 e-Piano Junior and Fourteenth Eastman Young Artists International Piano Competitions. Recent performances include Dohnányi and Vasks piano quartets,and Chausson Piano Trio at the Scotia Festival of Music, Beethoven Sonata Op. 81a at the Southeastern Piano Festival, Schumann Sonata in F-sharp minor at the John Perry Academy Summer Piano Festival, and Saint-Saëns Concerto No. 2 with the Brunensis Virtuosi Orchestra under the baton of Danwen Wei at MusicFest Perugia in Italy. Sasha also participates in the Internationaler Klaviersommer Cochem Meisterkurs in Germany, and served on the Young Jury for the 2018 Arthur Fraser International Piano Competition. Beginning her piano studies at age four with her mother, Sasha attended the Interlochen Arts Academy for high school where she was a student of Thomas Lymenstull. She is currently studying under the direction of John Perry and David Louie at The Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, where she is a full scholarship recipient.