Amy Hillis, violin - Guest Faculty

Originally from Saskatchewan, Canada, Amy Hillis is quickly establishing herself as one of Canada's most versatile and vibrant violinists. She collaborates with musicians from around the world in order to explore new approaches to classical and contemporary music. Amy is a 2017 artist-in-residence at La Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, a residency awarded by the Conseils des Arts et des Lettres du Québec. She is also the winner of the 2017 McGill Concerto Competition and will perform as soloist with the McGill Symphony Orchestra during their 2017-2018 season. Amy is the recipient of the prestigious Sylva Gelber Foundation Music Award which is given to Canadian musicians of outstanding ability and career potential. She performs on the 1820 Joannes Franciscus Pressenda, on loan from the Canada Council for the Arts Musical Instrument Bank.

Amy is currently pursuing a Doctor of Music in Violin Performance at McGill University in Montréal with the esteemed violin professor, Axel Strauss. Her studies are funded by a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships (CGS) Doctoral Scholarship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). A recent graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Amy completed her Master of Music in 2014 with renowned pedagogue and performer, Ian Swensen. She earned her Bachelor of Music degree in Violin Performance from McGill University under the tutelage of former concertmaster of the Orchestre Métropolitain, Denise Lupien. While growing up in Regina, Saskatchewan, Amy studied with the concertmaster of the Regina Symphony Orchestra, Eduard Minevich.

Amy maintains a busy schedule as a chamber musician. In addition to performing as part of the Montreal-based SOMA Quartet, Amy is a dedicated member and manager of the prairie-based Horizon String Quartet. During five different tours, the HSQ has performed over a hundred concerts for more than 50,000 young people in seventy different Canadian cities. Amy has also performed with Montreal's Collectif9 and she toured with the nine-piece string ensemble as part of their 2015-2016 Volksmobiles Quebec tour. She has performed at distinguished chamber music festivals including the Ottawa Chamber Festival, Montreal Chamber Music Festival, Symphony in the Barn, Prince Edward County Music Festival, Vermont Mozart Festival, SoundSCAPE Italy, Regina Chamber Music Festival, Domaine Forget Chamber Music Academy, Moritzburg Academy Music Festival, and the Ritornello Music Festival. Amy has studied with renowned chamber musicians including Kim Kashkashian, Mark Sokol, Roger Chase and members of the Kronos Quartet, the New Orford String Quartet, the Miro String Quartet, and the Ying Quartet.

A passionate orchestral musician, Amy is currently concertmaster of Montreal's Pronto Musica. Supported by the Canadian Aldeburgh Foundation, she has traveled to England on five different occasions to perform as part of the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme. In the summer of 2016, Amy soloed as concertmaster with the Britten-Pears Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Semyon Bychkov. Amy was also an associate member of Chicago's Civic Orchestra, concertmaster of the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra and concertmaster of SFCM's New Music Ensemble. During her last two years of high school, she was first violinist in the Regina Symphony Orchestra. In addition, she was concertmaster of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada in 2008 under the direction of Sir Andrew Davis and Maestro Jacques Lacombe.  Recognized for her leadership, Amy won the prestigious Stephen Sitarski Leadership Award from the National Youth Orchestra of Canada.