October 14-28 2020

Nicole Linaksita

Nicole Linaksita has performed solo and chamber concerts in Canada, USA and Europe. A participant in national and international competitions, she was awarded First Place, Audience and Teacher's Prizes at the 2011 Seattle International Piano Competition and was chosen as a semi-finalist for the 2015 and 2018 OSM Manulife Competition and 2013 Eckhardt-Gramatté Competition. She was chosen to be the representative for the Vancouver branch of the BCRMTA Provincial Competition, winning Best Performance of a Canadian work for Butterflies and Bobcats by David L. McIntyre. She is also a two time national finalist for the Canadian Music Competition, and was selected to participate as one of 30 finalists in the CMC Stepping Stone Competitions in 2012 and 2016, placing among the top six in 2016. In 2017, she was a silver medalist in the Vancouver International Music Competition, and won first prize and audience choice for the BC Bösendorfer Piano Competition. In more recent years, Nicole was the BC piano representative for the 2018 Canadian National Music Festival and won third prize in the piano class. She was the third prize winner in the 42nd Eckhardt-Gramatté Competition. Her latest accomplishment was a first prize win at the 2019 CMC Stepping Stone Competition. She also won the prize for the best performance of the required Canadian work written by Francois-Hugues Leclair.

Nicole has frequently performed the works of contemporary composers such as Carl Vine, John Psathas, Lowell Liebermann, Karen Tanaka, Randolph Peters, Nikolai Kapustin, Henri Dutilleux, Alexina Louie, Jean Coulthard, David Rakowski, Marc-André Hamelin, William Bolcom, T. Patrick Carrabré, and Derek Bermel. Her interest in new music has also led her to work with a number of composers, including Dorothy Chang and Yota Kobayashi. She premiered Kobayashi's "Concrescence" for piano and electronics. More recently, she played with the Music on Main All-Star Band for their Vancouver premiere of Steve Reich's "Music for 18 Musicians", as well as for the Canadian premiere of John Luther Adams’ “Ten Thousand Birds”, directed by Vicky Chow. Nicole has been a part in the Sonic Boom Festival held by Vancouver Promusica since 2017 by playing piano for the mixed ensemble concerts as well as for the Student Composers Masterclasses. She recently recorded works by John Oliver and Dorothy Chang with the Vancouver Intercultural Orchestra. Additionally, she frequently performs with the Postmodern Camerata, and Pacific Spirit United Church Choir and Orchestra. She has been invited multiple times to play with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra as an extra musician on the synth and piano.

Nicole has had the opportunity to debut with various orchestras. In December 2017, Nicole performed Moritz Moszkowski’s Piano Concerto in E Major, Op. 59 in the Music Without Borders Society Concerto Gala with the Vancouver Philharmonic Orchestra. She played the same concerto with the Vancouver Academy of Music Orchestra in October 2018 and the Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra in June 2019 and she made her debut with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra in July at the 2019 CMC Winners Gala Concert.

Nicole completed undergraduate studies in Piano Performance and Computer Science at the University of British Columbia in 2016, studying under Corey Hamm and Ryo Yanagitani, receiving the Director’s Graduation Prize for Outstanding Piano Performance. Prior to UBC, she studied with Diana Marr and David Vandereyk. Nicole also received the Gold Medal prize from the Royal Conservatory of Music for receiving the highest mark in Canada for her LRCM exam in 2011. Further abroad, Nicole has participated in the Chetham’s Piano School, where she has had the opportunity to play for and study with distinguished artists including Catherine Vickers, Eugen Injic, Leslie Howard and Douglas Finch. In the fall of 2019, she will be pursuing her Masters of Music at the University of Texas Austin under the tutelage of Professor Anton Nel.

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This recital is generously sponsored by VWMS Vice-President, Tony Roper.

Programme