Serge Adler

Serge Adler is the NYCO Symphony Orchestra’s principal percussionist.

A native of Moscow, Russia, Serge Adler began his percussion studies at the age of 13 with Mark Pekarsky, a prominent Soviet percussionist. He holds a Bachelor of Music from the Moscow Ippolitov-Ivanov Music Academy and a Master of Music (performance) degree from the Moscow Gnessin’s Music Institute.

While studying, Serge began performing and touring on a regular basis with the Pekarsky Percussion Ensemble, performing mostly Soviet and Western avant-garde music. He performed extensively with the Moscow Stanislavsky Musical Theatre, the world famous Bolshoi Theatre and Milan’s La Scala (while they were touring Russia). He played with such conductors as Yuri Temirkanov, Emin Khachatourian, Vladimir Spivakov and Riccardo Muti.

In addition to NYCO (where it is his fourth season as a percussion principal), Serge also performs with such fine Toronto community orchestras as Orchestra Toronto and Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra.

Peter Longworth

“Peter Longworth is a concert pianist of such power and grace that even the crystal baubles on the chandeliers at Orchestra Hall tingle, dance and resonate when he plays.” - Chicago Tribune

Pianist Peter Longworth is a well known and acclaimed solo performer, chamber musician and teacher in Canada and abroad. From his base in Toronto, Mr. Longworth has performed in New York, Chicago, London, Montreal, Vancouver and other cities in the United States, Canada and Europe. He has been soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Calgary Philharmonic, the Kitchener Waterloo Symphony, and other orchestras in North America. In addition, he has appeared at the Caramoor Music Festival in New York, at Domaine Forget, and plays annually at the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival. Last summer he made his first appearance at the Tuckamore Festival in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Mr. Longworth is a founding member of the Duke Trio, which has performed in New York and Chicago as well as throughout Canada. He is heard often on CBC National Radio and his recordings include a collaboration with Amanda Forsyth and a forthcoming CD of the complete Brahms violin sonatas with violinist Mark Fewer.

Mr. Longworth is a faculty member of the Glenn Gould School at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, where he also maintains a private studio. Having given classes throughout North America, he is in demand as a chamber coach and an adjudicator at competitions and festivals. Born in England of American parents, Mr. Longworth began his piano studies in Brussels and studied at Northwestern University with Arthur Tollefson and at the University of Michigan with Louis Nagel and Eckhart Sellheim. After a year at the Banff Centre for Fine Arts, he completed his studies at the Royal Conservatory with Marek Jablonski, Leon Fleisher and Marc Durand. Mr. Longworth was a finalist in the International Busoni Piano Competition in Italy.

Yiping Chao

Yiping Chao, a cellist with the NYCO Symphony Orchestra, hails from China where she was a Professor and Vice-Director of the Art Education Centre of Zhengzhou University of Light Industry. She was also a member of the Chinese Musicians Association and a member of the Chinese Academy of Music Education in Colleges and Universities. In July of 2008 she immigrated to Canada.

Yiping was born into a musical family. Her father is the conductor of a singing and dancing troupe and a Beijing Opera troupe. From her earliest years she began learning music and studied the cello under the professional and strict guidance of her father. She graduated in voice-performance and cello from Henan University, China. Afterwards, she continued her study of the cello at Tianjin Conservatory of Music and of voice at Minzu University of China.

Over the years, she has taught university music courses in Sight, Singing and Ear Training, Cello Playing, Appreciation of Symphonic Music, and so on. She has also published a series of academic papers, lyrics, poems and prose. Her lyrics “Affectionate Father” and “The Yellow River - The Song of Life” received awards in different competitions in China.

In addition to music, she has also been the chief editor of several university textbooks, such as “100 Chinese and World-Wide Art Songs and their Performance Promptings” and “Music Appreciation in Colleges and Universities”. In China, she often gave performances both on TV and on stage, and received several national and provincial awards in vocal competitions.

Yiping was featured in Art Education, a famous magazine funded by the Ministry of Culture of China in May of 2005, and by the Toronto newspaper Norstar Times in September of 2009. Her performance was described in the following words: “a pure and bright voice, a broad pitch range, and elaborate, dulcet and grand singing style with passion and sensation. She puts much secondary creation in her singing, and explains the music deeply and inherently with individuality, thus her vocal performance is full of strong artistic appeal. ”

Yiping was fortunate to meet David Bowser and the NYCO Symphony Orchestra soon after her arrival in Toronto. Shortly thereafter, the NYCO Society welcomed not only her, but also her husband and her son into the orchestra. Yiping’s dream is to introduce Chinese folk songs and art songs to Toronto citizens and beyond.

Vilma Vitols

Hailed as a singer with a “gorgeous voice that is both rich and agile”, Vilma Indra Vitols has a repertoire encompassing opera, oratorio, cabaret, and new music.

A graduate of the Opera Division at the University of Toronto, Vilma sang numerous roles there including Cherubino (The Marriage of Figaro) and Iolanthe (Iolanthe). Other operatic credits include the title role in Bizet's Carmen for Summer Opera Lyric Theatre, Nancy in Britten's Albert Herring with the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh, England, Hansel in Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel with the Canadian Opera Company's Outreach tour, Lucy Brown in Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera with Vancouver Opera. Vilma made her Pacific Opera Victoria debut as Olga in Eugene Onegin and sang the role of Maria Picariello in John Estacio's and John Murrell's acclaimed opera Filumena at the Banff Centre. Vilma has sung numerous roles with Opera Atelier, including Nymphe Guerrière and Vénus in Lully's Persée, and 3rd and 2nd Ladies in The Magic Flute. Most recently she reprised her roles as Hyale in Charpentier's Actéon and Mercury and 2nd Witch in Dido and Aeneas for their 2007 tour to Seoul, Korea. Vilma has been the alto soloist in many oratorios, including Bach's St. John Passion, Handel's Messiah, Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass and Missa Sancti Nicolai, the Requiems of Mozart and Duruflé. In demand as a concert singer, Vilma has been featured soloist with the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Aldeburgh Connection, Niagara Chamber Music Festival, and Toronto Operetta Theatre. As a recipient of the Royal Over-Seas League Scholarship, she gave several recitals in London, England and is a frequent recitalist for the Latvian communities in Canada and the United States. As the First Prize winner at the 22nd Annual Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition for Voice 1999, Vilma completed a recital tour across Canada in the fall of 1999.

Vilma has performed with the Talisker Players in previous seasons, including at the 2006 Elora and Ottawa Chamber Music Festivals, and is looking forward to their next collaboration in February 2008.

Other performance credits include a starring role as “the Vamp” in a short video for BRAVO! called Divine Comedy, “the Devil” in Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale with The Friends of Gravity, and a Jaridian soldier on Earth: Final Conflict. In the summer of 2001, Vilma performed the role of Caroline in Maybe it's Mabeleen at the Toronto Fringe Festival.

A frequent performer of new music, Vilma has performed with Continuum at the Massey Hall New Music Festival and has premiered works by various Canadian composers including Tālivaldis Ķeniņš and Abigail Richardson. In the summer of 2000, she was alto soloist in the world premiere of Recordare by Latvian-Canadian composer Imant Raminsh and in the Canadian premiere of Penderecki's Credo, both works conducted by the composers at the Banff Centre. In May 2001, she premiered a new music and dance work flotsam and jetsam by Toronto composer Juliet Palmer as part of the Open Ears Festival in Kitchener, reprising her role in the Toronto premiere of this work at Artword Theatre in December 2002. In February 2003, Vilma made her debut with Modern Baroque Opera in Vancouver performing the title role in the premiere of Peter Hannan's and Peter Hinton's The Diana Cantata. “Possibly the most astute and talented singer, and actor, I've ever worked with.”, says MBO's Kate Hutchinson. With Toca Loca, she has premiered new works by Inouk Demers, James Rolfe and Erik Ross. Last season she performed with urbanvessel to sold-out audiences in SLIP, a site-specific new music and dance collaborative project at Toronto's Harrison Baths under the auspices of the X Avant Festival, with music by Juliet Palmer, words by Anna Chatterton, choreography by Yvonne Ng.

Vilma continues to explore the cabaret repertoire, most recently this summer in recitals in Latvia and Germany featuring the music of Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler, with her interview and final recital in Riga to be broadcast on Latvian National Radio this fall.

Prior to full-time music studies, Vilma completed an M.A. in Philosophy.