MAGDALENA VON ECCHER, Intermediate Piano 
Magdalena von Eccher is recognized as one of Canada’s finest musicians. Her performances as solo pianist, with orchestra, collaborating with singers, and in chamber music are earning the highest praise from fellow musicians and are loved by audiences. Magdalena’s musical communication is always personal, poetic, and of the highest artistic calibre. Along with her performing career she is an enthusiastic and engaging teacher and adjudicator, having been on faculty at the University of Lethbridge Department of Music and at McGill
University’s Schulich School of Music. She is Assistant Professor of Piano at the University of Prince Edward Island.
Success in numerous competitions, including the Knigge, Bösendorfer, Canadian Music Competition and winning the National Music Festival (2006), alongside extensive studies, have well prepared Magdalena for a blossoming career. She completed her Bachelor of Music at the University of Lethbridge (recipient of the Faculty of Fine Arts Gold Medal) with Glen Montgomery, holds a Master of Music from the University of British Columbia under the guidance of Jane Coop and completed doctoral studies at McGill University with Stéphane Lemelin, where she was recipient of the prestigious Joseph-Armand Bombardier Graduate Scholarship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Having an affinity and love for vocal repertoire, Magdalena has studied with distinguished collaborative artists Michael McMahon (McGill University) and Rena Sharon (UBC). Participation in summer programs at Orford, Vienna and Salzburg, and a residency at the Banff Centre were generously supported through scholarships from her respective universities, the Strauss Foundation, and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.
Recent engagements have included numerous appearances in her new surroundings in Atlantic Canada as well as performances at McGill’s Musical Chairs Chamber Music Festival with clarinetist James Campbell and violist Kim Kashkashian, the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto with soprano, Anna-Sophie Neher, concerto performances with the Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra, the Rocky Mountain Symphony Orchestra, and chamber performances with members of the PEI Symphony Orchestra. Since 2007, Magdalena has been performing at the Festival of the Sound in solo performances as well as in collaboration with artists like festival director, James Campbell, Denis Brott, Cameron Crozman, Marion Newman, James Sommerville, and visual artist, Alan Stein.