Artistic Direction
Meet Sarah de Niverville and Dr. Todd Yaw
Photo credit: Ana Milena Varona
Sarah de Niverville
QSCM Artistic Director Sarah de Niverville performs throughout the Greater Toronto Area and Ontario as a violist and violinist, and has been a core member of the Niagara Symphony Orchestra since 2018. Prior to pursuing graduate studies in Victoria, British Columbia, Sarah held a position in the viola section of Symphony New Brunswick during the 2013-14 season. In addition to performing with the Niagara Symphony, Sarah maintains a busy freelancing career, having played as guest Principal Viola with the Ontario Pops Orchestra and the Southern Ontario Lyric Opera, and also appearing as a section player with the Esprit Orchestra, Sinfonia Toronto, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the TO Live Orchestra, Toronto Operetta Theatre, London Symphonia, the Windsor Symphony Orchestra, the Casa Loma Symphony, Opera York, the Ontario Philharmonic, the Toronto Sinfonietta, the Toronto Arab Orchestra, the Kingston Symphony Orchestra, the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra, the Timmins Symphony Orchestra, the North Bay Symphony Orchestra, the Sudbury Symphony Orchestra, the Scarborough Philharmonic, the Guelph Symphony Orchestra, and the Galiano Ensemble of Victoria. She was a four-time member of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada between 2013 and 2016, acting as Co-Principal Viola for three summers.
Although based in Canada, Sarah has also performed in the United States, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, China and Italy. Outside of classical music, Sarah has shared the stage with Michael Bublé, Josh Groban and Sarah Slean, and was a guest musician on OKAN’s Juno Award-winning album, Okantomi. Additionally, she has appeared as a featured musician extra on an episode of CBC’s Murdoch Mysteries.
Sarah earned her Master of Music in Performance at the University of Victoria under the tutelage of Joanna Hood of the Lafayette String Quartet. She previously earned her Bachelor of Music in Performance from the Université de Moncton, studying with Nadia Francavilla and Isabelle Fournier.
Dr. Todd Yaniw
QSCM ‘s Resident Pianist, Todd Yaniw is a Canadian artist praised for his “atmospheric contrast of poetry and power … a hair-raising performance”. Early in 2019, Mr. Yaniw will perform works of Schubert and Dvorak with Trio Arkel; in May he will perform Christos Hatzis’ Arabesque with violinist Andréa Tyniec and Sinfonia Toronto, conducted by Nurhan Arman. He recently performed his first concert with ARC Ensemble [Artists of the Royal Conservatory] in a special performance at the Juno Awards. Since his debut with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra at age 13, Mr. Yaniw has performed frequently in Alberta and Ontario; at festivals and venues including the Banff Centre for Music, Edmonton’s Winspear Centre for Music, the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, Toronto’s Arts & Letters Club, the Festival of the Sound in Parry Sound, the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, and Koerner Hall. Mr. Yaniw has performed with the symphony orchestras of Edmonton, Toronto, Kitchener-Waterloo, Windsor, and Guelph. Mr. Yaniw toured the Canadian maritime provinces as a soloist in February 2013, under the auspices of Debut Atlantic. Todd has been interviewed and broadcast on several occasions on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation [CBC], and Toronto’s Classical 96.3 FM. In December 2012, Todd recorded a one-hour program for the CBC as part of its NEXT series, a radio program that promotes talent on the rise. Internationally, Todd has performed at the Monte Carlo Opera House in Monaco, the Jamaica School of Music in Kingston, Jamaica, several concert halls in China and Italy, St. Martin-in-the-Fields and St. James’s Piccadilly in London England, and the Eastman Theatre in Rochester, New York. Yaniw’s debut CD, “Todd Yaniw: Scriabin, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Chopin” was released on the Chestnut Hall Music label in September 2006.
Todd’s extensive prize list includes Winner of the Roy Thomson Hall First Prize at the 2005 Toronto Symphony Volunteer Committee’s TD National Piano Competition; two-time national winner of the Canadian Music Competition, as well as silver medalist at the Eastman International Piano Competition. Mr. Yaniw has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, and was a recipient of the 2010 and 2012 Sylva Gelber Music Foundation Awards.
Todd Yaniw was born in Edmonton, Alberta and his teachers include Michael Massey, Dr. James Parker, Professor James Anagnoson (The Glenn Gould School), and Dr. Jon Kimura Parker (Rice University). Mr. Yaniw completed his doctorate at the University of Texas at Austin, where he worked with Dr. Anton Nel.
