Calgary Pro Musica

Congratulations to pianist Charlotte Giraudeau, for winning the Calgary Performing Arts Festival's 2026 RoseBowl, which includes a $10,000 scholarship for continued studies. Charlotte was a member of CPM’s 2025/26 Dick Matthews Young Artist Development Program.

Born in 2008, Charlotte began her music studies at the age of five and is currently under the instruction of Professor Marilyn Engle of the University of Calgary. She is a Mount Royal University Academy for Young Artists scholarship recipient.

Charlotte is a prize-winner in numerous national and international competitions including the Canadian Music Competition, the Franz Liszt Centre International Piano Competition (2022 and 2023), and the San Francisco Articiál International Piano Competition in 2022. In 2023, the Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition (USA), the Beecham International Piano Competition (UK), and the Steinway Piano Competition Canada. She is the first-prize winner of the 2024 Aloha and IPPA International Piano Competitions. She won first place in the 2023 and 2024 Lancaster International Piano and Chamber Music Festival with her chamber group.

Charlotte has participated in many masterclasses such as the 2022 Morningside Music Bridge, the Gina Bachauer Piano Festival, and the Talent Summer Master Courses and Festival in Brescia, Italy in 2023. In 2024, the Art of the Piano Festival at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the CMC Gathering of the Stars Festival and the International Music Festival in Bern, Switzerland. Charlotte debuted in the 2024 Canada’s Rising Stars 20th Anniversary Concert in Canmore, Alberta.

She had many opportunities to study with artists, including Arie Vardi, Antonio Pompa-Baldi, Sasha Starcevich, Wha Kyung Byun, Gerlinde Otto, Bernd Goetzke, Henry Kramer, and Sir Stephen Hough.

In addition to her piano studies, she organizes the Capriccio International Young Artists and regularly performs young artist concerts for Calgary's senior communities. She is also a member of the Back to Bach Foundation. Aside from her music activities, she enjoys reading, biking, and other sports, like skiing.

Bravo, Charlotte! We wish you the best of luck at university!

Congratulations to violist Tilman Sandvoss, an alumnus of CPM’s Dick Matthews Young Artist Development Program (2018-20), who performs as a soloist with the Sinfonieorchester Basel on Thursday, June 4th. Tilman is featured in Bohuslav Martinů’s Rhapsody-Concerto for Viola and Orchestra, marking an exciting milestone in his international career.

Tilman Sandvoss is an accomplished orchestral, chamber, and solo musician noted for having a luscious tone and profound musicality. He began his musical education at home with his father Christopher Sandvoss at the young age of five, and later continued his viola studies in the Academy and Advanced Performance Program at the Mount Royal Conservatory. He has participated in international festivals including the Festival Academy Budapest, the Domaine Forget Academy and its Chamber Music Intensive program, as well as the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove. In 2019 he was also the only violist to be invited to Germany to take part in the Goslar Internationale Konzertarbeitschwochen, where he studied with Elisabeth Kufferath, professor of violin at the Hochschule für Musik in Hannover and member of the Tetzlaff Quartet.

Tilman has had the pleasure of working with many internationally distinguished artists and teachers such as Kim Kashkashian, Antoine Tamestit, Maxim Rysanov, Paul Coletti, Gerald Stanick, Andres Cardenes, Sharon Wei, and members of the Calidore, Kronos and Chiaroscuro Quartets, to name a few.

As a fan of new music, Tilman has both collaborated and given world premieres with composers such as Vincent Ho, Peter Jancewicz, Brian Current, Jörg Widmann, Julian Anderson and Huw Watkins.

Recently, Tilman has founded an international chamber music festival in Western Canada called Chisel Creek Classical.

Tilman received his Bachelors of Music degree (Honours) in viola performance at The Glenn Gould School in Toronto under the mentorship of violist Steven Dann. He is continuing his education at The Musik-Akademie Basel, where he is pursuing his Masters degree in the class of violist Silvia Simionescu. Tilman performs on a viola made by his father, master luthier Christopher Sandvoss.

We are still buzzing from our two sold-out “Sleeping Beauty” Family Concerts with the spectacular Green Fools Theatre Society on May 3rd. Since 2016, we have collaborated with this outstanding puppet theatre company to produce one-of-a-kind children’s concerts. We were blown away by their stunning scenery and puppets, and we laughed at the puppeteers’ charming and humorous take on the classic fairy tale. Thanks to our remarkable Education Advisor Samantha Whelan Kotkas for her engaging and at times tongue-in-cheek narration. Thanks to the Pro Musica Ensemble, conducted by the wonderful Claude Lapalme, for providing the beautiful colours, melodies, and music that helped to bring this fairy tale to life.

We appreciate our enthusiastic audiences for spending the afternoon with us: listening so closely during the concert, making arts & crafts, participating in our photo booth run by Sarah Neumann Photos, and meeting the puppets, puppeteers, and musicians at our post-concert reception.

Save the date for next year’s concert “Jack and the Beanstalk” on Sunday, April 11, 2027, with an original score by Claude Lapalme and the puppet wizardry of Green Fools Theatre Society.

Bravo to our fabulous members of the Dick Matthews Young Artist Development Program on their Calgary Pro Musica Debut Concert last Monday, May 4th! We are so proud of each one of you: pianists Charlotte Giraudeau and Jerry Liao and flutists Sweta Babladi and Bella Nguyen.

Your performances were inspiring, and we were thrilled to cheer you on. You spoke so eloquently about yourselves and your concert program. Thanks for your tremendous efforts over the past year: your masterclass performances, your school concerts, all the help at our subscription season concerts, and the final performance. We wish you all the best and look forward to following your budding careers.

Thanks to our fabulous Education Advisor Samantha Whelan Kotkas and CPM's Artistic Director Dean O'Brien for mentoring these talented students.

Thanks for the overwhelming interest in our annual family concert with Green Fools Theatre Societ. We have sold out both performances on Sunday, May 3rd.

Please save the date for next year's Family Concert, Jack and the Beanstalk, on Sunday, April 11, 2027.

Next year is our 50th season, and we have many special concerts and projects planned. Check out our concerts at calgarypromusica.ca.

Meet our wonderful puppeteers from for ‘Sleeping Beauty’, our family concert, this Sunday, May 3. Thank you Calgary for supporting this production. With your support we are SOLD OUT!

Rehearsals are well underway for this Sunday, May 3rd’s two family concerts of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ at the Rozsa Centre. Tickets are selling much more quickly than previous years so please purchase your tickets soon if you would like to attend. There are only 50 tickets left for both concerts.

Join us on Sunday, May 3rd at the University of Calgary’s Rozsa Centre for a magical afternoon. Come early to make arts & crafts and to choose your preferred seat in our intimate 384-seat hall. Stay after to meet the musicians and puppeteers, and grab a free snack at our reception.

Tickets are $15 for kids and seniors and $20 for adults. Buy tickets online at calgarypromusica.ca. This is one of the best family arts deals in Calgary! You won’t want to miss it!

Bravo to the Manhattan Chamber Players for a thrilling conclusion to our 49th season!

Audiences last Sunday and Monday were treated to three gorgeous piano quartets: a hidden gem by Bridge, Schumann’s beloved Romantic quartet, and Chausson’s sweeping, Wagnerian-scale masterpiece. During the Chausson, the four musicians summoned a massive symphonic sound that truly soared in our hall.

It was a particularly meaningful visit, as Manhattan Chamber Players’ 2022 debut marked our first in-person subscription concert following the pandemic. Returning by popular demand, they delivered an exciting coda to this season.

The sense of community was palpable. It was wonderful to see so many Calgary-based musicians in the audience and connecting with the guest artists at our post-concert receptions. Our sincere thanks to David Fung for his inspiring piano masterclass on Monday, and to all four musicians for their artistry and for making their return to Calgary so memorable.

Thank you to Artistic Director Dean O’Brien for his pre-concert talk previewing our upcoming 50th season concerts and special projects. We were delighted that so many subscribers renewed their subscriptions on the spot. New subscriptions are available online at calgarypromusica.ca starting May 1st. Thanks to the members of our Young Artist Development Program for joining Dean after intermission to invite the audience to the Dick Matthews YADP Debut Concert on Monday, May 4th at 7:30 PM in our home a the University of Calgary’s Rozsa Centre.

Thanks again to Manhattan Chamber Players and to great audiences who made these evenings so special!

Join us for Calgary Pro Musica's Dick Matthews Young Artist Development Program Debut Concert featuring Sweta Babladi, Charlotte Giraudeau, Bella Nguyen, and Jerry Liao on Monday, May 4th at 7:30 PM at the University of Calgary's Rozsa Centre!

CPM's YADP is intended "to discover, nurture and promote young Calgary musicians." We are excited to present this wonderfully talented group of musicians that are mentored by our Education Advisor Samantha Whelan Kotkas and our Artistic Director Dean O'Brien. The students will perform a program including works by Stravinsky, Scriabin, Marc-André Hamelin, Taktakishvili, and others.

For more details, visit calgarypromusica.ca. $10 tickets can be purchased at calgarypromusica.ca or at the Rozsa Centre Box Office up to one hour before the concert. Tickets are free for CPM subscribers.

Please come out to support these talented student musicians in our finale concert of our 49th season!

School of Creative and Performing Arts
Mount Royal University Conservatory