The Adaskin String Trio is the premier ensemble of its kind in North America. Founded in 1994, the trio has performed extensively throughout Canada and the United States, including recent and upcoming performances in New York City at Merkin Concert Hall, in Washington, DC at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, in Los Angeles, Boston, Winnipeg, Virginia, Maine, and South Carolina. The Adaskin String Trio's concerts have been recorded for CBC Radio, Radio-Canada (CBC's French-language counterpart), and National Public Radio. In 1997 the trio made a highly successful debut at the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, the most heavily attended such festival in North America. In 1998 the trio was a finalist for the prestigious Walter M. Naumburg Foundation chamber music award in New York.

The members of the trio each studied chamber music with founding Orford String Quartet cellist Marcel Saint-Cyr at McGill University in Montreal. The trio later completed two years as the graduate ensemble-in-residence at the Hartt School in Hartford, Connecticut under the guidance of the world-renowned Emerson String Quartet. They also worked with Steve Tenenbom of the Orion String Quartet, and Daniel Epstein of the Raphael Piano Trio.

The Adaskin String Trio performs a diverse and rich repertory, ranging from Bach, Mozart and Beethoven to Cowell, Schönberg and works of the present day. Their performances of rarely played works by such composers as Sergei Taneiev, Lennox Berkeley and Miklós Rózsa have been revelations to both novice and seasoned chamber music enthusiasts. The trio has several premieres to its credit including works written for them by Robert Carl (recipient of the Charles Ives Fellowship), by composer Murray Adaskin, and the American premiere of Canadian composer Talivaldis Kenins' String Trio. In 1997 the trio commissioned The Point of Pressure for string trio from renowned German composer Ingrid Stölzel. The Adaskin Trio also gave successful performances at the Hartt School with New York composer Elizabeth Brown performing her own Migration for shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute) and string trio.

The Adaskin String Trio is named in honor of Murray Adaskin, one of Canada's most loved and respected composers, and his two brothers, violinist Harry Adaskin and producer/music educator John Adaskin, whose contributions to music in Canada are unsurpassed.

EMLYN NGAI, Violin
Emlyn Ngai studied violin with Sydney Humphreys at the Victoria Conservatory, with Thomas Williams at McGill University, and with Marilyn McDonald at the Oberlin Conservatory (where he completed a Master's degree in Historical Performance). He is assistant concertmaster of the Cleveland baroque orchestra, Apollo's Fire, and performs regularly with the Smithsonian Chamber Players in Washington DC. Mr. Ngai won First Prize for baroque violin in the 1995 Locatelli Concours Amsterdam, resulting in concerts in Berlin and Bergamo, Italy, and a solo CD recording on the Vanguard Classics label.

STEVE LARSON, Viola
Violist Steve Larson studied violin with Elman Lowe and Howard Leyton-Brown at the Regina Conservatory of Music, and with Mauricio Fuks at McGill University in Montreal. He studied viola with Terrence Helmer at the Orford Arts Centre and with Jutta Puchhammer at the University of Montreal. In 1996 Larson, in collaboration with pianist Eugenie Ngai, was among the top prizewinners in the Young Artists Debut Competition in Montreal. In 1997 he won second prize at the prestigious Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and was also awarded the special prize for the best performance of the commissioned work. He is a member of Musica Camerata Montreal and teaches at the Hartt School at the University of Hartford.

MARK FRASER, Cello
Montreal cellist Mark Fraser studied with Walter Joachim at McGill University, with Anner Bylsma in Amsterdam, with Marc Drobinsky in Paris, and with Aldo Parisot in New Haven, Connecticut. In addition, he completed his Master's degree at the University of Montreal with cello professor Yuli Turovsky. In 1991 Mr. Fraser co-founded Projet Renaissance, a unique performing arts festival in the Chateauguay Valley southwest of Montreal. Since then he has organized and participated in countless different ensembles on the Renaissance stage. He is a founding member of the Montreal Cello Quartet, led by Marcel Saint-Cyr.