ROAD TRIP! A PAN-CANADIAN TOUR

VIOLINIST AMY HILLIS AND PIANIST MEAGAN MILATZ

Road Trip! is a partnership between Prairie Debut, Debut Atlantic and Jeunesses Musicales Canada.

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Known as meagan&amy, this dynamic violin and piano duo have been selected for a pan-Canadian tour offered by Debut Atlantic, Jeunesses Musicales Canada and Prairie Debut in 2019-2020. The three classical music organizations announced in September 2017 that they were teaming up to offer an emerging artist or ensemble a tour that would span the country.

Road Trip! A Pan-Canadian Tour also celebrates two important anniversaries: Jeunesses Musicales Canada’s 70th, and Debut Atlantic’s 40th. meagan&amy’s concert will explore the idea of a musical identity able to bridge all provinces and territories, presenting works by local composers as well as European classical works, as away of considering their influence on Canadian music.

Amy Hillis has “a rich, warm sound and has mastered the violin with such ease, that it is impossible to ignore her passion in performance” (Ludwig Van Montréal). Originally from Regina, Saskatchewan, Amy collaborates with musicians from around the world in order to explore new approaches to classical and contemporary music. Amy was a 2017 artist-in-residence at La Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, a residency awarded by the Conseils des Arts et des Lettres duQuébec. She is also the winner of the 2018 Eckhardt-Gramatté Competition, the 2017 McGill Concerto Competition, the Sylva Gelber Foundation MusicAward, and a doctoral fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Her principal teachers have been Axel Strauss, Ian Swensen, Denise Lupien and Eduard Minevich. Amy is a member of the Montreal-based SOMA Quartet as well as first violinist and manager of the prairie-based Horizon String Quartet. She performs on the 1820 Joannes Franciscus Pressenda, on loan from the Canada Council for theArts Musical Instrument Bank.

A seasoned performer, Meagan Milatz has appeared as soloist with several Canadian orchestras including the Sherbrooke Symphony Orchestra, the McGill Symphony Orchestra, and most recently the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. Top prizewinner at the 2014 Shean Piano Competition and the 2011 CFMTA National Piano Competition, her performance endeavours have brought her to international stages, including Hilto Head Island, South Carolina; Bruges, Belgium; Gijón, Spain; and Gdańsk, Poland. Equally passionate as a collaborative pianist, Milatz is currently based in Montreal where she collaborates frequently with Andrew Wan, concertmaster of the OSM. She received her Master’s degree from McGill University where she studied modern piano with Ilya Poletaev and fortepiano with Tom Beghin. In 2017, Milatz was a participant in the famed Kneisel Hall Young Artist Program, and is currently studying collaborative piano with Philip Chiu.She is a 2017 Sylva Gelber Music Foundation Award recipient.

meagan&amy share an intense passion for innovative programming and fearless music-making. Praised for their energy, sensitivity and musical maturity, they began their partnership in 2011 at the Schulich School ofMusic of McGill University, even though both hail from Saskatchewan. Their individual strengths –Milatz’s interest in the fortepiano and Hillis’s aptitudes for contemporary music –have combined to inform the wide range of repertoire which they present. Praised for their energy, sensitivity and musical maturity, meagan&amy bring us a musical identity which bridges all provinces and territories as they perform across the country! “Impossible to ignore her passion in performance” (Ludwig Van Montreal), Amy is winner of the McGill Concerto Competition (2017), was artist-in-residence at La Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris (2017), winner of the Eckhardt-Gramatté Competition (2018), the Sylva Gelber Foundation Music Award, and received a doctoral fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Meagan has performed as soloist on stages across the world from Canada and the U.S. to Belgium, Spain and Poland. She has appeared with the McGill Symphony Orchestra and the Edmonton Symphony and was top prize winner of the Shean Piano Competition (2014), the CFMTA National Piano Competition (2011) and the Sylva Gelber Music Foundation Award (2017).