while we complete our concert planning, please enjoy a reprise performance of virtuosi concerts “side by side” in camera sessions concert with cellists yuri hooker and david liam roberts.

A one-hour program of cello duets featuring WSO principal cellist Yuri Hooker and his former student David Liam Roberts now studying at the University of Toronto. Virtuosi Young Artist Seanne Buenafe piano also performs.

Sponsored by the Safe at Home Manitoba Program, the “Side by Side” was recorded at Westgate Mennonite Collegiate and had its YouTube premiere on Friday evening January 22, 2021.

Yuri Hooker writes of the program:
“The thing that has been most formative for me as an artist is something I discovered after I was working as a professional musician. My first teacher (who was my predecessor at the WSO), well his teacher was renowned cellist Gregor Piatigorsky. A few years ago, I was preparing Schelomo, a piece for solo cello and orchestra, and I came across a recording of Piatigorsky performing it as a young man. I remember hearing the quality of the phrasing, the music making, the style, the way he shaped phrases, his shifting technique, and the way he connected notes - all of it - and immediately thought to myself, that’s it! that’s exactly how I want to play! What I didn’t realize - until that moment - was all of Piatigorsky’s style and way of playing had actually been passed on to me by my teacher–this is why I have the sensibilities that I have.”

“Side by Side” Programme

Check out our “Side by Side” Pre-Concert Chat with the performers HERE

Virtuosi Concerts Young Artist Program

Seanne Buenafe is passionate about all thing’s music but especially the piano. The 16-year-old recently completed is ARCT piano performance diploma with first class honours from the Royal Conservatory of Music. A frequent performer in the Winnipeg Music Festival, Seanne has won for the best instrumentalist in 2016 and 2017 and in 2019 was a runner up for the Beryl Ferguson Trophy. That same year he won the John Melnyk Trophy for the best performance in the festival of a piano concerto. He also won the best performance at the Advanced Level in the Manitoba Provincial Festival.

Seanne was the recipient of the Manitoba Registered Music Teachers’ Scholarship in the Advanced Piano category in 2019. International successes include an Honorable Mention at the Aloha International Piano Festival in 2018 as well as winning the concerto competition in his age category at the Philadelphia International Musical Festival 2019. In summer of 2021 he was a scholarship recipient for the “Eastman Summer School Experience “where he attended three weeks of online courses and lessons in the company of students from North America and China.

Seanne thanks his family for their ongoing support as well as his teacher, Jacqueline Ryz, for her inspiring guidance. This is Seanne‘s second Young Artist performance with Virtuosi Concerts.