Denise Djokic

Denise Djokic (b. 13 Nov 1980) is a cellist from Halifax, Nova Scotia. She is the daughter of Lynn Stodola and Philippe Djokic. She has been called instantly recognizable by her "arrestingly beautiful tone colour" (The Strad).

A soloist with many orchestras, she has appeared with the Toronto Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Portland Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, Windsor Symphony Orchestra and Mexico City's Orquesta Filharmonica UNAM, as well as the symphony orchestras of Vancouver, Omaha, Montreal, Winnipeg, Syracuse, Santa Cruz, Brazil's Amazonas Philharmonic, and many others across the continent. She has collaborated with conductors Andrew Litton, Geoffrey Moull, Grant Llewellyn, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Bernhard Gueller, Kazuyoshi Akiyama, Avi Ostrovsky, and Kenneth Schermerhorn, among others.

As a recitalist, Denise performs with her long-time musical partner, pianist David Jalbert. They have performed together in Washington, D.C. at the Phillips Collection and Museum of Women in the Arts, in San Francisco, Cologne, Mexico City, Vancouver, at Chicago's Dame Myra Hess series and New York's Bargemusic, as well as many other cities throughout North America. Denise and David also tour with Piano Plus, an organization which brings performances to rural communities in Canada. Denise's love of chamber music brings her to many festivals each year, including the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, Caramoor, Park City, Ravinia, San Miguel de Allende, and the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival. She performs with New York's Omega Ensemble and the Jupiter Chamber Players.

Immediately following the release of her debut recording on the Sony Classical label, Denise was a featured performer at the 2002 Grammy Awards. The self-titled CD won great critical acclaim and received a 2002 East Coast Music Award. Her following recording, "Folklore", (Allegro/Endeavor) received a JUNO nomination as well as an ECMA, and hit the Billboard Chart's top 15 Classical CD's. "Folklore" was also featured on NPR's "All Things Considered". Denise has recently recorded the complete Britten Solo Suites for the ATMA label.

Denise has been the subject of a BRAVO! TV documentary entitled "Seven Days, Seven Nights", which followed her through a week-long recital tour. She has also been a speaker at IdeaCity in Toronto, and was a keynote speaker at the Queen's Women In Leadership Conference. Denise was named by MacLean's Magazine as one of the top "25 Canadians who are Changing our World", and by ELLE Magazine as one of "Canada's Most Powerful Women".

Having grown up in a large musical family, Denise first began to learn the cello with her uncle, Pierre Djokic. Her parents, Lynn and Philippe Djokic, are both musicians, as well as her brother, Marc Djokic. Denise furthered her studies in Cleveland and Boston, where her teachers included Richard Aaron, Laurence Lesser, and Paul Katz.

References

Citations

External links

• Official Denise Djokic homepage
• Profile on Denise Djokic
• Zavrsen kamerni festival u Otavi, Retrieved on December 29, 2008