John Lowry has been Associate Concertmaster of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra since 1987. He was Concertmaster of the Edmonton Symphony for the 2002-2003 season, and has served as Guest Concertmaster of orchestras in Halifax, Winnipeg, Kitchener-Waterloo, Red Deer, and the Adelaide Symphony of South Australia. He began his musical studies in Edmonton with Ranald Shean and went on to graduate from the University of Toronto and Yale University. His teachers have also included George Neikrug, David Zafer, and the eminent American virtuoso, Oscar Shumsky.

John has been a member of such musical organizations as the Opera Company of Boston, Esprit Contemporain, and the Canadian Opera Company, and was the founder of the Kensington Sinfonia in 1988. He was formerly Concertmaster of the New Hampshire Philharmonic and Opera New England, and has also performed with the Toronto Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra and National Ballet. He was previously on the faculty of the University of Manitoba and the University of Lowell, Massachusetts, and has also taught at the University of Calgary, Mount Royal College, and the Comox Valley Youth Music Centre. He has appeared as soloist with orchestras in Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Halifax, and Red Deer, with such conductors as Hans Graf, Mario Bernardi, James Judd, Jean-François Rivest, Timothy Vernon, and Ivars Taurins, and Pierre Hétu.

As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with such artists as James Campbell, Bernadene Blaha, Rivka Golani, Kevin Fitz-Gerald, Eliot Fisk, Robert Silverman, Angela Cheng, and Miriam Fried. He has participated in the Pacific Rim Festival, Alberta Scene 2005, and the Windy Mountain Music Project. He is a founding member of Calgary's Land's End Chamber Ensemble, specializing in 20th and 21st century music, which won the Western Canadian Music Award for Outstanding Classical Recording in 2005 and 2006. His violin was made in Milan by Carlo Ferdinando Landolfi in 1769.

Beth Root Sandvoss was born in Madison, Wisconsin where in her early years as a cellist, she studied with Margaret Christy. Ms. Sandvoss pursued further studies in Madison, Cleveland, and San Francisco with cellists Parry Karp, Alan Harris, and Irene Sharp. She has been a member of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the San Jose Symphony, the Madison Symphony, the Victoria String Quartet, and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. Ms. Sandvoss's performances have taken her throughout North America as well as the Far East. She has been recorded by RTHK Radio Hong Kong, WERN Madison, and CBC Radio. Ms. Sandvoss has a very active chamber music career in Western Canada. She is a founding member of the acclaimed Land's End Chamber Ensemble and collaborates continually with fine musicians around Canada and the US. Along with her performing career, Ms. Sandvoss is a very dedicated pedagogue. She has been asked to work with teachers on her methods and is a sought after clinician. Her pupils have won competitions in Canada and are regularly invited to summer festivals around the world. Ms. Sandvoss has the great pleasure and privilege to perform on a cello made by her husband, Luthier, Christopher Sandvoss.

Elizabeth Bergmann

A native of Alberta, Elizabeth received her Bachelor of Music from the University of Alberta where she studied with Helmut Brauss and continued her studies with Arie Vardi at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover, Germany, acquiring artist and chamber music diplomas.

She returned to Canada where she obtained a Masters degree with Patricia Parr at the University of Toronto and then attained a D.E.S.S (Diplôme d'études supérieures specialisées) in duo piano at the Université de Montréal with Jean-Eudes Vaillancourt. Together with Marcel, she completed post-graduate studies in duo piano in the Solistenklasse in Hannover. In addition to her active performing career as a soloist and collaborative pianist, Elizabeth also serves internationally as an educator, lecturer and juror.

Marcel Bergmann

Marcel was born in Munich and started piano lessons at the age of six. From an early age, he also showed a keen interest in improvising and composing and subsequently played piano and keyboards in various different bands during his teenage years. He studied musicology at the Ludwig- Maximilians-Universität, Munich, piano at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover and pursued specialized studies in duo piano in Montreal.

For the last 15 years, Marcel has enjoyed an active musical career as a performer, composer, improviser and teacher. The broad range of musical interest and experience in both, classical and popular music has led to an output in a variety of styles and genres. The Bavarian Television, Arte and other European broadcasting corporations, have broadcast his music for television features.

Over the past decade, he also has been involved as composer and musical director in a variety of theatre, cabaret and multimedia projects, such as Baden Rebelliert (Bruchsal, Germany, 1998, including 30 performances throughout Baden-Württemberg) and Avatar (2000/2001), which had its premiere during the EXPO 2000 in Hannover/Germany.

In 2004, he was a composer-in-residence for Calgary Opera's Let's create an Opera programme. Furthermore, Marcel has also created several works and arrangements involving two pianos and other instruments, such as Culemborg City Soundscape (together with Jeroen Van Veen) and a version of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells which was recently premiered in The Netherlands. Frequent collaborations with composers, performers and writers in Europe and North America have led to a multitude of chamber music based projects, ranging from duo to sextet. Most recently, Marcel's Urban Pulse for two pianos was premiered as the commissioned work for The 10th Murray Dranoff International Two Piano Competition (past commissioned composers included Morton Gould, Ned Rorem, William Bolcom and John Corigliano).

Marcel is also internationally active as a clinician, juror, and lecturer and has been involved as a soloist, collaborative pianist and vocal coach. Currently on faculty at Mount Royal College, Calgary, Marcel has also been involved in various musical activities at The Banff Centre for the Arts in recent years.

Piano Duo Elizabeth and Marcel Bergmann

Elizabeth and Marcel Bergmann have been performing together as a duo since 1989. They studied with Arie Vardi at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater, Hannover and with Jean-Eudes Vaillancourt at the Université de Montréal.

The duo received first prize at the International Chamber Music Competition in Caltanissetta, Italy, and were laureates of The 4th Murray Dranoff International Two Piano Competition.

In 1993 they became members of the young artists' roster of Yehudi Menuhin-Live Music Now. Their recitals and concerts with orchestra have taken them to many parts of the world, including the United States, Italy, Germany, Holland, Greece and Canada. The duo has appeared at the celebrated Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, the Banff Arts Festival, the Royal Bank Calgary International Organ Festival and Competition, the International Two Piano Symposium and Schubertiade, Miami, the Tage für neue Musik, Darmstadt, the Braunschweiger Kammermusik Podium and at the EXPO 2000, Hannover.

They have made recordings for the CBC, for several stations of the ARD in Germany and for National Public Radio in the USA. The duo has made several CDs, which appear on the CordAria and Arktos labels and recently recorded William Bolcom's complete works for two pianos for Naxos. As founding members of the International Piano Quartet they had the opportunity to record Stravinsky's Les Noces under the direction of Robert Craft at the Abbey Road Studios in London. The CD first appeared on Koch International Classics and has been recently re-released on Naxos.

Currently on faculty at The Mount Royal College Conservatory in Calgary, Elizabeth and Marcel have also been involved in various musical activities at The Banff Centre for the Arts and, in 2004/05, served as Artistic Directors of The Murray Dranoff International Two Piano Competition and Foundation in Miami. They have appeared as soloists with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and the Red Deer and Lethbridge Symphonic Orchestras. Their extensive repertoire ranges from the baroque to the contemporary and includes numerous own arrangements and compositions.