Kerry DuWors
Canadian Violinist
Winnipeg Free Press
June 10 2007
Article:"Agassiz concert a Bartók show and tell" by Holly Harris
Review of Agassiz Chamber Music Festival concert at Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall (Winnipeg, MB) on June 8, 2007
ANYONE who has ever sat through a music history class will remember hearing how Hungarian composer Béla Bartók lugged archaic wax cylinders around peasant villages to record scratchy, folksong snippets that would later become the basis of his compositional aesthetic.
The 8th annual Agassiz Chamber Music Festival offered a unique opportunity to hear three of the actual field recordings that inspired the composer's 44 Duets for Two Violins (1931), as a fascinating show-and-tell that was a highlight of its fourth concert, A Taste of Bohemia.
Friday night's concert included return appearances by violinists Yehonatan Berick and Kerry DuWors, Marleyn, and pianist Stéphane Lemelin performing a program of mostly-Eastern European works. Making his Festival debut was violist Jethro Marks, with CBC radio's Andrea Ratuski hosting.
First hearing a CD of Bartók's original folk recordings of three short pieces, alternating with Berick and DuWors' gutsy musical re-interpretation of each song accomplished what the best concerts do: creating an invaluable context that allows the listener to hear the music with fresh ears and new insight.
The duo performed ten more of the duets, highlighted by the swooping glissandi and foot-stomping rhythms of Transylvanian Dance.
© 2007 Winnipeg Free Press. All Rights Reserved.
Vancouver Sun
July 29, 2006
Article: "'Mix-and-match' delivers ... marvellously" by David Gordon Duke
Review of Summer Combustion: Chamber music from Vancouver Recital Society at Crofton House School on July 25 & July 27
"Violinist Kerry DuWors was excellent."
"Thursday [July 27] also saw the festival's most effective role for violinst Kerry DuWors. Backed by pianist Minju Choi, she was more than up to the challenges of Quebec-based composer Andrew MacDonald's...Second Violin Sonata."
The Georgia Straight
July 27, 2006
Article: "Combustion 3's young musicians give Mozart right depth" by Ken Eisner
Review of Combustion 3: A Vancouver Recital Society Summer Combustion '06 presentation at Crofton House School on July 22
"The young musicians who make up Combustion 06 - renamed after two decades as the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival - tend to have far more soul than their years would suggest. Certainly, that was evident in the opening piece, the [Mozart] Quartet in C Major for flute and three strings. [The ensemble] comprised of flutist Nadia Kyne, violinist Kerry DuWors, cellist Denise Djokic, and viola player Christina Castelli, flawlessly executed a piece that, without spacious enough presentation, is little more than aural air-conditioning."
Winnipeg Free Press
November 17, 2003
"Violinist Kerry DuWors and pianist Lydia Wong visited the stage of the Women's Musical Club of Winnipeg yesterday in a thoughtful tour through a violin repertoire in which DuWors displayed both poise and maturity to go along with her youthful charm ... Her abilities were amply displayed ... Her articulation and tone were consistently strong and she tackled all of the difficulties in the works without any hesitation: she always found the music behind the notes."
CBC Arts News
September 21, 2006
Article: "Young violinists, cellists win use of rare instruments"
Brandon Sun
May 6, 2006
"Kerry is a dynamic performer, with a very mature style. She's really quite impressive - even when she first came into [the University of Toronto], she had a certain demonstrative style that was also quite unique. That helped set her apart. It's actually rare when you find someone, at the age when she came to U. of T., that already had a set style." (Scott St. John)
"There is a musical immediacy in her playing that continues to amaze me. She has something to say and she says it in a very passionate way and she brings you along musically, in a way that I think is the hallmark of a true artist." (Dr. Glen Carruthers)
Brandon Sun
October 17, 2005
Article: "Violinist brings musical friends to her home turf" by Joanne F. Villeneuve
"For the past two and a half years, the aspiring violinists in town have had the benefit of learning from and hearing the artistry of Kerry DuWors...."
University of Toronto Magazine
Alumni Notes
Autumn 2003
Article: "Sonata of Success" by Julia Armstrong
Her skills on the strings have earned her many prestigious awards since she began studying the violin at the tender age of two-and-a-half. But for Kerry DuWors (MUS M 2003), winning the top prize at the 2003 Eckhardt-Gramatte National Music Competition in Brandon, Man., was the career milestone she needed. "It means that I have achieved a certain level and musical standard that can push me toward becoming a professional artist," she says. The prize, which was awarded in May, includes a short-term residency at the Banff Centre in Alberta, a 20-city national recital tour, a solo appearance with the Montreal Chamber Orchestra and $5,000."
This fall, DuWors joined the Brandon University School of Music in Manitoba as a lecturer. Although she's only 23, she's up for the challenge - and the chance to work with colleagues in Western Canada. "Prairie people have a strong sense of what it means to build communities, support networks and friendships," say DuWors, who comes from Saskatoon. "These are tremendously important aspects of our life and how we survive."
DuWors, who has a "fevour and passion for chamber music," fondly recalls her collaborations at U of T's Faculty of Music, co-ordinated by assistant professor Scott St. John. She also studied with Lorand Fenyves, professor emeritus of violin, and considers him "the best teacher in Canada." DuWors aims to be as much of a mentor to her students as Fenyves was to her. "I hope that I can instil the same positive outlook, desire to work hard and be creative, a love for music."