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The honoray president,
Amanda Forsyth

It has been my honour to have been asked to be the Patron of For the Love of the Bloom Gala in support of the Breast Cancer Foundation. 

This gala is about sharing your good fortune and dreams of long life, health and happiness for yourself with all the precious women in your life.  It could be your grand mother, your mother, your wife, your child, your closest friend, an acquaintance or somebody you have never met who might be affected by breast cancer. 

With your support you could be part of saving their lives.  What a wonderful feeling it will give you to know that you have helped in this endeavour.

The gala promises a show stopping display of flowers and fashion, a dazzling and highly original showcase for the talents of various Canadian artists which, at the same time, will raise awareness of women's health issues, in particular breast cancer and offer support to the Canadian scientific community working in their interests. Those researchers are often forgotten.

In the past decade, extremely encouraging statistics show that close to nine out of ten women diagnosed with breast cancer survive. Our support for the Breast Cancer Foundation will help this movement of hope and progress bloom. 

Please take this opportunity to indulge yourself during an evening that will appeal to all your senses.

Join me in helping to find the cure. 

Amanda Forsyth

Cellist

Amanda Forsyth, biography

Juno Award-winning Amanda Forsyth is considered one of North America’s most dynamic cellists.  The intense richness of her tone, her remarkable technique and her exceptional musicality combine to enthrall her audiences and critics alike.

Born in South Africa, Ms. Forsyth came to Canada as a child and began playing the cello at age three.  She became a protégé of William Pleeth in London and later studied with Harvey Shapiro at the Juilliard School in New York and with Lynn Harrell in Los Angeles. After two seasons with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra she was the youngest principal ever selected by the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra where she remained for six years.  In 1999 Amanda Forsyth was appointed principal cello of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada where she is also featured as a soloist each season.

Ms Forsyth is recognised as an eminent recitalist, soloist and chamber musician appearing with leading orchestras and prestigious chamber music festivals in Canada, the United States, Europe, Asia and Australia.  

As soloists, Amanda Forsyth and violinist Pinchas Zukerman appear frequently together in Canada, the U.S., Europe and South America.  She has also collaborated as a soloist with illustrious artists including Lynn Harrell, Yo-Yo Ma, Garrick Ohlsson, Jon Kimura Parker, Yefim Bronfman, Joseph Kalichstein, Jaime Laredo, Arnold Steinhardt., Michael Tree and Louis Lortie

Ms Forsyth has appeared with all the major orchestras in Canada including the Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Nova Scotia, Saskatoon, Regina and Okanagan Symphonies, the Calgary and Hamilton Philharmonics and the McGill Chamber Orchestra.

In 2005 she made her solo debut performance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and in 2006 appeared for the first time in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Taipei, with the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, Portugal, with the Israel Sinfonietta Beer-Sheva, in Cortona Italy with the Russian National Orchestra, and in Sofia, Bulgaria.  Other recent appearances included the New West Symphony, San Antonio Symphony Orchestra, Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra, Washington National Symphony Orchestra and a recital recorded for CBC.

Upcoming performances include the Wichita Falls Symphony, Texas, Symphony Nova Scotia, the Phoenix Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra, Bucharest Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre Radio de France.  She will tour as soloist with The Royal Philharmonic in Spain, has return engagements in Lisbon, Israel and China and a tour in South America.

In August 2007 Amanda Forsyth will appear with the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival for her seventh consecutive season.

Amanda Forsyth returned as a soloist with the National Arts Centre Orchestra last season in the Beethoven Triple Concerto with Pinchas Zukerman and also in Electra Rising by Malcolm Forsyth.  She was the featured soloist in Edmonton in a joint gala with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and NACO and as soloist on the NACO tour of Western Canada in Canadian composer Alexina Louie’s Bringing the Tiger Down from the Mountain II. . She will appear during the 2006/7 season in Schubert’s Trout Quintet and Shostakovitch Cello Concerto No 1.

Ms Forsyth is the cellist of the Zukerman ChamberPlayers, which has appeared to critical acclaim since its first international tour in 2003.  Since then the ensemble has appeared in Canada, Ravinia, Aspen and Tanglewood, Britain, Germany, France, Spain and Istanbul, Turkey.  The ensemble have appeared in Ottawa, Baltimore, El Paso, Saratoga, Portland, Sun City, University of Maine, Domaine Forget, Ravinia, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Spain and the Cortona Festival in Italy.  They will play a second series of 5 concerts at the 92nd Street “Y in New York this season. 

She recently collaborated with Wynton Marsalis in New York recording the sound track for Ken Burns’ 7-part television film about World War II to be produced for SBS.

Ms. Forsyth appears on the Fanfare, Marquis, Pro Arte, Altara, Naxos and CBC labels. The Juno Award-winning cello concerto Electra Rising was recorded with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. This was followed by Soaring with Agamemnon, Music for Cello and Piano and in 2004 Musique de chambre francaise, a collaboration with flutist Susan Hoeppner both for Marquis Classics.  Chamber music recordings for CBC include the Mozart Flute Quartets which was named Opus Magazine’s “Best Canadian Chamber Music Recording of 2001” and in 2003 Mozart’s String Quintet in G minor, and Clarinet Quintet in A major “Stadler”, which was nominated for the Juno Awards.  In July 2005 the Zukerman ChamberPlayers made their first CD for the new Altara label in New York and will release a second disc in a series of five this year.   Naxos Records has recently released “An American Journey” which she recorded with Arnold Steinhardt in 2006.

Amanda Forsyth performs on a 1699 cello by Carlo Giuseppe Testore.