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SUSAN SCHAFFER, violin

Susan Schaffer is a graduate of UBC, where she obtained a Bachelor of Music degree in violin performance under full scholarship. She also earned a Associate of Music degree from Conservatory Canada, studied at Mount Royal College, attended violin and chamber music master classes at the Banff Centre for the Arts, and was the recipient of numerous scholarships and awards. She is also an alumnus of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada.

She has held the position of Assistant Concertmaster of the Okanagan Symphony since 1992, and was Principal Viola of the Kamloops Symphony for ten years. She is a former faculty member of the Kelowna Community Music School where she taught for thirteen years, and has served as an itinerant violin and viola instructor for Fountainview Academy for the past eleven years. She has performed on several occasions as a guest artist with the Okanagan Symphony, and also with the Lethbridge Symphony. She also performs frequently with her husband, OSO Concertmaster Denis Letourneau, as the duo Romanza del Arco and with Heartstrings string quartet, both of which are well known throughout the Okanagan, and have been broadcast live on CBC radio.