Lynden Music Festival is humbled and grateful that pianist Judith Widrig and violinist Carolyn Canfield will be amongst our musicians this year.
Carolyn Canfield, violin and Judith Widrig, piano
Carolyn Canfield - Heralding from Seattle with studies at the Univ of Wash, Fulbrights to Cologne Hochschule, Germany, and Early Music studies at Tafelmusik in Toronto, Carolyn Canfield enjoys a diverse career as a performer, adjudicator, and teacher/coach for all ages. Recent teaching has included the Sooke Adult Chamber Music Workshop on Vancouver Island, B.C., and upcoming performances include the Bellingham Festival of Music summer season 2024.
Violin teachers have included the infamous pied piper from Everett, WA, Eugene Nastri; Denes Zsigmondy (UofW); Max Rostal (Germany); Nathan Milstein (Switzerland); Aaron Rosand (France), and Jeanne Lamond (Toronto, CAN).
After a 36-year career with the Vancouver Symphony first violin section, Vancouver Opera, CBC Radio Orchestra, Carmel Bach Festival, CA, and many chamber music sessions, Carolyn moved to New York. Performances included New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, Pitstop Players, OMNI, and Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. She was on the faculty of Bronx House. Covid hit, so she and her partner drove across the country and are now settled in Ferndale, WA.
Carolyn’s passions include teaching, staying fit, and gardening. Her heart-centered work revolves around her ViolinforWellness.org program, born in Langley, BC. for a therapeutic riding facility. Ahead of the curve, it has proved to be a precursor of the now universally recognized Music as Medicine. Carolyn also had the recent pleasure of presenting her "Why Does Music Make Me Cry?" talk, tying in her years of creativity and outreach.
Judith Widrig - Pianist Judith Widrig is a native of Syracuse, NY and teaches in the piano department at Western Washington University. She received a DMA in Piano Performance from the University of Colorado and performance degrees from the Hartt School of Music and the University of Minnesota. Prior to commencement of her doctoral work she was collaborative pianist at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Judith has also studied at the Banff Centre, Schweitzer Institute, and Holzhausen Music Festival in Germany.
Judith is active in the Pacific Northwest as a solo and chamber musician and has performed with orchestras on both coasts, including a recent performance of The Age of Anxiety with the WWU Symphony. She is a passionate teacher and her students have received top prizes in many state and international piano competitions as well as gone on to study piano performance at leading music schools including New England Conservatory, Oberlin Conservatory, and Stanford University. Judith currently directs the Bellingham Youth Chamber Players and co-directs WWU’s Chamber Days. Judith credits her many wonderful teachers over the years, including college teachers Luiz de Moura Castro, Lydia Artymiw, Larry Graham, and Robert Spillman. She has also worked with Anton Kuerti at The Banff Centre, The Emerson String Quartet, and was fortunate to both study under and collaborate with Hungarian violinist Denes Zsigmondy on several tours of Canada and Alaska.
When not engaged in music activities, Judith loves to be outside, either on a hiking or backpacking trip or working in her garden.