Cellist Erika Nielsen holds an Artist Diploma at Toronto's prestigious Glenn Gould School under David Hetherington of the Toronto Symphony. A member of the Royal Conservatory Orchestra and an active chamber musician under Bryan Epperson, this past spring she performed a solo recital featuring the Schumann Cello Concerto with pianist, Todd Yaniw.

Erika has performed live with Grammy-winning artist Kanye West at the Air Canada Centre and for MTV Canada. She is a proud member of minimalist ensemble Muskox, who's CD release, 5 Pieces, was supported by the Ontario Arts Council. Erika has performed live with The Trews, and jazz bands Klezfactor and Ethnocity, and frequently contributes to theatre productions featuring Queen's Musical Theatre alumni.

Ms. Nielsen, a Kingstonian, completed her  Bachelor of Music degree (hon.) in Cello Performance from the Queen's University School of Music, as a student of Wolf Tormann. She has studied with Shauna Rolston, Katinka Kleijn (CSO) in B.C., at the Toronto Summer Music Academy and Le Domaine Forget, QC. She has performed in master classes for artists such as Hans Jorgen-Jensen, Philippe Muller, Anthony Elliott, Denis Brott and Paul Marleyn, and has performed regularly with the Kingston Symphony Association.

Between sharing her love of the cello through teaching and spending time in her painting studio, Ms. Nielsen will be studying at the castle Beuggen, Switzerland this summer as a student of Denis Severin. She currently appears in a television ad campaign for YAZ.

~June 2010~