Rachel Mercer
Grand prize winner of the 2001 Vriendenkrans Competition in Amsterdam, Canadian cellist Rachel Mercer made her European recital debut in the Concertgebouw Kleine Zaal. Since first performing with orchestra at the age of twelve, Rachel has played as a soloist across Canada, in Europe, the Balkans, the United States, South Africa and Israel, including appearances with the Toronto Symphony, National Arts Centre, Durban, and Banff Festival orchestras. Her performances have been broadcast in Canada, Israel and in Holland where her recording of Faure's Elegie was voted into the top ten classics of Dutch Radio. She currently records for Israeli indie label EnT-T. Her debut disc "Room" of solo cello pieces, was released in April 2008.
Rachel was a member of the Metro String Quartet from 1994-2000, collaborating with Menahem Pressler, Shauna Rolston and Laurence Lesser. She joined the Aviv Quartet in 2002. Grand prize winner of the Melbourne and Bordeaux competitions, the quartet tours regularly on five continents, playing in halls such as the Auditorium du Louvre, Zurich Tonhalle, Wigmore Hall, Stockholm Konserthuset, the Library of Congress in Washington DC, Baxter Hall in Cape Town, St Lawrence Centre in Toronto, and at festivals such as Montpellier, Aix-en-Provence, Lockenhaus, Davos, Colmar and Oistrakh. The quartet has released cds on Naxos and Dalia Classics and celebrated its 10th anniversary with a complete Shostakovich cycle at the 2007 Verbier Festival. Recent collaborations include performances with Jorg Widmann, Boris Berman, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, James Tocco, Boris Petrushansky, Nicolas Baldeyrou and Anton Dressler. The quartet has also given masterclasses, coaching and outreach performances in the United States, Israel, South Africa and Canada, including at the University of Toronto.
Currently based in Toronto, Rachel has given guest masterclasses at the University of Toronto and QuartetFest at Wilfred Laurier University. She is principal cellist for Via Salzburg, a chamber music series led by Mayumi Seiler, collaborating with artists such as Richard Hosford, Neil Deland, George Gao and Eliot Fisk. Since 2008, Rachel is cellist of Ensemble Made in Canada, winners of CBC Galaxie Rising Stars Award, and named among "80 women to watch" in the 80th anniversary edition of Chatelaine magazine in May 2008. She also frequently plays with her sister, violinist Akemi Mercer, forming the Mercer Trio in 2007 (with Toca Loca pianist and Toronto Music Gallery curator Gregory Oh) for a complete Haydn trio cycle for the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society over the next four years.
Born in Edmonton, Rachel attended the Vancouver Academy, Royal Conservatory of Toronto and received a Bachelor of Music from the University of Toronto, a Master of Music with honours from the New England Conservatory and a solo diploma from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. Rachel attended Orford, Banff, Holland Music Sessions, Ravinia, Prussia Cove, Scotiafest, Proquartet, the Juilliard Quartet Seminar and the Verbier Academy for masterclasses with Boris Pergamenschikow, Frans Helmerson, Lynn Harrell, Janos Starker, Aldo Parisot, Gregor Horsch, Valentin Berlinsky, Valentin Erben, Henry Meyer and Walter Levin. Her principal teachers included David Hetherington, Shauna Rolston, Laurence Lesser and Dmitri Ferschtman.
Rachel plays the 1824 McConnell Nicolaus Gagliano cello generously on loan from the Canada Council for the Arts.