For thirty-five years, Cecilia Concerts has presented diverse, world-class chamber music experiences in welcoming, bilingual, accessible, and intimate settings that connect our communities, educate and inspire audiences and artists, and enhance the rich heritage and culture of K’jipuktuk/Halifax.  A non-profit charity, over the past three decades, we have presented inspiring performances by hundreds of emerging and established musicians, including countless GRAMMY, JUNO, Prix Opus, and Prix FĂ©lix-winning artists such as award-winning pianists Angela Hewitt, Angela Cheng, Jan Lisiecki, Sara Davis Buechner, Silvie Cheng, Enrico Pace, Charles Richard-Hamelin, and Andrew Armstrong; world-renowned flutist Marina Piccinini; violinists James Ehnes, Marc Djokic, Lara St. John, and Blake Pouliot; cellists StĂ©pahne TĂ©treault, Bryan Cheng, Paul Wiancko, and Cameron Crosman; celebrated ensembles Kronos Quartet, Ulysses Quartet, and Rolston String Quartet; award-winning soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan; opera stars Anne Sofie von Otter, Sondra Radvanovsky, Golda Schultz, Jane Archibald, Harolyn Blackwell, and Measha Brueggergosman; and CBC Music hosts Ben Heppner, Julie Nesrallah, and Marion Newman.
The Cecilia Concerts’ Musician-In-Residence for the 2023/24 season is the multiple prize-winning cellist, Paul Wiancko. Cellist for the internationally celebrated Kronos Quartet, Wiancko regularly performs on the world’s most renowned stages, including Carnegie Hall, the Barbican, and the Sydney Opera House. Our 2023/24 season’s Composer-In-Residence is Ian Cusson, the distinguished MĂ©tis composer known for his operas, art songs, and orchestral works. Cusson’s compositions frequently delve into the Canadian Indigenous experience, focusing on the history of the MĂ©tis people, the complexities of mixed-racial identity, and the confluence of Western and Indigenous cultures.
Our Sensory-Accessible Concerts series is led by award-winning pianist Jennifer King and Music Therapist Anna Plaskett. Now in it’s 3rd season, this series of free live concerts is designed to be welcoming, friendly, and accessible for autistic, neurodivergent, and intellectually disabled community members and their families, as well as seniors with age-related changes in hearing and vision that can make loud noises and bright lights uncomfortable or for anyone with underlying conditions that can affect their sensory processing and make traditional concert environments challenging.
Our Bravura Nova Scotia–Cecilia Concerts Scholarship Fund provides a generous annual tuition scholarship to a Nova Scotian student aged fifteen or older who, while also enrolled in music theory, shows exceptional promise in an area of music performance.
Cecilia Concerts is a member of CAPACOA – the Canadian Association for the Performing Arts, the Canadian Live Music Association, the Atlantic Presenters Association, and Music Nova Scotia. Cecilia Concerts is also an allied member of IPAA – the Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance.
The Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, The Honorable Arthur Joseph LeBlanc, ONS, QC is Honorary Patron of Cecilia Concerts.
Cecilia Concerts acknowledges that we are honoured to live, work, and present performances on the lands, surrounded by the waterways, of Mi’kma’ki – the unceded and unsurrendered ancestral territory of the Mi’kmaq. We acknowledge the Mi’kmaq as the past, present, and future caretakers of these lands and waterways. Our offices are located in K’jipuktuk, which means Great Harbour.
Cellist Paul Wiancko and Sandbox Percussion's percussionist Ian David Rosenbaum explore rarely performed cello and percussion repertoireExperience an exhilarating fusion of percussion and cello as our 2023/24 Musician-In-Residence, the Kronos Quartet cellist and composer Paul Wiancko, is joined by Sandbox […]