Manuela Milani

Born in Jonquière, Québec, Manuela Milani joined the National Arts Centre Orchestra in 1998. In addition, she has been concertmaster of Thirteen Strings since 2004.

She was awarded a First Prize by the Conservatoire de musique du Québec, where her teachers were Jean-François Rivest in Chicoutimi and Sonia Jelinková in Montreal. With a grant from the Quebec Arts Council, she studied with Sylvia Rosenberg at the Manhattan School of Music in New York and Indiana University, where she also studied Baroque violin with Stanley Ritchie. She was awarded a special mention at the Prix d’Europe 1993. As the winner of the Janácek prize at the 1993 Montreal Czech and Slovak music competition, she was invited to perform recitals in Prague, Brno and Bratislava. She was Concertmaster of the National Youth Orchestra in 1990 and Assistant Concertmaster of the Jeunesses Musicales’s World Youth Orchestra in 1991. She was a member of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra from 1995 to 1998.

Manuela, an avid chamber musician, can be heard regularly on CBC Radio and Radio-Canada. She has performed at major festivals, including the Festival de Lanaudière, Rendez-vous musicale de Laterrière, the Festival of the Sound and Ottawa Chamberfest. She recorded Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of Christ for the Ottawa Chamber Music Society and two CDs for the Atma label with the Chamber Players of Canada.