Winner of the 2007 J.B Watkins Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts, cellist Caroline Stinson was born in Edmonton, Canada, and currently lives in New York City. As a performer, she appears in Canada, the United States and Europe each season as a soloist and chamber artist. She holds a Bachelor's degree with honours from the Cleveland Institute of Music and a Performance Diploma with Distinction from the Hochschule für Musik, Köln, in Germany, where she lived for three years, performing across the continent and where she was awarded first prize in the Hohnen Foundation Cello Competition. From 2000-3, she was a member of the Cassatt String Quartet, with whom she performed and taught extensively, and premiered some two dozen new works. Through solo and ensemble work, Caroline has enjoyed the privilege of close work with composers George Crumb, Peter Eötvös, John Harbison, Aaron Jay Kernis, George Rochberg, Steven Stucky, Joan Tower and Anna Weesner. She is a member of the original cello quartet CELLO, the Athabasca String Trio, the Contrasts Quartet, and the new music and improvisation ensemble Open End, which she founded with her husband and composer Andrew Waggoner. Ms. Stinson is crafting programs for virtuoso cello, the first of which she presented at the 2006 Winnipeg New Music Festival. She has recorded for Albany, Bridge, Koch, and Naxos, as well as CBC Radio Canada, Radio France and WAMC New York, and is on the faculties of Syracuse University (NY) and Kean University (NJ).

www.carolinestinson.com