Fifteen- year old violinist Gabrielle Després was born in Edmonton, began violin studies at the age of 3 and studied with James Keene for nine years. She currently studies with Robert Uchida. She has won numerous local, provincial and national prizes, including the Canadian Music Competition in both violin and piano.

In 2012, she performed the complete Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Concordia University Orchestra, and as the winner of the Northern Alberta Concerto Competition, she performed with the Edmonton Youth Orchestra at the Winspear Centre. She has performed in violin master classes for Daniel Phillips, Annalee Patipatanakoon, and Andrew Wan, among others. She studied at the Orford Summer Music Academy for two summers with Jonathan Crow and Andrew Wan, as well as at the Morningside Music Bridge summer program in Calgary, a program for gifted young musicians from North America, Poland and China.

Gabrielle enjoys playing chamber music with her prizewinning piano trio, the Lumière Trio. Most recently, Gabrielle was featured on Radio-Canada’s new television show, “Virtuose,” placing second out of 24 young Canadian artists on this weekly series. Gabrielle enjoys cooking, photography and playing guitar.