Amanda Goodburn – Violin

Praised for her “lyrical gifts” and “intense, high contrast playing” (Toronto Star), South African-born violinist Amanda Goodburn grew up hearing her father say she’d travel the world on the wings of her violin – a prediction which her diverse career has indeed borne out.

Amanda grew up in Westville, KwaZulu-Natal, where her formative violin teachers were Susan McAdam and Enzo lo Castro. At the age of 16 Amanda made her debut playing the Khatchaturian Violin Concerto with the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra, and while completing her undergraduate degree at Stellenbosch University under the guidance of Prof Jack de Wet, she performed concerti with the KwaZulu-Natal and the University of Stellenbosch Symphony Orchestras, the latter of which featured her as soloist on their European tour.

Amanda won numerous awards to facilitate further study abroad, including the Mabel Quick Overseas Bursary, the Sasol and Samro Music Prizes and an Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music scholarship, which led to her postgraduate studies at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England, and at the University of Toronto in Canada.

While a student at the University of Toronto, Amanda founded the Tokai String Quartet, a dynamic foursome which has built a reputation as one of Canada’s “top notch” ensembles. Among their numerous accolades, the Tokai Quartet are laureates of the 2007 Banff International String Quartet Competition; they have toured Atlantic Canada and southern California in addition to their frequent performances closer to home; and have produced a highly acclaimed multimedia theatrical production called “The Snow Queen”. The quartet has also collaborated with many eminent musicians, including the St Lawrence Quartet  and pianist Anton Kuerti; their performance with Kuerti earned Amanda praise for playing “like an angel” and the quartet as a whole for playing “…like souls inspired…as if their lives depended on it, and their audience was duly transfixed and transported.” (Globe and Mail)

An invitation to perform the Brahms Violin Concerto with the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra led to Amanda being invited to perform that and the Glazunov Concerti with Orchestra Toronto.  She has also returned to South Africa to perform with Cape Town’s baroque ensemble, Camerata Tinta Barocca. Amanda’s busy career as recitalist has brought her to chamber music festivals and concert series across Canada – including the Toronto Summer Music Festival, Ontario’s Stratford Festival, the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, and the Concerts aux Îles du Bic Chamber Music Festival in Quebec – and she is heard regularly on Canada’s national broadcaster, the CBC. In addition to her vibrant chamber music career, Amanda won a position in the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, one of North America’s major orchestras, in 2004.