Banff Centre appoints director of music programs.

Barry Shiffman, co-founder of the St. Lawrence String Quartet (SLSQ) and one of Canada's pre-eminent musicians, has been appointed director of music programs by The Banff Centre.

Effective immediately, Shiffman will join Banff as a consultant, providing strategic planning and program development for all music programs, including the Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC). Shiffman will join the Centre on a full-time basis in September 2006.

Shiffman's association with Banff extends over his entire career. Having participated in the Gifted Youth program as a youngster, he returned for summer studies in chamber music and master classes with Lorand Fenyves. As part of the SLSQ, he participated in a summer residency in 1991. Following the quartet's first prize wins at the 1992 BISQC and at the Young Concert Artists Competition in New York, Shiffman returned to Banff as a music faculty member. He also served on the jury for BISQC 2004, and, a few months later, returned to record the SLSQ's most recent compact disc, AWAKENING, for EMI Classics at the Rolston Recital Hall.

A graduate of the University of Toronto, Shiffman continued his studies at the Utrecht Conservatorium in the Netherlands, the Ham School of Music at the University of Hartford, The Juilliard School and Yale University.

For more information, contact The Banff Centre at [e-mail].