Sonia Klimasko Bio: Sonia Klimasko is a graduate of the University of Toronto, holding a degree in Performance. Ms Klimasko maintains an active teaching studio in addition to being a popular adjudicator and clinician. She is in demand as a chamber and orchestral musician and has played first violin with the National Ballet of Canada Orchestra for the past 43 years.Ms Klimasko’s extensive performing career ranges from performances in the Imperial Room of the Royal York with Tony Bennett, & James Brown, the Bob Hope Orchestra, as Concertmaster for famed tenor Jan Pearce’s Fiddler on the Roof and Assistant Concertmaster for The Wizard of Oz and Anne of Green Gables at the Toronto Elgin Theater. She has enjoyed playing Phantom of the Opera as well as with the ever popular Prince Edward Island’s production of Anne of Green Gables. Over the past 30s years, Sonia has performed with Hamilton Philharmonic, Windsor Symphony, Scarborough Philharmonic, New Toronto Chamber Players, Thunder Bay Symphony, Toronto Lyric Theater Orchestra , Kingston Symphony, Niagara Symphony, Toronto Pops Orchestra, Toronto Philharmonia, Esprit, Atlantic Symphony, Oshawa Symphony, Royal Winnipeg Ballet Orchestra, Les Grand Ballet Canadienne Orchestra, and Opera Mississauaga. She has recorded for numerous commercials, CBC and Murray Schafer Epic RA for Centerdisc. She has performed 2 seasons with the Northern Lights Music Festival in Ajijic, Mexico and is an alumnae of the National Youth Orchestra and Ontario Youth Concert Band. Sonia Klimasko has held the positions of string instructor at the Bishop Strachan School, Cardinal Carter Academy for the Arts, University of Toronto Schools as well as string consultant with the York Region Board of Education. She has presented workshops for the National Film Board, was a founding artist with the Inner City Angels, was on faculty for both the National String Academy in Ottawa and CAMMAC and recorded for CBC on Murray Schafer Epic RA for Centerdisc.Her teachers have included John Moskalyk, David Mankovitz of the American String Quartet & Victor Martin, Concertmaster of the Madrid Symphony Orchestra. Her many scholarships and awards include a RCM Provincial Medal and the Chamber of Commerce Award for Excellence in the Arts which was awarded to Ms Klimasko in 2004.Sonia Klimasko is an avid fan of pedagogical ideology and an enthusiastic and popular adjudicator and clinician. While maintaining an active performance career and teaching studio she always manages to find time for her passion for writing and is an award winning gardener and Half Ironman Triathlete. You can read her blogs on the National Ballet website.
