Profile: Elizabeth Simpson

Originally from Ottawa, Elizabeth Simpson feels very lucky to have had such a long and exciting career performing with an orchestra she has admired for most of her life.

Close to the end of high school, Elizabeth (Griffiths) Simpson decided to do a degree in music education at the University of Ottawa, with horn as her main instrument. She went to the office of Madame Gay, who was the administrator of the Ottawa U Music Department when it was located in a former police building at the corner of Nicholas and Stewart Streets. Madame Gay asked if Liz had attained a Grade 8 RCM exam on the French horn. When Liz said that she hadn’t, she was told that she couldn’t study music at the university. Discouraged, she started walking down the long hallway to the exit.Then she heard Madame Gay calling her back, asking if she could do ANYTHING ELSE?? When Liz explained that she had grade 9 piano, she was permitted to audition for the music program.

You see, Liz had never had a horn lesson until a few months before she started university. She had played trumpet — again with no lessons — until her band director switched her to horn in grade 10. When asked how on earth she managed without lessons, she shrugged and said, “Well, I just played.” Luckily, Dan Gress, at that time Principal Horn with the NAC Orchestra, was teaching at Ottawa U. He was Liz’ teacher throughout her undergrad degree. Then she went to Indiana University for a master’s degree in performance. There she worked with the famous Philip Farkas, who had played with several of the Big Five orchestras in the US, as well as Meir Ramon, Principal Horn of the Israel Philharmonic, and Michael Hatfield, Principal Horn in Cincinnati.

She was obviously a fast and talented learner, as not long after finishing university, Liz started playing extra with the NAC Orchestra. She moved around the section as a utility player. In 1992 she became the Fourth Horn, which later became a Regular Additional Musician, or RAM, position, with a partial-year contract. In 2011, after playing three one-year contracts as Second Horn, she won that position and remained in the job until she retired in July, 2023.

Liz had been considering retirement for a while, as the nature of the job had changed during and after Covid, leaving her feeling less inspired and invigorated. After 39 years, she finally decided that it was a good time to leave the orchestra. A few weeks after she retired, Liz taught for the first time at a one-week intensive camp at CAMMAC. This experience renewed her love of music. She had a great time and a great deal of respect for the adult amateurs at the camp. This intelligent and fun group of people changed Liz’ attitude towards continuing to work in music — not that she was planning to give it up entirely.

Liz continues to teach the horn. She has about 16 students, ranging in age from 13 to 75 years old, and still practices daily so that she can demonstrate for her more advanced students. Liz is also continuing another love — working for the NAC/Lotus Centre’s Music Circle Program.

Twelve years ago, the NAC partnered with the Lotus Centre for Special Music Education.The Music Education Department needed someone to collaborate with Dr. Erin Parkes, founder and executive director of the Lotus Centre. Enter Liz. The NAC wanted to create a more inclusive environment, and wanted to help the special-needs community feel welcomed. Erin and Liz created the Music Circle, in which children, teens, and adults with various challenges discovered the joy of music through orchestral instruments.

Elaine Klimasko was the earliest of early bloomers. Growing up in Hamilton, she started playing the violin at the age of four. It helped that she had two older sisters who also played the instrument. They had graduated to one-quarter-size violins, so Elaine got their one-eighth- size violin. She started piano lessons at around the same time. By the time a fourth sister started violin, every Saturday was spent with the four girls being driven at the crack of dawn to Toronto, where they had lessons with John Moskalyk, then chamber music, than orchestra. All four girls were on full scholarships. Elaine said that she really didn’t enjoy those Saturdays because she missed all of her friends’ birthday parties!

When she was ten years old, what Elaine really wanted was a pretty dress. Instead, she was presented with the very fine violin that she played throughout her entire career. She would have outgrown the dress, but she wound up being quite fortunate to have had that violin, feeling that it helped her advance. We dare say that her talent probably played a large role as well!

Elaine is a well-known violinist in Ottawa. How many of you knew that she had also played the bassoon? This was in high school, where there was a band but no orchestra, as was typical in those days. Elaine had started out on the French horn but quickly gave that up because she has perfect pitch and couldn’t reconcile what she saw on the page with what she heard. She was continuing with her violin and piano lessons the entire time. She attained a grade ten level in piano.

Elaine didn’t go to university because she was busy performing: at the age of eighteen she spent a year, along with her sister Nadia, touring all over North America with the National Ballet of Canada, under the direction of George Crumb. By this time she was studying with Leonard Fenyves in Toronto. When he heard of a new orchestra being formed in Ottawa, he encouraged Elaine to audition for it. So there she was, playing in the NAC Orchestra from its first season starting in the fall of 1969 until she retired in July, 2023. She was nineteen years old when she joined the orchestra, and she remains the youngest person ever to have done so.

During her tenure with NACO, Elaine played under a variety of music directors. Each had their strengths, she says, but she particularly enjoyed Pinchas Zukerman because of his great knowledge of the violin. She enjoyed the orchestra tours immensely, finding it a terrific experience to have played in some of the world’s finest concert halls. She feels that she is the luckiest person in the world to have played such fine repertoire. She did take one break: she had long had a dream to study with the great Josef Gingold, so she took a sabbatical leave in the 1979-80 season to work with him at Indiana University.

Elaine remembers particularly the following highlights of her 54-year career with the orchestra:

— Her first concert in Carnegie Hall. From a very early age, she heard her father say repeatedly that to perform in Carnegie Hall was the greatest achievement a violinist could attain.

— The sabbatical year at Indiana, when she had the opportunity to be concertmaster of the university orchestra and to play such amazing works as Ein Heldenleben.

— Playing a concerto with the NAC Orchestra because she had been chosen as a finalist for the CBC Competition

— Playing chamber music, often with great pedagogues such as Janos Starker, Jose Gingold, and Bernard Greenhouse, at Indiana University and through NACO

— A very moving concert in Leipzig at the time of Germany’s reunification

Elaine is a well-respected teacher not only in Ottawa, but nationally. She has been invited to adjudicate at music festivals all over the country. She started teaching in 1970, shortly after she joined the orchestra, with a few students. She is still teaching now. At last count, she had some 38 former students who became professional musicians! She was part of the faculty at NACO’s Young Artist Program for several years. More recently, she has subbed for Timothy Chooi at Ottawa U, and she taught a repertoire class there.

Elaine and her husband Ed will be spending part of this winter in Florida, where they have owned a condo for some years, with Elaine joining Ed there when her schedule allowed. She will continue to teach remotely from there, but she has also done something that has brought enjoyment to many people. There are 21 buildings in the condo complex, and Elaine has given master classes for the people who live there, with as many as 200 people attending. The students have included members of the Sarasota Orchestra as well as a few of Elaine’s own students who happened to have been visiting Florida. So if any violinists reading this are planning a trip south, be sure to let Elaine know, and you, too, could benefit from her wisdom and experience!

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