Bio

Mixing new sounds with instruments of the past, Jennifer Thiessen is known for improvising and creating new music on the viola and the viola d’amore. She equally enjoys interpreting repertoire with particular experience in historical baroque performance, classical chamber music, and collaboration with composers.

Jennifer creates new music using voice, viola, and electronics for her singer-songwriter project Daily Alice. Her duo Park Sounds with percussionist Ben Reimer premiered their contemporary “Root Systems” program for GroundSwell in 2019, collaborated with pianist Natsuki Hiratsuka on “Scenes & Formations” for Le Vivier in 2021, and composed a new audio/video work called “Time Piece” for GroundSwell’s Linked series in 2022 followed by a full program of original music for the Ottawa New Music Creators in 2023. S[ILK]S, her duo with Andrea Young, created “For You, Alone” for voices and electronics in 2021 for Montreal’s No Hay Banda series, and will create a new work in 2023. Toninato/Thiessen, her duo with saxophonist Ida Toninato was nominated for JUNO and OPUS awards in 2019 for their co-composed album, “The Space Between Us” released on the Ambiances Magnétiques label. The premier of their second work “Winter[City] Speaks” is presented by GroundSwell in 2023.

As a composer, Jennifer has written solo structured improvisations for vocalist Andrea Young and flutist Marilène Provencher-Leduc. She received the 2022 Roberta Stephen Award from the Association of Canadian Women Composers to develop her skills in score-making. She is a creative writer currently completing a book-length commission for André Cormier’s Piling Sand—Piling Stone project, and a regular contributor to Musicworks Magazine.

Jennifer worked as an independent musician based in Montreal for two decades, commissioning, curating, and performing. As a collaborative violist, she joined such ensembles as Ensemble Caprice, collectif9, Ensemble SuperMusique, Sarah Slean, La La La Human Steps, and many others for tours, concerts, and recordings. Since moving back to Manitoba in 2021, Jennifer has performed at the Rosamunde festival, send+receive festival with Yannis Kyriakides, Brandon Chamber Players with Marika Galea and Claire Morrison, and regularly joins the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. In 2022, she became Artistic Director of Virtuosi Concerts.

Within a multiplicity of artistic adventures, Jennifer is grounded in a passion to create meaningful experiences for herself and her listeners.