biography
“She plays the cello like she was born with one in her hands.
-D. Ferschtman
Photo by Karen E. Reeves
@dragonfly.imagery
Canadian Sybil Shanahan has played the cello for as long as she can remember and has been described as “a rare cellist who so obviously loves both the instrument and the music. We have only to sit back and enjoy the experience of her playing.” (Stephan Rieckhoff, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.) Savouring the diversity of musical life available to her as a freelance performer, Sybil’s credits include a wide range of projects. Recent concerts have taken her from performing Brahms’ glorious piano trio in B major in a field, to an on-stage string quartet in Tapestry Opera’s production of Rocking Horse Winner, and backing headline artists such as Seal, Sigur Rós and The Tenors. In the recording studio, she is featured on the 2024 Canadian Folk Music Awards doubly nominated tango album DISTANCIA by Solidaridad Tango and was part of the 120 person orchestra for the multiple award-winning videogame soundtrack to Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course. Sybil currently performs in partnership with violinist Suhashini Arulanandam as the Tadioli Duo, and she is the founder of Beaux Strings, an event music performance business for which she is also a published music arranger of several popular songs for string ensembles. She was the string arranger and contractor for singer Jonathan Michael's "The Sacred Project" album airing on Vision TV and touring across Southern Ontario in the spring of 2024. She splits her performances between “Tiny,” a contemporary Italian traditional wooden cello made by Maurizio Tadioli, and “Octo,” a Luis & Clark carbon fibre cello.
Photo by of Denise Grant.
A travel lover, Sybil's lifelong commitment to the cello and the medium of chamber music has provided her with opportunities to perform around the world, including concert series and music festival performances across Canada, Europe, USA, South Africa, the Bahamas and most recently Buenos Aires. She was a founding member of Solidaridad Tango between 2020-2023, and prior to that she performed and recorded on 4 album’s with Ensemble Vivant, “Canada's chamber music treasure” (Toronto Star). Her first album, Caprice, was released in 2014 and features several previously unrecorded French Romantic cello duos with Coenraad Bloemendal. In 2011, she was selected to participate in the first ever staged opera in the Bahamas. It was a production of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, in Nassau. As a graduate student, Sybil was privileged to collaborate with notable contemporary classical composers Betsy Jolas, Jonathon Harvey and David Philip Hefti, and performed in Amsterdam's famous Gaudeamus Festival and the ISCM World Music Days in Slovenia.
A strong believer in the importance of music education and the power of music to foster wellbeing and community, Sybil manages an independent teaching studio for adult cellists based in her hometown of Toronto. She has been on faculty at Lake Field Music Camp since 2012 and is an active music festival adjudicator at both the regional and provincial level. She has presented both live and virtual workshops and masterclasses for organisations such as CAMMAC, the Ontario Music Festivals Association and the Ontario Strings Association. She performs frequently under the auspices of Concerts In Care, offering live music to people in care facilities across Southern Ontario. She was the principal cellist of the community based NYCO Symphony Orchestra from 2010-2017, where she was featured soloist performing Tchaikovsky's “Rococo Variations” in 2012.
Sybil is grateful for her formative years of training in Toronto. Her studies began with Dr. Barbara Pepper and continued at Etobicoke School of the Arts, and the Royal Conservatory of Music with Coenraad Bloemendal in the Young Artists Performance Academy (now known as The Taylor Academy) of the Glenn Gould School. Her debut concerto performance occurred at the age of nineteen when she performed the Lalo Cello Concerto with the Etobicoke School of the Arts Symphony Orchestra. She went on to attend the Banff Centre for the Arts chamber music program, and was the winner of several awards, among which were the Elora Festival Young Performer's Competition, the Gooderham Music Scholarship and the Bill Weatherspoon “Most Outstanding Performance” award. She continued her studies in Europe with a Bachelor’s Degree from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in the class of Gregor Horsch and then pursued a Master’s Degree from the class of cello soloist Patrick Demenga in Lausanne, Switzerland. As a student, she was the principal cellist of the European Youth Chamber Orchestra in Austria, and joined the Orchestre Symphonique de Bienne, the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne (Switzerland) and the Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra (Holland) as part of their prestigious orchestral internship programs. Sybil was a national finalist in Holland's Yamaha International Music Scholarship, and a prizewinner in the Rovere d'Oro chamber music competition in San Bartolomeo al Mare, Italy, with Duo AfriCan, a piano/cello duo formed in 2004 with pianist Mareli Stolp.
Website: www.sybilshanahan.com
Photo by Matthew Golem.
SHORT BIO
Canadian cellist Sybil Shanahan can't remember life without a cello in it. A passionate chamber musician, she believes strongly in the power of music to create community and doesn't limit the genres of music that she plays. From fields to concert halls, Sybil's enthusiasm for music and travel has taken her from her hometown of Toronto to perform in music series and festivals across Europe, South Africa, Canada, USA, the Bahamas and Buenos Aires. She is a published music arranger and contractor for her own event music company, Beaux Strings. Together with violinist Suhashini Arulanandam, Sybil performs frequently as the Tadioli Duo, a genre-expanding classically based duo. Between 2020-2023, she was a founding member of Solidaridad Tango, who's debut album has been nationally nominated in two categories for the 2024 Canadian Folk Music Awards. Prior to that, she recorded and toured with Ensemble Vivant. Her debut album, Caprice, with cellist Coenraad Bloemendal featuring French romantic duets was released in 2014. As a pedagogue, Sybil is an adjudicator at both the regional and provincial level for Ontario Music Festivals Association and Toronto Kiwanis. She maintains an independent teaching studio for adult cellists based in Toronto, and she has been on faculty at Lake Field Music Camp since 2012. Sybil completed her postgraduate training in Europe with soloist Patrick Demenga, and her teacher training and undergrad at the Amsterdam Conservatory with Gregor Horsch.
When not involved in musical pursuits, she can often be found researching her next trip, reading, adventuring on her stand up paddle board, skis or bike, or tending to her spoiled cats. Website: www.sybilshanahan.com
Sybil is a member of the American Federation of Musicians (Toronto Musician’s Association 149) and an ACTRA Apprentice Member.
All materials here are copyright to Sybil Shanahan 2025 and must be used with permission.