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Biography

Cellist Denise Djokic has been praised worldwide for her sincere, powerful interpretations, and her bold command of the instrument. Instantly recognized by her "arrestingly beautiful tone colour" (The Strad), she moves audiences with her natural musical instinct and her remarkable combination of strength and sensitivity.

An acclaimed soloist with many principal orchestras, she has appeared with the Toronto Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Portland Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, and the San Diego Chamber Orchestra, as well as the symphony orchestras of Vancouver, Omaha, Montreal, Winnipeg, Syracuse, Missoula, and Santa Cruz, among others. She has also performed with Mexico City's Orquesta Sinfonica de Mineria and the Orquesta Filharmonica de la UNAM, and with Brazil's Amazonas Philharmonic. Denise made her European concerto debut this past season performing the Dvorak concerto with the Aachen Symphony Orchestra under Marcus Bosch. She has performed with such renowned conductors as Kazuyoshi Akiyama, Darko Butorac, Bernhard Gueller, Andrew Litton, Grant Llewellyn, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Charles Olivieri-Monroe, Avi Ostrovsky, Jung-Ho Pak, and Kenneth Schermerhorn.

As a recitalist, Denise performs with her long-time musical partner, pianist David Jalbert. Recent performances have brought them to Tucson, Washington, D.C.'s Phillips Collection and the Museum of Women in the Arts, San Francisco, Mexico City, Vancouver, Chicago's Dame Myra Hess series and New York's Bargemusic. Denise and David also tour with Piano Plus, an organization which brings performances to rural communities in Canada. Denise's love of chamber music brings her to many festivals each year, including the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, Caramoor, Park City, Ravinia, San Miguel de Allende, and the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival. She also performs with New York's Omega Ensemble and the Jupiter Chamber Players.

Immediately following the release of her debut recording on the Sony Classical label, Denise was a featured performer at the 2002 Grammy Awards. The self-titled CD won great critical acclaim and received a 2002 East Coast Music Award. Her following recording, "Folklore", (Allegro/Endeavor) received a JUNO nomination as well as an ECMA, and hit the Billboard Chart's top 15 Classical CD's. "Folklore" was also featured on NPR's "All Things Considered".

Denise's most recent recording - the complete Britten Solo Suites for the ATMA label - has received critical acclaim from numerous publications such as Fanfare and The Strad. The recording was declared "easily able to stand alongside the great recordings of Rostropovich and Wispelwey" by AllMusic.com's Mike Brownell.

Denise has been the subject of a BRAVO! TV documentary entitled "Seven Days, Seven Nights", and has also appeared as a speaker at IdeaCity in Toronto, and at the Women In Leadership Conference at Queen's University. MacLean's Magazine named her one of the top "25 Canadians who are Changing our World", and ELLE Magazine declared her one of "Canada's Most Powerful Women".

Having grown up in a large musical family, Denise first began to learn the cello with her uncle and aunt, cellists Pierre Djokic and Michelle Djokic. Her parents, Lynn and Philippe, as well as her brother, Marc, are all musicians. Denise furthered her studies in Cleveland with Richard Aaron, and in Boston, where she studied with Laurence Lesser and Paul Katz. Denise gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

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