Biography

Brigit Knecht is an artist of diverse talents whose many interests keep her active as a performer, music director, and teacher across both the United States and Canada. Although by training and profession a violinist, Brigit splits her time between three passions:

Music - Brigit regularly performs as an extra with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, assistant concertmaster with the Red Deer Symphony, and as a member of the VAD and Players Ensembles. She has been a member of such ensembles as the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, the Flint Symphony, the Waterbury Symphony, the Armadillo String Quartet and the Crouse String Quartet. A past concertmaster of the Yale Philharmonia, the Yale Repertory Orchestra, and the Bow Valley Chorus Orchestra, Brigit has appeared as a guest artist with the Land's End Chamber Ensemble and Kensington Sinfonia, and as a resident artist at the Banff Centre. In 2005 Brigit performed the World Premiere of Mirror Image, a solo violin work written specifically for her by composer Tawnie Olson, at Paine Hall in Boston.
Brigit has had the pleasure of performing and studying chamber music with such eminent musicians as Andrew Jennings, Lorand Fenyves, James Campbell, Felicia Moye, Geoff Nutall, Janos Negyesy, Paivikki Nykter, and members of the Tokyo and Muir String Quartets. She has also enjoyed playing "back-up" for artists such as Luciano Pavarotti, Josh Groban, Dionne Warwick, K.D. Lang, Sarah Brightman, The Tea Party, Ian Tyson, and Mark O'Connor. A recipient of the Canadian Federation of University Women's Creative Arts Award, her recordings include the independently released CD, Uncharted, with the Armadillo String Quartet and many concert recordings for CBC radio.

Theatre - In the theatre, Brigit is a Betty Mitchell Award nominated musical director/arranger/composer whose favourite place to be is conducting from the orchestra pit. With the show in front and the audience behind, right in the middle of the action is where life is most exciting. Selected credits include musicals - Bat Boy the musical (Mob Hit productions, Betty nom.), The Barber Show (Mob Hit), Jaques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (Yale School of Drama) - opera - Dido and Aeneas (Opera Workshop), La Serva Padrona (Opera Miniature) - and plays - composing incidental music for productions such as the World Premiere of Bulwer Lytton's lost play The Captives (Knebworth House), An Ideal Husband (Weston Playhouse), Fall of the House of Usher (Basement Arts), and The Heiress (Mendelssohn Theatre).

Academics - Brigit holds a Master of Music degree from Yale University, where she studied with Syoko Aki, and a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Calgary. Never tired of learning, she is now a doctoral student and sessional instructor at the University of Calgary where she teaches arts-based courses in both communications and engineering (yes, you read that correctly!). Currently in her third year of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program, Brigit has finally finished all her coursework and is now writing her PhD dissertation about the influence of contemporary market pressure on the operational and programming decisions of traditional performing arts organizations. She is a recipient of the prestigious University of Calgary Silver Anniversary Graduate Fellowship.