Andrew Burashko

2009 TMA149 Musician of the Year Award Recipient

“Chamber’s Engaging New Hope… Burashko has assembled a highpowered group of fellow instrumentalists with a taste for chamber music. The group varies depending on the needs of the music at hand, but includes some of the finest musicians in the country. Equally important, there is a programming philosophy that champions musical coherence and innovation. The appropriate shout has to be encore!” – William Littler, Toronto Star, 1998

“[Eleven] years ago Andrew Burashko launched an adaptable ensemble of classical musicians called Art of Time. Art of Time has mixed jazz and classical, worked circus acts into concerts, reached out to other performance disciplines. It’s broken the serious music mould and won rave reviews — even a Dora Award along the way. Tonight, Art of Time does it again with a ravishing program of music and dance…” – Michael Crabb, CBC Radio 1

Andrew Burashko is building new audiences for classical music and beyond with his Art of Time Ensemble. Concerts are innovative and imaginative, combining original new arrangements with other performance disciplines — at last count, approximately 49 concerts since 1998. In 2009 Art of Time Ensemble performed The Songbook 3 (songs by Leonard Cohen, Stan Rogers and Tom Waits), Abbey Road, Brasil, the Kreutzer Sonata, Korngold: Source & Inspiration, and Toronto Songbook featuring Sarah Slean; and the concerts keep coming.

Burashko débuted with the Toronto Symphony at the age of seventeen under the baton of Sir Andrew Davis, and has established himself as one of the most sought after pianists in Canada. He has performed extensively around the world, collaborating with among others, conductors Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Pinchas Zukerman, Marin Alsop, Peter Oundjian, and Bramwell Tovey. Passionately dedicated to the music of our time as well as the great piano masterworks of the past, Andrew Burashko has developed a reputation for versatility and brilliantly conceived programmes. He has given numerous Canadian and world premières, including the Canadian première of Schnittke’s Piano Concerto.

Andrew Burashko has been a member of the Toronto Musicians’ Association since 1990, and we are delighted to acknowledge his musicianship and contribution to the Toronto music scene by naming him our 2009 Musician of the Year.