In 1999, violinist Mayumi Seiler set out to fulfill her musical vision of a Toronto-based chamber music ensemble that would fuse the extraordinary talents of both Canadian and international musicians with string-oriented repertoire spanning from the Baroque to the contemporary. Thus was born Via Salzburg, an ensemble that now begins its ninth year having performed an impressive array of groundbreaking concerts to critical acclaim. As both founder and Artistic Director, Ms. Seiler strives to make Via Salzburg a unique experience for both the audience and the performers. Via Salzburg has been a fertile proving ground for many talented young performers who have subsequently used their experience with Ms. Seiler to achieve international careers as performers and teachers. Further, recognizing that a love of music requires nourishment from an early age, Ms. Seiler and Via Salzburg maintain an active participation in numerous educational outreach activities.

Ms. Seiler carefully creates each program to tell a story of music that spans the centuries and crosses the globe only to converge upon the point of each unique Via Salzburg concert. The Via Salzburg Chamber Orchestra constitutes the core ensemble from which the many smaller chamber groups draw their members. Via Salzburg is therefore an extremely flexible ensemble that reconstitutes itself as the repertoire requires and adapts to the often unique needs of the many composers and artists with whom it is partnered.

Via Salzburg draws its name from Ms. Seiler’s place of upbringing. In a sense, therefore, Ms. Seiler comes to us via Salzburg. Salzburg is also the birthplace of the composer who constitutes both the pinnacle of musical genius and a centrepiece of many Via Salzburg concerts, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; and so, in a way, many of us come to a love of classical music via Salzburg. This remarkable ensemble strives to itself become the road upon which the audience travels to experience Ms. Seiler’s beautiful and challenging musical vision, so that each listener might come to love such music via Salzburg.