Nancy Dahn

Dahn studied at the New England Conservatory, the Juilliard School, and the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she earned her doctorate in violin performance.^[1]

Dahn taught violin and chamber music at the Cleveland Institute of Music.^[1] In 1995, she joined the faculty of Music at the Memorial University of Newfoundland.^[2] She was the University's first professor in strings.^[3] While there, she collaborated with her husband Timothy Steeves to create a musical duo named Duo Concertante. The name, which was inspired from Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata, was also the first piece the duo played in 1997.^[4]

By 2001, Dahn and her pianist husband Steeves launched the Tuckamore Festival together,^[5] which later earned the support of the Canadian government.^[6] That year, the duo received the 2001 Touring Performers Award from Contact East.^[7]

In 2010, Duo Concertante received the Artist of the Year Award from the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council.^[8] The next year, the duo commissioned and wrote R. Murray Schafer’s Duo for Violin and Piano, which won Best Classical Composition at the 2011 Juno Awards.^[9]

In 2016, Dahn and her husband were elected Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada.^[10] They were also promoted to University Research Professor, which the Memorial University of Newfoundland ranked above Full Professor.^[11] The next year, Duo Concertante received the 2017 East Coast Music Award (ECMA) for Classical Recording of the Year.^[12]