“The powerhouse piano duo of Elaine Lau and Joseph Ferretti (performed) Lucien Garban’s transcription of Ravel’s La valse . . . brilliantly and dramatically played . . .” (Ontario Registered Music Teachers’ Association)

“Your performance was both poetic and scintillating” (Jack Behrens, composer)

Pianists Elaine Lau and Joseph Ferretti have performed as a duo across North America.  Their interest spans well beyond the standard canon, resulting in their continual participation in a wide variety of projects and performances.  They have held an artist residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts, premièred Linda Catlin Smith’s “Velvet” for two pianos, as well as collaborated with Canada’s electronics and voice duo, Sbot n Wo; their recording of music by Jack Behrens is featured on an album recently released by Capstone Records.

They have performed together on such series as the Glenn Gould School, the Banff Centre for the Arts, McMaster University, Blue Lake Fine Arts Festival, Mercyhurst College, Mount Allison University and Wilfrid Laurier University, where they have both served on the piano faculty since 2003.  In 2009, the duo was invited to perform in a tribute concert to the late Canadian composer Mary Gardiner, as well as to collaborate with video artist Kenny Doren in an installation at the YYZ Gallery.  During the 2011-2012 season, they were featured soloists in the NUMUS Contemporary Concerti concert.

In recent years, Lau and Ferretti have extended their collaborative work as founding members of the contemporary keyboard collective, junctQín, with pianist Stephanie Chua.  As part of this ensemble, Lau and Ferretti have performed well-received concerts at the Canadian Opera Company’s Piano Virtuoso Series at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre and at the Colours of Music Festival in Barrie, among others.  Through their work with  junctQín, Lau and Ferretti continue to participate in outreach activities such as Culture Days, as well as actively premiere new compositions by Canadian composers such as the Toy Piano Composers, Alex Eddington and Aaron Gervais.  In 2012, the group collaborated with and premiered a new work by Austrian composer Karlheinz Essl in co-presentation with The Music Gallery in Toronto and were featured in a week-long broadcast on Finland’s Rondo Classic FM, reaching audiences in Europe, including Hungary, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan.  For more information on Lau & Ferretti’s performance schedule with junctQín, visit junctqin.com