Woman with black hair tied back into a ponytail. She smiles at the camera and wears big earrings. She also wears a white jacket and her arms are crossed.

Shauna Rolston
musician

Award-winning Canadian cellist Shauna Rolston has appeared around the world, performing with such distinguished artists as Krzysztof Penderecki, Sir Andrew Davis, Robert Spano, Marin Alsop, Keith Lockhart, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Hans Graf, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Andrey Boreyko, and Menahem Pressler, as well as undertaking innovative collaborations with Veronica Tennant, Evelyn Hart, and Peggy Baker. She has performed in many of the world’s major concert halls including Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw, Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall.

Her passion for the music of our time has led to the commission and creation for her of more than 50 new works for cello, including several concerti by Canada’s leading composers. She has also given the Canadian and North American premieres of works by Gavin Bryars, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Osvaldo Golijov, John Tavener, Einojuhani Rautavaara, and Augusta Read Thomas, among many others. Her most recent CDs include Dreamscape, featuring Shauna as soloist with cello orchestra in arrangements of popular classical favourites, and Icicles of Fire, featuring the music of Heather Schmidt written for Shauna with the composer at the piano. Shauna is a recipient of the Oskar Morawetz Award for Excellence in Music Performance.

Currently Professor of Cello at the University of Toronto, Shauna earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History from Yale University and a Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music where she studied with the distinguished cellist and pedagogue, Aldo Parisot.

For Peggy Baker Dance Projects: Shauna performed in stone leaf shell skin, A Woman By A Man, Home, Krishna’s Mouth, The Transparent Recital, Words Fail, and Sylvan Quartet.