Yolanda Bruno is, according to CBC Music, one of the “hottest young musicians” in Canada. She’s won a slew of awards and competitions, has performed as a soloist all over Europe and North America and joined the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 2019. She’s played for the Queen at Buckingham Palace and backed-up the Australian heavy metal band Parkway Drive at a recording session in Ottawa.

Yet her most memorable musical experiences have happened in unexpected places—playing for children in a parking lot in South-East London, giving a concert in a high-security penitentiary, playing for strangers on street corners or in parks, subways, airports, hospitals.

She believes in the power of music to break down barriers of all kinds—personal, cultural, even political. Yolanda grew up in Ottawa and music was part of life before she was even born. Her mom went into labour while playing a concert, and became Yolanda’s first, and probably most important, teacher. After studies at McGill and the Guildhall School (London), she returned to Canada and launched a whirlwind professional career full of musical adventures. She masterminded a Kickstarter campaign with pianist Isabelle David to cover the costs of their first CD, The Wild Swans. It features music by eleven women composers, spanning ten centuries, including several world premieres. During the pandemic, she gave over 50 free performances as part of a project she calls “Music for Your Blues.” Children, retirees, folks in classrooms and seniors’ centres joined her for online concerts combining music with stories and poetry. For Yolanda, playing (on her nearly 300 year-old Domenico Montagnana) violin is about spinning sound, carving notes to make them speak as words—communication that is both intimate and provocative.