Carrie To gained her Bachelor of Music (with First Class Honours) and Psychology Minor from the University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada, where she studied with Julia Lockhart and Jesse Read, and was generously supported by the Maurice Taylor Scholarship in Music, the Alban and Audrey Tufts Memorial, and the Mildred Johnson scholarships. She has performed with the Vancouver Philharmonic Orchestra, New Westminster Symphony Orchestra, Opera Appassionata, and was co-principal bassoon for the Academy Symphony Orchestra (2009-2010). With her chamber groups, Carrie won two local Kiwanis festivals, and was a finalist at the Friends of Chamber Music competition.
She has also graduated from the Royal College of Music (RCM), London, with a Master of Performance in Orchestral Performance, having studied with Martin Gatt, Andrea De Flammineis, Sarah Burnett, and contrabassoon with Martin Field. Whilst in London, she performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Royal Festival Hall as part of a bassoon quartet, and performed Beethoven’s Wind Octet Op. 103 at the Bishopsgate Institute. In October 2013, she was featured as a part of the woodwind quartet, performing Frank Bridge’s Divertimenti, at the RCM Chamber Spotlight. Carrie was generously supported by the Henry Wood Trust Award.
Past professional engagements include performances with the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong (CCOHK), in which the concert was aired on RTHK 4, and the Hong Kong Band Directors’ Wind Orchestra (HKBDWO), featuring compositions by British composer and musician, Nigel Clarke, and new compositions by up-and-coming Hong Kong composers. She continues her freelance career, having performed once again with the CCOHK for their “School Culture Day” programme in March 2014. Since then, Carrie has relocated to Vancouver and her freelance career has seen her performing with the Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra, Vancouver Oratorio Society, the Sea to Sky Symphony and she is the bassoonist of the newly formed Hikari Woodwind Quintet. She has recently been invited to perform with the Postmodern Camerata and is also looking forward to being a part of the world premiere of a new opera, “Alma”, in spring 2017.
Carrie aspires to reach out with classical music and make it accessible. She uses YouTube (“Carrie To bassoon” by JustAnotherDimension) to feature video performances and original podcasts.
postmoderncamerata.com 