Netherlands-born
Christina Mahler is Principal Cellist of a group of 18 permanent performers
with Toronto-based Tafelmusik specializing in historical performance practice.
The musical instrument she plays for baroque repertoire was made by a craftsman
nearly 250 years ago. She studied cello with Anner Bylsma at the Royal
Conservatory in the Hague, and performed extensively at fine musical centres
in Europe before immigrating to Canada, 1981, to join Tafelmusik, Canada’s
leading orchestra on period instruments founded, 1979. Ms. Mahler also
teaches cello at University of Toronto and at the Royal Conservatory of
Music, Toronto. Together with Anner Bylsma, Christina is featured in a
Tafelmusik recording of Vivaldi’s Concertos for Strings (Sony Classical
Vivarte, 1992). Spending an average 12 weeks a year on the road with annual
tours in Europe at such concert halls as the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam;
the Musicverein, Vienna; Symphony Hall, Birmingham; and Barbican Centre,
London, Christina has travelled extensively as principal cellist with Tafelmusik
in Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania,
the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, and the
United Kingdom. Urjo Kareda, renowned Music Critic, The Globe and Mail,
exclaimed, 1995, that Christina Mahler, as soloist performer, plays “with
passion and persuasion...the concert’s truest singing.” [Photo, courtesy
Christina Mahler]