Praised for her "fire and chamber music smarts" (Globe and Mail), Canadian violinist and violist KATHLEEN KAJIOKA maintains a varied career, moving easily between musical worlds ranging from early to modern, from pop to Middle Eastern. She is a member of the bi-continental baroque chamber group Ensemble Masques, with whom she has performed throughout Canada, the US and Europe, including appearances at New York’s Frick Collection, Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw and London’s Wigmore Hall. They have recorded several critically acclaimed discs for the AMTA, Zig-Zag Territoires and Alpha labels, and have been awarded the ffff Telerama, Gramophone Magazine’s “Editor’s Choice” and the Diapason d’Or. 

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Since returning to her home town after studies at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, Kathleen has been a fixture in Toronto’s Early Music scene, touring and performing with Tafelmusik, Aradia, and Toronto Masque Theatre, and in Montreal as principal viola of Arion Baroque, among others. She enjoys revisiting her maternal roots in Iceland, where she has served as guest concertmaster of the Reykjavik Chamber Orchestra and guest director of the Skálholt Bach Consort. She teaches Historical Performance at the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Glenn Gould School, and brings all her musical experiences to bear in her role as broadcaster and co-music director at the New Classical FM in Toronto, and as host of “The Concert Series,” airing across Canada on Vision TV.