Valdine Ritchie Mishkin | cello
Canadian cellist Valdine Ritchie Mishkin is infiltrating every musical genre, from gut strings to electric cello and tango to rock. She champions contemporary music with Third Angle New Music, Fear No Music, March Music Moderne, and 45th Parallel Universe and has premiered works from composers including John Luther Adams, Kenji Bunch, Nancy Ives, and Karim Al-Zand. She breaks genre barriers with cross-over group Portland Cello Project, performs Latin-American music alongside Peruvian guitarist Alfredo Muro in Duo Apaixionado, and focuses on music of BIPOC composers with quartet Cellotropes. Frequently seen moonlighting with the Oregon Symphony, Valdine has also performed with Houston Grand Opera and Houston Ballet, and on period instruments with the Mercury Ensemble.
Also a frequent soloist, she debuted at age 10 with the Winnipeg Symphony. Since then she has performed concerti with the Mercury Ensemble, Sunnyside Symphony, Chehalem Symphony, Chamber Camp of Portland, McGill Symphony, and Winnipeg Youth Symphony. She can be heard on Third Angle Records, Albany Records, and an upcoming release on the NAXOS label. Valdine is a recurring guest on All-Classical FM Portland’s Club Mod and Thursdays at Three.
Mishkin holds Doctoral and Masters degrees from Rice University as a student of Lynn Harrell and Norman Fischer; a Bachelor of Music from McGill University (Montreal, Canada) as a student of Antonio Lysy; and an Associate Performance Diploma and teaching certificate in both cello and piano from the Royal Conservatory of Toronto as a student of Julie Banton and Ann Lugsdin (Winnipeg). Performing across Canada, the United States, and Europe, Mishkin’s development was shaped by such festivals as Tanglewood, Orford, Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada’s National Music Competition Festival (finalist), and Schleswig-Holstein Orchestra Academy; by masterclasses with Janos Starker, Aldo Parisot, Zara Nelsova, David Finckel, Richard Aaron, the Juilliard Quartet, and Arnold Steinhardt; and under the baton of Seiji Ozawa, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Larry Rachleff and Timothy Vernon.
On faculty at Reed College and formerly at Willamette University and George Fox University, she pays her education forward via a bustling private studio and as a coach for the Portland Youth Philharmonic. Her students are frequent finalists in local and national competitions and hold leadership positions in area youth orchestras. Valdine serves as an adjudicator, coach, clinician, conference presenter, author, and on the boards of OR-ASTA, Third Angle New Music, and Portland Boychoir.
