Terri Surette is a violinist from Riverview, NB. She is currently a Chancellor's Scholarship student at Dalhousie University, where she is studying towards a Bachelor of Music. Miss Surette had an early start in music, enrolling in the Music for Young Children program under Doris Sabean at the age of four. She excelled in her studies with the program, which teaches the basics of note reading, ear training, piano and singing, but it soon became apparent that her interest lay with the violin. She began old-time fiddle lessons in January of 1996 with Jocelyn Bourque, taking up classical violin studies a year and a half later under Margaret Wood. Terri was a prodigious talent in fiddling, winning her first national title at the age of ten, and two more in the subsequent years, setting a record for the contest in her age category. The very next year, she set another record, winning the Maritime Old-Time Fiddle Contest's Open Class at the age of thirteen. She also won two NB Provincial Championships and another Maritime Championship. She composed 30 of her own fiddle tunes that reflect many different events in her life, from the death of her dog to boredom in math class! She was a member of the Sussex Avenue Fiddlers for many years, and cites Ivan and Vivian Hicks as two of her greatest mentors. Her focus started to shift toward classical violin in her mid-teens. She had been a member of the NB Youth Orchestra since the age of ten, and through that had found many musical challenges that she was eager to face. Her love for the music heightened when she began playing standard repertoire, and a short time later found herself studying with Juilliard graduate and international award-winning violinist Professor Philippe Djokic. Terri excelled under Mr. Djokic's instruction and in her final year of high school played the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto as a soloist with the NB Youth Orchestra. In classical, she is a six-time NB Provincial Champion, and has represented the province at the National Music Festival from 2005-2008. This past year at the Nationals in Edmonton, AB, she placed third in the strings category, making her the only Maritime competitor to place in any category. She will be representing NB once again for the 2009 national competition. An avid academic, Terri graduated with the Governor General's Medal in 2006 from JMA Armstrong High School in Salisbury, NB. She earned enough scholarships to completely pay for her first year at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver), where she studied under Jasper Wood. Always a family girl, though, when Terri's mother was diagnosed with cancer for the second time in five years, she transferred to Dalhousie University in Halifax to be closer to home. Due to the exceptional circumstances and the fact that Dal had previously offered her a Chancellor's Scholarship (the highest honor given to incoming students), Dalhousie generously offered to re-instate the Chancellor's Scholarship if she started over in first year. She gratefully accepted their offer! Terri performs regularly in recitals, masterclasses, symphony orchestra and chamber orchestra concerts at Dal. She is once more under the expert guidance of Prof. Philippe Djokic and maintains a 4.0 GPA. This year she was selected as one of nine semi-finalists in the prestigious Eckhardt-Gramatte Competition.