Violinist Annalee Patipatanakoon, cellist Roman Borys, and pianist Jamie Parker are creative innovators with an appetite for discovery and new ideas. They have commissioned over 85 new works, and they frequently collaborate with other artists on projects that push the boundaries of Classical music.

Gryphon Trio tours regularly throughout North America and Europe. It enjoys longstanding relationships with prominent arts incubators and presenters like Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Orford Music Academy, Music Toronto, Ottawa Chamberfest, and Festival del Lago International Academy of Music in Ajijic, Mexico. The Trio often performs triple concerti with the world’s major symphony orchestras and smaller chamber orchestras.

Gryphon Trio’s prolific recording catalogue includes 22 releases on Analekta, Naxos, and other labels; it is an encyclopedia of works for the genre. Honors include 11 nominations and three Juno Awards for Classical Album of the Year in 2004, 2011, and most recently in 2019. In 2013, Canada Council for the Arts presented Gryphon Trio with the prestigious Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts.

The Gryphons are deeply committed to community engagement, education, and the development of next-generation audiences and performers, conducting masterclasses and workshops at universities and conservatories. They are ensemble-in-residence at the Isabel Bader Centre for Performing Arts in Kingston, Ontario, and artists-in-residence at Trinity College, University of Toronto. Since 2010, the Trio’s ground-breaking outreach program, Listen Up!, has inspired 16 Canadian communities to collaborate on large-scale multifaceted arts creation projects. The Trio leads Orford Music Academy’s Piano Trio Workshop and directs the Classical Music Summer Programs at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

In addition to performing and recording, Shiffman is a sought-after violin and viola teacher and chamber music coach. As part of his role in the St. Lawrence, Shiffman served as artist in- residence at Stanford University from 1998 to 2006 and as visiting artist at the University of Toronto from 1995 to 2006.  Passionately committed to the composers of our time, he has been involved in the premieres of hundreds of new works, both in the St. Lawrence Quartet and beyond.

From 2006-2010, he served as Director of Music Programs at Banff Centre and from 2010-2016 was the Artistic Director of the Centre’s Summer Music Programs and Executive Director of the Banff International String Quartet Competition. During his tenure at The Banff Centre he introduced new programming in classical music performance, composition, popular music and jazz and oversaw the dramatic growth of The Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC), which he continues to direct.

Since the fall of 2010, he has been at The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, as both Associate Dean and Director of Chamber Music at the Glenn Gould School and Dean of the Phil and Eli Taylor Performance Academy for Young Artists. A sought-after juror, he has served on the jury of the Tchaikovsky and Montreal Violin Competitions, as well as London’s Wigmore Hall, Geneva, Banff, and Lyon String Quartet Competitions.  In addition to his work at Banff Centre and The Royal Conservatory, Shiffman has served as Executive Artistic Director of Vancouver’s Music in the Morning Concerts since 2009.

He is the recipient of the Nadia Boulanger Prize for Excellence in the Art of Teaching awarded by the Longy School of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Calgary.