Introducing the Soldiers of Soldier's Tale: Mie Hirschfield, Violin

Mie Hirschfield holds a bachelor of music from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and a masters from McGill University where she studied with Felicia Moye. She joined the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra in 2013-2015, and was featured in a recording of Peter and the Wolf under the Naxos label with the National Music Festival Symphony Orchestra. Her festival appearances include Round Top Festival Institute, the Saarburg International Music Festival in Germany, the Vermont Mozart Festival, the National Music Festival in Maryland, and the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival in Vermont.

Are you originally from Montreal? If not what brought you to the city? I moved to Montreal to study at McGill, but fell in love with the city and decided to stay after graduation

Who is your favorite composer and why? Constantly changing my answer but at the moment I would have to say Shostakovich. When I listen to his music, I feel like I’m experiencing a tiny piece of the angst and anguish he fought against daily. Also I love his dry sense of humor, especially in his quartets. and I think we probably would have gotten along

What non-musical interests and hobbies do you have? I bake bread! Really anything involving cooking and eating carbs.

Do you have any funny or strange performance stories? My favorite happened while I was subbing at a pops concert with a regional orchestra in North Carolina. We were playing John Williams’ Star Wars Suite, and during the Imperial March (with no warning) Darth Vader and a crowd of stormtroopers came onstage and proceeded to “arrest” the conductor. Darth Vader stayed on stage to finish conducting the movement, and the musicians tried not to look up and start laughing.

How did you come to play your chosen instrument?

I started playing violin at age four, because at the time I was too small to play any other instrument. I love the violin, but I’ve always wondered if I’m really a brass player at heart.

Watch Mie shred on the violin in Stravinsky's iconic chamber work L'Histoire du Soldat on August 29th at La Sala Rossa (4848 boulevard Saint-Laurent, Montreal) at 8pm. Tickets are available at the door but if you buy them in advance at the link below you can get your ticket for 10% off!

Click Here For Tickets

Check back here for more information on our upcoming performances and more of a sneak peak into the amazing talent working to bring you this performance of Soldiers Tale!