Wesley Shen

Wesley Shen is a Toronto-based pianist and harpsichordist specializing in the performance of contemporary music. He can be found in equal measure as a solo, collaborative, chamber and orchestral musician. He regularly performs with a number of groups including Continuum New Music, New Music Concerts, Esprit Orchestra, Soundstreams, and FAWN Chamber Creative. He is also a core member of the Freesound Ensemble, one of Toronto's newest contemporary music collectives. In more traditional settings, he can also be seen performing with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra.

A passionate advocate for new music, Wesley works closely with many of Canada’s top composers including Linda Catlin Smith, Anna Höstman, Bekah Simms, and James O’Callaghan. He can be heard on a number of recent albums including Bekah Simms’ Bestiaries, Monica Pearce’s Textile Fantasies, and Sophie Dupuis’ Comme bon lui semble. He has also received numerous grants from the Canada Council of the Arts to commission over a dozen new works for both solo harpsichord and solo piano. He continues to strive to create and contribute to these deeply fruitful collaborative relationships between performers and composers, as well as promote the harpsichord as an expressive and exciting contemporary music instrument.

As well as the piano and harpsichord, Wesley has added a number of additional instruments to his palette, namely the shō and more recently the Ondes Martenot. Wesley is a co-founding member of shshcc, a new trio of two shōs and accordion with Michael Murphy and Matti Pulkki, commissioning and performing newly created works for this unique ensemble.

Recent appearances include performing Morton Feldman's Patterns in a Chromatic Field with Amahl Arulanandam, Ligeti’s Continuum with Esprit Orchestra and new works for sho trio with shshcc at the Open Ears Festival in Kitchener.