The Toronto Chinese Orchestra’s Chamber Players (TCO-CP) form TCO’s professional core. Members of the Chamber Players have extensive musical training and are established artists and teachers in the community.

Their experience as solo, ensemble, and orchestral musicians allow them to perform the most demanding repertoire at the highest levels. Together, musicians of the Chamber Players perform Traditional Chinese music as well as contemporary works by Canadian and international composers. They promote new music for traditional Chinese instruments through public performances, workshops, and demonstrations, both at home in Toronto and abroad.

As an integral part of the Toronto Chinese Orchestra, the Chamber Players enjoy multiple national and international connections, connections that have led to TCO collaborations with the Silk and Bamboo Festival in Vancouver (April 2017) and the Edmonton Chinese Philharmonic (October 2016), as well as partnerships and performances in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Future plans for the TCO Chamber Players include a return to Vancouver to collaborate with the Sound of Dragon Festival in April 2018.

The Chamber Players is led by Patty Chan, who concurrently serves as concertmaster of the TCO and is active as a freelance erhu performer and teacher. An authority on the erhu, Chan published the first English-language text, Bridging the Gap, in 2011, and has been on faculty at York and Carleton Universities. Chan’s passion for new Canadian works led her to form the Dim Sum Ensemble, a professional Chinese instrument ensemble dedicated to pioneering Canadian Chinese music.