Audrey Sproule is a Canadian violinist, string quartettiste, and community music initiator.
Born and raised in the village of Lafleche, Saskatchewan, Canada, Audrey studied violin with Ernest Kassian, Rudolf Sternadel, Mark Fewer, Ivan Zenaty, and Richard Schmoucler, and chamber music with members of the Cleveland Quartet, the Cavani String Quartet, and the Quatuor Arpeggione. She holds a Bachelor of Music from the Schulich School of Music (McGill University, Canada), a Master of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music (USA), a Certificat d’aptitude (CA) from the Conservatoire Nationale Supérieur de Musique de Paris (the Paris Conservatory, France), and she is the recipient of several major scholarships and awards, including the McGill Schulich Award, the Saskatchewan Music Festival Centennial Prize, and the JWF Peacock Scholarship.
Devoted to evolving from classical music norms, Audrey co-founded the Crimson String Quartet in 2009. With their debut album, Crimson Sunrise, the quartet pioneered their unique approach to concert programming. They perform annually on ‘community residency’ tours through rural villages across the Canadian Prairies.
Curious to discover classical music traditions overseas, Audrey relocated to Paris, France in 2014. One year later, she joined the Quatuor Naos. From 2015 to 2018, the Quatuor Naos (Audrey Sproule and Maria Nagao, violins; Beatriz Ortiz, viola; Nicolas Menut, cello) won second prize in the Bellan International Chamber Music Competition in Paris, performed in the National Young String Quartet Weekend’s pre-concert at Wigmore Hall in London, and honed their craft in the prestigious String Quartet Training Program at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Paris.
An active freelance musician, she has performed with the Orchestre des Lauréats du Conservatoire, the Orchestre Pasdeloup, the Orchestre Prométhée, the Ensemble Écoute, and as a young apprentice musician with the Quatuor Tana. Audrey is a core member of the new-music-and-theatre collective, the Ensemble des Possibles, and she is a founding member of the Paris-based string quartet, the Quatuor Odyssée, receiving support from Naitways, Musiques Nouvelles en Liberté and the City of Paris.
Equally passionate for music outreach and pedagogy, Audrey was named a TD Scholar for her outstanding work in community leadership, and she was a finalist for the Canada National Millennium Award and for the US-Canada Fulbright Scholarship. Audrey has served as Educational Director of the Sistema-inspired CityMusic Kidz in Cleveland, USA, as section leader and assistant teacher at the Canada-India Youth Orchestra collaboration in Bangalore, India, as co-coordinator of a three-week intensive workshop focused on contemporary music in Bogotà, Colombia with the Batuta Foundation, and as teacher and artist-in-residence with the Judson String Quartet at the Interlochen Center for the Arts’ Summer Academy. Audrey was named Professor of Violin and String Quartet at the Conservatoire à rayonnement communal of Bagnolet, France in September 2018. She is also a co-founder, coordinator, and instructor with the Est Ensemble’s Inter-Conservatory String Quartet Training Program.