Sheila Jaffé: OSQ’s New Concertmaster

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On Oct. 22, 2025, Orchestre symphonique de Québec (OSQ) announced the appointment of Sheila Jaffé as concertmaster, a position previously held by Darren Lowe from 1987 to 2018. Since 2022, the position had been filled on an interim basis by Catherine Dallaire, who is none other than Jaffé’s mother’s cousin, as well as her former teacher at Conservatoire de musique de Québec during her teenage years.

After a lengthy selection process and a three-week trial period, Sheila was chosen for the position. “Sheila is an artistic partner of rare sensitivity, open-minded and curious, with a remarkable stylistic richness,” says OSQ conductor Clemens Schuldt.

An international career

Born in Montreal into a family of musicians—her mother, Johanne Perron, is a renowned cellist and teacher, formerly at Université de Montréal and now at Mount Royal University Conservatory in Calgary—Jaffé grew up in South Florida. She returned to Quebec at the age of 13, settling in Quebec City to study with Dallaire. The intensive arts program at Pierre Laporte High School in Mount Royal and her undergraduate studies at l’Université de Montréal further refined her knowledge of chamber and orchestral music.

The 36-year-old violinist and violist then went on to pursue her master’s degree in Berlin at the renowned Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, during which time she was also accepted into the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Akademie for a period of one year. In 2015, she returned to Canada and joined the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra as a violist. Now a mother of two, Jaffé will maintain commitments in Toronto as principal violist of both the COC and National Ballet of Canada orchestras.

“I am very happy to be able to return to Quebec City and be in a French-speaking environment,” she told Radio-Canada. After more than 20 years, Jaffé will be reunited with Dallaire in the first violin section.

Jaffé’s recordings include the 2022 Coviello Classics release, Lachrymae, a program of intimate works by Franck, Elgar and Britten, accompanied by Welsh pianist Huw Watkins. It is dedicated to her late husband, pianist Peter Longworth. Following this first opus, Jaffé released another recording devoted to Haydn and Mozart, this time with her Rosebud string quartet, which was reviewed in our pages (Leaf Music, 2023).