Joaquin Valdepeñas, clarinet, was recently appointed resident conductor of the Royal Conservatory Orchestra at the Glenn Gould School. He is a prolific recording artist, recently won a second Juno Award for his recording Levant, and his latest CD with the ARC Ensemble features the Clarinet Quintet of Paul Ben-Haim. Mr. Valdepeñas was a Grammy Award nominee two years in a row in the chamber music category—both on the Sony BMG label. He has also won a Juno award for best classical recording (for the Jacques Hetu Concerto). Mr. Valdepeñas was appointed principal clarinetist of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra upon graduation from Yale University and has performed at many of the world's international festivals. He has collaborated with the American, Calder, Emerson, Muir, Orion, St. Lawrence, Takács, Ying, and Zemlinsky string quartets, as well as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Kalichstein Laredo Robinson Trio. Mr. Valdepeñas made his European debut with the BBC Welsh Symphony and has recorded the Mozart Clarinet Concerto with the English Chamber Orchestra. He is an alumnus of the Aspen Music Festival and was featured in a PBS documentary about the AMFS. Mr. Valdepeñas is a faculty member of the Glenn Gould School at the Royal Conservatory of Music. (2012)