Alicia Venables was born in Victoria, British Columbia and grew up in Armstrong, British Columbia. Passionate about chamber music, her string trio was a first prize recipient at the Canadian National Music Festival. In 2017/18, she was a member of the Carnegie Mellon University “Honours String Quartet”, where they travelled to Doha, Qatar as cultural ambassadors performing and giving presentations in schools across the city. She was the winner of the Carnegie Mellon University Concerto Competition where she performed with the CMU Philharmonic. She has also been featured with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Previously, Alicia has attended Music Academy of the West (’17, ‘18), where she had the opportunity to perform in a piano quintet with Jeremy Denk. She has also attended the New York String Orchestra Seminar, the National Arts Centre Program in Ottawa, the Banff Masterclass Program and Morningside Music Bridge where she was a finalist in the Concerto Competition and performed with the Calgary Philharmonic.
She completed her Master of Music Degree at Carnegie Mellon University in 2018 where she studied with Andres Cardenes and received her Bachelor’s Degree from San Francisco Conservatory of Music with Ian Swensen. She also received a Performance Diploma from Mount Royal University where she studied with William Van der Sloot and participated in the Academy program. During her time in Pittsburgh, she was Concertmaster of the CMU Philharmonic and had the opportunity to be guest concertmaster of Johnstown Symphony and Opera Project Columbus. When not playing violin, she enjoys hiking, playing piano, and listening to jazz and bluegrass.