Shanti Sivarulrasa

Born in Ottawa, Ontario, Shanti Sivarulrasa began studying violin at the age of four. She is in her third year of the Bachelor of Music program at Dalhousie University on a four-year Fountain Performing Arts Scholarship. Currently, Shanti studies violin with Leonardo Perez and serves as the Concertmaster of the Dalhousie Symphony Orchestra. Her previous violin teachers have included Sara Mastrangelo, Karoly Sziladi Sr., and Christopher Barham. Shanti is a two-time winner of the Dalhousie Concerto Night Competition. For her performance of the Bruch Concerto No. 1 in G minor in 2023, she was awarded the Djokic Family Prize for Excellence in Performance, a prize honouring a student who demonstrates exceptional musical talent with the potential for a professional performance career. In 2022, she was awarded the Jay-MacLellan Family Award for Music Leadership and the Fountain Performing Arts Prize in Music by Dalhousie University. Earlier that year, Dalhousie University also awarded Shanti the Halifax Ladies Musical Club Scholarship, awarded to the First-Year student who displays the highest potential as a performer. In 2021, she was awarded the Honourable L.D. Curie Memorial Scholarship in Music by Dalhousie University and the Gilles Paquet Memorial Scholarship by the Ottawa Youth Orchestra. In 2020, she performed with the Ottawa Youth Orchestra at the Ottawa Youth Orchestra Academy and served as Concertmaster. Shanti is pursuing concentrations in both composition and performance in the Dalhousie music program. Outside of her studies, Shanti is the first violinist and a founding member of the Rostova String Quartet, a group performing in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She is also a violin and theory teacher at the Scotia Suzuki School of Music.