Denise Djokic

“She plays with a seemingly natural ease and her glowing, warm tone and honest musical interpretations draw the listener into her complete commitment to the music.”
- The Strad

“Her lyrical phrasing and colourful palette of sound — including razor-thin notes coaxed out of her instrument’s extreme upper range — was matched only by her virtuosic technique, immediately evident with her unflinching delivery of triplet passages during the first variation.”
- Winnipeg Free Press

“A great musician imbues each note they play with meaning - you can tell the presence of musical greatness often within a bar or two - and Djokic let us know…” 
- The Globe and Mail

Instantly recognized by her “arrestingly beautiful tone colour” (The Strad), Canadian-American cellist Denise Djokic captivates audiences with her instinctive artistry and natural combination of strength and sensitivity. Acclaim for her powerful interpretations and command of her instrument has earned her world-wide recognition and appearances in some of the most venerable concert halls. 

As a soloist, Denise has performed with most of Canada’s major orchestras, including the Toronto, Vancouver, Quebec, Calgary, and Edmonton Symphonies, as well as Montreal’s Orchestre Metropolitain and the National Arts Centre Orchestra. Internationally, she has performed with the North Carolina Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Portland Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Syracuse Symphony, Charlottesville Symphony, San Diego Chamber Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, Orquesta Filharmónica de la UNAM (Mexico), Sinfonieorchester Aachen (Germany) The Academic Orchestra of Zürich (Switzerland), Amazonas Philharmonic (Brazil), among others.

Denise has received numerous distinctions and accolades over the course of her versatile career. A recipient of various grants and prizes from the Canada Council for the Arts, she was recently nominated for the Oskar Morawetz Award for Excellence in Music Performance by the Ontario Arts Council. Denise has been named one of the top “25 Canadians Who Are Changing Our World” by Maclean’s Magazine, one of “Canada’s Most Powerful Women” by Elle Magazine, and won first prize at the Irving M. Klein International String Competition. A natural leader and advocate for classical music, Denise is equally at home on the podium as a keynote speaker, having presented at forums such as IdeaCity in Toronto and the Women In Leadership Conference at Queen’s University. Denise was a featured performer at the 2002 GRAMMY Awards, where she opened for pop rock band Train with solo Bach and then joined the group in a performance of their hit song, “Drops of Jupiter”. 

Denise is deeply committed to exploring music of our time and representing different perspectives and voices on the stage. Her Lincoln Center debut featured Arturo Marquez’s “Espejos en la Arena” with the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas and Alondra de la Parra conducting. Her Carnegie Hall debut featured a performance of John Estacio’s Triple Concerto with pianist Angela Cheng and violinist Juliette Kang, and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra with William Eddins conducting. Denise joined cellists Paul Marleyn and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi for the premiere performance of Vincent Ho’s “3 Warriors” Concerto for Cello Trio and String Orchestra at the International Cello Festival of Canada. Recent collaborations have showcased works of Texu Kim (Pali-Pali!!), Augusta Read Thomas (Cantos for Slava at the 2022 Bowdoin International Music Festival), and Steven Mackey (Through Your Fingers, Bowdoin 2019). During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, Denise recorded a video performance of the first movement of composer Robert Rival’s Sonata for Cello and Piano with pianist David Jalbert (a work they co-commissioned with Scotia Festival of Music), which was funded by the Canada Council through a “Digital Originals” grant awarded to Rival. 

Denise enjoys multi-disciplinary work and is a member of Ensembl’Arts, founded by her brother, Marc, and sister in-law, Avery Zhao-Djokic: Canada’s first cultural organization with the mission of bringing together music, dance and visual arts on stage. In 2010, she performed all of Benjamin Britten’s Cello Suites in Seattle with Seattle’s Spectrum Dance in a production of Donald Byrd’s LOVE. The Seattle Times commended her playing, declaring that her performance itself was “reason enough to go”. She performed a segment of LOVE again in 2021 with the University of Illinois Department of Dance at the Krannert Center in Urbana, IL. Denise has collaborated with Ballet Victoria and the Atlantic Ballet Theatre, and has made several performance videos for Mécénat Musica, featuring projects with dancers and visual artists.  

Denise’s award-winning discography features a disc of Chopin and Rachmaninov sonatas with her long-time recital partner, pianist David Jalbert (ATMA), the complete Britten Solo Suites for Cello also for ATMA which has received consistent accolades: “young Canadian cellist Denise Djokic does them proud here with breathtaking technique and a wide dynamic sweep” (Toronto Star). Her debut CD, featuring works by Barber, Martinu and Britten received the 2002 East Coast Music Award and her subsequent album Folklore (Allegro/Endeavor) received a JUNO nomination as well as an East Coast Music Award, hit the Billboard Chart’s top 15 Classical CD’s and was featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered”.

Denise was recently appointed to the faculty of music at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she enjoys the opportunity to mentor a diverse group of young cellists and instrumentalists. She has been a visiting professor at the University of Ottawa and spends her summers teaching and coaching chamber music at festivals and institutes such as the Emerald Coast Chamber Music Festival, Scotia Festival of Music, the National Youth Orchestra of Canada and Bowdoin International Festival of Music. 

Denise comes from a large musical family and began her early training in her hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia with Olive Shaw and Shimon Walt. She moved to Cleveland, Ohio, during her high school years to study at the Cleveland Institute of Music with Richard Aaron and is a graduate of its Young Artist Program. Denise furthered her training at the New England Conservatory, where she completed her Undergraduate Diploma with Laurence Lesser and Paul Katz. She now resides in Urbana, Illinois, with her family.