About
Chicago-native violinist Bailey Wantuch specializes in contemporary and 20th-century music. Based in Montréal, she is the founder of the new-music ensembles Collectif Radiance and Quatuor Mémoire. She recently appeared as a soloist with the McGill University Contemporary Music Ensemble, performing Kaija Saariaho’s violin concerto Graal Théâtre. Other notable engagements include concerts with Ensemble Paramirabo and the opening concert of the Montréal Ligeti Festival. A dedicated collaborator, she has worked closely with composers both locally and at festivals such as soundSCAPE, Fresh Inc, and the Composers Conference. She has also served as faculty at the New Music Session at Domaine Forget Festival & Academy.
In the realm of research-creation, Bailey participated in the Composer-Performer Orchestration Research Ensemble (CORE), leading to a performance at McGill’s live@CIRMMT series and a presentation at the CORE Symposium at UCSD. She is a recipient of a Student Award from the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology (CIRMMT), which supports a project on complex rhythmic re-notation and the creation of a new solo violin work by composer Louis-Michel Tougas.
An active chamber musician, Bailey has performed internationally. Her piano trio, Trio Miltenberg, has appeared in Montréal, Germany, and recently toured Newfoundland. She has performed with Quatuor Æternum in the Netherlands on series such as Muziekkamer Assen. With Quatuor Mémoire, she promotes Montréal-based composers and recently participated in Projet «4:4», part of the 2025 Festival Montréal/Nouvelles Musiques. The quartet’s debut album, featuring works by Florence Tremblay, Louis-Michel Tougas, and Olivier St-Pierre, is set for release in September 2025. Additionally, Bailey has collaborated with pianists Christoph Alvarez, Hannah Watson Emmrich, Mai Miyagaki, and Edith Widayani at venues in Canada, Mexico, and Kenya.
Bailey is also a dedicated pedagogue. She teaches String Techniques at McGill University, where she has also instructed violin and chamber music. A certified Suzuki teacher, she trained under Vera McCoy-Sulentic and Mark Mutter and is a member of Suzuki Musique Montréal and the Suzuki Association of the Americas. She holds an Executive Graduate Certificate from the Global Leaders Institute for Arts Innovation, through which she taught violin and chamber music in Chile and Mexico.
Bailey earned her Bachelor of Music from Northwestern University (studying with Blair Milton) and her Master of Music from McGill University (under Violaine Melançon). Currently pursuing a Doctor of Music in Performance Studies at McGill University, she is the recipient of a grant from the Fonds de recherche du Québec which supports her research on the music of Nikolai Roslavets.