Romanian-Canadian hornist Ilinca Stafie began her musical journey playing the violin at the age of seven. At this tender age she was not a fan of practicing, and her parents can clearly recall her grumbling “Why are you making me do this? I will never be a musician!” on multiple occasions. 

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      Despite her youthful pessimism, Ms. Stafie is joyfully building a music career--among her prior orchestral performance highlights are performances with the National Academy Orchestra of Canada (2019-’21), University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra (2016-’20), Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra (2016-’17), University of Toronto Wind Ensemble (2015 -16), Calgary Youth Orchestra (2013-’14) and the Guelph Youth Symphony Orchestra (2014-’15). Ms. Stafie has been privileged to play orchestral concerts in a diverse array of venues across Canada ranging from the Jacksinger Concert Hall, Rozsa Centre and Jubilee Auditorium (Calgary); Koerner Hall, MacMillan Theater and George Weston Recital Hall (Toronto); and  the Banff Centre for the Arts. While participating in the Brott Music Festival in 2019, Ilinca performed in a variety of Southern Ontario halls, such as at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre, FirstOntario Concert Hall, Liuna Station and Charles W. Stockey Center for the Performing Arts. 

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     Currently, Ilinca is studying with Prof. Jim Smellser (Chicago Symphony Orchestra) where she is completing her Master of Music in Performance. Her previous masterclass experiences include performances for Denise Tryon, Fergus McWilliam, Bruno Schneider and James Thatcher, among others. Ilinca is the recipient of  the DePaul University School of Music Award, the Eugene Rittich Outstanding Brass or Woodwind Player Scholarship, the University Women's Club Toronto Heritage Fund and the Deirdre Norah Reynolds Entrance Scholarship.

 

     Inspired by the encouragement of her high school band teacher, Ilinca first started horn lessons with Laurie Matiation (Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra) at the age of 16 and furthered her studies with Harcus Hennigar (Toronto Symphony Orchestra) and Christopher Gongos (Toronto Symphony Orchestra). Ms. Stafie earned both a Bachelor of Music in Performance (2019) and an Advanced Certificate in Performance (2020) from the University of Toronto. 

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     Ilinca is an avid animal lover and horseback rider. She spent many summers teaching horseback riding to children and adults in the beautiful Alberta Rocky Mountains. When she is not making music, Ilinca's favourite guilty pleasure is reality TV show RuPaul's Drag Race, she admires the creativity and tenacity of drag culture and performance.