Pachelbel Trio Biographies

Founding Members of the Pachelbel Trio:
Rufina Sirotinina, violin (left)
Nancy Case-Oates, violin (center)
Sandra Pope, cello (right)

Rufina Sirotinina was born in Estonia and began her musical studies there. After she completed a Diploma at the Tartu School of Music, she spent more than 20 years performing violin in opera orchestra, chamber orchestra and chamber music before moving to Canada in 1990.

Since coming to this country she has performed regularly with the Newfoundland Symphony and its chamber orchestra, Sinfonia as a Section First Violin. Rufina also has had many years experience teaching the violin in St. John’s, and in Estonia at the Children’s Music School. In her spare time, Rufina is an accomplished painter and enjoys gardening.

Nancy Case-Oates began her musical studies on piano and violin at an early age, performing regularly at local Kiwanis Festivals and winning many awards for violin, piano and voice. She has acquired degrees in performance from both Universities of Toronto and Victoria. She has been featured as solo artist twice with the NSO Sinfonia.

Nancy has just recently been appointed Principal Second Violin of the NSO and Second Violin of the Atlantic String Quartet She also enjoys teaching Suzuki violin and playing with the Pachelbel Trio. In her spare time, Nancy designs and creates hand-embroidered crafts and plays with her two sons, Edmund and Noah.

Sandra Pope, cellist, holds both a Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in Performance from the University of Western Ontario, as well as a Bachelor of Music Education from Memorial University. A founding member of the Pachelbel Trio, she is also Assistant Principal Cellist of the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra. In addition to a busy private cello studio, Sandra also teaches music for the Eastern School District.

In her spare time, Sandra enjoys fishing of all sorts, mountain biking, cooking and watching Star Trek Enterprise.

The Pachelbel Trio has been together as a group since the spring of 2000 performing at many weddings, receptions and special functions. In July ,2006 the Trio made its first recording: Salut d’Amour.