hello there. Welcome to my site!

Here's a bit about me... in third person. 

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Molly MacKinnon is an award winning violinist and collaborative artist based on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish people. Fortunate to grow up in the thriving arts community of Nelson BC, Molly studied with former Vancouver Opera Orchestra and CBC Radio Orchestra violinist Wendy Herbison before moving to the coast in 2008 for the Bachelor of Music Performance program at the University of British Columbia, where she studied with Jasper Wood and Dale Barltrop.

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Since January 2023, Molly has been the Managing Artistic Director of Little Chamber Music, a concert series focused on inter-arts collaborations, community engagement/accessibility, and innovation within the classical and new music sectors. 

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Prior to taking the helm of Little Chamber Music, Molly was the co-Artistic Director of Seagrass Music Society, founded in 2020 with flutist Heather Beaty. One of Seagrass' premiere projects is Concerts on Tap, a series that collaborates with Vancouver craft breweries to create unique, playful concert programs that pair classical music with a flight of beer. Seagrass also produced three consecutive years of The Piano Diaries, a free summer music series featuring acclaimed local concert pianists such as Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa, Libby Yu, Rajat Chowdhury, and Nicole Linaksita performing personal and intimate outdoor recitals in East Van parks.​​​

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Along with playwright Christine Quintana, Molly is the creator of Never The Last (Delinquent Theatre), a genre-bending theatre/concert project based around the life and work of 20th century Canadian composer and violinist Sophie-Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté. For it's 2019 production at the Orpheum Annex, the show received 5 Jessie Richardson Theatre award nominations, winning in the Special Achievement Award category for outstanding interdisciplinary collaboration. The show made its Toronto debut as part of Theatre Passe Muraille’s 2022/2023 season.

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Molly has been featured as a violinist in a number of theatre and interdisciplinary productions including The Idiot (Neworld Theatre/VMT), STATIONARY: A Recession-Era Musical (Delinquent Theatre), The Tempest (Bard on the Beach), The Elbow Room Café (Zee Zee Theatre), The Night’s Mare (Caravan Farm Theatre), Les Filles Du Roi (Urban Ink),  Double Happiness (Music on Main/Modulus Festival), and Good Things To Do (Rumble Theatre). Molly is the co-creator of Baba Yaga and the Magic Gallery, and interactive/storytelling concert for kids performed by the Vancouver Island Symphony.

 

Molly’s extensive orchestral experience includes the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Vancouver Island Symphony, the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra, the Plastic Acid Orchestra, the Vancouver Film Orchestra, and the Allegra Chamber Orchestra, one of the only all female orchestras in the world.  Molly has also performed on several occassions with the legendary jazz/funk/new music ensemble Hard Rubber Orchestra. 

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Molly is a member of the  Black Dog String Quartet, whose first full-length album of original works A Thousand Times Brighter was released in April 2023, available on all streaming platforms other than Spotify.