A founding member of the Avalon String Quartet, first violinist Blaise Magnière has won much praise for his interpretations. Critics have described his playing as "[having] a warm, silken tone, with a special gift for lyrical playing". A native of France, he studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School in England, McGill University in Montreal (BMus93), and the Cleveland Institute of Music (MMus95) where he worked with Donald Weilerstein. Blaise Magnière has performed in numerous chamber music festivals throughout Europe, such as the Gstaad Festival in Switzerland and the Rencontres de Musique de Chambre at the Cité de la Musique in Paris. As a soloist, he has appeared with the Cleveland Institute Orchestra, the McGill and Hartt Symphony Orchestras. He was named a Caramoor Rising Star in 1997. He is the recipient of the Jerome Gross Prize and the Bennet Levine Memorial Award, and is a prizewinner of the Leopold Shopmaker Violin Competition.Blaise Magnière has performed chamber music in many collaborations with other artists, including Sydney Harth, Donald McInnes, Peter Wiley, Gil Kalish and Philip Setzer of the Emerson String Quartet.