Vanessa Fralick

About Vanessa

Vanessa Fralick joined the Toronto Symphony Orchestra as Associate Principal Trombone in 2013. Prior to her current position, Fralick played three seasons as Acting Associate Principal Trombone of the St. Louis Symphony. She won her first orchestral position with the San Antonio Symphony in 2009, while pursuing her Master’s degree at The Juilliard School. Ms. Fralick completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto and McGill University. She has performed with major orchestras in the Netherlands, San Francisco, Montreal, Boston, Malaysia, Utah, and Jacksonville. She played two summers in the prestigious Verbier Festival Orchestra.

An active educator, Fralick is on faculty at the University of Toronto, International Trombone Summit, and Inter-Provincial Music Camp of Canada and has coached the National Youth Orchestra of Canada and Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra.

Fralick performs frequently as a soloist, most recently premiering Reena Esmail's Trombone Sonata in Canada at the University of Toronto in 2023. She will be giving a full recital at the International Women's Brass Conference this summer in Mito, Japan. Previously, she was a guest artist at Trombonanza Argentina 2017, the 2016 International Trombone Festival in New York City, and the 2015 American Trombone Workshop in Washington, D.C. She has won first prize in several major competitions, including the 2012 Elora Festival Competition, 2011 Montreal Symphony Concerto Competition, and 2010 Susan Slaughter International Solo Brass Competition, where she also performed as a guest artist at the IWBC. In 2009 she won concerto competitions both at Juilliard and Music Academy of the West.

While working in the U.S., she received two generous grants from the Canada Council of the Arts. She is an alumna of the National Youth Orchestra and National Academy Orchestra of Canada.

In 2013 Fralick recorded the album Fleur de Lis with the Trombones of the St. Louis Symphony.