Ilinca Stafie

Romanian-Canadian horn player Ilinca Stafie is very excited to be a part of the National Academy Orchestra for their 2021 season.Ilinca first started horn lessons with Laurie Matiation. She later continued her education at the University of Toronto where she received both a Bachelors of Music in Performance and an Advanced Certificate in Performance, studying with Harcus Hennigar and Christopher Gongos. She began her Master of Music Performance studies at DePaul University, in Chicago with Jim Smelser in the fall of 2020, but is looking forward to being back in the Toronto music scene for fall 2021.

Ilinca has performed with the Calgary Youth Orchestra (2013 – 14), Guelph Youth Symphony Orchestra (2014 – 15), Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra (2016 – 17) and the National Academy Orchestra (2019 – 20). She has played in master classes for several renowned horn players such as Denise Tryon, Fergus McWilliam, Bruno Schneider and Ab Koster.

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.