Ashton Lim is a Canadian cellist with extensive experience as an orchestral player, chamber musician, soloist, and teacher. He has performed regularly with the Canadian Opera Company (COC), National Ballet of Canada, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Victoria Symphony. Previous positions include the Sarasota Opera Orchestra and New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida, under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas.
Performances have taken Ashton to venues around the world, including Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (USA), Lishui Grand Theatre (China), and Prince Mahidol Hall (Thailand); closer to home, he has performed in the Royal Conservatory’s Koerner Hall and COC’s Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre in Toronto, and the Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver.
Ashton has performed chamber music with distinguished artists such as Inon Barnaton, James Boyd, and Huw Watkins, and worked with the Nash Ensemble and the Emerson, Guarneri, Shanghai, St. Lawrence, Tokyo, and Vermeer String Quartets. Recent summer engagements include Festival Casals, SALT New Music Festival, Thailand International Composition Festival, Toronto Summer Music, and Eastern Festival Orchestra in North Carolina.
A passionate advocate for arts education and community engagement, Ashton was actively involved in New World Symphony’s community, education, and audience outreach programs in Miami. He coached students at the Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico and mentored students at the Academia Filarmónica de Medellín in Colombia, where he taught private lessons, masterclasses, and coached chamber ensembles. Currently, Ashton also oversees the Solo and Small Ensemble Festival as an administrator for the Vancouver Kiwanis Music Festivals.
Born and raised in Vancouver, Ashton studied with Audrey Nodwell at the Vancouver Academy of Music and completed his ARCT in Cello Performance. He holds degrees from Mount Royal Conservatory, University of Calgary, Northwestern University, and the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music. His principal teachers were John Kadz, Hans Jørgen Jensen, Andrés Diaz, and Desmond Hoebig. Ashton has been generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.