Deborah Kirshner was born in Montreal in 1954. She has spent her adult life as a professional violinist, graduating in performance from U of T in 1976. She then went on to study with Mr. Itzhak Perlman at Brooklyn College where she was enrolled in a Masters program. She has been the recipient of many grants, scholarships and awards and her string trio recently recorded the sound track for a documentary film. In 2003 she published her first article, ‘The Genius of Django’, for The Walrus Magazine which earned her a Gold National Magazine Award in Arts and Literature. She subsequently published two more pieces that also received national attention. In 2006 she was awarded a fellowship for Creative Non -Fiction at the Banff Center where she first began writing on Gustav Mahler. Mahler’s Lament is her first foray into historical fiction.