Marie Gélinas is a native of Trois-Rivières, La Belle Province. She received her first training on the violoncello with Michael Kilburn at the Québec Conservatoire de Musique and continued her studies at the Juilliard School in New York City under the master pedagogy of Leonard Rose, graduating in 1979 with a Master of Music degree.

Marie's orchestral experience had begun earlier with the National Youth Orchestra, where she held the position of Principal Cello for two seasons. In 1980 she was welcomed by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

Marie's teaching experience includes a private studio as well as music education students at the University of Toronto. She also acts as a coach for the cellists of the Royal Conservatory orchestras, and assists in the Conservatory chamber music program.

For many years, Marie has participated in the Toronto Symphony Orchestra Adopt-a-Player program, and last year was a member of the committee of musicians negotiating a new orchestra contract.

Not content with merely being a cellist, Marie insisted on marrying one: former TSO cellist Edward Hayes, who has composed and arranged many works for students as well as professional-level cellists. As popular participants in the Toronto Symphony Orchestra Prelude Concerts, they have performed well over a hundred concerts at schools in the Greater Toronto Area.

Marie feeds her family an eclectic mixture of Chinese, Thai, and Italian food, much of which is made with organic produce. Her husband does the dishes. (He also has written at least one resumé.) With their two children and "coon (sic) hound", they live in a semi-restored 1917 two-story brick house "just outside" the Beaches area of Toronto, and near a Karate dojo, where Marie assists the resident sensei as a second degree black belt (nidan). She is a beginning bonsai enthusiast, and speaks fluent English with the merest whiff of a delightful French accent.

Marie performs on a David Wiebe cello, made in 1980 in David City, Nebraska.