ARTISTS
Flûte Alors
Dynamic and versatile, Montreal-based ensemble Flûte Alors! is composed of four new-generation recorder players. The ensemble has distinguished itself through the audacity of their programmes and the excellence of their performances. Through their masterful technique and extraordinary musicality, Flûte Alors! presents the recorder as an eloquent instrument capable of expressing the most extreme emotions and the subtlest of nuances.
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Flûte Alors! has been awarded prizes and nominations at the national and international level. The ensemble has been featured in numerous music festivals, and has performed in France, Germany, and the United States. Flûte Alors! has performed extensively across Canada as part of the Jeunesses Musicales Canada 2012-2013, Debut Atlantic 2013-2014, and Prairie Debut 2016-2017 tour seasons. The ensemble is currently touring Eastern Canada with their show “Recorders on the Run”, a co-production with Jeunesses Musicales Canada for young audiences.
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Dedicated to pushing the limits of the recorder and expanding the instrument’s repertoire, Flûte Alors! performs music from the Renaissance and Baroque eras, as well as contemporary, jazz, and pop works. The ensemble often collaborates with other artists from diverse backgrounds, and frequently commissions pieces for recorder ensemble from the new generation of composers, in addition to creating their own arrangements. Flûte Alors!’s performances embark on an eclectic voyage that traverses the ages, offering a bouquet of sonorities and a palette of colours to the delight of every audience.
G.Fr. Handel Messiah
Recognized for her work in the baroque repertoire, Canadian soprano Karina Gauvin sings Bach, Mahler, Britten and the music of the 20th and 21st centuries with equal success. The prestigious distinctions she has received include the title of “Soloist of the Year” awarded by the Communauté internationale des radios publiques de langue française, first prize in the CBC Radio competition for young performers, and the Virginia Parker Prize and Maggie Teyte Memorial Prize in London.
She has sung with the greatest symphony orchestras, including the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, the San Francisco Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, the New York Philharmonic and the Rotterdam Philharmonic, as well as baroque orchestras such as Les Talens Lyriques, the Venice Baroque Orchestra, Accademia Bizantina, Il Complesso Barocco, the Akademie Für Alte Musik Berlin, the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, and Les Violons du Roy. She has performed under the direction of Charles Dutoit, Michael Tilson Thomas, Bernard Labadie, Christophe Rousset, Alan Curtis, Sir Roger Norrington, Kent Nagano, Semyon Bychkov, Helmut Rilling and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. In addition, she has given recitals with pianists Marc-André Hamelin, Angela Hewitt, Michael McMahon, and Roger Vignoles.
She was Alcina (Handel) with Les Talens Lyriques and Ariadne in Georg Conradi’s Die Schöne und getreue Ariadne for the Boston Early Music Festival. She has sung Seleuce in Handel's Tolomeo with Alan Curtis, with whom she also recorded Handel operas on ARCHIV/Deutsche Grammophon, Virgin and Naïve labels, among others. She performed in Tito Manlio (Vivaldi) in Brussels and at the Barbican in London, in Ezio (Handel) in Paris and Vienna, in Giulio Cesare (Handel) in Paris and Vienna, as well as in Juditha Triumphans (Vivaldi) with Andrea Marcon at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Her performances with the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra earned her nominations at the Grammy Awards in 2007 and 2009.
Karina Gauvin’s extensive discography – over 30 titles – has won numerous awards, including a “Chamber Music America Award” for her Fête Galante disc with pianist Marc-André Hamelin, and several Opus Prizes.
Ensemble vocal Arts-Québec
The Ensemble vocal Arts-Québec is a professional choir steeped in the grand tradition of choral music in Quebec. After having been led for nearly 40 years by its founder, Yves Courville, the choir has named Matthias Maute as its new artistic director.
Since Matthias Maute’s nomination, the choir has increased the number of its appearances in Quebec and Canada, having made a stellar impression with its performances during the Montreal Baroque Festival and Ottawa’s Music and Beyond festival.
From its very beginnings, the Ensemble Vocal Arts-Quebec has chosen to perform works from the great masterpieces of the repertoire for choir and orchestra. Following upon the success of its performances of Handel’s oratorio The Triumph of Time and Truth, the choir was chosen to take part in Ensemble Caprice’s 30th anniversary celebration performances of Bach’s B minor Mass in Bourgie Concert Hall. Since the 2018 season began, the choir has performed with Ensemble Caprice in Saint-Jérôme, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, and Terrebonne, as well as in Westmount and Montreal. During one of its tours, the choir performed Handel’s Messiah in various regions of the province.
During the 2019 season, the Ensemble Vocal Arts-Quebec has been invited to perform in the opening concert of the Montreal Baroque Festival as well as the Christmas Concert planned for the Théâtre Gilles Vigneault in Saint-Jérôme. The choir also returned to perform in Ottawa’s Music and Beyond festival.
The choir’s director, Matthias Maute, received a Prix Juno award for his recording with choir entitled Vivaldi and his Angels. He has earned an international reputation for his excellent work as artistic director of Ensemble Caprice, of the Minnesota Bach Society in the USA, of the Noncerto concert series, and as co-artistic director of the Montreal Baroque Festival.
In 2019, the Ensemble Vocal Arts-Quebec celebrated its 40th year of musical excellence.
Ensemble Caprice
“The ensemble has established itself as immensely thoughtful and progressive force on the musical scene. Ensemble Caprice encourages the listener to rehear the world” New York Times
JUNO Award winning Ensemble Caprice was founded by acclaimed conductor, composer and recorder soloist Matthias Maute and has become known for its innovative and adventuresome approach to an increasingly expanding musical repertoire. In addition to its series of concerts in Montreal, the group tours extensively, in Quebec, Canada, the USA, Europe, and even Asia. The ensemble has been invited to perform in prestigious festivals, including the Lufthansa Festival in London, festivals in Bruges (Belgium) and Utrecht (Netherlands), the Felicia Blumental International Festival in Tel Aviv, and, in Germany, the Musikfestspiele Potsdam
The New York Times published a lengthy article hailing the musicians’ innovative and refreshing approach, praising them as “imaginative, even powerful; and the playing is top-flight”.
The Ensemble’s recording activity is every bit as impressive, comprising over twenty CD’s on the Analekta label. These recordings have gleaned many honours and much critical acclaim, including a 2009 JUNO award and four PRIX OPUS awards. The Ensemble’s artistic merit and the quality of its work were recognised once again when the group was chosen as a finalist in the music category for the Grand Prix de Montréal and voted “public’s choice.” In addition, Caprice was nominated for the Prix Echo Klassik in Germany and received a glowing recommendation from the prestigious magazine Gramophone.
Caprice has also gained a solid reputation for its videos on the Mécénat Musica noncerto classical music channel.
During the past two years, Ensemble Caprice has given over 100 concerts in 5 countries on 3 continents. The ensemble has performed in 11 festivals, embarked upon its first Latin American tour and made its 3rd trip to China in addition to a 1st tour in South Africa.
Sanssouci, the Regensburg early music festival, the Festival Hãndel-Festspiele in Halle and the Stockstadt Festival.
The Orchestre classique de Montréal (OCM) is the new name adapted in 2019 for what was previously known as the McGill Chamber Orchestra. It is one of Canada’s oldest and most established chamber orchestras and was founded in 1939 by Artistic Director, conductor and composer Alexander Brott and his wife, Lotte Brott, cellist and General Manager until 1998.
Founded in 1939, the McGill String Quartet grew into an orchestra which had as its members principal teachers of the McGill Conservatory of Music and eventually principal players in the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, where Alexander Brott served as Concertmaster and Lotte played in the cello section. The orchestra was quickly recognized as an ensemble of international standing and welcomed the first female Concertmaster for many decades, Yaëla Hertz. Today, the orchestra’s Concertmaster is the acclaimed violinist Marc Djokic.
In 1989, Boris Brott joined the orchestra as Associate Conductor and, in 2000, was appointed co-conductor. Upon the death of his father in 2005, he was appointed Artistic Director of the OCM.
Some of the greatest artists of this century have appeared with the OCM. They include: Yo-Yo Ma, David Oïstrakh, Lili Kraus, The Beaux Arts Trio, Mstislav Rostropovitch, Isaac Stern, Ida Haendel, Peter Serkin, Marilyn Horne, Maureen Forrester, Victoria de los Angeles, Yehudi Menuhin, Glenn Gould, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Sondra Radvanovsky, Richard Stoltzman, Marc Hervieux, Stéphane Tétreault, Alexandre da Costa, and Jan Lisiecki.
The OCM has recorded regularly for commercial labels such as Analekta and CBC Records, and appeared regularly on television. Of particular note, from the 1970’s to the early 90’s, were its annual tours in North and South America as well as Europe, and Asia. In the fall of 2019, on the Analekta label, the OCM issued a recording of new compositions awarded by the Azrieli Music Prizes.
In its 81 years of existence and predating the arts councils, the OCM commissioned and presented more Quebec new works than any other orchestra. It has given life to an impressive amount of new repertoire from composers such as Pierre Mercure, Claude Champagne, Jacques Hétu, Jean Vallerand, Alexander Brott, Walter Boudreau, Albert Chamberland, Jean Papineau-Couture, François Morel, Nicole Lizée, Maxime Goulet, André Prévost, Alcides Lanza and several others.