Montreal Region: Readings • 2011-2012
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Location: Vanier College Campus, Main Entrance |
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Philippe Bourque - Mozart Mass in C Minor KV. 427 - choir and orchestra
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Mr. Philippe Bourque, choir and orchestral director, jazz and classical pianist, was appointed conductor of the Vanier College choir in September. Philippe Bourque obtained his master's in Choral Conducting under the direction of Maestro Julian Wachner at McGill University in 2006 after having completed a Bachelor's degree in classical piano. graduating with distinction.
Philippe’s choral experience includes the position of assistant-conductor for McGill University's Concert Choir and Chamber Singers. director of Les Petits-Chanteurs de la Cathédrale Marie Reine du Monde as well as the newly founded Chœur en Jazz ensemble. Currently, Mr. Bourque is the conductor and artistic director of the women's choir Simply Sweetly at McGill University, both the classical and gospel choirs at Vincent-d’lndy College, the Chœur de Musée d'Art de Joliette and he is the artistic director at the Terrebonne Baptist church. In addition, he was the artist-in-residence at FACE High School working with children from all ages and levels including the FACE Young Singers from 2007 to 2010.
Aside from choral conducting, Philippe Bourque's musical interests range from classical piano performances to jazz 'gigs', as well as teaching and arranging music. He has also garnered several musical awards including The Lieutenant Governor's Prize at Vincent-d'lndy Musical College, the Constance Willey Prize at McGill University and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada study bursary on hymnology.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Peter Willsher - Faure Requiem - choir and orchestra
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Maestro Willsher has been Artistic Director of the Montreal-based Cantabile Chorale since 1992. Under his leadership, the ensemble has performed most of the classical choral repertoire, including such major works as the Verdi Requiem and the Bach Passions.
Of special interest to Mr. Willsher is the sponsorship of young classical vocalists from McGill University who are on the threshold of their careers. For many of them, it is the first opportunity to perform professionally with a full choir and orchestra. Many of them are now pursuing careers in Europe and North America.
He studied clarinet, piano and conducting in the UK at Trinity College of Music. His post-graduate studies took him to Siena, Italy to study conducting with Maestro Franco Ferrara. Since his arrival in Canada, he has taught in Newfoundland, Cornwall and Ottawa, Ontario, where he also conducted extensively. He now resides in Montréal, Québec.
Increasingly, composing has become a major interest. Peter Willsher writes music that explores the relationship between voice and instrument. Several of his works have been written for and performed by Cantabile Chorale, as well as many choirs around the world. His music has been performed on every continent. In 2009, he was invited to direct one of his works at the famous St. Martin in the Fields church in London, England.
To sample some of his works, go to http://www.youtube.com/user/ClassicalComposer?feature=mhum
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Christopher Jackson - Handel's Messiah - choir and orchestra
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Christopher Jackson has been conducting the CAMMAC Christmas Reading for several years. Christopher is an organist and harpsichordist, is the musical director of the Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal, a professor at Concordia University and is internationally recognized as a conductor.
He was a pioneer in the development of early music in Canada. Every summer he conducts the choir at CAMMAC’s Lake MacDonald Music Centre during Early Music Week.
Sunday 22 January 2012
Betsy McMillan - A Baroque and Renaissance Afternoon.
All voices, instruments, recorders, viols, strings and winds warmly welcome. We will be reading different types of madrigals from serious to humorous as well as other
musical forms of the period.
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Betsy MacMillan - viola da gamba
After receiving a Masters degree in performance on the viola da gamba from McGill University, Betsy MacMillan was accepted as a post-graduate guest-student at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague, Holland, where she furthered her studies on the viola da gamba with Wieland Kuijken during the 1982-83 academic year.
Betsy MacMillan is a founding member of Ensemble Arion, formed in 1981, with whom she has performed numerous concerts in Europe, Mexico, Ireland, England, Brazil, the United States, as well as throughout Canada. She is heard regularly on the CBC and Radio Canada networks both as a soloist as well as a chamber musician, and has made more than 25 recordings on the labels of Dorian, Analekta, Atma, Titanic, SRC, and CBC.
Betsy MacMillan freelances with a variety of groups, and is co-coordinator of the Early Music Ensembles at McGill University. She is also invited regularly to teach at many different early music and viola da gamba workshops.
Sunday 19 February 2012
Sebastien Lauriault - Schubert’s Mass No. 2 in G Major.
Voices with complete orchestra, oboes, bassoons, trumpets and strings
Dr. Sebastien Lauriault
Sebastien Lauriault studied conducting with Maestro Raffi Armenian at the Conservatoire de Musique du Québec in Montreal, where he received the Award in Orchestra Conducting in 2001. He also studied musical analysis with Serge Provost and his dissertation in this discipline covered the work of Gilles Tremblay, Fleuves. He also won the Prix du Conservatoire in 1998. He also studied choral conducting with Maestro Louis Lavigueur.
Sebastien Lauriault started his musical studies with the violin before turning to writing music and orchestration under the supervision of Jacques Faubert, graduating from the Conservatory in that discipline.
He is actively involved in CAMMAC, where he served as a teacher and director. Sebastien Lauriault led the CAMMAC Montreal Symphony Orchestra for seven years, during which he performed the Requiem by Mozart and Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. From 2000 to 2006, he also served as musical director of the Théâtre lyrique de la Montérégie with which he performed several operettas and did some tours in France. He was the musical director of the Chœur de la montagne (Beloeil) where he, among other, performed the Messa di Gloria by Giacomo Puccini and Ein Deutsches Requiem by Johannes Brahms.
Sunday 18 March 2012
Jean-Pierre Brunet conductor
Ludwig van Beethoven: Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt (Calm Seas and Prosperous Voyage) Cantate Op. 112
Théodore Dubois : The seven last words of Christ
For choir and full orchestra
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Jean-Pierre Brunet
Jean-Pierre Brunet describes himself as a self-taught artist who remained faithful to his academic training. He studied violin, conducting and viola at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal before perfecting his knowledge of early music at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague in The Netherlands. There, he was accepted into the class of the renowned violinist Sigiswald Kuijken with whom he studied the unique playing technique for the interpretation of works from the Baroque period.
In Canada, Jean-Pierre Brunet has been heard in several concerts on Radio-Canada as a violinist and conductor. Founding member of the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, he played baroque violin for ten years. He also founded the Orchestre Symphonique de la Montérégie (now the Orchestre symphonique de Longueuil), which at the time of its founding, was dedicated to the performance of forgotten or unknown works. Jean-Pierre Brunet has also written film music for the NFB in collaboration with the late composer Serge Dion. He taught the violin at the Université de Montréal and the history of music at Concordia University. In addition, he has been a CAMMAC teacher for more than 25 years.
Sunday 22 April 2012 (Assemblée générale)
Jean-Pascal Hamelin - Mozart’s Coronation Mass.
All voices and orchestra - trombones, flutes, oboes, horns, trumpets, violins, cellos - no clarinets.
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ln June of 2008, Jean-Pascal Hamelin was invited to conduct the Youth Orchestra of the Americas (YOA) in Medellin, Colombia, for the inaugural concert of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States, broadcast live on national television. He was re-invited to conduct the Youth Orchestra of the Americas for their North American tour in July and August of 2009, performing with pianist Gabriela Montero (in Rachmaninov's Second Concerto). The concert at Domalne Forget on August 1*‘ was recorded by the Fidelio Audio label.
Mr. Hamelin is currently conductor and music director of the Philharmonia Mundi Orchestra of Montreal. He conducted the Orchestre symphonique des jeunes de Sherbrooke for two seasons (2006-2008). In September 2009, he also became music director of the Vaudreuil-Soulanges Choir. Highlights of past seasons include a concert as guest-conductor with the Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivieres, an all-Grieg anniversary concert (100”‘ birthday in 2007) featuring pianist Louis Lortie in the A minor Piano Concerto, and the North American premiere of Gilbert Bécaud’s Cantate l’Enfant à I’ÉtoiIe for mixed choir, children’s choir, baritone solo and orchestra.
Jean-Pascal Hamelin studied conducting with Raffi Armenian at the Conservatoire de Musique du Québec à Montréal (2002-2005), and with Jean-Francois Rivest and Paolo Bellomia at the Université de Montreal. He attended conducting workshops in the United States and in Europe, including those with Harold Farberman at Bard College (NY) and Gianluigi Gelmetti at the Academia Chigiana of Sienna, ltaly.
Born in Montreal, Quebec in 1974, Jean-Pascal studied piano at the Vincent-d'lndy School of Music, then with Charles Reiner at McGill University, where he obtained a Bachelor of Music degree in 1997. He continued his studies with Edna Golandsky and Dorothy Taubman in New York City.
Mr. Hamelin is also a co-founder and artistic director of the recording label PALEXA (1996). After working as an assistant producer at Radio-Canada in, he became a regular guest commentator on classical music (2000-2005).