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Browsing: Baroque and Early

Marie-Nathalie Lacoursière: Baroque Dance

By Nathalie de Han on 11 November 2024 Baroque and Early, Dance, Montreal

In 2008, director, choreographer and dancer Marie-Nathalie Lacoursière founded Les Jardins Chorégraphiques, a company specializing in early dance She first performed Molière’s plays in Old Quebec with, among others, violinist Olivier Brault. “When Olivier moved to Montreal to do his master’s in Baroque music at McGill, he suggested I teach Baroque dance to a group of students,” says Lacoursière. “Dancing helps instrumentalists to feel the music so that they can physically understand its characteristics.” But how do you explain the success of these ancient dances in relation to contemporary dance? Baroque dance brings the music to life on stage—it’s a…

Mathieu Lussier: Arion Baroque Orchestra: The French Connection

By Viktor Lazarov on 11 November 2024 Baroque and Early, Classical Music, Interviews, Montreal

The Life of an Orchestra: From Embryo to Adulthood Comprising some 20 musicians playing on 18th-century instruments, more than 30 critically acclaimed recordings, adorned with numerous awards and international tours, the Arion Baroque Orchestra is a major figure in Quebec’s Early Music scene. Artistic director since 2019, bassoonist Mathieu Lussier recounts the evolution of the ensemble founded in 1981. “Arion was born at a time when many Quebec musicians were going to study Early Music in The Hague, Netherlands, to acquire experience and knowledge not existent in Quebec. Returning with precious new expertise, they founded their own ensembles to promote…

Suzie LeBlanc. Photo: Mark Mushet.

Suzie LeBlanc: Full Circle

By Holly Harris on 10 November 2024 Baroque and Early, Classical Music, Vancouver, Vocal, West

Life came full circle when acclaimed Acadian soprano Suzie LeBlanc took over the helm of Early Music Vancouver as its newly appointed Artistic and Executive Director in January 2021, returning to the province where she first launched her illustrious, 35-year international career. “Coming here felt not only like a return to the organization that gave me one of my first professional engagements outside of Montreal, but also an incredible opportunity because so much of the concert season was at a standstill due to the pandemic,” says Order of Canada member LeBlanc, of her bold leap from La Belle Province to…

Early Music & Baroque Guide

By La Scena Musicale Team on 9 November 2024 Baroque and Early, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, West

MONTRÉAL BOURGIE HALL www.sallebourgie.ca Located in the heart of downtown, Bourgie Hall of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is a must for Baroque music lovers. Nestled in a former heritage church, it provides exceptional acoustics as well as a splendid and intimate setting displaying some twenty Tiffany stained glass windows. In 2024-2025, Bourgie Hall is pleased to welcome the French ensembles Les Talens Lyrique and Près de votre oreille, as well as the renowned Quebec orchestra Les Violons du Roy. Vocal music will also be in the spotlight with prestigious British ensembles such as the Tallis Scholars, Stile Antico,…

Editorial (November 2024)

By Wah Keung Chan on 9 November 2024 Baroque and Early, Classical Music, Education

Welcome to the November/December/January national issue of La Scena Musicale, which features our annual special on Higher Education. This is also a special issue on Early Music and Baroque, a focus we began with our November 2018 issue dedicated to this fascinating period. Our French cover features harpsichordist, singer and dancer Dorothéa Ventura, the newly-minted artistic director of Montreal’s Les Idées heureuses, taking over from retired founding director Geneviève Soly who is also profiled. From the West Coast, our English cover artist is soprano Suzie LeBlanc, who heads up Early Music Vancouver. Our themed issue also shines a light on…

Dorothéa Ventura. Photo: Tam Photography

Dorothéa Ventura : At the Crossroads

By Justin Bernard on 8 November 2024 Baroque and Early, Chamber Music, Interviews, Piano, Vocal

Dorothéa Ventura knows how to do almost everything: dance, act, sing, conduct. The versatility of this artist is such that today she is employed as a harpsichordist, soprano, dancer and actress—and sometimes does double or triple duty! Her preferred repertoire, however, remains Baroque music. Meet the woman who has taken over the reins of Les Idées heureuses, succeeding the ensemble’s founder, Geneviève Soly, as artistic director. Snowy wedding, happy marriage Dorothéa Ventura remembers the first concert of Year 1—38 years ago, in the middle of a snowstorm. “At the time, I was Geneviève Soly’s harpsichord student. She introduced me to…

Geneviève Soly. Photo: Robert Etcheverry.

Geneviève Soly: Looking back at an outstanding musical career

By Viktor Lazarov on 8 November 2024 Baroque and Early, Interviews, Piano

Surrounded by her books, her harpsichord, and furniture dating back to New France, the founder of Les Idées heureuses and specialist of the works of Christoph Graupner, Geneviève Soly, reviews her musical career. People of the soil, music in their hearts “I come from a farming family,” she says. “My ancestors were profoundly musical people and like many country families in Quebec, everyone sang.” Growing up with her twin sister Isolde and brother Éric, her family wasn’t typical of the 1950s and ’60s. Their father, Bernard Lagacé, taught the organ at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal (CMM) and their…

Francis Colpron. Photo: Hugo B. Lefort

Les Boréades: The Age of Reason

By Justin Bernard on 8 November 2024 Baroque and Early, Chamber Music

Composers of Western music have long been torn between two contradictory forces: order and reason on the one hand and passion on the other. At their concert on Nov. 28, Les Boréades de Montréal will choose to side with reason, says Artistic Director Francis Colpron. “On this occasion, I’d like to demonstrate a rather rational, almost scientific, approach to the art of music to convince people that music is a universal language—a product of human genius and, therefore, a science. It’s about understanding that sometimes this language can be obtuse, expansive, hermetic, scholarly. In any case, what’s important to remember…

Crédit photo: David Mendoza Hélaine

Les Violons du Roy: 40 Years of Musical History

By Justin Bernard on 8 November 2024 Baroque and Early, Chamber Music, Romantic

The 2024-25 season marks the 40th anniversary of Les Violons du Roy. Founded by Bernard Labadie in 1984, the Quebec City chamber orchestra first made a name for itself with concerts and recordings of Baroque repertoire, before tackling a whole range of works from different eras—from classical to contemporary to Romantic—over the past few decades. The programming of this new season is a tribute to the diversity of the ensemble’s repertoire. Les Violons du Roy opened its current season with Mozart quartets and quintets. Next came Bach cantatas with countertenor Hugh Cutting, followed by a touring Handel program with the…

Musica Pacifica. Photo credit: Claudine Jacques

Review | Musica Pacifica – Rockstars of Early Flemish Music

By Heather Weinreb on 1 November 2024 Baroque and Early, Classical Music, Concert Reviews

On October 23, 2024, the stage of Bourgie Hall was graced with the presence of one of America’s premiere baroque ensembles, Musica Pacifica, which presented a repertoire of music from the 14th-17th century Dutch provinces. The music by the night’s composers —Tarquinio Merula, Jacob van Eyck, Nicolaus À Kempis, Jan Pierterszoon Sweelinck, Bernardino Borlasca, Johannes Schenk, Philippus van Wichel, Carolus Hacquart, Cornelis Kist and Johann Jakob Walther — is largely unknown, even by early music aficionados. Judith Lindsberg (recorder) and Alexa Haynes-Pilon (viola da gamba) are the core members of Musica Pacifica. For their Montreal premiere, they were joined by…

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