Les Boréades: Early Music Academy in the Eastern Townships

This summer, Montreal-based baroque ensemble Les Boréades will be returning to Saint-Camille, QC, to host the ninth edition of their annual summer music academy. While the repertoire changes from year to year—the 2025 edition will focus on the music of the French Baroque—the basic premise of the academy remains unchanged: L’académie de musique ancienne de Saint-Camille is a vibrant weekend of socializing, music-making and concertizing in the heart of the Eastern Townships

A Brief History

As the musicians of Les Boréades are often invited to teach and perform at summer festivals, they have always mulled over the idea of starting their own, says Artistic Director Francis Colpron. When Colpron received a call from Jean-Pierre Harel, artistic director of the concert series Les Concerts de la Chapelle de Saint-Camille, the stage was set to start a new summer academy focused on baroque music. Harel, a baroque-music enthusiast, proposed that the camp should have a simple format, and be “not too long—about a weekend,” says Colpron. With the support of the Conseil de la culture de l’Estrie, they were able to bring their vision to life. Colpron brought in the musicians and programming, while Harel took care of on-site logistics in Saint-Camille.

A Close-Knit Community

The oldest French-speaking town in the Eastern Townships, Saint-Camille is set up as a traditional French village with “the inn, the chapel, the church, and the school” all next to each other in its centre, explains Colpron. Residents are particularly active in the cultural happenings of their small town. For one thing, they host academy participants in their homes, which Colpron describes as an especially lovely aspect of the weekend experience. Residents also participate in the academy’s opening banquet on Thursday evening. As for the end-of-academy concert on Sunday evening, “it is always a full house,” Colpron says.

What Participants Can Expect

After the opening festivities on Thursday evening, participants dive into a weekend of music-making. “The days are long,” admits Colpron. “We start early in the morning and finish late at night—with a beer.” In the mornings, participants work on their individual instruments or voice in technical courses and masterclasses with a faculty member. Afternoons are dedicated to chamber music, and the day ends with an orchestral and choir tutti in preparation for the concert on Sunday evening. The 2025 edition of the academy will have the special addition of baroque dance courses, where participants will get to “live the music in their bodies,” says Colpron.

2025 Edition: Music of the French Baroque

While last year’s academy centred around J.S Bach, the 2025 edition will focus on French music of the early 18th century. Colpron explains that early music is particularly characterized by the country where it was composed; France, Germany and Italy represent the major national schools of early music, and each has its own distinctive performance practice. French music features many dance forms, which is why Colpron decided to incorporate baroque dance classes into this year’s academy. Participants will be introduced to typical dance forms like the menuet, the sarabande, the gigue. Learning how to dance them will lead to a better understanding of how to play a style of music in which “dance is omni-present,” says Colpron. The central musical focus of the weekend will be the prologue from Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Médée, a five-act tragédie lyrique. At the academy, performers will familiarize themselves not only with the score itself, but with “the rhetorical corpus” that undergirds this distinctly French form of opera. “The French do not write tragedies like the German, or the Italians,” says Colpron, “For instance, a tragédie lyrique always starts off with a homage to Louis XIV, just to celebrate his glory. It is only after the homage, which lasts about 20 minutes, that the opera begins.” Colpron stresses that it’s important to be aware of these kinds of historical details in order to play this music convincingly.

Les Boréades: The Passion of Reason
Photo: Brenden Friesen

An Open Invitation

He notes that the academy is open to baroque specialists and non-specialists alike, and professionals as well as amateurs. Music students in university, as well as advanced CEGEP students, are also welcome to attend. Most of the musicians who attend the academy are instrumentalists and singers who are not familiar with baroque performance practice. At the academy, they are introduced to a whole new way of approaching music. For instance, a violinist playing on an early instrument is subject to a whole slew of changes—lowered tuning, gut (instead of metal) strings, and a differently-shaped bow. Colpron explains that the gut strings have a very different feel to them, and the bow leads to a different kind of articulation. This distinct way of articulating, or expressing the music, leads to a different way of approaching it. “When (modern) musicians come to the academy, their vision and understanding of this music is changed,” says Colpron.