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Pianist Samuel Lauzon-Schnittka suggests that music fosters deep human connection. Whether between collaborative partners, the performer and their audience, or the composer and the interpreter, Lauzon-Schnittka recognizes the many different ways in which music allows us to truly see one another. This is perhaps why he says that honesty—or authenticity—is the quality he most looks for in an artist.
Two of Lauzon-Schnittka’s most impactful musical experiences exhibit the connective power of music. Firstly, the pianist says that developing a deep and stimulating musical relationship with his duet partner, violinist Amellie Gendron, has resulted in rewarding work. The two have collaborated together for more than two years and recently gave a chamber-music concert they had been working on for several months entitled Du crépuscule à l’aurore : sous les étoiles de la Belle Époque. This concert was one of his highlights from last season.
Secondly, for more than two years, Lauzon-Schnittka has been regularly visiting CHSLDs (long-term care centres) in the Montreal area. He walks the floors and plays well-known gems from the classical repertoire and, above all, popular French songs from the 1950s and 1960s. “It is this project that has shown me most clearly the enormous impact that music can have on a person’s life,” says the pianist.
Winner of the 2025 Prix d’Europe, Lauzon-Schnittka has big plans for the upcoming year, including performing with two orchestras. On Feb. 1, he will perform Brahms’s First Concerto with the Orchestre symphonique du conservatoire de musique de Montréal. On March 14, he will join the Orchestre symphonique des jeunes de Montréal for Beethoven’s Second Concerto. With his Prix d’Europe scholarship, Lauzon-Schnittka plans to pursue his master’s degree and will audition at several German universities in June.
This page is also available in / Cette page est également disponible en:
Français (French)
