The McGill Chamber Orchestra Artistic Director, Boris Brott Proudly Announces Les Talents de Chez Nous ~ The Best of Our Own 2018-19 Season
For Immediate Release, May 24, 2018, Montreal, QC … The McGill Chamber Orchestra (MCO), led by Artistic Director Boris Brott, presents its 79th season, showcasing “The Best of Our Own” – the brightest classical musical stars who call Quebec home. From film music icon François Dompierre, to superstars like mezzo soprano Julie Boulianne, cellist StéphaneTétreault, and violinist Alexandre da Costa, to the newest discoveries from Radio-Canada’s Virtuoses, the MCO’s 2018-19 season features a brilliant array of musical delights for every taste. Exciting new partnerships like the Azrieli Music Prizes Gala Concert and a large-scale new work by Barbara Croall, a collaboration with Kahnawake community, explore new avenues, while Daphne the Dinosaur, a young stegosaurus, introduces the splendour of classical music to the whole family. “At the core of the MCO season is our orchestra, made up of the best professional Quebec musicians who play with passion and perfection,” comments Boris Brott, “I look forward to welcoming you for this eclectic and passionate season.”
Dompierre at the Movies
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2018 | 7:30pm | Salle Bourgie
François Dompierre’s evocative scores for films like “The Decline of the American Empire” and “Jesus of Montreal” dominated Quebec cinema in the 1980s and continue to revolutionize the genre today. Dompierre himself joins the MCO to host an evening featuring several of his orchestral works, including the Concerto de Saint-Irénée with piano soloist Serhiy Salov, and the virtuosic Les Diableries with violinist Marc Djokic, along with a survey of some of his favourite film scores. This programme will also be heard at this summer’s Domaine Forget Festival, on Sunday, July 15 at 3:00 pm.
Azrieli Music Prizes Gala Concert
MONDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2018 | 8:00pm | MAISON SYMPHONIQUE DE MONTRÉAL
The MCO is thrilled to partner with the Azrieli Foundation for this Gala Concert, featuring two new major works by the winners of the 2018 Azrieli Music Prizes for Jewish Music.Inventive orchestral colour and virtuosic flair are on display for Israeli-born composer Avner Dorman’s Nigunim for Violin and Orchestra, with soloist Lara St. John. A world premiere by Canadian composer Kelly-Marie Murphy explores Sephardic themes via a double concerto, En el escuro es todo uno, featuring Erica Goodman, harp, and Rachel Mercer, cello. Guest Conductor Yoav Talmi is at the helm for this exhilarating evening of musical discovery, which also includes Hebrew songs performed by Sharon Azrieli, and Mendelssohn’s ItalianSymphony.
Indigenous Visions & Voices
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2018 | 7:30pm | Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste
Friday, October 19 at 7:30pm at Kahnawake Catholic Church
The MCO presents a special collaboration with the cultural leadership of the Kahnawake community, featuring a new, large-scale, multimedia orchestral work by Odawa composer Barbara Croall, honouring the life and legacy of Saint Kateri. Kateri Tekakwitha died in 1680 in the region now called Kahnawake and, in 2012, became the first North American Aboriginal person elevated to sainthood. Mohawk writer Darren Bonaparte and Indigenous Columbian director Alejandro Ronceria, help bring this new orchestral and theatrical work to life, bringing together actors, dancers, chorus, and evocative visuals on a grand scale. The evening also includes Malcolm Forsyth’s Trickster Coyote – Lightening Elk Concerto, with Canadian violinist Tara-Louise Montour, who commissioned the work exploring chants, and dances from her own Mohawk heritage.
MCO’s Indigenous Voices & Visions is one of the 200 exceptional projects funded through the Canada Council for the Arts’ New Chapter program. With this $35M investment, the Council supports the creation and sharing of the arts in communities across Canada.
Vivaldi, Bach & Julie Boulianne
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2018 | 7:30pm | Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste
Quebec’s own Julie Boulianne performs in the greatest opera houses around the globe, where she is praised for her “truly lush lyric mezzo-soprano” (Opera News) and “rich, beautifully rounded tone” (The New York Times). For this concert, part of the Montreal Bach Festival, Boulianne is joined by OSM principals, flutist Timothy Hutchins and oboist Theodore Baskin, in works by Bach, Telemann, and Vivaldi. Boulianne and Hutchins also join the MCO for a world premiere, Zasakwaa, by Barbara Croall
Tchaïkovsky & Tétreault
SATURDAY, JANUARY 19, 2019 | 7:30pm | Salle Bourgie
Acclaimed for playing that is “astonishingly mature not merely in its technical attributes but also in its warmth, brilliance and subtlety of colour and inflection” (Gramophone), cellistStéphane Tétreault is heard in performances around the world. The Montreal cellist was barely 12 years-old when he first appeared as soloist with the MCO. Thirteen years later, he returns to perform the same works: Alexander Brott’s Arabesque and Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations. The evening also includes Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, Op. 48.
Da Costa at the Opera
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2019 | 7:30pm | Salle Bourgie
The MCO is thrilled to welcome violinist Alexandre Da Costa for a seductive programme featuring music from the Romantic opera repertoire. The prolific recording artist – 25 albums for Sony Classical alone – and Juno Award-winner, has given close to two thousand concerts and recitals throughout North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. Da Costa and his Stradivarius join the MCO for music by Strauss and Wagner, including the Siegfried Fantasie and the Leibesleid from Die Walküre.
French Music
SUNDAY, MARCH 31, 2019 | 3:00pm | Oscar Peterson Hall
We present a beautiful evening of music from French composers Maurice Ravel and Hector Berlioz, as well as Quebec composer Jacques Hétu’s Liberté, a setting of Paul Éluard’s poem drawn from the composer’s Fifth Symphony. Direct from her debut at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, soprano Sharon Azrieli is featured Berlioz’s magnificent song cycle, Les nuits d’étéin a new arrangement for strings by François Vallières.
Daphne the Dinosaur
THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 2019 | 9:30am & 10:30am | Oscar Peterson Hall
In this delightful concert for all ages, we meet Daphne, a stegosaurus. Daphne hatches from her egg and sets out on a series of adventures to find her family, experiencing a storm and a dramatic battle, accompanied by some of the world’s greatest classical works, like the “storm” from Beethoven’s 6th Symphony and Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra, along with a foray into John Williams exciting scores for ET and – of course – Jurassic Park.
Young Virtuosos
SATURDAY, MAY 11, 2019 | 7:30pm | Salle Bourgie
The MCO is proud to celebrate our up-and-coming musical stars. Pianists Emily Oulousian and Zhan Hong Xiao are two recent winners of Gregory Charles’s Radio-Canada television series Virtuoses, which discovered these two brilliant talents. The all-Mozart programme includes the Double Piano Concerto, Symphony No. 29 in A major, and the beloved string serenade, Eine kleine Nachtmusik.
Special Events
All are welcome to join Boris Brott and the MCO for two glamourous special events, both at the luxurious Sofitel. A fundraising Gala with a Mexican Fiesta theme takes place on November 2, 2018, with a delectable evening of Chocolate & Love Songs for Valentine’s day, February 14, 2019.
