Mozart et Haydn, vents et harpe

Jonathan Cohen has forged a remarkable career as a conductor, cellist and keyboardist. Well known for his passion and commitment to chamber music Jonathan is equally at home in such diverse activities as baroque opera and the classical symphonic repertoire. He is Artistic Director of Arcangelo, Music Director of Les Violons du Roy, Artistic Director of Tetbury Festival and Artistic Partner of St Paul Chamber Orchestra. From the 2023-2024 season, he will be the Artistic Director of the Handel and Haydn Society.

The 22-23 season sees Jonathan returning to the USA to conduct the Handel and Haydn Society and St Paul Chamber Orchestra and his projects with Les Violons du Roy include Handel’s Alcina and programmes with Carolyn Sampson and Philippe Jaroussky. He conducts Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Real Filharmonia de Galicia and Orquesta Barroca de Sevilla, as well as projects with Arcangelo including Handel’s Theodora.

Jonathan founded Arcangelo in 2010, who strive to perform high quality and specially created projects. He has toured with them to exceptional halls and festivals including Wigmore Hall London, Philharmonie Berlin, Kölner Philharmonie, Vienna Musikverein, Salzburg Festival and Carnegie Hall New York. They made their Proms debut at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in 2016 and returned to the Proms in 2018 (Theodora) and 2021 (St Matthew Passion).

Arcangelo is busy and much in demand in the recording studio, partnering with fine soloists such as Iestyn Davies (its disc Arias for Guadagni won the Recital Category at the 2012 Gramophone Awards and its recording of Bach cantatas was best Baroque Vocal recording at the 2017 Gramophone Awards), Anna Prohaska, and Christopher Purves for Hyperion Records. Its recording CPE Bach Cello Concertos with Nicolas Altstaedt won the BBC Music Magazine Awards Concerto category in 2017, and its Buxtehude Trio Sonatas, Op.1 recording for Alpha Classics was nominated for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance at the 2018 Grammy Awards. Arcangelo’s recent recordings include Handel’s Brockes-Passion, Buxtehude Trio Sonatas Op. 2 and a further disc of Bach Cantatas with Iestyn Davies.

Valérie Milot is a musician and entrepreneur who walks an unconventional career path. Championing her instrument into the spotlight, she reinvents the harp and its clichés, putting forth its powerful sound and astonishing colours.

A sought-after soloist, Valérie regularly performs a rich solo repertoire with prestigious orchestras (Les Violons du Roy, Orchestre symphonique de Québec, Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal) and with reputed conductors (Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Bernard Labadie, Nicolas Ellis, Mathieu Lussier, Jean-François Rivest, amongst others). An active musician online, her YouTube channel boasts over three million views.

2022 marks the addition of two albums to an already vast catalogue: Canzone di Notte, featuring a duo with the coloratura soprano Marianne Lambert (Fidelio) and Transfiguration, a collaboration with the cellist Stéphane Tétreault (ATMA Classique), as well as participating in many recordings and chamber music concerts.

On the production front, Valérie manages two companies that oversee projects encompassing original production, touring, music publication, and CD production.

An eager pedagogue, Valérie is a professor of harp at the Montreal Conservatory of Music. There, she heads numerous projects in line with her mission of increasing the harp’s discoverability.

After obtaining her Prix avec Grande Distinction upon completion of her studies at the Conservatory with Caroline Lizotte in 2008, she is awarded the Prix d’Europe. The first harpist to win the prize in almost a century, this esteemed award allows her to further her studies with Rita Costanzi in New York. Her accomplishments continue thereafter, where she is named Révélation Radio-Canada and receives multiple prizes.

Valérie plays on an “Apollonia” harp by Salvi, graciously loaned to her by the Canimex company of Drummondville and belonging to the patron of the arts Roger Dubois.

A unique ensemble in Quebec's musical landscape, Pentaèdre explores and introduces the public to a varied and original chamber music repertoire from the great tradition of music for winds. Co-founded in 1985 by Normand Forget (oboe), Guy Pelletier (flute), Gilles Plante (clarinet), Michel Bettez (bassoon) and Francis Ouellet (horn), the ensemble also welcomed flutist Danièle Bourget aboard for many years.

Pentaèdre is currently made up of five talented performers whose technique and precision are unanimously acclaimed: Ariane Brisson (flute), Élise Poulin (oboe), Martin Carpentier (clarinet), Louis-Philippe Marsolais (horn) and Mathieu Lussier (bassoon).

Over the years, the ensemble has collaborated with renowned performers including tenors Christoph Prégardien and Rufus Müller, baritones Russell Braun and Phillip Addis, soprano Karina Gauvin, pianists Naida Cole, David Jalbert, Iwan Llewelyn-Jones and Charles Richard-Hamelin. Pentaèdre has also teamed up with renowned chamber music ensembles such as the Penderecki String Quartet, Quatuor Arthur-LeBlanc, Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet, Quintette à vent de Marseille, Azahar Ensemble and Slowind, and has performed widely in Canada, Europe, the US and Middle East.  

Pentaèdre’s seven recordings to date include a chamber version of Schubert’s Winterreise by Normand Forget, awarded the Opus Prize in 2008, and an arrangement of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, nominated at the ADISQ gala in 2014. To these accolades are added excellent reviews of the ensemble’s original performances L’amour est un opéra muet and A Chair in Love, as well as an Opus Prize in 2002 in the category “Concert of the Year: New, Contemporary and Electroacoustic Music.” In 2017, pursuing its commitment to developing and disseminating repertoire for wind quintet, Pentaèdre instituted the Fonds Normand Forget, whose mission is to support the creation of new works, both locally and internationally.

The fluidity and sensitivity of her playing and the richness of her sound incited the musicians of Pentaèdre to invite Ariane Brisson to join the ensemble in 2016. Since 2019, she has also served as Pentaèdre’s Artistic Director.

For close to twenty years, Ariane Brisson’s curiosity and creativity have been at the heart of her numerous artistic achievements. Selected in 2019 as one of the CBC’s “30 Hot Classical Musicians Under 30,” this young flutist stands out for the refinement of her interpretations. As Principal Flute with the Grands Ballets Canadiens Orchestra and the Orchestre symphonique de Drummondville, and as a regular collaborator with Les Violons du Roy chamber orchestra, she has performed throughout North America as well as in Europe and Asia. In recent seasons, Ariane Brisson has been invited to perform as a soloist with the Trois-Rivières and Drummondville symphony orchestras and with the Neues Zürcher Orchester. A passionate chamber musician, since 2015 she has enjoyed a fruitful collaboration with pianist Olivier Hébert-Bouchard. Together, the two artists have toured Canada (Jeunesses Musicales Canada, 2017–2018) and produced an album (Burlesques) in addition to being selected as finalists for the Opus Prize in the category “Concert of the Year: Modern and Contemporary Music” (2016–2017).

After completing her studies at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal under Marie-Andrée Benny, Ariane went on to refine her craft with flutist Mathieu Dufour in Chicago with the generous support of the Prix d’Europe, which she won in 2013. Her personal reflections on transverse flute performance and pedagogy led to doctoral studies in the Faculty of Music at the Université de Montréal under the tutelage of Jean-François Rivest and Michel Duchesneau. Since 2019, she teaches flute and gives lectures at that same institution.

Ariane Brisson wishes to extend special thanks to the Prix d’Europe Foundation (2013), the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec (CALQ), the Sylva-Gelber Foundation, the Observatoire interdisciplinaire de création et de recherche en musique (OICRM), and to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) — all of which have proven essential to her ambitions and various artistic projects. Ariane plays both on a Yamaha transverse flute made of grenadilla wood, as well as on a Powell 10K flute graciously loaned by Canimex Inc. (Drummondville, Canada), property of the patron Roger Dubois.

Élise Poulin began her oboe studies at École secondaire Joseph-François-Perrault. Very early in her career, she had the opportunity to perform as a sub with several orchestras throughout Quebec: the Orchestre symphonique de Laval, Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivières, Orchestre symphonique de Longueuil, Orchestre symphonique du Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean, Société de musique contemporaine du Québec, I Musici chamber orchestra and many others. In addition to orchestral music, Élise’s English horn playing is featured in the film Les Petits Cochons 2, music by Martin Léon. She has also enjoyed many collaborations with the École de danse contemporaine.

Élise Poulin has been awarded bursaries by the Fondation Pierre Rolland, the Canadian program Stingray Rising Star and the Fondation du Père-Lindsay. She also received a scholarship from the latter Foundation to attend HEC-Montréal’s Formation en affaires et développement de carrière pour musiciens (Business Training and Career Development for Musicians) program.

Élise studied at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal (class of Lise Beauchamp), where she obtained her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in addition to completing the Concours in chamber music. She also studied at the Conservatoire Boulogne-Vaillancourt in Paris in the class of oboist Olivier Doise, as well as at the Université de Montréal under Vincent Boilard.

Élise teaches oboe at École secondaire Pierre Laporte, École secondaire St-Edmond as well as the Coopérative des professeurs de musique de Montréal.

Martin Carpentier earned his Bachelor’s in Clarinet Performance, magna cum laude, from McGill University, where he studied with Emilio Iacurto. He went on to serve as Principal Clarinet with the Orchestre des jeunes du Québec. After studying under Karl Leister (Principal Clarinet with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra) in 1992 and subsequently obtained his Master’s Degree in Performance from the Université de Montréal, under the supervision of André Moisan.

A highly sought-after clarinetist, Martin Carpentier is a member of Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (NEM) and of Pentaèdre. He also performs regularly with the Orchestre Métropolitain, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, the Opéra de Montréal, Les Violons du Roy and I Musici de Montréal, and has recorded CDs with Société des vents de Montréal, Pentaèdre and NEM.

Martin teaches clarinet at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM), the Université de Montréal and at Collège Vincent-d’Indy.

A member of Pentaèdre since 2002, Louis-Philippe Marsolais’ exceptional technical mastery and musicality have brought inestimable richness to the ensemble.

Formerly Principal Horn with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, Associate Principal Horn with the Orchestre symphonique de Québec and Third Horn with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Louis-Philippe Marsolais currently serves as Principal Horn with the Orchestre Métropolitain. A renowned recitalist, concert performer and chamber musician, he performs regularly throughout North America, Europe and Asia. A winner of three prizes at the prestigious Munich Competition in September 2005, he has also received numerous awards at international competitions, including the Geneva Competition, Mozart Competition in Rovereto and the Trévoux International Horn Competition.

As a soloist, he has performed on several occasions with the Montreal, Quebec, Trois-Rivières, Longueuil and Peterborough symphony orchestras, the Orchestre Métropolitain, Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the Munich, Geneva, Neuchâtel, Zürich and Montreal chamber orchestras, the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano, Les Violons du Roy and the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec.

Louis-Philippe Marsolais has cultivated a special interest in contemporary music and has premiered several works by Canadian, Swiss, German and French composers for solo horn, horn and band or for chamber music ensemble. He is also Associate Professor at the Faculty of Music of Université de Montréal.

Recently appointed Artistic Director of Arion Baroque Orchestra, Mathieu Lussier has been associated with les Violons du Roy as Conductor-in-residence in 2012, and Associate Conductor from 2014 to 2018, Lussier has led the orchestra in concerts in Quebec, and on tour in greater Canada, the United States, Mexico and Brazil, collaborating with artists such as Marc-André Hamelin, Philippe Jarrousky, Alexandre Tharaud, Jeremy Denk, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Julia Lezhneva, Anthony Marwood and Karina Gauvin. Previous appointments include Artistic Director and Conductor of the Lamèque International Baroque Music Festival, where he served from 2008 to 2014. As a soloist, Mathieu Lussier has energetically and passionately promoted the modern and baroque bassoon as solo instruments for more than two decades throughout North America and Europe. He also devotes considerable time to chamber music as a member of ensemble Pentaèdre de Montréal. Since the summer of 2014, he has been Professor at Université de Montréal. His numerous solo recordings include over a dozen bassoon concertos (Mozart, Vivaldi, Fasch, Graupner, Telemann, and Corrette), a CD of bassoon sonatas by Boismortier, three CDs of music for solo bassoon by François Devienne, and two CDs of wind music by Gossec and Méhul. Mathieu Lussier is also a respected composer, with a catalogue of over 50 titles heard regularly in the concert halls of North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. In 2018, He composed the score for « La chute de l’empire américain » from Oscar winner Denys Arcand. In August 2009, his piece Bassango, in its version for bassoon and string orchestra, won the third prize in the Contemporary Classical Song category at the Just Plain Folks Awards of Nashville, Tennessee. Mathieu Lussier’s music has been recorded on numerous occasions and is broadcast all around the world. “Dos Tropicos,” a wind quintet written in 2001, has been performed over 100 times in Canada, Europe and the United Kingdom. His compositions are published by Trevco Music (USA), Accolade (Germany), June Emerson (UK) and Gérard Billaudot (France).