Didon et Énée

Les Violons du Roy and La Chapelle de Québec Music Director

Ann Birks Chairholder*

Internationally renowned for his expertise in Baroque and Classical repertoire, Bernard Labadie is the founding conductor of Les Violons du Roy, where he served as music director from 1984 to 2014 and returns to the position at the end of October 2025. He is also music director of La Chapelle de Québec choir, which he founded in 1985.

As head of both ensembles, he has toured Europe and North America performing at some of the most illustrious concert halls and festivals: Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center (New York), Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), Kennedy Center (Washington), the Barbican (London), Berlin Philharmonie, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (Paris), Brussels’ Centre for Fine Arts, and the Salzburg, Bergen, Rheingau, and Schleswig-Holstein festivals.

In 2017, Bernard Labadie took up the position of principal conductor of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in New York, a post he leaved at the end of the 2024–2025 season after eight highly successful years. He has conducted the orchestra’s annual concert series at Carnegie Hall, often accompanied by La Chapelle de Québec.

A much sought-after guest conductor in North America, he makes frequent appearances with major American and Canadian orchestras: Chicago, New York, Cleveland, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Houston, New World Symphony, Montréal, Toronto and Ottawa. In Europe, he has conducted the Mozarteum of Salzburg and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the orchestras of Lyon, Bordeaux-Aquitaine, and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. He has also headed several radio orchestras, including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich, the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as the radio orchestras in Berlin, Frankfurt, Cologne, Hanover, and Helsinki.

Bernard Labadie regularly collaborates with some of the most prestigious period-instrument early music ensembles: Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, The English Concert, Academy of Ancient Music, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and Handel and Haydn Society (Boston).

At the opera, he served as artistic director of Opéra de Québec from 1994 to 2003 and as artistic director of Opéra de Montréal from 2002 to 2006. He has also appeared as guest conductor with the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, and the Santa Fe, Cincinnati, and Glimmerglass operas. In 2021, he made his debut appearance at the Glyndebourne Festival.

Both as a guest conductor and with Les Violons du Roy, Bernard Labadie has recorded some twenty albums for Virgin Classics (now Erato), EMI, Pentatone, Dorian, ATMA, Hyperion, and Naïve.

A tireless ambassador for music in his hometown of Québec City, Bernard Labadie was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Knight of the Ordre national du Québec, and Compagnon des arts et des lettres du Québec. He is also a recipient of the Medal of Honour of the National Assembly of Québec, the Banff Centre’s National Arts Award, the Samuel de Champlain Award, and honorary doctorates from Université Laval (Alma Mater) and the Manhattan School of Music.

*The position of Music Director of La Chapelle de Québec is endowed through the generosity of Mrs. Ann Birks.

Born in North Macedonia, mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska grew up in Toronto where she studied violin at The Glenn Gould School, before studying voice with Helga Tucker. She received her Master’s in Voice at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where she also completed the Opera Course. Ema was a BBC New Generation Artist from 2019-2022. In 2019 she won first prize at the International Vocal Competition in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Ferrier Loveday Song Prize (Kathleen Ferrier Awards), and was a prize-winner at the Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) International Auditions. In 2022 she became a recipient of the prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust award.

In the 2025/26 season, she sings Boulez’ Le Marteau sans maître under Jean Deroyer and Ensemble intercontemporain at Gulbenkian Fundaçāo, returns to Staatsoper Berlin with Offenbach’s Les Contes d'Hoffmann under Bertrand de Billy and Staatskapelle Berlin, Wigmore Hall recital with Hikaru Kanki to include Strauss, Rachmaninoff and Alma Mahler. In opera, Ema makes her house debuts as Cherubino Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro under Pierre Dumoussaud with Opernhaus Zurich and later title role Neuwirth’s Orlando under Johannes Kalitzke at Komische Berlin.

Elsewhere last season, Ema revived the lead role of the Woman in George Benjamin’s Picture a Day Like This at Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg, having made her debut in the role at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre the season prior. Following her tremendous role debut as Octavian Der Rosenkavalier at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin in 2023, an alumnus of their Opera Studio, she returned for Stéfano Roméo et Juliette. Previous roles at the theatre include Lucile in Henze’s Cubana, Christian Jost’s Die Arabische Nacht, Second Lady Die Zauberflöte, Schäferin Jenůfa, Giovanna Rigoletto, and Diane in Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie under Sir Simon Rattle.

Previous concerts include Mozart’s Coronation Mass with Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg and Roberto González-Monjas at the Salzburg Festival, Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri and Mozart’s Requiem with the Staatskapelle Berlin and Marc Minkowski, Jaquet de la Guerre’s Céphale et Procris on tour with Reinoud van Mechelen and Nocte Temporis in Versailles, Namur and Brussels, Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Munchener Rundfunkorchester and Howard Arman, Mozart’s Requiem with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Adrian Partington, Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with Musikkollegium Winterthur and Barbara Hannigan, and Ravel’s Chansons Madecasses with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and George Benjamin.

An internationally celebrated recitalist, in the 23/24 season her partners included Martha Argerich, Andras Shiff, Charles Richard-Hamelin, and guitarist, Sean Shibe in concerts throughout Europe and her debut recital tour of North America, including her debut at Carnegie’s Weill Hall. At Wigmore Hall, where she is a regular favourite, she was an artist in residence, performing five diverse programmes across the season. Elsewhere, Ema has performed at the Pierre Boulez Saal, Konzerthaus Berlin, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, and at the Schubertíada Vilabertran, Verbier, Heidelberg, Gstaad, Aldeburgh, Leeds Lieder and Toronto Summer Music Festivals, collaborating with Malcolm Martineau, Wolfram Rieger, Andras Schiff, Graham Johnson, Joseph Middleton, Kunal Lahiry amongst others.

With a voice described as “honey-coloured and warm, yet robust and commanding” (The Globe and Mail), baritone Tyler Duncan has performed worldwide to great acclaim in both opera and concert repertoire. Throughout his varied career, he has performed with several of the world’s leading orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Tafelmusik, Minnesota Orchestra, and the Kansas City Symphony.

Also an accomplished opera performer, Tyler Duncan has appeared often at the Metropolitan Opera featured in roles such as Prince Yamadori in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, The Journalist in Lulu or Fiorello in The Barber of Seville. He also returned to the roster of The Metropolitan Opera for their new production of Terence Blanchard’s Champion. Other recent roles include Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro with Pacific Opera Victoria and Amarillo Opera, Morales in Bizet’s Carmen under Seiji Ozawa, and appearances in the Spoleto Festival as Mr. Friendly in the 18th-century ballad opera Flora and the Speaker in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Tyler Duncan is also passionate about new opera; recent roles include Raymond in Nic Gotham’s Nigredo Hotel with City Opera Vancouver, and in the world premiere of Jonathan Berger’s Leonardo at New York’s 92nd Street Y.

In the realm of Baroque music Tyler Duncan’s versatility and skill have him in high demand, especially performing the works of Bach. He has been regularly seen with Les Violons du Roy, in Quebec City, Tafelmusik (Toronto), Early Music Vancouver, Music of the Baroque (Chicago), Handel and Haydn, Boston Early Music Festival, and the Oregon Bach Festival.

Frequently paired with pianist Erika Switzer, Tyler Duncan has given acclaimed recitals in New York, Boston, Chicago, Paris, and throughout Canada, Germany, Sweden, France, and South Africa. Together they have premiered many new works written for them by composers.  Alongside their debut album English Songs à la française for Bridge Records, they have released A Left Coast on the same label featuring songs from Canada's west coast.

Tyler Duncan’s other recordings include the Juno Award winning Vaughan-Williams Serenade to Music with Peter Ounjian and the Toronto Symphony; the title role in John Blow’s Venus and Adonis with Boston Early Music Festival; and a DVD of Handel’s Messiah with Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. His singing has been recognized internationally with numerous awards, including Grammy and Juno nominations and prizes from the Naumburg, London’s Wigmore Hall, and Munich’s ARD competitions.

As a faculty member of the prestigious Vocal Arts Program Bard College, Tyler Duncan finds joy in helping the next generation of singers find their true voice. Originally from British Columbia, Canada, he resides in New York’s beautiful Hudson Valley where you might find him exploring roadside farmstands in search of the perfect, freshly picked heirloom apple.

www.tylerduncan.ca

Distinguished by a brilliant and crystalline timbre but also knowing how to adorn herself with heady colours according to the scores, the soprano Magali Simard-Galdès possesses a vocal mastery and a natural musicality which allow her to magnify a very wide repertoire ranging from baroque music, which she particularly likes, to contemporary music, for which she has all the precision required.

In opera, she imposes a marked presence and theatrical ease. Her ability to blend into each character allows her to tackle with great success roles as diverse as those of Agnès (Benjamin, Written on skin), Musetta (Puccini, La Bohème), Micaëla (Bizet, Carmen), Tytania (Britten, A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Gilda (Verdi, Rigoletto), Roxane (DiChiera, Cyrano de Bergerac), Constance (Poulenc, Dialogues des carmélites) and Nicette (Hérold, Le pré aux clercs). We have heard her in these works at the Vancouver and Montreal Operas, at Opera Carolina, at Toledo Opera, at Tapestry Opera and at the Wexford Festival Opera, not to mention the Cologne Opera and the Auditorium du Nouveau Siècle in Lille.

In concert, she asserts the same charisma, which has made her the guest, in recent years, of specialized ensembles such as Le Cercle de l'Harmonie, Les Violons du Roy, Arion Orchestre baroque or the Ensemble Caprice. With her considerable projection, she performs just as regularly with symphonic formations such as the WDR Sinfonieorchester, the Orchestre National de Lille, the Orchestre Classique de Montréal, the National Arts Center Orchestra of Ottawa, the Houston Symphony, the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, the Orchestre Métropolitain and the Orchestre du Festival Classica, under the direction of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Jacques Lacombe, Jean-Marie Zeitouni, Bernard Labadie, Jean-François Rivest, Mathieu Lussier, François-Xavier Roth, Jonathan Nott, Jérémie Rhorer or Alexandre Bloch.

Since fall 2022, a committed woman, Magali Simard-Galdès has also made her voice and her words heard as an environmental columnist on ICI Première.

Created in 1985 by founding conductor and music director Bernard Labadie, La Chapelle de Québec is one of North America’s premiere voice ensembles. The group is made up exclusively of professional singers who are hand picked from all over Canada. This unique chamber choir specializes in the choral/orchestral repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries. The choir performs regularly with its other half, chamber orchestra Les Violons du Roy, and as a guest choir with some of the finest orchestras in North America. Its  interpretations of the oratorios, requiems, masses, and cantatas of Bach, Handel, Mozart, and Haydn, as well as Fauré and Duruflé, are frequently hailed in the Canadian and international press.

La Chapelle de Québec is heard regularly at Palais Montcalm in Quebec City and Maison symphonique in Montreal, as well as at the Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, at Carnegie Hall with Les Violons du Roy and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and in Ottawa with the National Arts Centre Orchestra. The choir’s concerts are often broadcast by the CBC and Radio-Canada in Canada and by National Public Radio in the United States.

La Chapelle de Québec is also known for its role in Chemin de Noël, an annual event that brings music lovers from throughout the Québec City region together every December. The Chemin de Noël was recorded on an ATMA disc released in November 2021.