Fundraising Gala: Au cinéma avec Valérie Milot et Émile Proulx-Cloutier

With infectious enthusiasm, young conductor Thomas Le Duc-Moreau conducts with great precision and artistic sensitivity, creating an effective and human symbiosis that is appreciated by musicians and audiences alike. His discipline and musical culture enable him to approach the repertoire with meticulousness and consistency, in a style that unfolds with ease, flexibility, and elegance. Starting in the 2025-2026 season, he is associate conductor of the St. Andrew and St. Paul Church Choir, as well as a guest professor at Laval University.

Upon graduating from the Conservatory, Thomas Le Duc-Moreau held positions as assistant conductor with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. His early career was marked by notable collaborations. First as assistant to music director Kent Nagano, he also collaborated with guest conductors Bernard Labadie, Hannu Lintu, Cristian Măcelaru, Susanna Mälkki, Rafael Payare, and François-Xavier Roth. Since the beginning of his career, he has conducted more than 50 concerts with the OSM.

He has already collaborated on numerous opera productions. In particular, he conducted two new works in 2022 and 2023: Christian Thomas' Messe solennelle pour une pleine lune d'été, based on the play by Quebec author Michel Tremblay, and Yourcenar – Une île de passions by composer Éric Champagne, co-productions of the Quebec City Opera Festival, the Montreal Opera, and Les Violons du Roy. In the summer of 2024, he conducts La Vie parisienne at the Quebec City Opera Festival. He has also participated as assistant conductor in productions of Verdi's Il Trovatore and Puccini's Madame Butterfly at the Montreal Opera, Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer at the Quebec City Opera Festival, and Bizet's Carmen at the Bonn Theater in Germany.

In symphonic concerts, Thomas Le Duc-Moreau has conducted major Quebec and Canadian orchestras such as Les Violons du Roy and the Orchestre Métropolitain, as well as the symphony orchestras of Agora, Laval, Montreal, Quebec City, Rimouski, Saguenay, Sherbrooke, Hamilton, and Kitchener-Waterloo. He has also conducted the Prague National Theater Orchestra in the Czech Republic. In popular concert, he conducted Alexandra Stréliski's very first symphonic concert with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra as part of the Montreal Jazz Festival, broadcast on Radio-Canada television. 

In the summer of 2025, he returned to the Orford Music Festival with Les Violons du Roy for the third consecutive year.

Thomas Le Duc-Moreau graduated from the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal with a degree in cello under Carole Sirois and in orchestral conducting under Jacques Lacombe. In 2022, he received the very first Joseph Rouleau Award from the Fondation du Conservatoire de musique et d’art dramatique du Québec in recognition of his promising early career.

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 2006 graduate of the Conservatoire d'art dramatique de Montréal, Émile Proulx-Cloutier already has many years' experience in the arts, both in the theater - on stage and directing - and on the small and big screen - in front of and behind the camera.

He has appeared in several TV series, including Avant le crash, Les moments parfaits, Doute raisonnable, Plan B, Faits divers, Boomerang, Sortez-moi de moi and Demain des hommes, as well as in numerous film productions, including L'Arracheuse de temps, Le déserteur, Mathusalem, L'Autre maison, Mont Foster, Nous sommes les autres and La Bolduc. He has also worked behind the camera on several occasions, directing short films and documentaries.

A singer-songwriter, he has three albums to his credit: Aimer les monstres released in 2013 (from which his first book Le grillon et la luciole is drawn), Marée haute released in 2017 and Ma main au feu released in 2024 in three acts.

Émile Proulx-Cloutier, who has won numerous awards and nominations for both music and screen, has also appeared on stage in Ubu roi, Marie Stuart, Tout est encore possible, Musique inquiétante, Frères and La Bonne Âme du Se-Tchouan. He recently wrote and directed Grosse-Île: 1847 (in the words of those who lived it) and co-created Pas perdus: documentaires scéniques with Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette.