Schubert et la beauté du crépuscule

Nicolas Ellis is Music Director of the Orchestre National de Bretagne, Principal Guest Conductor of Les Violons du Roy and Artistic Director of Orchestre de l’Agora, which he founded in Montreal in 2013.

The 25/26 season sees Nicolas Ellis debut with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Hamburger Symphoniker, the Orchestra of the Opéra National de Lorraine and the Baltimore and Seattle Symphony Orchestras; he returns for subscription concerts with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. 

Highlights of the previous season include performances with the Tampere and Luxembourg Philharmonics, San Diego Symphony, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and with the Orchestre Métropolitain, with whom he is a regular favourite.  

Now in his second season as Music Director of the Orchestre National de Bretagne, he directs Mozart, Brahms, Schumann, Stravinsky, Bartok and Shostakovich, a programme centered around Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, collaborating with a local Youth Theatre, and an evening of folk music, featuring traditional folk musicians from Québec.

Acclaimed for his approach to the baroque and classical repertoire, his recent performance of Mozart Symphony No. 25 with Les Violons du Roy was described by Le Devoir as “one of the most beautiful Mozart symphonies heard in Montreal in the last 20 years”.

At the Opéra de Montréal, Nicolas has led productions of Le nozze di Figaro, The Turn of the Screw, L'incoronazione di Poppea and L’enfant et les sortilèges. Elsewhere, he conducted Die Fledermaus at Opéra de Québec, Britten’s War Requiem at Graz Opera, and a new production of Die Zauberföte at Opéra de Rennes.

Violist Marina Thibeault’s “plangent tone and expressive phrasing” (The Strad) foreground a great richness in her playing that is on display across various styles. Named Radio-Canada's classical "Revelation" for 2016-2017, she has delighted audiences across Canada, the United States, and Europe with her elegant, spellbinding performances and engaging presence. 

An accomplished soloist, Marina Thibeault’s has performed with the North Czech Philharmonic, Mariánské Lázně Symphony Orchestra, the Santiago Chamber Orchestra, the Verbier Festival, the Orchestre Métropolitain, the Sinfonia Toronto, to mention a few. An avid chamber musician, she has collaborated with members of the Guarneri Quartet, the Cleveland Quartet, Charles-Richard Hamelin, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, and Johannes Moser, amongst other renowned chamber musicians. Her interest in new music has led her to work with composers such as John Corigliano, Joan Tower, and Krzysztof Penderecki.

Marina Thibeault’s first album, Toquade, was released in April 2017 on the Atma label, and was nominated by the ADISQ and Prix Opus for Album of the Year. Her 2020 Juno Award-nominated album Elles honours groundbreaking women composers from Clara Schumann to the present day. A passionate advocate for women’s rights, Marina Thibeault has utilized the broad-ranging Elles project in various iterations to reach out to at-risk women and raise awareness for organizations that support this important cause. The concert adaptation of Elles presents a wide-ranging program of works for solo viola by Ana Sokolović, Dorothy Chang, and Melody McKiver.

Marina Thibeault holds numerous honours and distinctions, including prizes from the Père-Lindsay Foundation (2017), "Révélation Radio-Canada" (2016-2017), CBC’s “30 hot classical musicians under 30” (2016), and the Sylva Gelber Foundation (2016). She won first prize in the string category of Prix d’Europe (2015), the McGill Concerto Competition (2015), the Radio-Canada “Young Artist” prize (2007) as well as a special prize at the Beethoven Hradec International Viola Competition (2008).