L'Entretien des Muses

Mélisande McNabney performs keyboard music of all periods, on harpsichord, piano and fortepiano. In August 2015, she received the third prize at the International Competition Musica Antiqua in Bruges. She is a graduate of the Amsterdam Conservatory where she studied harpsichord, continuo and fortepiano in the classes of Bob van Asperen and Richard Egarr. She was granted her Doctorate degree at McGill University in May 2017, under the guidance of Hank Knox and Tom Beghin, thanks to the support of the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships Program.

Mélisande McNabney is regularly invited to play with ensembles such as Les Violons du Roy, Arion Orchestre Baroque, Les Idées heureuses, Theater of Early Music and Ensemble Caprice. She is a member of Pallade Musica and Les Songes, with whom she took part in numerous tours of Canada and the USA. Mélisande McNabney has received scholarships from Canada Council for the Arts, Banff Centre, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and Fonds de recherche société et culture du Québec.

Nicole Trotier was already an active professional musician while still a student, playing as a supernumerary member of the Québec City symphony orchestra for several years and then as a permanent member from 1984 to 1992. In 1984, she also joined L’Ensemble Nouvelle France and developed an interest in the Baroque violin, receiving a grant in 1986 from the Canada Council to study the instrument in London with Ingrid Seifert. Since then, she has performed with many different groups, including Tafelmusik in Toronto and Arion, Les Nations, Le Studio de musique ancienne and Les Boréades in Montréal, and has appeared at the Lamèque International Early Music Festival and the Klang & Raum Musikfestival in Kloster Irsee, Germany.

Nicole Trotier was born in Québec City, and studied at the Conservatory with Jean Angers and Jean-Louis Rousseau. She graduated in 1984 with diplomas in violin and chamber music. From 1979 to 1981, she took part in summer sessions at the Meadowmount School of Music with teachers Sally Thomas, Joseph Gingold and Earl Carlyss. In 1982, she studied in Toulouse with Calvin Sieb, and was also a finalist in the Young Virtuosos competition organized by CBC television.

In 1984, Nicole Trotier joined with other young professional musicians to found the chamber orchestra Les Violons du Roy, becoming the group’s concertmaster. Since then she has performed widely with the orchestra, and has appeared many times as a soloist. She is also a founding member of Le Quatuor Québec (1987) and La Bande Baroque (1990).

Nicole Trotier features regularly in CBC broadcasts as a soloist and chamber musician, and as a member of various other groups.

Véronique Vychytil began to take violin lessons at the age of 4 with her father, Vaclav Vychytil. After graduating from the University of Montréal where she was a student of Jean-François Rivest, she went on to study with Kathleen Winkler at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara.

With the support of a scholarship from Le Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec, Véronique Vychytil worked with various teachers in Germany, the Czech Republic and Switzerland. She was also a member of the Jeunesses Musicales world orchestra, performing in several European countries.

Véronique Vychytil won First Prize and the Janácek Prize at the Czech and Slovakian music competition in Montréal, and was invited to attend the Brno academy of music in the fall of 1998. She has won prizes in several national competitions, including the Canadian music competition.

Since July 2000, Véronique Vychytil has been a member of the chamber orchestra Les Violons du Roy. She has also performed as a chamber musician in festivals around Québec.

Angélique Duguay has been a member of Les Violons du Roy since 1996. Her studies were at McGill University with Thomas Williams, Richard Roberts and Mauricio Fuks, where she received both a Bachelor of Music and an Artist Diploma.

She began her career performing with Orchestre symphonique de Laval, Les Jeunes Virtuoses de Montréal, and other groups. She was also a member of Opéra Rouen’s Orchestre Léonard de Vinci during a stay in Europe. She continues to make regular appearances with Orchestre symphonique de Québec, Opéra de Montréal, and La Sinfonia de Lanaudière.

She was part of Les Violons du Roy’s Vivica Genaux, airs de Handel et Hasse recording on Virgin Classics and other recordings. She has also taken part in all Les Violons du Roy’s international tours and is much in demand for private recording sessions.

Angélique Duguay plays a Joseph Ceruti, Cremone violin, 1825, generously provided by CANIMEX INC. of Drummondville (Quebec).

At the age of eleven, Jean-Louis Blouin began to concentrate on the viola. From 1989 to 1993 he studied at the Montréal Conservatory, where he obtained a higher education diploma. He then studied with Jutta Puchhammer at the University of Montréal, where he completed a Master’s degree in interpretation.

Since 1996, Jean-Louis Blouin has been a permanent member of Les Violons du Roy and appears in several of the group’s recordings, including J.S. Bach’s Art of Fugue and Psalm 51. His interest in Baroque music and experience with early instruments has also led to performances with other specialized groups, primarily as a violist but also on the Baroque violin.

Audiences have heard him perform with the Tafelmusik and Aradia ensembles from Toronto, at the Lamèque International Baroque Music Festival, and in Quebec with the Montreal Baroque Orchestra; Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal; the Arion, Les Boréades, and La Chamaille ensembles; as well as Masques, with which he produced a recording of Bach concertos for harpsichord on the Analekta label.

Jean-Louis Blouin plays a Giuseppe Pedrazzini viola, Milan ca 1930, and uses a Louis Gillet viola bow, ca 1965, generously provided by CANIMEX INC. of Drummondville (Quebec).

Principal cello of Les Violons du Roy, Benoît Loiselle also performs as a soloist and chamber musician. He appears regularly at various music festivals and events in Canada, and has played as a guest soloist with many orchestras, including the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Les Violons du Roy, the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal and most recently, the Orchestre de la Francophonie canadienne.

In great demand as a collaborator for both concerts and recordings, he has played alongside musicians such as James Ehnes, Anton Kuerti, Olivier Thouin, Stéphane Lemelin, Anne Robert and Luc Beauséjour. In 2002-2003, he took part in the Tournées Desjardins series of Jeunesses Musicales of Canada, performing concerts throughout Eastern Canada with pianist François Zeitouni. Alongside his concert schedule, he teaches cello at the Académie du Domaine Forget.

As a founding member of Trio Hochelaga, Benoît Loiselle performed with the group from 2000 to 2006 in all major canadian venues and on an Asian tour in the fall of 2004. The Trio Hochelaga was the dedicatee of the Triple Concerto by Canadian composer Jacques Hétu, and gave its first performance in 2003.

Benoît Loiselle graduated from the Montréal conservatory as a student of Denis Brott, and went on to study with Antonio Lysy at McGill University. In 1999, he won the Prix d’Europe award offered by L’Académie de Musique du Québec and used it to study in Switzerland with Radu Aldulescu and Alberto Lysy, at the International Menuhin Music Academy and with Camerata Lysy Gstaad.

From 2003 to 2006, Benoît Loiselle played on the McConnell-Gagliano cello loaned by the Instrument Bank of the Canada Arts Council. He currently plays on a beautiful Lamy bow, generously loaned by Canimex.

Raphaël McNabney was born into a family of musicians in Montréal in 1982, but only began to play the double bass at the age of 19, after studying the cello between the ages of 7 and 14 with Monique and Walter Joachim and Denis Brott.

After this five-year break, a decisive meeting with Joël Quarrington rekindled his interest in music, this time as a double bass player. He quickly began a career as a chamber musician and soloist, and in June 2007 was appointed as principal bass with Les Violons du Roy.