Rêves fantastiques par une nuit de chevaux volants

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.

Hailed for her generous stage presence and expressive voice, Montreal-born soprano Andréanne Brisson Paquin is equally devoted to several different musical genres, singing baroque, classical, operatic and even contemporary repertoire with the same commitment, rigour, and excitement.

Andréanne has sung with many of the great chamber music and baroque ensembles, including montreal based I Musici, Pallade Musica, Arion, Ensemble Caprice, Voix humaines and also Musica Angelica (Los Angeles), Musica and Rhenum (Amsterdam), Ensemble Masques (Paris), Ensemble Odyssee (Amsterdam), with whom she recorded a debut recording (Serenate Napoletane, PanClassic) She was heard at Festival de Lanaudière, Lufthansa Baroque Festival, Berliner Tage für Alte Musik, Festival de musique baroque de Pontoise, Festival Classica, Montréal Baroque, Festival Bach and Festival Classica. She has worked with conductors and instrumentalists such as Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Jory Vinikour, Jed Wentz, Jean-Marie Zeitouni, Lorenzo Coppola, Martin Haselbock, Nicolas Ellis, and performed with Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Métropolitain de Montreal, Grand Ballets de Montreal Orchestra and Orchestre de l'Agora.

A fine recitalist, Andréanne's sensitivity shines in the intimacy of chamber music repertoire. She has given many recitals, and has won national and international prizes in collaboration with pianists Michel-Alexandre Broekaert, Matthieu Fortin, and Francis Perron. These awards include the Audience Prize award at Mary Trueman Art Song Competition in New York, Guy-Soucie Excellence Award, 2nd Prize at Concours International de Musique de Chambre de Lyon, 2nd Prize at Eckhardt-Gramatté Competition for Canadian and Contemporary Music, and 2nd Prize and Duo Prize at the New York Joy in Singing Competition. She was also a finalist at the prestigious Montréal International Musical Competition 2012, where she performed with Montreal Symphony Orchestra.

In 2013, Andréanne founded Rendez-vous Baroque Français, a group of musicians that specializes in French baroque music from the 17th and 18th centuries. She also recently performed the title role in the French opera Lakmé and the role of Mélisande in Projet Pelléas, two productions created by Montréal’s collective 1 Opera/ 1 Heure.

Andréanne completed her vocal studies at Université de Montréal before pursuing a Masters degree in the Netherlands at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, graduating in October 2010.