Rêves fantastiques par une nuit de chevaux volants

Nicolas Ellis is the Artistic Director, Conductor and Founder of the Orchestre de l’Agora and currently serves as Artistic Partner to the Orchestre Métropolitain and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. He was recently named Principal Guest Conductor for Les Violons du Roy, starting in the 2023-2024 season.

Mr. Ellis appeared as guest conductor with numerous Canadian orchestras including Les Violons du Roy, the Vancouver Symphony, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Orchestre de chambre I Musici de Montréal, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, the Orchestre Métropolitain, Symphony Nova Scotia, the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. He also regularly collaborates with the Opéra de Montréal’s Atelier lyrique.

During the 2022-2023 season, he is invited to conduct performances of Britten’s War Requiem at the Oper Graz in Austria and returns as a guest conductor to the Orchestre National de Bretagne. He has also collaborated as Assistant conductor to conductor Raphaël Pichon and his Ensemble Pygmalion on productions of Fidelio (Opéra comique de Paris) and Idomeneo (Festival d’Aix-en-Provence).

Mr. Ellis founded the Orchestre de l’Agora in 2013. The orchestra uses music as a tool for sustainable social change and has established itself on the Montreal scene for its creative programming and bold projects. Its repertoire ranges from Bach’s six Brandenburg Concertos, to Britten’s Turn of the Screw, to new works by Canadian composers, and more recently the ensemble presented Mahler’s 3rd symphony for its Gala de la Terre, a fundraising concert for environmental organizations. The orchestra has developed projects involving youth with mental health challenges, educational music workshops for children and a monthly concert series at the Prison de Bordeaux in Montreal.

Nicolas Ellis is the recipient of the 2017 Bourse de carrière Fernand-Lindsay and was named Revelation of the Year 2018-2019 by Radio-Canada. More recently, he won the Prix Goyer Mécénat Musica 2021.

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.