Rêves fantastiques par une nuit de chevaux volants

NICOLAS ELLIS
Principal Guest Conductor of Les Violons du Roy

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

Nicolas Ellis is one of the most active conductors on the Canadian scene. He has conducted the Vancouver Symphony, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Orchestre de chambre I Musici de Montréal, the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, the Opéra de Québec and the Opéra de Montréal. Internationally, he has appeared with the Graz Opera and the San Diego Symphony.

In the 2024-2025 season, he makes his debuts with the Tampere Philharmonic in Finland, the Luxembourg Philharmonic, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and conducts a new production of The Magic Flute at the Opéra de Rennes. In Canada, he makes his debut with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and returns to the Orchestre Métropolitain and Opéra de Montréal in a production of L’enfant et les sortilèges.

Among the musical encounters that have strongly influenced him are those with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Orchestre Métropolitain, with whom he worked as Artistic Collaborator, a position he held from 2018 to 2023, and with Raphaël Pichon, conductor of the Ensemble Pygamlion, for whom he was assistant conductor during opera productions at the Opéra-Comique, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and the Salzburg Festival.

At the helm of his Orchestre de l’Agora, Nicolas Ellis conducts a rich repertoire ranging from Monteverdi’s Coronation of Poppea to Mahler’s 3rd Symphony. At the heart of the Agora’s mission, Nicolas Ellis has set up musical creation projects with teenagers living with mental health problems, educational music workshops for children, and a monthly concert series at Montreal’s Bordeaux Prison. Still with l’Agora, he also presented the 3rd edition of the Gala de la Terre in June 2024, a major fund-raising event for environmental organizations working in Canada. The concert featured Richard Strauss’ Alpine Symphony and Le choeur des bélugas, a new work by composer Claudie Bertounesque using beluga whales songs recorded in the St-Laurent River.

Nicolas Ellis is the recipient of the 2017 Fernand Lindsay Career Grant and was also awarded 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.