Virtuosité à la française

Noëlla Bouchard joined Les Violons du Roy in 1995. Since then, she has played in several hundred concerts, some 30 international tours, and numerous recordings with this chamber orchestra in residence at Palais Montcalm – Maison de la musique in Quebec City.

Noëlla Bouchard began learning the violin at the age of five with Lucille Johnstone and continued her studies at Conservatoire de musique de Montréal from 1982 to 1992 in classes taught by Johanne Arel, Raymond Dessaints, Robert Verebes, Denis Brott, and Raffi Armenian. She earned her first award there in 1992. From 1992 to 1995 she continued to hone her skills with Moshe Hammer in Toronto. In 1994 she was a finalist at the International Stepping Stone Canadian Music Competition in Vancouver.  She has participated in a number of workshops at Domaine Forget, Camp musical des Laurentides, and Orford Musique.

In recent years, Noëlla Bouchard has been invited to Concerts du Bic (2016) and the Music and Beyond Festival in Ottawa (2018) and has played on a recording of André Mathieu’s chamber music with pianist Jean-Michel Dubé (2019).

Noëlla Bouchard plays a Spiritus Sorfana violin, fecit Cunei, 1725, using an Charles Peccatte bow generously donated by CANIMEX INC. of Drummondville, Québec, Canada.

Pascale Giguère has been a member of Les Violons du Roy since 1995. She was co-concertmaster from 2000 to 2013, and has been concertmaster since 2014. She has performed with the ensemble in some of the world’s leading venues, including the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and Carnegie Hall in New York, and at leading festivals in Canada, the United States and Europe. Pascale Giguère has also taken part in recordings with Les Violons for the labels Dorian, Atma and Virgin Classics.

In recent years, Pascale Giguère has appeared as a soloist with Les Violons du Roy, in particular in Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 and Astor Piazzolla’s Four Seasons; the latter work was recorded by Atma and received a Juno award. She has also performed with the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal, Orchestre symphonique de Laval and Orchestre des Grands Ballets Canadiens, with which she played Stravinsky’s Concerto in D, an experience she repeated in December 2006 with the Orchestre symphonique de Québec conducted by Yoav Talmi. In recent seasons she has appeared as a guest soloist at the Domaine Forget international festival and the Parry Sound Festival.  

Pascale Giguère studied at the Montréal Conservatory with Raymond Dessaints, obtaining Premier Prix diplomas in violin and chamber music. She has also won several important prizes, including Grand Prize at the CIBC National Music Festival, First Prize at the Orchestre symphonique de Québec competition, and the prestigious Prix d’Europe award in 1993, which allowed her to continue her studies at Boston University with Roman Totenberg, Peter Zazovski and the Muir Quartet.

Pascale was awarded the Canada Council Instrument Bank’s 1700 Bell Giovanni Tononi violin to play from 2006 to 2008.

Pascale Giguère plays a Carlo Ferdinando Landolfi violin (Milan, 1745), purchased and generously loaned by Marthe Bourgeois.

Maud Langlois was born in Montréal and began to learn the violin at the age of 7 with Marcel Saucier. Then, at the Montréal conservatory, she studied with outstanding teachers such as Eva Lopas, Robert Verebes and Dennis Brott. During this period, she also received guidance from Hamad Fujiwara in New York. After graduating from the conservatory in 1995, she went on to study with Claude Richard.

Maud Langlois has a special interest in chamber music, and has performed throughout Québec and in radio broadcasts in various instrumental formations, playing a wide range of music. In 1994, she gave a series of concerts in France as a member of a string quartet, thanks to support from L’Office franco-québécois pour la jeunesse. Maud Langlois has been a member of Les Violons du Roy since September 1997.

Violist Isaac Chalk received a rich and diverse musical education. In addition to training as an instrumentalist, he studied singing at the Maîtrise des Petits Chanteurs du Mont-Royal and worked extensively as a choral singer. He is also a graduate of Mozarteum University in Salzburg and of McGill University in Montréal, where he received the prestigious Lloyd Carr-Harris String Scholarship and the Golden Violin Award, Canada’s largest privately-funded music scholarship.

In February 2011, Isaac Chalk made his debut at Toronto’s Koerner Hall performing Béla Bartók’s Viola Concerto with the Royal Conservatory Orchestra, conducted by Julian Kuerti. In June 2013, he was named principal viola of Les Violons du Roy and has since performed with the orchestra in its regular series in Quebec City and Montréal, at the Lanaudière Festival, at the Domaine Forget International Festival, and on tour in Canada and internationally. He has also appeared as a soloist with the orchestra on many occasions, most notably in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with Anthony Marwood. Isaac Chalk has been generously supported by the Sylva Gelber Music Foundation and the Canada Council for the Arts.

Raphaël Dubé is no stranger to the concert stage— as an orchestra member, chamber musician, or soloist. As a member of the Les Violons du Roy since 2008, he brings the same intensity to the repertoire of all periods and partakes in a wide variety of musical activities. He has been repeatedly hailed by critics and appeared several times as a soloist with Les Violons du Roy, the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, and Montreal Conservatory of Music Symphony Orchestra. He has twice appeared at New York’s Carnegie Hall as a member of the Amity Players Piano Quartet and has released a recording of Brahms’ piano quartets with that ensemble. He can also be heard with harpist Valérie Milot in a chamber music recording on the Analekta label. Recently he appeared as a chamber musician at festivals in Bic and Sackville.

Raphaël Dubé knew from the first that he was destined to be a musician. His main instructors were Monique and Walter Joachim, Carole Sirois, and Timothy Eddy. Before joining Les Violons du Roy, he spent the 2007–2008 season with the New World Symphony.

Raphaël Dubé plays a c. 1695-1700 Giovanni Grancino cello, Milan, generously provided by CANIMEX INC. of Drummondville (Quebec) Canada.

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 uses a 1900 Joseph Alfred Lamy bow, engraved A. Lamy à Paris, generously provided by CANIMEX INC. of Drummondville (Quebec) Canada.

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.