Interviews

L’Harmonie Laval joins OSL for a concert specially designed for families. Under the direction of dynamic conductor Diane Caplette, the musicians of L’Harmonie Laval will present a program exploring the wind band repertoire, featuring two of Laval’s finest musicians, clarinetist Jean-François Normand and horn player Jocelyn Veilleux. With imaginative and emblematic works celebrating the wind and wind band repertoire, the program also highlights the links between the history of the OSL and the Harmonie.

Our contributor Alexandre Villemaire spoke with Diane Caplette ahead of their performance on Sunday, February 2.

André Jutras   

A Barrie North Celebration 

Richard Strauss (arr. John Boyd) 

Concerto pour cor no. 1 en mi bémol majeur, op. 11

Johan de Meij            

Madurodam 

Entracte 

Ilari Hylkilä

Taiga (6 min)

Carl Maria von Weber (arr. Alfred Reed, ed. Don McCathren) 

Concertino pour clarinette en mi bémol majeur, op. 26

Bert Appermont        

Noah’s Ark 

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The Orchestre symphonique de Laval fully embraces its northern roots with this Mosaïque nordique, a program led by Montreal conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni. The program features Quebec composer Jacques Hétu’s Légendes, inspired by three Quebec tales and legends, followed by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor, a jewel of Scandinavian Romanticism, performed by Ukrainian pianist Olga Kudriakova, now based in Montreal. In the second half of the program, the main course is Symphony no. 5 by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, said to “capture the essence of Nordic nature”. Jean-Marie Zeitouni talks all this over with Alain Brunet for PAN M 360, shortly before the program’s performance at Salle André-Mathieu on February 1.

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Program

Jacques Hétu

Légendes, op. 76 (15 min) 

1. Alexis le trotteur

2. Le diable au bal

3. La chasse-galerie

Edvard Grieg

Concerto pour piano en la mineur, op. 16 (30 min)
1. Allegro molto moderato (13 min)
2. Adagio (7 min)
3. Allegro moderato molto e marcato (10 min)

Intermission (20 min)

Jean Sibelius

Symphonie no. 5 en mi bémol majeur, op. 82 (30 min)

1.  Tempo molto moderato; Allegro moderato – Presto (13 min)
2.  Andante mosso, quasi allegretto (9 min)
3.  Allegro molto; Misterioso (8 min)

Artists

Orchestre symphonique de Laval

Jean-Marie Zeitouni, chef

Olga Kudriakova, piano

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For the first concert of the fourth edition of its Winter Classical Festival, the Orchestre symphonique de Laval welcomes Mathieu Lussier, conductor of Arion Orchestre Baroque. With his energy and musical verve, Mathieu Lussier will take us on a journey through 18th-century Europe, with composers such as Handel, Albinoni, Vivaldi and Quantz. Three outstanding OSL musicians will be in the spotlight: Jean-Philippe Tanguay on flute, Michel Bettez on bassoon and Lindsay Roberts on oboe, in a program that highlights the rich sonorities and passions of the period.

Our contributor Alexandre Villemaire sat down with conductor Lussier ahead of the opening concert to discuss the Baroque repertoire, its history and its preconceptions.

PROGRAM

Georg Friedrich Handel

Concerto grosso en ré majeur, op. 6, no. 5 (extraits)

Antonio Vivaldi                      

Concerto pour basson en mi mineur, RV 484

​Johann Adolf Hasse 

Sinfonia en sol mineur, op. 5, no. 6

​Johann Joachim Quantz        

Concerto pour flûte en sol majeur 

Antonio Vivaldi                      

La verità in cimento, ouverture

Tomaso Albinoni 

Concerto pour hautbois en ré mineur, op. 9, no. 2

Antonio Vivaldi (arr. M. Lussier) 

La folia, arrangée pour flûte, hautbois, basson et cordes

For the full program and tickets, go HERE

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After an iconic launch led by Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in February 2020, the Orchestre symphonique de Laval’s (OSL) Winter Classical Festival has quietly established itself in the musical landscape to become an annual event for music lovers. From January 31 to February 2, it is a marathon of 4 concerts with varied aesthetics and genres that will take place at the Salle André-Mathieu, conducted by guest conductors such as Mathieu Lussier, Jean-Marie Zeitouni and Diane Caplette. These programs will showcase the talent of the orchestra’s musicians and five soloists.

To talk about this programming, our collaborator Alexandre Villemaire spoke with Simon Ouellette, general director of the OSL.

To view the festival and orchestra regular season programming, visit: https://www.osl.ca

Dominic Trudel is the Executive Director of the Conseil québécois de la musique, which produces the Prix Opus gala, this Sunday, February 2 at Salle Bourgie, 3pm. Here, at the invitation of PAN M 360, he talks to Alain Brunet about how the Quebec concert music gala fits into the CMQ’s spectrum of activities.

Catch up on the Opus Awards: watch the 2023 gala!

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For the Conseil québécois de la musique (CMQ), Ève-Marie Cimon is the coordinator of the Opus Awards, which will be presented at a 28th gala on Sunday, February 2 at Salle Bourgie, transmitted on the CMQ’s FB page. More specifically, she manages the judges and juries, oversees the development and expansion of the categories, and ensures that the rules for evaluating nominees are fair and equitable. Here, Ève-Marie explains how the 32 Prix Opus are awarded, reflecting the reality of concert music in Quebec today in all categories – classical, contemporary, electroacoustic, jazz, world music and traditional music. PAN M 360’s Alain Brunet spoke with her ahead of the Prix Opus Gala.

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Catch up on the Opus Awards and watch the Gala 2023!

Le jeudi 6 février 2025 à 19h30, à la salle Pierre-Mercure à Montréal, l’Orchestre classique de Montréal offrira une plongée musicale dans l’africanité classique grâce au concert Échos lointains d’Afrique. On y entendra aussi la soprano Suzanne Taffot, Québécoise d’origine camerounaise, qui y donnera, entre autres, une création de David Bontemps, Le deuil des roses qui s’effeuillent, un cycle de mélodies sur des textes de l’auteur et poète haïtien Jacques Roumain. 

DETAILS AND TICKETS HERE

Programme : 

Walker, George : Lyric for strings

Bontemps, David : Le Deuil des roses qui s’effeuillent (création)

Coleridge-Taylor, Samuel : Novellettes, op. 52

Still, William Grant : Danzas de Panama

Spirituals (arr. M. Hogan et H. Bégin) :

– Deep River

– Give Me Jesus

– Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child

– He’s Got the Whole World In His Hands

First time in Montreal, Dalie will warm our hearts on February 2 at Club Balattou, bringing us sunshine from her native Congo. Singer, songwriter, dancer, percussionist and actor, she’s coming as part of a women’s artistic residency, but will also be taking advantage of the opportunity to take part in one of Nuits d’Afrique’s five concert-events as part of Black History Month. Come and discover a multi-talented artist whom our journalist Sandra Gasana had the pleasure of interviewing.

Created in 2003 before making its Broadway debut in 2005, The Light at the Piazza is one of those works that mixes the codes of popular Broadway performances with the lyrical musical lines of operatic language. Winner of six Tony Awards, including Best Original Score, the composer’s sophisticated score is both a rewarding project for Opera McGill’s young opera artists, and an interpretative and technical challenge. A few hours before the opening night of this performance at the Monument national, which runs from January 31 to February 2, Alexandre Villemaire spoke for PAN M 360 with conductor Jonathan Monro, who will be at the podium for all three performances, to talk about the work and its particular aesthetic.

The Light in the Piazza

Libretto by CRAIG LUCAS
Music and lyrics by ADAM GUETTEL

Jonathan Monro, chef
David Gately, director (Catherine Thornhill Steele Visiting Artist)

January 31 at 7:30

February 1 at 7:30

February 2 at 2pm

Tickets are available HERE

Inspired by Franz Kafka’s celebrated novel Metamorphosis, this immersive 360° program features two Maltese artists: pianist Tricia Dawn Williams and composer Ruben Zahra. More specifically, Kafka’s Insect is a multimedia performance presented at the Satosphère on February 17, as part of the SMCQ’s Montreal / New Musics festival. For this, Ruben Zahra has imagined a cycle of video art tableaux evoking the narrative framework of Metamorphosis, under the sonic impulse of the piano and an analog synthesizer – Moog Mother 32. A laboratory flask shatters on the floor, rain pelts windows, apples are thrown against the wall, dinnerware rattles and more. Here’s a work in which sound is deeply linked to the video images projected onto the hyperbolic screen, images shot with the 1838 Daguerreotype Achromat lens. This vintage lens captures a soft light with textured backgrounds when in focus, adding to the singular look of Kafka’s Insect. For www.panm360.com, Alain Brunet caught up with Ruben Zahra in Malta, a few days before his flight to Montreal.

Crédit photo: Emma Tranter

Event presented as part of Festival Montréal/Nouvelles Musiques / 12th edition (2025) – Music and images.

Participants

Program

Satosphère – Société des arts technologiques1195, boulevard Saint-Laurent – H2X 2S6métro Saint-LaurentMonday, February 17, 2025 7:30 pm

Online ticketing

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Drummer, visual artist and science-fiction enthusiast Michel Langevin is best known for his role as percussionist with Voivod, the iconic Quebec metal band he co-founded 42 years ago. One of Voivod’s dreams was to experience symphonic metal, a dream that is finally coming true at PdA’s Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier. Dina Gilbert will lead Voivod and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal in this fusion of metal and symphonic music. Alain Brunet interviewed her ahead of what promises to be a historic event for Quebec music lovers.

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Quebec-born Dina Gilbert is the maestra who has conducted the symphonic hip-hop experiments of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and other European orchestras, notably for I Am, MC Solaar, Big Flo et Oli and the leading figures of rap keb. This time, she conducts the OSM and the emblematic Quebec metal band Voivod. Hugo Bégin’s arrangements should both magnify and transform the 12 Voivod songs on the program. Two unique evenings at the OSM, January 29 and 30 at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier.

Photo Credit: Patrick Boucher

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