It is on July 25, 2025, at the Gilles-Lefebvre Hall in Orford that the Collectif9 ensemble will present to festival regulars their exciting vision of contemporary folklore, or at least the idea of folklore that some of today’s most creative musical minds in classical music have: Nicole Lizée, Vijay Iyer, John Zorn, and several others. I spoke about this with the two masterminds behind the success of this ensemble, Andrea Stewart and Thibault Bertin-Maghit. I also took the opportunity to ask them about their role as guides in chamber music for the young people at Camp Orford, and how they perceive this new stage in their artistic lives, they who not so long ago were young people launching themselves into the world of concert music (they still are, young, that is, hence the question).
Interviews
On July 24, the Festival de Lanaudière will welcome the young and new chamber music ensemble Ember for an evening of intimacy and friendship. Composed of soprano Elizabeth Polese, pianist Christopher Gaudreault, violinist Katelyn Emery, and horn player Florence Rousseau, this quartet of young musicians will offer the Musée d’art de Joliette a unique musical experience, with Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs as the main work. Presented in a North American premiere in a chamber music version, this arrangement of Strauss’s last cycle of melodies will be accompanied by works by the most famous trio of friends in music history, Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann, and Johannes Brahms.
To discuss this, Alexandre Villemaire from PAN M 360 spoke with Elizabeth Polese, founding member of Ensemble Ember.
Photo Credit: Brenden Friesen
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For his Canadian debut, Argentinian countertenor Franco Fagioli offers a program dedicated to the castrato repertoire of the XVIIᵉ and XVIIIᵉ centuries. Taking Giovanni Battista Velluti (1780-1861), considered to be one of the last great castrati, as a reference figure in this program, the singer praised by critics for the virtuosity of his interpretations that are “unfailingly intelligent and stylistically aware” (Presto Magazine), will present works by Rossini, Mercadante, Zingarelli, Nicolini and many others, accompanied by the Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal de Versailles, conducted by Stefan Plewniak, also making their Canadian debut.
Ahead of the July 26 concert at the Festival de Lanaudière, PAN M 360’s Alexandre Villemaire had the opportunity to chat with the singer about the program he’ll be performing, his personal and professional background, and the complex issue of defining the human voice.
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Deeply rooted in the cultural and musical ecosystem of our national capital, the Quebec City Opera Festival is set to kick off its 14th edition from July 23 to August 3. This year, the richness and diversity of female figures will be expressed through works that intensely explore freedom in all its forms. From the spellbinding and captivating Carmen to the devoted Lakmé, via Mr. Seguin’s brave little goat and an expanded version of Schönberg’s opera Pierrot lunaire, each production highlights unique trajectories that reveal courage and resilience. In addition to these four major productions, there will be the timeless traveling performances of the lyrical brigades, which will present two short lyrical works: Adolphe Adam’s one-act operetta À Clichy and the opera La théière, an original creation by Jean-François Mailloux (music) and Jean-Philippe Lavoie (libretto). Alexandre Villemaire spoke with Grégoire Legendre, interim general and artistic director of the Opéra de Québec, for PAN M 360. It was an opportunity to discuss the new program and look back on the history of the festival with the man who created it in 2011 and who has guided the Opéra de Québec for 33 years.
This interview about the Quebec City Opera Festival is part of a PAN M 360 content partnership with La Vitrine, the largest website dedicated to daily cultural events across Quebec.
To access the link to the Quebec Opera Festival showcase, click here.
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A woman of the theater, producer and director, Nathalie Deschamps has been active in the world of opera for many years, having directed over 65 productions for a number of organizations, including Opéra de Montréal, Augusta Opera, ECM, Opéra Immédiat, Festival Orford and Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal. More recently, she was behind the opera staging of Michel Tremblay’s Albertine en cinq temps, with music by Catherine Major, which we’ve featured prominently in these pages.
Nathalie Deschamps also acts as artistic coordinator and mentor at the Festival d’art vocal de Montréal, currently taking place at the Université de Montréal’s Faculty of Music, teaching young trainees, both singers and directors, about character construction and staging. In this capacity, she will oversee the staging of Mozart’s production of The Magic Flute, as well as assisting in the development of the opera gala, to be presented respectively on July 27 and 24 at Salle Claude-Champagne. Ahead of these two concerts, Alexandre Villemaire spoke to her about this involvement and the work she’s doing with the young people at ICAV.
Photo Credit : Tam Photography
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Montreal label Cosmovision Records welcomes El Gato Negro, the singer and multi-instrumentalist who has taken to the road and built a bohemian life for himself, creating a sound that fluctuates between subtropical pop, traditional from all over, jazz and hip hop, all stamped with a digital signature. The latest album from this Manu Chao pal, Tigre qui pleure (2024), on which Orchestra Baobab and Cucurucho Valdés collaborated, codifies cumbia, salsa, soukous, bolero and afrotrap beats. Keithy Antoine spoke to him for PAN M 360.
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G L O W Z I is an interdisciplinary artist based in Tiohtià:ke. Using and relying on his curiosity as a device to understand and (re)discover the multiple fields they engage with, the artist expresses themselves in plural art forms such as painting, graphic design, filmmaking, photography and original music production. By visually and/or aurally rendering their modes of thought, questioning and embodied experiences, G L O W Z I transports anyone whose eyes and/or ears encounter his creations into their funky, spicy and definitely danceable artistic universe. Keithy Antoine spoke with them for PAN M 360.
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This year, the Festival international Nuits d’Afrique has put Haitian music in the spotlight with several groups from the Pearl of the Antilles. Among them is Baz Konpa, whose line-up features just 4 members, but there are many more than that. Indeed, on July 19, at 10 p.m., there will be a dozen of them on stage, including dancers and other musicians, and together they intend to set the Scène TD on fire. Keithy Antoine, a fan of this style of music, spoke to Paul Elie, one of the band’s key members, and concocted this interview for PAN M 360.
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Saïd Mesnaoui is the global champion of a modern and borderless vision of Gnawa music. It was actually in Quebec that the adventure began almost 40 years ago. Since then, Mesnaoui has graced stages around the world, bringing his artistic ecumenism with him and providing pleasure, celebration, and why not a bit of peace in people’s hearts, because those who commune together to the sounds of captivating music cannot think of hating each other. It is on July 18 at the Fairmount Theatre, invited by the International Festival Nuits d’Afrique, that Saïd Mesnaoui will once again merge music and humanism with his Transe Gnawa Fusion. I give you this interview.
Two imposing oratorios by Mendelssohn will come to life at the Festival de Lanaudière on July 18 and 19. The works Paulus (St. Paul) and Elias (Elijah), respectively, will be performed by the outstanding instrumentalists of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin (AKAMUS), a multi-award-winning orchestra with one of the most extensive discographies of the last half-century, along with the superb voices of world-class soloists and young singers from the Audi Jugendchorakademie.
Ahead of these two concerts, PAN M 360’s Alexandre Villemaire spoke with Martin Steidler, Music Director of the Audi Jugendchorakademie, who will be on the podium for both performances, to learn more about these two-landmark works from the repertoire presented here in an exclusive North American performance.
crédit photo: Audi AG
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She is Swedish, trained in flute, violin, and piano, before taking up the guitar and, above all, the kora. For her, it’s a passion acquired. He is Senegalese and comes from a long and prestigious lineage of Mandingue griots. The kora and singing are in his blood. For him, it’s innate and simply life, you know. The couple in life as in music will be passing through (for the third time) at the International Festival Nuits d’Afrique on July 17, at Club Balattou. I would have liked to speak with both of them together, but the connection with Maher was not possible, so it was Sousou who granted me most of the interview, which is as follows.
Pan M 360: The most recent album, Made of Music, dates back to 2018. It’s been a long time…
Sousou: Indeed, it’s been a long time. There was the pandemic, of course, but that’s not really an excuse. Let’s say we slightly deviated from our usual course, and we developed other projects. Moreover, it’s not an easy task to make an album. It requires a lot of effort, but above all, money. Moreover, we have toured a lot, which is very good, obviously, but well, it took up our time. That said, we have several songs written, but we are waiting to be ready.
Pan M 360: Ready for what exactly?
Sousou: To produce them on an album. We want to bring a new sound to our style, something more electronic. For that, we need a good dose of studio production, which we want to do as much as possible ourselves. So we spent quite a bit of time learning how to do it and investing in the necessary equipment, here in Sweden.
Pan M 360: The story is becoming well-known, but it’s worth repeating: how did you come into contact with the kora?
Sousou: I was very young, and my father, a folk musician, sometimes held cross-genre music concerts and invited musicians to our home. One of them was a griot from Gambia. He played the kora. He used to come see us every year. When I turned 17, we went to Gambia to visit him, and I thought to myself that I would like to take a year to learn this instrument there before pursuing “serious” studies in Sweden. Finally, I never left that path.
Pan M 360: How are you welcomed there as a Western white woman?
Sousou: As a Western woman, I was very warmly welcomed. I would even say, ironically, that it is probably easier for a white Western woman than for a local woman. There, women are supposed to take care of the children, handle household chores, etc. So, for them, learning music and especially practicing it is quite difficult. It is a clear example of the kind of privilege that benefits us rather then women in Africa.
Pan M 360: Could you start a new lineage of griots, female, white, and Western?
Sousou: I think it would be insensitive of me to dare to take such an action and appropriate a culture that is ingrained in the blood and has been passed down through the centuries. I could practice the art I have learned, but passing it down as they do from generation to generation, no. My husband, Maher, can do it. We have two children, aged 11 and 17, and for now, they’re not really interested. Occasionally, we invite them to sing with us. The result is very good, but their interests are elsewhere at the moment…
Pan M 360: You will be playing at Balattou, what impressions do you have of the place?
Sousou: A very intimate place, where people are very close together! It’s very pleasant to play there.
Pan M 360: In addition to the songs from your existing albums, will we have some new songs?
Sousou: Yes, probably. We can play a few of them to test the effect on the audience.
Femi proudly continues the work of his father, the legendary Fela, by relentlessly defending afrobeat on the international scene. A powerful display of brass and percussion, abundant, energetic, hypnotic and urban, carrying a message of peace, unity and resistance, Afrobeat combines funk and jazz with traditional Yoruba rhythms. Our contributor Keithy Antoine spoke to Femi Kuti in English just a few days before his long-awaited PAN M 360 concert.
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