Nouveau langage, N NAO’s third album on the Mothland label, is a sound poetry traversed by ecological, cosmic, metaphysical, dreamlike, carnal and impulsive considerations. Everything is a pretext for musical creation or songwriting with N Nao, who knows how to transform into a singular creation all sound samples gathered in the field, all electronic and instrumental discoveries, all resonances captured in the studio. In the service of her voice and her words, the environments imagined by this young Montrealer very often hit the bull’s-eye. Alain Brunet met her at Mothland to discuss Nouveau langage.
More details about Mothland HERE
Interviews
The interdisciplinary project Mystery of Clock, presented at the Montreal / Nouvelles Musiques festival on 27 February 2025 at the Théâtre Plaza in Montreal, brings together, under premises that are at once symbolic, philosophical and sociological, a range of expressions from music to dance and theatre, via gestural performance, video and conceptual spatial installation. A man and a woman try as best they can to bring their vital clocks (their individuality as it exists in space-time) back into a furtive biorhythmic harmony. I’ve already spoken to the project’s two performers, violinist Mark Fewer and percussionist Aiyun Huang (watch the interview HERE). This time, it was with the designer Roland Auzet that I tried to lift the veil a little more on this mystery which, in the end, is not so much of a mystery, at least after listening to the director who talks about it in great detail.
DETAILS AND TICKETS HERE
In continuous evolution for several years, the interdisciplinary Mystery of Clock project by violinist Mark Fewer and percussionist Aiyun. Huang, whose artistic director is Roland Auzet, will premiere at Théâtre Plaza on February 27, 2025 as part of the Montréal / Nouvelles Musiques program.Fusing theater, dance and music in a striking dramaturgy featuring lighting, gestures, audiovisuals, staging, text and instrumental performances by Fewer and Huang, Mystery of Clock interrogates themes such as the passage of time and human relationships in an immersive setting. Frédéric Cardin spoke to Mark Fewer and Aiyun Huang about the creative process behind Mystery of Clock.
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Originally from Ivory Coast, Lerie Sankofa, bronze medallist at the IXes Jeux de la Francophonie, is in Montreal for an artistic residency and a concert at Club Balattou on February 6. In addition to singing and playing percussion, Lerie Sankofa is also a music teacher and founder of Sankofart Sum, an African cultural center for the promotion of art & culture. Our journalist Sandra Gasana spoke to her between two of the artist’s rehearsal sessions.
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For his body of work, Michel Levasseur will receive the Prix Hommage at the 28th Prix Opus gala, held February 2, 2025, 3pm, at Salle Bourgie. The Conseil québécois de la musique (CQM) has already announced the winner of the Prix Hommage, awarded to the man who was artistic director of the Festival internationale de musique actuelle de Victoriaville (FIMAV) for four decades – 1983-2023. Co-founder of Productions Plateforme Inc., which has produced the FIMAV since 1983, Michel Levasseur was able to finance this festival of risk-taking for music lovers and build up an audience as fervent as it was small, a kind of annual congress for a few thousand music lovers with a passion for contemporary music, without any concessions. For PAN M 360, Alain Brunet caught up with him at his home, shortly before the presentation of his Prix Hommage.
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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.
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.
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