Guérison is a work by saxophonist, composer and improviser Joane Hétu (words and music) for the Ensemble SuperMusique (ESM) and the Chorale Joker. Built in three movements, the piece addresses the themes of trial, pain and resilience, with healing as the happy conclusion. The inspiration came from a very real event: in April 2021, Joane Hétu’s daughter was diagnosed with breast cancer, which had to be removed, followed by 18 months of intensive treatment before finally going into remission. This dramatic ordeal, experienced by so many women, is the epicenter of the work, which Joane Hétu believes to be universal in scope. A few days before its live premiere, on Thursday June 18 and Friday June 19 at the Espace Orange in the Wilder Building, Joane Hétu tells us more about the construction of the work and its correlation with this most painful of family experiences. Alain Brunet asked her the following questions.
PAN M 360: Is there anything more you’d like to say about this very trying cycle of your daughter and your family life?
Joane Hétu: The writing and realization of this piece, while imbued with the reality of this experience, are strangely detached from it. The project takes on a life of its own and becomes a work of art with its own independence.
PAN M 360: At what point did you decide to evoke it in music?
Joane Hétu: To tell the truth, for more than ten years I’d been wanting to create a major project bringing together the Joker Choir and Ensemble SuperMusique. I dreamed of an opera. But I couldn’t find the subject. Without a subject, there’s no opera, and no opera without a subject.
After my daughter’s diagnosis, I started to keep a poetic “logbook”, without any goal in mind. That way, the words would come and soothe me. And after six months, I realized that I’d already put together a good corpus of texts, and that I had my subject for this big project that I’d been putting off year after year.
To bring these themes to life, Guérison offers a rich, immersive sensory experience blending storytelling, music, poetry and visual art. The piece opens with the anguish of shattered dreams, then evolves into a chiaroscuro of acceptance and struggle. Hope, tenuous at first, gradually blossoms, culminating in a celebration of the survivors and a grand musical finale. Although these are serious subjects, the play is permeated by a breath of hope.
PAN M 360: How can we associate sounds with this dramatic framework?
Joane Hétu: I didn’t compose by associating sounds with the theme as such. Over time, the idea of opera faded and was replaced by the form similar to St. Matthew’s Passion, namely recitatives, big songs, chorales, and song/chorale juxtapositions. As I had a lot of text, this form suited me perfectly. I had a story to tell (the recitatives) and touching moments to evoke (the songs/chorales). So, as a first step, I rewrote the texts and assigned them to the different forms. It was quite a long process, taking several months to achieve the coherence of the booklet.
PAN M 360: How did you choose the materials to illustrate anguish, acceptance, struggle, redemption and the celebration of victory over adversity?
Joane Hétu: I’m not sure I consciously decided on the melodic character of each text. The words were already powerful enough and the music imposed itself. It’s hard to explain, but the music emerged from the unconscious.
PAN M 360: In a tonal context, references have existed since the beginnings of written music, but in a contemporary context, how did you go about it?
Joane Hétu: Initially, I wanted to work in an improvisational context with the participants, including the improvised music conducting gestures I use, because the ESM and the Chorale Joker share knowledge of these gestures. However, I didn’t receive all the necessary subsidies – in fact, I received very few – and I had to modify my project. Improvising takes a lot of time, and I didn’t have the money to do it. So I composed all the music in advance. It sounds like my music, it’s actual written music.
PAN M 360: How did you go about choosing the instrumentation and performers?
Joane Hétu: It’s a bit of a coincidence. I started out with the members of ESM and Chorale Joker. They’re all very busy, because the fees are so low that you have to do a lot of projects to make ends meet. Because of the budget I had, I had to reduce both ensembles to 7-8 ESM instrumentalists (strings, winds and percussion) and 8 participants for the Joker Choir. I already knew I had several songs, so I looked for female singers who inspired me, in total 5 female singers and 3 male voices to provide the basses. It was a real headache to work out the schedules. I made my choices according to availability and my work schedule.
PAN M 360: How much is structure (writing, instructions, etc.) and how much is improvisation in this context?
Joane Hétu: In the end, there’s almost no improvisation. I’m surprised myself. It’s a unique musical project that’s unlike anything I’ve ever composed. I’m far out of my comfort zone and at the same time, surprisingly, totally in tune with the project. And as the project became really written, I asked Jean Derome if he’d be interested in arranging the music. And here again, the project took a turn. It’s still my music, but arranged by Jean Derome, so Jean’s musical knowledge is part of Guérison. It was the first time Jean had worked so intensely on my music.
PAN M 360: How did you imagine the vocal part of the work?
Joane Hétu: At first, it was a matter of assigning the songs to each singer. And we spent a lot of time structuring and mastering the songs. Slowly, the role of the Joker Choir began to expand, and we’re still adding lines.
One important thing to mention is that I asked Camille Paré-Poirier to take on the role of narrator for the concert. She’s a singer-actress in her thirties, and she plays my daughter.
PAN M 360: How does choral singing relate to the instrumental part of the work?
Joane Hétu: In the end, the Joker Choir is very much present. There are no strictly instrumental pieces.
PAN M 360: We’re talking about storytelling, music, poetry and visual art? How is the multidisciplinary part constructed? Who wrote the story? Who designed the visual part?
Joane Hétu: As I said earlier, the story is written mainly by me, and I borrowed a few phrases and words from other writers. In the end, the theater was put aside, as there wasn’t enough money or time. It’s a music concert with video projection by Poli Wilhelm and Andrea Caladeron-Stephens. A colossal pictorial work that marries the musical framework.
As for the story, I’d like to say that it’s not my daughter’s words, it’s my projection of what she felt. It’s a project that belongs to me, and that’s what makes my daughter so comfortable with it. She’s very supportive of this project, she’s my totem and my inspiration. She’s been so powerful in all this turmoil. I really hope to pay tribute to her.
PAN M 360: As I understand it, your aim was to make a more ambitious work than usual. Why this particular work? Could it be because it evokes the most important personal event in your life? Any other reasons?
Joane Hétu: I feel I’m coming to the last phase of my career, and I really wanted to do a big project with the Joker Choir and Ensemble SuperMusique. It was an obvious choice. In fact, the theme had such an impact on me that it was the perfect choice to support this project. The piece lasts around 100 minutes.
And finally, I’d like to say that the realization of this project hasn’t lessened my pain. I thought it might help me, it did, but the pain is still there. A creation can’t heal us of our wounds, just lessen them and, above all, help us to face our destiny. I cried a lot when I was composing Guérison, and I still sometimes cry a little during rehearsals, getting a little teary-eyed, as they say. I’ve been working on this project for 4 years now, and it’s sometimes hard and very demanding to carry out a project that’s so much a part of your life.
I’m really looking forward to presenting this concert. I’m ready to go. And here I am!
A few days before the launch of her album Dogue at the Francos, we spoke to Ariane Roy. Ahead of the show on Wednesday the 18th at Club Soda, we talk about the pressures of being a solo artist, touring France and the pleasure of composing while making yogurt.
PAN M 360: Dogue is a darker, more synthetic album, different from medium plaisir. Was this a conscious break with the slightly softer, warmer image projected by your previous album?
Ariane Roy: That’s a good question. Is it conscious or not? I think yes, it’s conscious, I wanted to go somewhere else. But it’s not because I’m denying the past or that I want people to see me differently. I think something else was calling me, and I didn’t want people to necessarily label me as soon as I released my first album, or associate me exclusively with something.
PAN M 360: In Dogue’s lyrics, you can also sense a feminist stance, as in the song Tous mes hommages. Does denouncing certain behaviors make you more vulnerable, or is it more liberating?
Ariane Roy: It’s really more liberating for me. It left room for anger and assertion, and at the same time allowed me to use a mocking, sarcastic tone. I think it’s a bit part of me: I have a dark sense of humor, I’m always ironic, and I want to transpose that into my music. It’s as if for me, the simple way of tackling cruder subjects is to use self-mockery or mockery and have fun with it. I don’t know at what point I asked myself the question “ok, I want this to be feminist”, it just came naturally with the woman I am in general I think. I position myself as very feminist in life.
PAN M 360: Do you have a favorite song on your latest album?
Ariane Roy: Tous mes hommages was one of my favorites for a long time. I really like this song because it’s one that I’d really like to have heard as an audience. I think it’s great when you get to that point, when you say to yourself, “If this came out, I’d be really happy to listen to it”. It really corresponds to what I like, there are the breaks in tone, I like the bass line. I think it goes right to the gut and I think it’s catchy, but at the same time, I think it’s a tense song. I wrote this song very quickly, it seems to have come to me naturally, whereas other songs were more difficult to write. I also felt it was very different from anything I’d done before. I’m glad I released it.
PAN M 360: Do you have an established creative process?
Ariane Roy: Well, I’d say that sometimes it’s easier, you can feel it, you just have to stop everything. Let’s say you’re doing the dishes, it’s something that happens, you go away and write. I think that when you’re creating, you have to listen to those moments, except that it’s important for me to show up to work every day. In other words, every day I sit down at my desk, I test things, I go into Logic Pro. All the time, I have to have some kind of exploratory phase, even if I don’t necessarily feel like writing or composing. There’s a discipline I have to impose on myself. I need to have the impression that there’s a structure to my work to feel that it’s serving a purpose, otherwise I have too much anxiety. I’m easily distracted, so I have to put the odds in my favor. I’m a good student.
PAN M 360: Does the music usually come before the lyrics, or is it the other way around?
Ariane Roy: For this album, it was really the music that came first, while medium plaisir was quite the opposite. When I’m composing songs, I sing my melodies with semi-anglophone words invented just to give me a lead, and that leads me elsewhere. After that, when I write French lyrics, I try to find phonemes that sound like that or that have a bit of the same groove to the music, which isn’t really easy. Sometimes it’s taken me 6 months to write a text. I don’t regret having worked like that, because I don’t think I’d have written this album if I’d worked any other way. But it’s true that it was a difficult task at times, but I think it’s instinctive for me to work like that.
PAN M 360: Speaking of musicality, you worked with Félix Petit on this album. What was it like to combine your two musical worlds?
Ariane Roy: It was really fun because I took the time to compose at home, try things out, find my sound, and then it seemed that when the vision was a little clearer for me and I knew where I was going, it just sort of imposed itself. The person I had to work with was Félix. I’m a great admirer of his work and what he’s done with artists before, and I think Félix is a brilliant guy who also has an arranger’s sensibility. We’d met before, but we’d hardly ever spoken before, and then we started making music straight away. I came in with my own stuff, and he really gave me confidence in my vision. He taught me to have confidence in my abilities. What I also appreciated was that he didn’t try to misrepresent me. Félix has a really impressive instinct. With him, it’s all first drafts, first ideas that are really hot and bold, and artistically it really, really clicked.
PAN M 360: Speaking of collaborations, last week LaF released a new version of their song June with one of your verses. How did this collaboration come about?
Ariane Roy: In fact, they wrote to me asking me to add a verse. Their idea was to bring June out again, but in a different way. They were like “explore des affaires”, a bit of carte blanche, so I made them a verse. I did it at home, on my own, and they thought it was nice, so we got together to record it. It was really fun. To be honest, LaF is a really great discovery. It’s a band I knew, but not that well, like I’d never really talked to them in person. I think they’re full of brilliance, and full of smarts. It’s really fun to collaborate and I really like that song, so I’m glad they thought of me for it.
PAN M 360: And if we’re talking about collaboration, what would be your dream collaboration?
Ariane Roy: My dream collaboration would be with Saya Gray, a Toronto artist I’ve listened to a lot in recent years. She’s a real inspiration to me. It’ll probably never happen, since she’s too big now, but you never know, I’ll throw him into the universe just the same.
PAN M 360: You’re launching Dogue in Montreal this week as part of the Francos. How does it feel to be playing in front of a sold-out Club Soda?
Ariane Roy: I’m really looking forward to doing the show, and I’m glad we’ve had time to do it a few times before too. I’m a bit stressed, but I’m more into excitement at the moment, there’s not too much stress yet. I think it’s going to be good for me to be in contact with the Montreal crowd, it’s going to be fun!
PAN M 360: Do you have a pre-show ritual?
Ariane Roy: We have a good pre-show ritual. It’s a bit inspired by a ritual we used to do before Roy, la Rose et le Lou[p]. We stand in a circle and take three breaths. After that, a member of our band gives a motivational speech as if we were going to play a field hockey game. After that we have a call and it’s “Who let the dogs out” and then the number of “oohs” we make is the number of shows we’ve already done on the tour. Let’s say this is our eighth show, we do eight “oohs”. It’s pretty complicated, but we do it before every show.
PAN M 360: You’ve just come back from Paris, I saw you did a show at La Cigale and you’d already done a little touring in France in the past. What’s it like doing shows abroad?
Ariane Roy: It’s really fun! It’s a bit intimidating all the time, because you don’t really know how people will react over there. I mean, I arrive there as a stranger, an unknown too, but so far, the reception has been really good. It’s gone really well. I think it’s great to have everything to prove when people don’t know me. I don’t have any expectations when I go to Europe, and I think that really helps me to enjoy myself and find it less stressful, because it can still be intimidating. No, I really like it!
PAN M 360: Finally, what did your tour with Le Roy, la Rose et le Lou[p] teach you? Are you nostalgic about touring with a big gang?
Ariane Roy: Honestly, I don’t feel that nostalgic, because right now I’m touring with the lighting technician from Le Roy, la Rose et le Lou[p], whereas before I didn’t have a lighting technician, so there are more of us than before. There are eight of us on tour, which is already a lot. But I’ll tell you what I learned from being with Le Roy, la Rose et le Lou[p], it was extraordinary all the same. Going on tour as a gang with friends is a dream come true. It proves that it’s important to be well surrounded, it makes a difference. I’d say it also showed me that I need to have people around me when I go on tour, because I find that it can be a job that makes you feel alone at times. I often feel alone, because there’s a lot of pressure on my shoulders. I think that when you make the choice to be a solo artist, it’s normal. There are also times when you’re in an interview and you’re more alone, so I really appreciate the times when I’m with my band and it becomes like a family. We carry this together somewhere, and for me it’s very reassuring, so it was good to have that with Le Roy, la Rose et le Lou[p]. Confiding in each other and experiencing it together, especially as we were sharing a show as a trio rather than alone, is a real game-changer.
From 19 to 22 June 2025, the Montréal Baroque Festival takes over Old Montreal (and a bit of the Quartier des Spectacles) to immerse music lovers and all the curious in memorable experiences. Music at sunrise, free baroque jams in a late-night café, the Four Seasons with a twist, links between good music and fine wines (all by women producers), grand concerts, intimate concerts, parades, costumes, dances, all this and more is on the menu. I talk it all over with the festival’s friendly Co-Artistic Director and co-General Manager, Vincent Lauzer.
Connaisseur Ticaso, one of Montreal’s most eloquent northeastern MCs, is highly respected by fans of French-language Quebec rap. Once an authentic bad boy, he’s no longer one for pragmatic reasons, but remains the same free-thinking street artist. Representative of the Afro-descendant movement in the Saint-Michel, Pie-IX and Montreal North neighborhoods, Ticaso has been leading a second artistic life since the beginning of this decade, reaping the rewards of his longevity by commanding respect for his eloquence and the singularity of his rap. A rap that he doesn’t define as keb, but rather as “Franco-American” – which has nothing to do with the term that once defined French-speaking Quebecers who emigrated to the USA at the end of the 19th century. A must-see and must-listen event this Saturday, June 14, 7pm, on the Spotify stage.
Publicité panam
If you’re a fan or hyper-fan of Francophone expression in song, rock, soul, R&B, hip-hop, pop or hyperpop, check out this interview with Camille Guitton, one of the three Francos de Montréal program managers alongside Mathieu Rousseau and Maurin Auxémery. Ahead of the Francos, Alain Brunet asked her the essential questions for a good overview of the 2025 program.
On June 14, the only Classica 2025 Festival concert on the island of Montreal: Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. It takes place at Saint-Jean-Baptiste church (DETAILS AND TICKETS HERE). Always a crowd favorite, this imposing choral piece will be performed in a version for two pianos and percussion, but of course with a muscular choir, that of the Société philharmonique du Nouveau Monde, some 150 singers. No large orchestra, but new colors and textures that shed new light on the texts. With soloists Alexandre Sylvestre, Ania Hejnar and Jeffrey Carl, Orff’s inexhaustible oeuvre will certainly resound with power. I spoke to artistic director Michel Brousseau.
Known for his emo-rap and rock anthems, GreenWoodz recently unveiled Malgré la tempête, his second career album, marking an assertive transition to folk-pop tinged with both new country and rap. A successful gamble for the 25-year-old artist, who shines for the authenticity of his lyrics, the sincerity of his approach and the coherence of his project.
Whether on 20e avenue, where he tackles consumerism, or on Désolé pour ça, which deals with a difficult break-up in love, Tommy Boisvert presents himself as a veritable open book. People recognize themselves in the ups and downs of his life; the storm GreenWoodz speaks of is a reality common to many, no doubt what makes his music so accessible. Listening to his songs is a bit like catching up with an old friend who’s playing his latest creations around a campfire.
One thing is certain: the art of the chorus is one of the most precious tools of the native of Mandeville, a small village in the Lanaudière region. The formula is simple but effective, giving life to catchy, guitar-driven tracks like Hôtel Saint-Charles.
Vocally, the 7th Heaven artist is more composed and melodic than usual. This acquired maturity blends perfectly with his delicate, minimalist productions. “I chose to listen to myself and make the music I wanted to make,” he says.
At the Francos on Friday, June 13, GreenWoodz will perform Malgré la tempête for the very first time at Studio TD. To purchase tickets:
A few days after the album’s release, Pan M 360 chatted about his creative process, his artistic change, his influences and much more.
PAN M 360: Just over a week ago, you released Malgré la tempête, your second career album. How are you feeling at the moment?
GREENWOODZ: I’m pleasantly surprised by the good public reaction to the album, especially as I’ve undertaken a change of direction with this project. It’s more folk and pop than what I was doing before. It’s great to see that people are coming out in droves. Right now, I’m cranked up to start putting on my show and defending my new album on stage. I love working and making music, so I’ll be working on my next project very soon.
PAN M 360: Tell me about where you come from and the origins of your passion for music.
GREENWOODZ: I come from Mandeville, a small village in the Lanaudière region. I’ve always been drawn to music. When I was young, I took dance lessons. Let’s just say I wasn’t very good!
I started listening to music at a very young age. As a teenager, music was a good escape for me. One thing led to another and I discovered rap, then emo-rap. I quickly identified with it. That’s when I started creating and releasing different projects.
PAN M 360: Judging by your lyrics, you seem to have had a busy and eventful past. Is this true?
GREENWOODZ: I wouldn’t presume to say that I’ve lived a difficult life, but let’s just say that I’ve made some rather atypical life choices. I often say that I feel like I’ve already lived several lives. I’ve been in so many different environments in my life. I think that comes across in my songs; it allows people who have lived that kind of reality to connect with my music.
PAN M 360: Are the experiences you describe in your songs something from the past or do they reflect your everyday life?
GREENWOODZ: Heavy drinking, like when I was young, left my life a while ago. I’ve always had depressive tendencies, and it’s something that still follows me. It’s something I struggle with every day. I’d say yes and no: what I say in my music still follows me.
PAN M 360: What does Malgré la tempête, the title of your new project, mean?
GREENWOODZ: Malgré la tempête, it means that the storm is kind of permanent in life. I realized that in life, you never fall into a zone where it’s absolute happiness and everything’s fine. Malgré la tempête, it’s about accepting the things you can’t change and focusing on the things you can.
PAN M 360: You spoke earlier of a change of direction for this second album. How would you describe the sound of Malgré la tempête? Is this your sound for the future?
GREENWOODZ: It’s very hybrid; it’s got rap, folk, country, rock and pop. My aim was to find my own sound. With this album, I decided that from now on, I would listen to myself and make the music I wanted to make. I decided to stop appealing to a narrative where I’m supposed to make a certain style of music. 20th Avenue is a track that helped define the direction of the album.
PAN M 360: Would you say your inspiration for this second album has changed?
GREENWOODZ: My inspirations have changed, that’s for sure. During the creation of TPL, I was greatly influenced by the punk-rock, grunge and emo-rap scene. For Malgré la tempête, I reconnected with the Quebec folk scene that’s been playing at home all my life. I’m talking about Les Cowboys Fringants, Les Colocs, Plume Latraverse and even Bernard Adamus. I’ve also immersed myself in the American new country and modern folk scene, with the likes of Morgan Wallen, Zach Bryan, Shaboozey, Noah Kahan and others.
PAN M 360: This was the second time you’d gone through the process of creating an album. What was the biggest difference between the conception of Malgré la tempête and TPL? Also, what was the best part of this recent creation?
GREENWOODZ:TPL was the first album I’d released, so I certainly wasn’t used to working professionally at the time. Malgré la tempête was much simpler to make; it’s an album that came together on its own. The best part of the process was when my team and I rented a cottage in Charlevoix. That’s where we put together the vast majority of the project. We stayed there for a week; it was a defining week for this opus.
PAN M 360: The song Crash is one of the most authentic tracks on your latest project. Tell me the story behind the creation of this track.
GREENWOODZ: During the creation of Malgré la tempête, I was in a relationship. I hadn’t been in a relationship since my first love, and that was four years ago. Crash was the realization of all the patterns my former relationship had left behind and how they affected my daily life. It helped me understand how it could be damaging and what I needed to work on in the future.
PAN M 360: At several points in the album, you can hear sound extracts from parties and dialogues between friends. Why was it important for you to fill your album with these kinds of samples?
GREENWOODZ: In the last year, I’ve reconnected a lot with the village where I grew up. Before that, I was in a bit of a whirlwind through my relationships and music. I had drifted away from the people who had been by my side in the early days. Since the album deals a lot with this theme, I thought it would be interesting to include little nods to my friends in the project. I got them from videos I’d sent to my producer of parties with my boys.
PAN M 360: As part of the Francos, this Friday, June 13, you’ll be launching your album at Studio TD. What can we expect from this evening?
GREENWOODZ: The style of Malgré la tempête is different from my previous projects, but my show will keep the same energy as before. It’s a more folk, pop and mellow album, but it’s going to be a mean party as well. It’s going to be my biggest show ever, and I’ve got a big guest list for the occasion. I can already tell you there’ll be rappers Rymz and Shreez.
Photo Credit: Disques 7ième Ciel
With the Francos and the festival season approaching, Tire le coyote gives this video interview to Alain Brunet for PAN M 360. In it, he talks about the material for his two new albums: Dynastie, released in October 2024, and Ventouse, a folkier, more engaged album in light of the explosive situation the world is currently experiencing. This has earned Benoît Pinette (real name) threats from far-right trolls. We’re talking about sound, words and commitment. Tire le coyote and his band will perform at Le Gesù, Thursday June 19, 7pm.
Mathieu Constance is a fixture at Multicolore, which runs Piknic Électronik, and at Courage, which builds the program. Each month of Summer 2025, he shares his musts and impressions of recent Piknic achievements. Follow the pro!
PAN M 360: How did you experience the first few weeks of Piknic 2025?
Mathieu Constance: It’s been a bit of an unusual start to the season for us, at least since I started working at Multicolore. We’ve had rain and weather more like Igloofest than Piknic over the past few weeks… Despite all that, we’ve had some great premieres with Enrico, Marlon Hoffstadt and STRYV!
PAN M 360: What do you think were the highlights of May and June 1st?
Mathieu Constance: Boys Noize – Marlon Hoffstadt – Sally C – Bambii
PAN M 360: Can you identify and briefly describe your Piknic must-haves for the next 4 weekends, until June 30? One or two a week, please.
Mathieu Constance: 5 hours and a half of curation and showcase by DJ Tennis with Life & Death this Sunday. Not to be missed! The super-anticipated premieres of Mochakk and Black Coffee too (BC was our 2nd fastest sell-out in festival history!). Special mention to a St-Jean Baptiste special, more than a party with the first headliner Nico de Andrea, and the Laylit collective who will set fire to our new B stage.Voilà!
This Sunday, at Théâtre de La Ville de Longueuil, soprano Marianne Lambert will present her new production, Mers intérieures.
Through a series of pieces and accompanied by immersive processed images, the concert explores different facets of perinatal mourning.
PAN M 360: The concert is entitled Mers intérieures. What do these “internal seas” mean to you?
Marianne Lambert: The internal seas symbolize my stages of healing in the perinatal mourning process. Water is a central element in this story, as it gives birth, nourishes, but can also destroy. Yet it also has the power to cleanse, heal and purify.
PAN M 360: This concert features works by Debussy, Wolf, Górecki, Ayotte, Ravel, Mahler and Weill. How did you choose these works, and what guided you in this selection?
Marianne Lambert: First of all, the Górecki was done when we did excerpts with the Orchestre symphonique de Drummondville. Despite my love for the piece, it’s difficult to transpose to piano and cello.
As for the choice of pieces, I based myself mainly on the poetry, and surprisingly, by changing the perspective, several pieces suited the subject. In fact, I had the opposite problem, which was to make heartbreaking choices.
PAN M 360: The piece Reste, which you commissioned from composer Maggie Ayotte, deals with perinatal bereavement, a subject that is still very much unexplored in our society. Can you tell us about the process that led to the creation of this work?
Marianne Lambert: I was looking for a composer who would be able to transpose the difficult stage of leaving my child’s little body. It was after listening to the piece Entre la veille et le sommeil by Maggie Ayotte, played by the formidable Duo Fortin-Poirier, that I immediately fell in love with her writing and her sensitivity. In life, there is no adon. When I contacted her, she was about to give birth to twins. Despite this, she couldn’t refuse my order. Her maternal color is an asset for this concert.
PAN M 360: In the treatment of perinatal bereavement, do you think the arts, particularly music, have any particular potential?
Marianne Lambert: Absolutely! We know that the arts in all their forms are an important medium for experiencing emotions, reflecting and healing. We don’t talk enough about perinatal bereavement, despite the fact that many families go through it. I sincerely believe that this concert will be a way of resonating together and breaking the solitude.
PAN M 360: The concert also includes a multimedia component. How did this visual dimension develop, and how does it interact with the music?
Marianne Lambert: Last September, we spent 4 days shooting, including one night underwater. No pun intended, but I wanted the audience to dive into my world and forget the space of time. The magnificent images were treated with the genius of Isabeau Proulx-Lemire and Emmanuel Grangé. They have transposed my story into metaphor with poetry and great humanity. The visual will play a major role. So much so that at certain moments, me and the musicians (Janie Caron on piano and Chloé Dominguez on cello) will be the plot. For me, this was the best way to leave a greater impact through gentleness and kindness.
This Sunday, at the Centre multifonctionnel de Saint-Lambert, the play La chèvre de Monsieur Séguin (Mr. Seguin’s goat) will be presented, halfway between opera and theater. Patrick Mathieu, who wrote the libretto and music, offers his vision of an opera for young audiences. With lucidity and a touch of irony, he shows us that the eyes of a child do not make judgments, other than the constructions acquired by the society around them.
PAN M 360: Why did you decide to adapt Mr. Seguin’s Goat as an opera-theater for children?
Patrick Mathieu: It depends where the emphasis lies in your question… Why this story? Why an opera? Or why for children? Why an opera? The obvious answer is that I’m a musician. The only reason I sign the texts for most of our productions is that writing an opera libretto requires musical skills that very few writers possess.
Why an opera for children? The first thing to point out is that it’s adults, not children, who have prejudices against opera, most of which are completely unfounded. Basically, an opera is a Disney film: a story and tunes, or the opposite. A Disney film is an opera where the story takes precedence over the music. Now, I can well understand that someone who’s never been exposed to “classical” music and/or theater can be quite bewildered when they attend their first grand opera, especially if they understand nothing of what’s being told. That’s a shame. For them. They’ve been deprived of something fantastic, and that in itself seems more than enough reason not to do the same to your own children.
Now, is it essential to love opera? What’s essential is eating, having a roof over your head and being healthy… not opera, a TV series or a field hockey game. What is vital, however, is that children discover the pleasure of a culture that is not just entertainment, that they learn to think differently, for themselves. A culture-free, self-referential society brings Trump to power. Well, there are also hyper-educated and cultured societies that supported Hitler, but that’s another debate.
PAN M 360: The ending of the original story is rather tragic. How did you manage to adapt this dark ending for a young audience?
Patrick Mathieu: Daudet’s tale is very short, and there’s a certain amount of adaptation and invention, including characters and far-fetched episodes, that’s necessary, otherwise the show would have lasted 5 minutes! However, everything in the original text is present in our version, including the ending. Now, is this ending tragic? What’s always interested me about this fable is that it’s amoral. It describes life, not an American movie. The wolf eats the goat because that’s what wolves do. If he doesn’t eat the goat, he starves. For me, the central point of the tale isn’t the goat’s death, it’s the fact that she resists the wolf all night, knowing that she won’t escape. It’s the heroism of the human condition: doing the best we can, knowing that it never ends well. So yes, the story is deeply tragic, but it’s a philosophical tragedy.
That said, it’s only the end of the show that’s dramatic, and the whole “art” consists in leading the audience from comedy to drama. Children love drama as much as the next person, on the obvious condition that its representation respects their sensibilities. It’s the old artistic principle: it’s not so much what’s said that matters as how it’s said. What’s certain is that after hundreds of performances, if we’d done a realistic ending, there’d be a serious shortage of sopranos and the prisons would be full of obese baritones.
PAN M 360: You’ve just returned from Brazil and Mexico, where you presented this piece. How did these foreign audiences influence your perception of the work?
Patrick Mathieu: We’ve been back a long time!
I don’t know to what extent a foreign audience – indeed, any audience – can influence my perception of a work, whether it’s mine or not. As a director selling tickets and shows, perhaps, but certainly not as a musician.
Is the show perceived differently by foreign audiences? As far as the form of the show is concerned, no. What changes in the particular case of La chèvre is the way in which the children express their feelings about the tragedy. It obviously depends on each child, but in general, it seems to me that it’s much more a question of social class than country. There’s more difference between a child from Outremont and one from Montreal North than between a Mexican or Brazilian child from the same social class and one from Quebec. The only notable cultural difference is the visceral, physical reaction to music of the people who dance. This is true in Latin America, and would be equally true in Africa. Francophones and Anglophones are the only cultures where audiences are incapable of clapping their hands to the beat of a pop song!
PAN M 360: The work is aimed at young people aged 4 to 12. How do you manage to engage these different age groups?
Patrick Mathieu: The process doesn’t seem any different to me than when I compose “for adults”. I write what I want to hear, which doesn’t yet exist. The only difference with operas for young audiences is that I write what I would have liked to hear as a child. Obviously, I didn’t know this when I was a child. Like everyone else, I imagined I’d end up at the Forum, not in music! Maybe I would have realized it sooner.
I think the charm of the show, which perhaps also explains its success, is that the adults have done a serious job of remembering what it’s like to be a child.
The only way to engage a children’s audience is to give them a good show. If they like it, you’ll know it just as much as if they don’t!
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There’s a link between agriculture and culture that needs to be re-established in an age when this intrinsic link in traditional societies has long since been severed. On Montreal’s South Shore, artists and farmers have set their sights on restoring this link in a post-modern way, and even turning it into a way of life. Virtuoso violinist Emmanuel Vukovich and his farmer partners from the Cadet Roussel farm are at the helm of the project’s artistic pole, creating a program of concerts presented on the farm, in a hall perfectly equipped to carry out this initiative. In the midst of a socio-financing campaign, the Festival Concerts de Saint-Grégoire unfolds for the first time this summer, following the presentation of numerous “agri-cultural” events. Here, Emmanuel Vukovich explains the program and recounts this holistic adventure.
PAN M 360: Who are the artists involved in this concert series?
Emmanuel Vukovich: The first season of Festival Concerts de Saint-Grégoire brings together a remarkable group of artists from Quebec, Canada and around the world, chosen not only for their artistic excellence, but also for the consistency of their approach with the festival’s fundamental themes of land, community and cultural dialogue.
Tambuco – This world-renowned Mexican percussion ensemble, four-time Grammy Award nominees and featured on the James Bond Spectre soundtrack, will perform as part of our Latin American intercultural exchange festival. Their presence pays tribute to the profound cultural contributions of Latin American farm workers in Quebec, while offering a sonically rich and globally relevant artistic voice.
Gabriela Ortiz – Mexican composer and Grammy Award winner in 2024, Ortiz represents a powerful contemporary voice in Latin American music. Her chamber works bring urgency and depth to the intercultural dialogue at the heart of the festival’s August program.
Chloé Sainte-Marie – Celebrated Quebec singer, actress and activist, Sainte-Marie brings a powerful presence to the festival thanks to her longstanding dedication to aboriginal and rural communities. Her voice embodies the emotional and social dimensions of the festival’s core mission.
Layale Chaker – Lebanese-American violinist and composer, Ms. Chaker’s work blends classical traditions with Middle Eastern improvisation. Her participation testifies to the festival’s openness to transcultural expression and diasporic perspectives.
Kinan Azmeh – A Syrian-American clarinetist known as a soloist, composer and improviser, M Azmeh’s fascinating fusion of multiple musical traditions reflects the spirit of creative dialogue that the festival seeks to nurture.
Aldo Mazza – Montreal-based Cuban-Italian percussionist and founder of KoSA Music, Mr. Mazza brings decades of experience in linking music, education and social justice, and his participation reflects the festival’s commitment to musical excellence rooted in civic engagement.
Dominic Desautels is one of Canada’s most sought-after wind instrumentalists, with a flourishing career as soloist, chamber musician, orchestral clarinetist and teacher.
Jean-Philippe Sylvestre – In 2008, Jean-Philippe Sylvestre received the prestigious Virginia Parker Award, the highest distinction awarded by the Canada Council for the Arts.
Chef John Winter Russell – Founder and owner of Montreal’s renowned Candide restaurant .
Chef Mariana Martin – Founder of Alma Restaurant and Carlotta Bakery, Ms. Martin reinforces the festival’s integration of agriculture, culture and hospitality as interconnected expressions of community care.
Parcival Project Ensemble – This collective (which I direct), forms the artistic heart of the festival. The world premiere of Parzival & Feirefiz – a new Grail tale for diversity, in collaboration with Tambuco, illustrates the festival’s mission to foster renewal and reconciliation through the arts.
Together, these artists embody the values of the Festival Concerts de Saint-Grégoire: artistic excellence, cultural inclusion, environmental awareness and the conviction that music can be a living bridge between people, places and traditions.
PAN M: Where did the inspiration for “Agri-Culture” come from?
Emmanuel Vukovich: The inspiration for this project stems from a lifelong quest to reconcile apparent contrasts, to build bridges between worlds that are often considered disconnected. At the heart of this project lies a personal and artistic quest: to bring together music and agriculture, science and art, humanity and nature. Like Bach, Goethe and Bartók, artists who saw scientific research and artistic creation as equally vital, I believe that the creative act is most powerful when it draws on multiple ways of thinking and being.
Agri-Culture: Concerts de Saint-Grégoire is a response to an age marked by divides – between individuals, between communities, and between humans and the land. It is founded on the conviction that music and agriculture, like body and mind, support different but equally essential parts of our humanity. As Shakespeare wrote, “if music be the food of love, play on”; this hidden link between artistic and agricultural nourishment is at the heart of the festival’s vision.
Located on the Cadet Roussel Farm, a pioneer in organic and biodynamic agriculture, at the foot of Mont-Saint-Grégoire, the festival cultivates deep ties between the artistic and the agricultural, in resonance with the rhythms of the earth. Rooted in traditions of agri-cultural excellence, Agri-Culture is a space of renewal and reconciliation where music, land and people unite to build resilient communities. It is also a catalyst for local economic vitality and global ecological awareness, offering a new way of engaging with the land and with each other through creativity, hospitality and shared presence.
PAN M 360: Where does your commitment to the Cadet-Roussel farm and its “Agri-Culture” approach come from?
Emmanuel Vukovich: My connection with Ferme Cadet Roussel goes back over twenty years. I first came to the farm in 2004, when I was studying music and environmental and agricultural studies at McGill University. What began as a formative summer working on the farm quickly turned into a long-standing friendship and collaboration with Anne Roussel and Arnaud Mayet, the farm’s co-founders. Over the years, we’ve adopted a common vision: the artistic and agricultural spheres – often considered unrelated – can in fact complement and reinforce each other.
The idea of integrating concerts into farm activities matured over time and crystallized during the pandemic. When all cultural gatherings were halted and musical spaces closed, farms like Cadet Roussel continued to function as essential services.It was then that the idea of a festival – a living dialogue between art and the land – really took root.
Drawing on my experiences at New York’s Churchtown Dairy Farm (a Rockefeller family project) and my involvement in co-directing Symphony in the Barn in Ontario, I was inspired to imagine a festival where world-class music could take place not in an isolated setting, but to the rhythm of the earth’s cycles. Located at the foot of Mont-Saint-Grégoire, Ferme Cadet Roussel – with its pioneering biodynamic practices – offered the ideal setting.
Les Concerts de Saint-Grégoire is not just about giving concerts in a rural setting, it’s about cultivating the deep, often hidden interconnection between cultural and ecological life. The project invites audiences toengage simultaneously with music and the land, and aims to foster an international artistic community that is both rooted in this place and aware of its ecological and social responsibility on a global scale.
In an age of increasing polarization, where social media filters have fractured our sense of shared space and purpose, this festival aspires to be a bridge. Through music, agriculture and hospitality, we hope to create an inclusive and socially engaged space for dialogue – a space that reconnects people not only to each other, but also to the earth that nourishes us all.
PAN M 360: What is your business model in line with your community’s values?
Emmanuel Vukovich: The Concerts de Saint-Grégoire business model is rooted in the same principles that guide the ecological and community-based approach of Ferme Cadet Russel, the farm that hosts the festival. This pioneering biodynamic farm operates on the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model: members commit to supporting the farm throughout the production season, and in return receive a weekly share of fresh organic produce as needed.
Rather than functioning as a classic commercial transaction between producer and consumer, this model creates a relationship of shared responsibility: the community helps support the farm, and the farm, in turn, nourishes the community, not only with food, but also with a sense of belonging, continuity and care for the land.
Les Concerts de Saint-Grégoire applies this same philosophy to the arts. Rather than offering isolated, one-off cultural events, the festival is conceived as a seasonal experience that develops in harmony with the farm’s agricultural rhythms. It integrates music and public gatherings throughout the year, creating opportunities for the community to come together, just as it does to celebrate spring planting or the great autumn vegetable harvest.
In this sense, the festival is not an external addition to the farm, but a natural extension of its mission, transforming the cultural experience into something participatory and locally rooted. By offering concerts, culinary evenings and cross-cultural events that reflect the values of cooperation, sustainability and mutual aid, the festival becomes another way for people to connect, not only to the land, but also to each other.
Ultimately, the model reflects a broader vision of cultural sustainability, where artistic life is nurtured and supported in the same way as ecological agriculture: through long-term relationships, shared purpose and a deep respect for the living systems – human and natural – that sustain us.
PAN M 360: What is your concert production history?
Emmanuel Vukovich: Between 2001 and 2003, I was co-artistic director of Symphony in the Barn, an international summer music festival held at Glencolton Farms, a biodynamic dairy farm in Ontario , where I also had the privilege of conducting the festival orchestra as concertmaster, under the artistic direction ofErnst Dunshirn, director of theVienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna Opera Choir.
Between 2007 and 2009, while living and working at the Cadet Roussel farm, I produced a series of solo violin recitals at several community farms in Quebec, Ontario and New York State. In collaboration with a Radio Canada producer, I recorded and produced a documentary video of these concerts entitled Bach à la ferme, which was revived during the pandemic for the Canada Council’s CBC Digital Originals series. In 2019, the Grande Salle Agri-Culturelle de la Ferme Cadet Roussel was officially inaugurated with a concert performed by beneficiaries of the Canada Council Instrument Bank.
Between 2017-21, I was invited to perform and provide artistic direction for a Bach Odyssey at Montreal’s Chapelle Historique du Bon Pasteur, and I rehearsed Bach ‘s complete cycle of Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin at St Andrew & St Paul Church during the pandemic (2020-21 season).
The Parcival Project gave its first concerts in 2011 and was registered as a non-profit organization in 2012, receiving charitable status in 2017 after an international concert tour of Chile, Argentina and Brazil in 2014.
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PAN M 360: You’ve built a hall. What are the characteristics of this hall? Capacity, etc.?
Emmanuel Vukovich: The Grande Salle Agri-Culturelle de la Ferme Cadet Roussel is the former barn loft where hay was traditionally stored for the cows during the winter, and was officially inaugurated as a concert hall in August 2019 and renovated during the pandemic with wood from trees grown and cut on the farm.This is a locally crafted concert hall, and the acoustics of the space are testament to this unique quality, seating around 80-100 spectators. Insulated, heated and air-conditioned, the space houses a permanent Boston-Steinway grand piano .
PAN M 360: What prompted you to present a full season of Concerts de Saint-Grégoire?
Emmanuel Vukovich: The decision to present a full season of Concerts de Saint-Grégoire grew out of a desire to align music with the natural rhythms of the land. Rather than concentrating activity around a single weekend or concert date, we wanted to create a living cultural calendar that followed the seasonal flow of an agrarian year – reflecting the cycles of planting, growing and harvesting at the heart of farm life.
This vision is deeply inspired by the traditional agricultural festivals that have marked rural communities for centuries: the celebration of sowing in spring, haymaking in early summer and bountiful harvests in autumn. In today’s fast-paced and often fragmented world, I believe that revisiting and honoring these timeless patterns through music can offer a meaningful way to reconnect with the seasons, the land and each other.
By presenting concerts throughout the year, each resonating with a particular period of the agricultural cycle, we invite the public to enjoy a more rooted, place-based cultural experience. It’s an opportunity to gather not only around artistic creation, but also around the rhythms that sustain life: growth, change, renewal.
In so doing, the Concerts de Saint-Grégoire become more than a series of performances; they become a seasonal dialogue between music, land and community, a way of bringing people together in celebration, reflection and shared presence throughout the year. This continuous rhythm also allows for greater integration into the daily life of the farm and more inclusive programming, in collaboration with local and international artists.
Ultimately, presenting a full season is a way of grounding the festival in continuity and living connection – qualities we believe are essential not only for cultural vitality, but also for building more resilient and caring communities.
PAN M 360: What is your artistic direction?
Emmanuel Vukovich: Artistic excellence, intercultural exchange and the promotion of the ecology of the art form. I’ve been very interested in the legacy of researchintooral traditions left by Béla Bartók, which links ethnomusicology, ecology and the exploration of musical timbre in the practice of performing and composing new music.
The artistic direction of Les Concerts de Saint-Grégoire is guided by three fundamental principles: artistic excellence, intercultural exchange and collaboration, and a deep commitment to advancing the ecology of the art form itself. For me, artistic excellence is not simply a matter of virtuosity or reputation, but of depth of expression, sonic honesty and the music’s ability to resonate authentically with a specific time, place and community. I seek to select artists and programs that carry this sense of integrity – performers whose work derives from both mastery and meaning.
A commitment to intercultural collaboration is also at the heart of my vision: I believe that music, in all its power, exists in dialogue and innovation – between traditions and other cultures.That’s why the festival invites artists from all disciplines and cultural backgrounds to come together and co-create something new, often through collaboration and exchange. These encounters not only enrich the artistic offering, but also reflect a broader social commitment: to model the kind of respectful, dynamic engagement we hope to see in the world.
The third axis of my artistic direction is a growing interest in musical ecology – both literal and metaphorical – and in the advancement of the art form of classical music. Inspired by Béla Bartók ‘s research into oral traditions and ethnomusicology, I am fascinated by the way in which music can reflect and interact with its environment.Bartók’s research into the folk and peasant melodies of Eastern Europe, Turkey and North Africa provides us today with a model of how music can be both rooted in tradition and offer new possibilities for the future.
In the same way that ecological agriculture works in relation to the living system of life, I see musical and artistic collaboration and leadership as a living system – one that thrives on diversity, care and regeneration.
Through Les Concerts de Saint-Grégoire, I hope to cultivate an international artistic community and culture where these values converge: where world-class performances develop in harmony with the local context; where intercultural exchange is not just a gesture, but a process; and where the ecology of music – as a cultural, emotional and communal force – is nurtured over time.
PAN M 360: What are your plans for the future?
Emmanuel Vukovich: My plans for the future are rooted in a long-term commitment to making a significant contribution to the continuation and evolution of classical music, not only as a performer or curator, but also as someone deeply involved in shaping the cultural ecosystems that support it.
I believe that classical music has enduring relevance, but its survival and vitality depend on our ability to honor its traditions while continually expanding and defining its relevance. My goal is to create artistic experiences that are both rooted in the legacies of the past and open to the realities and urgencies of the present. This includes rethinking how and where classical music is shared, to whom it is addressed, and how it might evolve in dialogue with other musical and artistic traditions, other cultures, other disciplines and other ways of life.
For the future, I intend to make Les Concerts de Saint-Grégoire a living laboratory for artistic innovation – a place where performers, composers and audiences engage with classical music by being immersed in nature, shaped by community and attuned to the rhythms of the earth.This vision goes beyond the concert hall; I’m particularly inspired by the idea that music is a form of ecological listening, a way of deepening our awareness not only of sound, but also of our place in the world.
In this sense, my future work will continue to explore how music can reflect the links between human life, the natural world and the cosmos. I’m interested in projects that integrate environmental awareness, scientific intuition and spiritual inquiry – each informing the way we compose, perform and experience music. Whether it’s interdisciplinary collaborations, new commissions or site-specific performances, I see it as a path to an art form that is not only preserved, but continually renewed.
Ultimately, my aim is to participate in a future where classical music remains a vital force – alive, evolving and in deep resonance with the beauty and wisdom of the human imagination and the natural world that sustains it.
PAN M 360: Who is the team working with you on this project?
Ferme Cadet Roussel Le Projet Parcival
Latitude 45 Arts
Ensembl’Arts
La Ruche
Donna Williams Noémie Raymond
Boulangerie Carlota
Restaurant Candide
Montreal Museum of Fine Art Consulate du Mexique à Montréal
PAN M 360: How do you manage to finance a concert season?
Emmanuel Vukovich: While our long-term goal is to build a funding model inspired by the cooperative approach to ecological farming practiced at Ferme Cadet Roussel, our first season is currently funded by a more traditional structure. This includes a mix of public arts funding, private donations and targeted project grants that support artists’ fees, production costs and essential infrastructure.
The cornerstone of this year’s financing is our participatory fundraising campaign on La Ruche, supported by a matching grant from the Quebec Ministry of Tourism’s Horizons d’ici program. Every dollar contributed by the public is matched, but only if we reach our goal of $61,876 by June 15, 2025. This campaign is not just a financial tool; it reflects the spirit of shared responsibility and grassroots participation that we hope will define the future of the festival.
Ultimately, we envision a model that mirrors the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) system used by Ferme Cadet Roussel, where members commit to supporting the entire growing season and, in return, are fed throughout the year. Similarly, we aim to develop a sustainable cultural ecosystem supported by a community of listeners, partners and creators. But to achieve this, we must first lay the foundations.
Right now, reaching our crowdfunding goal is essential to making this inaugural season possible. It’s an invitation to become co-creators of the project right from the start, helping us sow the seeds of a festival rooted in the rhythms of the earth, the power of music and the strength of collective commitment.
PAN M 360: What is your socio-financing goal with La Ruche? Emmanuel Vukovich: The crowdfunding campaign between May 15 and June 15, 2025, organized by the Quebec crowdfunding platform La Ruche with a matching grant from the Quebec Ministry of Tourism – Fonds Horizons d’ici. A minimum of $61,876 must be raised before June 15 for the matching funds to be awarded.We invite all those wishing to support the project to make a donation and purchase tickets for our festival before June 15!
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