Les muses de Mozart

NICOLAS ELLIS
Principal Guest Conductor of Les Violons du Roy

Nicolas Ellis is Music Director of the Orchestre National de Bretagne and Principal Guest Conductor of Les Violons du Roy. He is also Artistic Director of the Orchestre de l’Agora, which he founded in Montreal in 2013.

Nicolas Ellis is one of the most active conductors on the Canadian scene. He has conducted the Vancouver Symphony, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Orchestre de chambre I Musici de Montréal, the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, the Opéra de Québec and the Opéra de Montréal. Internationally, he has appeared with the Graz Opera and the San Diego Symphony.

In the 2024-2025 season, he makes his debuts with the Tampere Philharmonic in Finland, the Luxembourg Philharmonic, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and conducts a new production of The Magic Flute at the Opéra de Rennes. In Canada, he makes his debut with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and returns to the Orchestre Métropolitain and Opéra de Montréal in a production of L’enfant et les sortilèges.

Among the musical encounters that have strongly influenced him are those with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Orchestre Métropolitain, with whom he worked as Artistic Collaborator, a position he held from 2018 to 2023, and with Raphaël Pichon, conductor of the Ensemble Pygamlion, for whom he was assistant conductor during opera productions at the Opéra-Comique, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and the Salzburg Festival.

At the helm of his Orchestre de l’Agora, Nicolas Ellis conducts a rich repertoire ranging from Monteverdi’s Coronation of Poppea to Mahler’s 3rd Symphony. At the heart of the Agora’s mission, Nicolas Ellis has set up musical creation projects with teenagers living with mental health problems, educational music workshops for children, and a monthly concert series at Montreal’s Bordeaux Prison. Still with l’Agora, he also presented the 3rd edition of the Gala de la Terre in June 2024, a major fund-raising event for environmental organizations working in Canada. The concert featured Richard Strauss’ Alpine Symphony and Le choeur des bélugas, a new work by composer Claudie Bertounesque using beluga whales songs recorded in the St-Laurent River.

Nicolas Ellis is the recipient of the 2017 Fernand Lindsay Career Grant and was also awarded the Prix Goyer Mécénat Musica 2021.

Canadian soprano Sarah Dufresne has been celebrated for her “style and elegance” (Bachtrack), and “richness of tone... angelic high notes and admirable control” (ArtsDesk). The 2024/2025 season saw Sarah make role debuts as Ophelie in Thomas’ Hamlet with Opéra de Montréal, Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto with Pacific Opera Victoria, and Semele in Strauss’ Die Liebe der Danae with Bayerische Staatsoper. On the concert stage, she debuted with the London Symphony Orchestra as Yvette/Georgette in Puccini’s La Rondine with Sir Antonio Pappano.

The 2023/2024 season included concert debuts with both the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and Toledo Symphony, as well as in both Cadogan and Wigmore Halls as an associate artist of The Mozartists. She finished her two-year residency with Royal Opera House’s Jette Parker Program, appearing on stage at Covent Garden in Bizet’s Carmen (Frasquita), Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’amore (Giannetta), and Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel (Dew Fairy), all to much critical acclaim. To close out her season, she appeared as the High Priestess in Verdi’s Aida under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Orchestre Métropolitain at the Festival de Lanaudière.

Sarah debuted on the stage of Covent Garden as Papagena (Die Zauberflöte), Lucia (The Rape of Lucretia), Der Hirt (Tannhäuser), Voce dal Cielo (Don Carlo), Barbarina (Le nozze di Figaro), and Tusnelda (Arminio). She had the great pleasure of working under the batons of Joana Mallwitz, Bertrand de Billy, Maxim Emelyanychev, and Sebastian Weigle, and the direction of Sir David McVicar, Oliver Mears, and Tim Albery. Additonally, the summer of 2023 saw Sarah’s debut with Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal for Orff’s Carmina Burana with Rafael Payare.

Recently praised for her vocal technique and ease on the stage, Sarah’s 2021/2022 season included various concert performances with the l’Atelier lyrique, appearing with Chorus Niagara for Handel’s Messiah, as Anne for Ottawa Choral Society’s performance of Whitbourn’s Annelies, and covering various roles at l’Opéra de Montréal through her resident artist position. Sarah appeared on the mainstage at Place des Arts as Nora in Opéra de Montréal’s season opening production of Vaughn-William’s Riders to the Sea. In June of 2022, Sarah placed second in the Aria Division of the prestigious Concours Musical International de Montréal, garnering praise for her “tremendous dramatic presence,” and “astonishing clarity and vocal dexterity” (Opera Canada).

Other repertoire includes Tytania (Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Mrs. Fiorentino (Kurt Weill’s Street Scene), Galatea (Handel’s Acis and Galatea), and Servilia in (Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito). Recently, in collaboration with Against the Grain Theater and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Sarah premiered the role of Rebecca Marshall in their production of Nicole Lizée’s No One’s Safe, a conceptual and immersive murder mystery opera.

Sarah has been engaged by orchestras across Canada, including Waterloo Chamber Players, Grand Philharmonic Choir of Kitchener Waterloo, Opera McGill, Halifax Summer Opera, and with Orchestre Metropolitain under the baton of Nicolas Ellis. Sarah was awarded the top prize of Stingray Music Rising Star in the 2019 l’Opéra de Montréal talent gala. That same year, Sarah was an award winner at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (Buffalo/Toronto District) and earned the prestigious Jacqueline Desmarais Grant for Young Canadian Opera Singers.

Orchestre de l’Agora uses music as a tool for sustainable social change while presenting innovative and audacious concerts. Its musicians actively participate in its social actions through music.

Since its foundation in 2013, the Orchestra has distinguished itself through numerous initiatives, notably winning a first JUNO prize for the Viola Borealis album, featuring violist Marina Thibeault, as well as the prix Opus for Musical Event of the Year for its 2022 Gala de la Terre pour les enfants, which also raised $255,000 for environmental and humanitarian organizations.

Moreover, the Orchestra began a partnership with the Montreal Detention Center in 2021 to present concert-workshops to incarcerated individuals. Since 2013, the Orchestra’s musicians have been offering monthly music lessons and mentorship to hundreds of children from underprivileged backgrounds, in partnership with Musique à l’Unisson. Agora also closely collaborates with Espace Transition, a social innovation project at the heart of CHU Sainte-Justine that explores the power of art and creation on the well- being of troubled youth.

Artistic projects have allowed the Orchestra to collaborate with singer-songwriters like Jean-Michel Blais and Philippe Brach and established classical musicians, including Andrew Wan (concertmaster, OSM) and Yukari Cousineau (concertmaster, OM). Renowned Canadian soloists have joined the Orchestra in its past events, such as contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux, violinist Kerson Leong, and pianist Charles Richard- Hamelin.

In its regular collaborations with the Opéra de Montréal, Agora has had the opportunity to work with talented stage directors like Sylvain Scott, François Racine, Aria Umezawa, and Isabeau Proulx-Lemire on innovative operatic projects, including L’Enfant et les sortilèges in 2023 and, more recently, Monteverdi’s opera The Coronation of Poppea.

The past few years have seen Agora present several high-quality online concerts, including a holiday concert with soprano Karina Gauvin, Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn, and the Concert solidaire in support of healthcare workers, broadcast on ICI Radio-Canada Première.