Un violoncelle par-delà les frontières

German-French cellist Nicolas Altstaedt is one of the most sought after and versatile artists today. As a soloist, conductor, and artistic director, he performs repertoire spanning early music to contemporary, playing on period and modern instruments.

Highlights of the 2020/21 season included several collaborations with Munich Kammerorchester, returns to Orchestre National de France, the Strasbourg Philharmonic and Fondazione per l’orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, and debut appearances with the Gulbenkian Orchestra at the Espinho Festival in Portugal and with Montpellier Orchestra. Nicolas also appeared at summer festivals in Budapest, Salzburg, and Oslo and was Artist in Focus at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt and Artist in Residence at the SWR Symphonieorchester with Teodor Currentzis in 2019/20.

Nicolas Altstaedt performs regularly with leading orchestras around the world, including Wiener Philharmoniker and Symphoniker, Tonhalle-Orchestra Zürich and all the BBC orchestras under conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, Sir Roger Norrington, Lahav Shani, François-Xavier Roth, and Robin Ticciati. He also appears regularly with orchestras devoted to historical performance practice such as ‘Il Giardino Armonico’ under Giovanni Antonini, Andrea Marcon, and Jonathan Cohen.

He has received numerous awards including the Beethovenring Bonn 2015 and Musikpreis der Stadt Duisburg 2018. His most recent recording from the Lockenhaus Festival garnered the BBC Music Magazine 2020 Chamber Award and Grammophone Award 2020. He received the BBC Music Magazine Concerto Award 2017 for his recording of CPE Bach Concertos on Hyperion with Arcangelo and Jonathan Cohen and the Edison Klassiek 2017 for his recital recording with Fazil Say on Warner Classics. Nicolas won the Credit Suisse Award in 2010 and was a BBC New Generation Artist 2010–2012.

Noëlla Bouchard joined Les Violons du Roy in 1995. Since then, she has played in several hundred concerts, some 30 international tours, and numerous recordings with this chamber orchestra in residence at Palais Montcalm – Maison de la musique in Quebec City.

Noëlla Bouchard began learning the violin at the age of five with Lucille Johnstone and continued her studies at Conservatoire de musique de Montréal from 1982 to 1992 in classes taught by Johanne Arel, Raymond Dessaints, Robert Verebes, Denis Brott, and Raffi Armenian. She earned her first award there in 1992. From 1992 to 1995 she continued to hone her skills with Moshe Hammer in Toronto. In 1994 she was a finalist at the International Stepping Stone Canadian Music Competition in Vancouver.  She has participated in a number of workshops at Domaine Forget, Camp musical des Laurentides, and Orford Musique.

In recent years, Noëlla Bouchard has been invited to Concerts du Bic (2016) and the Music and Beyond Festival in Ottawa (2018) and has played on a recording of André Mathieu’s chamber music with pianist Jean-Michel Dubé (2019).

Pascale Gagnon graduated from the University of Montréal with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees under the direction of Jean-François Rivest, and went to complete training sessions at the Orford Arts Centre, Le Domaine Forget in Saint-Irénée and the Banff Center for the Arts in Alberta.

Pascale Gagnon is a founding member of the Quatuor Bozzini (1994-1997), which won Second Prize in the CIBC National Competition in 1995, and First Prize in the “Debut” series in 1997. The Quartet is well known for its work in the contemporary music field, and in 1996 was invited to take part in the international forum for young composers in collaboration with Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (NEM).

Pascale Gagnon was the concertmaster of the University of Montréal orchestra for the last three years of her student career, and toured in Spain in 1994. As a soloist and chamber musician, she took part in 1997 in two concerts recorded by CBC for the “Jeunes Artistes” series, and has also appeared with various professional ensembles including L’Orchestre Métropolitain, L’Orchestre symphonique de Laval, I Musici, La Pietà and La Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ). Pascale Gagnon has been a member of the chamber orchestra Les Violons du Roy since May 2001.

Pascale Gagnon plays a Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, Paris, Guarneri model, 1850 violin, and uses an Émile-François Ouchard, (father), ca. 1930 bow, generously provided by CANIMEX INC. of Drummondville (Quebec).