Opus award 2007 PERFORMERS OF THE YEAR

Transcription

1 Opus award 2007 PERFORMERS OF THE YEAR Opus award 2007 Membra Jesu Nostri (ATMA) with Les Voix baroques and Les Voix humaines Disc of the year (Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music) Diapason d Or 2007 Sainte-Colombe : Concerts a deux violes esgales (ATMA) The fourth volume of the complete work (each volume = 2 Cds) Opus award 2005 De Vanitate Mundi (ATMA) with Suzie LeBlanc, soprano, and Stephan Van Dyck, tenor Disc of the year (Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music) Opus award 2001 Amour Cruel (ATMA) with Suzie LeBlanc, soprano, and Stephen Stubbs, lute and theorbo Disc of the year (Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music) Diapason d Or 2001 Le Nymphe di Rheno (Naxos) The twelve sonatas for two viols by Johannes Schenck (2 CDs) Opus award 2000 Star of the magi (ATMA) with Daniel Taylor, countertenor, & Suzie LeBlanc, soprano Recording of the year Adisq award 1998 Tears of the Muse (ATMA) with Daniel Taylor, countertenor Félix for the classical disc of the year (soloists and small ensembles category)

2 PERFORMERS OF THE YEAR Opus award 2007 Their musical complicity has been compared to the skill of two trapeze artists or the telepathic communion of a pair of jazz saxophonists! Susie Napper and Margaret Little, the two gambists of Les Voix humaines, have been thrilling audiences worldwide with dashing performances of early and contemporary music for viols since They are renowned for their spectacular arrangements of a wide variety of music for two viols and have become a world reference for the music of Sainte-Colombe. They received the Opus Award 2007 for PERFORMERS OF THE YEAR from the Conseil québécois de la musique. Les Voix humaines has recorded some forty discs which have received critical acclaim and prestigious awards (DIAPASON D OR, Choc du Monde de la Musique, Repertoire- Classica 10, Goldperg 5, Classics Today 10/10, Prix Opus, etc). The duo has toured in North America, Mexico, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Japan and China. The Voix humaines Consort of Viols Since 2001, the duo is regularly joined by some of Montreal s finest young gambists to form the Voix Humaines Consort of viols specializing in the vast 17th-century repertoire for viol consort. The regular quartet consists of Margaret Little, Mélisande Corriveau, Felix Deak and Susie Napper. Marie-Laurence Primeau joins the group for five-part consorts. The Consort has many touring programs including Dowland s «Lachrimae» and an English-Spanish program, «Doulce Mémoire», featuring music of the time of the great Armada. In 2008 they recorded Henry Purcell s complete fantasias for viols and have toured with this program across Canada and France. They recorded J.S. Bach s Art of the Fugue in March The Voix humaines Consort of Viols is the only permanent viol consort in Canada.

3 Cellist, gambist, continuo player par excellence, SUSIE NAPPER is known for her colorful, even controversial performances of both solo and chamber repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries. Having spent her childhood in an artistic milieu in London, in her late teens she moved to New York to study at the Juilliard School, then to the Paris Conservatoire. San Francisco followed, where, after a foray into contemporary music, she co-founded and directed the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. Since then she has spent two decades with a foot on either side of the Atlantic as principal cellist with several groups including Stradivaria in France, the Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal and Les Boréades in Montreal, and the Trinity Consort of Portland. Her concert tours have taken her as far afield as China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, India, the Middle East, as well as most European countries. As a member of the very active viol duo Les Voix humaines, she has discovered a new facet of musical expression in the form of musical arranging, thus providing an endlessly fascinating new repertoire for two viols. Susie Napper teaches at McGill University, and founded the Festival international Montréal Baroque which is presented in Old Montreal in June since She was awarded the «Prix Opus» 2002 for «Personality of the year» by the Conseil québécois de la musique. Her recordings, which include most of the known repertoire for two viols, can be heard on Harmonia Mundi, EMI, Erato, ADDA, CBC Records, Naxos, and most notably on the ATMA label. But her true vocation is not on the concert stage or the recording studio. The kitchen is the center of her domain, where she creates dishes both colorful and controversial for her own pleasure as well as that of her guests. MARGARET LITTLE was born and raised in Montreal in a musical family, playing violin, piano, recorder and guitar as a child. She discovered the viola da gamba at the age of eleven and fell in love instantly with the instrument and early music repertoire. After studying science and then visual arts, she came back to music and the viol in her early twenties. Margaret has been performing since 1975 as a soloist and a chamber musician on the viola da gamba and baroque viola with various groups including the Studio de Musique ancienne de Montréal, Les Idées Heureuses, Arion, Musica Divina, and she founded the viola da gamba duo "Les Voix humaines" with Susie Napper in She also loves to perform as a duo with Sylvain Bergeron, lutenist. She has been invited to play with many early music groups as a gambist and baroque violist (such as Cappricio Stravagante, Fuocco e Cenere, Rebel, Four Nations, Trinity Consort, Aradia, The Publick Musick, Les Boréades, Les Violons du Roy, etc.) and has toured in North America, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. She has recorded over 90 CDs and her first solo CD Senza Continuo was nominated for an Opus Award. Margaret Little teaches the viola da gamba and baroque ensembles at the Université de Montréal since 1992 and has taught many young talented professional viol players.

4 MÉLISANDE CORRIVEAU Having brilliantly completed an undergraduate degree in recorder in the Faculty of Music at the University of Montreal, in the class of Francis Colpron, Mélisande Corriveau is now establishing a solid reputation on the viola da gamba, an instrument she plays with as much intelligence as virtuosity. She also studied modern cello with Denis Brott (CMM), plays baroque cello, and has done a Masters degree in viola da gamba with Margaret Little at UdeM. Originally from the Montérégie region of Quebec, she has performed locally and internationally with well-known groups such as Les Voix humaines, the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, Les Idées heureuses, Les Boréades, Les Voix baroques, La Chapelle de Montréal, Masques (of which she is a regular member), and Capriccio Stravagante (Paris). She performs every year for Festival Montréal baroque, can be heard on Radio-Canada / CBC, and has recorded several CDs with ATMA and Analekta. An alert and sensitive musician, Mélisande Corriveau plays with intelligence and enthusiasm, sharing her passion of music with her appreciative audience. FELIX DEAK As well as being a founding member of I FURIOSI Baroque Ensemble, cellist/gambist Felix Deak showcases his career as a freelance musician with orchestras and chamber ensembles, including Toronto's Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, and Montreal's Les Voix Humaines. Felix instructs orchestral classes and private students in and around Toronto. He can be heard on CBC Radio Two in performances, and has made recordings for various labels at home and abroad. MARIE-LAURENCE PRIMEAU Versatile and refined artist, Marie-Laurence Primeau is an experienced recorder player and is now establishing a solid reputation as a viola da gamba player and baroque dancer. The complementarity of these arts gives a particular dimension to her playing and brought her to work with well-established ensembles such as le Consort des Voix Humaines, Masques, Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal and Toronto Masque Theatre. She is a regular member of ensemble Flûte Alors! and a founding member of Les Jardins chorégraphiques (baroque dance) directed by Marie-Nathalie Lacoursière. She has been seen in prestigious festivals in Québec and Canada (Festival Montréal baroque, Festival de musique de chambre d Ottawa, Festival of Ideas, Grand River Baroque Festival), has recorded under ATMA classique label and is recipient of grant from the Quebec Arts Council. Marie-Laurence teaches in different music schools, associations and summer institutes, and is presently completing a master in viola da gamba and early music performance in University of Montreal with Margaret Little.

5 RECORDINGS J. S. Bach : The Art of the Fugue ATMA (recorded in March 2012, to be released in 2013) Les Voix humaines Consort of Viols : Margaret Little, Susie Napper, Mélisande Corriveau, Felix Deak Henry Purcell : Fantasias ATMA (ACD2 2591) The complete fantasias for viols by Henry Purcell The Voix humaines Consort of Viols : Margaret Little, Susie Napper, Mélisande Corriveau, Elin Söderström, Felix Deak, Arnaud Leroy, Marie-Laurence Primeau Humori ATMA (ACD2 2504) A Renaissance Carnival celebration Les Voix baroques: Suzie LeBlanc & Catherine Webster, sopranos, Matthew White, countertenor, Charles Daniels & Colin Balzer, tenors, Sumner Thompson, barytone The Voix humaines Consort: Susie Napper, Margaret Little, Elin Söderström, viols, Matt Jennejohn, cornetto and recorder, Olivier Brault & Geneviève Gilardeau, violins, Sara Lackie, harp, Sylvain Bergeron, lute & guitar, Patrick Graham, percussion Membra Jesu Nostri ATMA (ACD2 2563) Les Voix baroques & Les Voix humaines Consort Alexander Weimann, organ and conductor Cycle of seven cantatas on the limbs of Jesus by Dietrich Buxtehude Goldberg 5 stars Opus award 2007 Disc of the year (Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music) Rise, O my soul ATMA (ACD2 2506) Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, Christopher Jackson, Director Les Voix humaines Consort of Viols and Réjean Poirier, organ English Anthems (Bull, Byrd, Gibbons, Simmes, Tomkins, Ward) Classics Today 10/10

6 REVIEWS (Purcell Fantasias CD)... it takes only a few seconds to captivate the listener. The viols warm and enveloping tones bring out an infinity of textures and swells an irrepressible musical necessity splendid disc, an absolute must! Camille Rondeau, La Scena Musicale, June 2009 (CD Rise, O my Soul) «At the core of this program is the magnificent instrumental support (vios and organ) of Les Voix humaines for my money the best ensemble playing this music currently on the scene. Their contributions supporting, accenting, and caressing each vocal phrase are equal to the virtuoso brillance they bring to fantasias by Tomkins and Gibbons. If there is praise higher than «essential listening», I award it to this recording.» Craig Zeichner, Early Music America, Winter 2007 (CD Membra Jesu Nostri) The five soloists and the equally-sensitive instrumental group for a superbly integrated consort, movingly communicating the vibrant intimacy and urgent sensuality of Buxtehude s music. Uri Golomb, Goldberg, October 2007 The Voix Humaines Consort had stars dancing before a delighted public s eyes as they expertly brought to life a program of early baroque English works. Weaving their viols voices together in a contrapuntal conversation punctuated by rich rhythms, their dulcet tones seemed to touch upon the divine. Guy Marceau, La Presse, May 2005 (in concert) "The lovely indolence of Dowland... Musical rhetoric and gesture are essential here, and these gambists succeed with great cohesion, from treble to bass, in creating a lovingly drawn-out sonority, rich and intense." Guy Marceau, La Presse, Montreal, January 2004 (in concert)