Stéphane Tétreault
Cello
(I Musici Artist in Residence)
Biography
In addition to innumerous awards and honours, Stéphane Tétreault is the recipient of the prestigious 2019 Virginia Parker Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts. He is also the laureate of the 2022 Prix Opus for “Performer of the Year”, awarded by the Conseil québécois de la musique and accompanied by a Canada Council grant.
In 2016, Stéphane made his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Nézet-Séguin and performed at the prestigious Gstaad Menuhin Festival in Switzerland. During the 2017-2018 season, he took part in the Orchestre Métropolitain’s first European tour with Maestro Nézet-Séguin and made his debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Stéphane has performed with violinist and conductor Maxim Vengerov and pianists Alexandre Tharaud, Jan Lisiecki, Louis Lortie, Roger Vignoles, Marc-André Hamelin and John Lenehan. He has participated in a number of masterclasses, notably with cellists Gautier Capuçon and Frans Helmerson.
His debut CD recorded with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra and conductor Fabien Gabel was chosen as “Editor’s Choice” in the March 2013 issue of Gramophone Magazine. His second album with pianist Marie-Ève Scarfone, featuring works from Haydn, Schubert, and Brahms, was chosen as Gramophone Magazine’s “Critic’s Choice 2016” and recognized as one of the best albums of the year.
Stéphane was a student of the late cellist and conductor Yuli Turovsky for more than 10 years. He holds a master’s degree in Music Performance from the University of Montreal.
Stéphane plays the 1707 “Countess of Stainlein, Ex-Paganini” Stradivarius cello, generously loaned to him by Mrs. Sophie Desmarais.
Jean-François Rivest
conductor
Biography
Québec conductor Jean-François Rivest is renowned for his energy, his extremely precise technique, his style, which is passionate, moving and deeply involved, and his great communication skills. His discography serves as proof to the ease with which he masters a large variety of musical genres ranging from the baroque eraup to today.
Regularly invited by orchestras in Montreal, in Canada and around the world (USA, Mexico, Peru, France, Switzerland, Spain, Russia, and South Korea), he has been Artistic Director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Laval, (10 years) and of Ottawa’s Thirteen Strings Ensemble, (5 years), as well as Conductor in Residence of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal (OSM) where his tenure has been particularly significant. In the last months of 2021, while the Pandemic was widespread, he conducted at the Opéra de Lausanne and Opéra de Fribourg, in Switzerland, followed by 8 concerts with the Orchestre Symphonique du Pays Basque, in France.
Nominated as Principal Guest Conductor at first, in 2021, he was just recently appointed Artistic Director of the prestigious chamber orchestra I Musici de Montréal. As Christophe Huss said in Le Devoir, it is ‘a logical nomination because since his arrival, the symbiosis has been great between the conductor and the musicians’.
Jean-François Rivest firmly believes that the next generation of musicians must rely on performers that are also active as pedagogues. He has worked for several institutions and has been teaching violin, orchestral conducting as well as a variety of advanced performance classes at Université de Montréal. He is the founder, Artistic Director and principal conductor of the Orchestre de l’Université de Montréal (OUM).
From 2009 to 2015, he has been Artistic Director of the Orford Arts Centre, (now Orford Music), nearbyMontréal where he presided over the destiny of Orford’sprestigious International Academy and Festival. His period at the head of the Arts Center is unanimously seen as a time of tremendous artistic renewal and growth. In the 2012 Opus Prizes Awards ceremony, hewas given the Opus Prize for the Artistic Director of the year (2011).
Mr. Rivest, who trained at the Conservatoire de Montréal and at the Juilliard School in New York, quickly established himself as one of the foremostQuebec violinists of his generation. His main teachers were Sonia Jelinkova, Ivan Galamian and Dorothy DeLay.
Being the father of four children, family is at the center of his life. He is passionate about nature and outdoor activities, such as scuba diving, kayak, climbing, trekking and photography. He has even participated in several expeditions of a challenging level. He holds a Private Pilot License and flies his good old Cessna regularly. Jean-François Rivest believes that the many facets of nature are a vital source of artistic inspiration!
