A summer of music for conductor Nicolas Ellis!

Agence Station Bleue is pleased to announce today the upcoming projects of conductor Nicolas Ellis on stage. The summer season will provide a rich series of concerts for the young maestro, led by the many successes he has been enjoying since his 2013 debut with his own Orchestre de l’Agora.

Nicolas Ellis started his Summer of music making at the Domaine Forget International Festival on June 26. Under his direction, soprano Karina Gauvin and Les Violons du Roy performed works by Mozart, Gluck and Haydn to open this year’s edition. On July 3rd, at the invitation of the Lachine Music Festival, he conducted the Orchestre de l’Agora in Malher’s fourth symphony (arr. Klaus Simon) alongside soprano Vanessa Croome. On July 24th, Nicolas Ellis and Les Violons du Roy will be at the Festival international de Lanaudière for an evening titled Destination Buenos Aires. Canadian violin virtuoso Kerson Leong will headline the evening. Nicolas Ellis will again conduct the program with Karina Gauvin and Les Violons du Roy on July 25. At the Palais Montcalm, on August 5th, he will once again join Les Violons du Roy in an evening devoted to the romantic music of Camille Saint-Saëns and his contemporaries, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the composer’s death. Soprano Karina Gauvin, contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux and baritone Jean-François Lapointe, along with an orchestra of some twenty musicians from the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region, will come together under his baton, as part of the celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the Opéra du Royaume, on August 19. The Orchestre de l’Agora will also be part of the Rendez-vous musical de Laterrière on August 22nd, accompanied by soprano Andréanne Brisson Paquin.

Finally, from August 24 to October 4, 2021, Nicolas Ellis will fly to France to assist French conductor Raphaël Pichon and the Ensemble Pygmalion for a new production of Beethoven’s Fidelio at the Opéra Comique de Paris.

This new concert season follows a series of intense activities that began in March 2021, when Nicolas Ellis and his orchestra were in residence at the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal, focusing on the Bel canto repertoire. The conductor, always on a roll, has not stopped since. On March 14, he conducted the Orchestre symphonique de Québec for a concert entitled De Rivière-du-Loup à Vérone, at the Grand Théâtre de Québec. On March 19, he shared the stage with bandoneonist Jonathan Goldman and I Musici for a tribute to Astor Piazzolla, webcast from Montreal’s St. Jax Church. In May and June, Ellis was back with the Orchestre Métropolitain, as artistic collaborator with the orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, a position he has held since 2018. On May 23rd, he participated, as pianist in Dvořák’s Quintet in a benefit concert for the Share the Warmth Foundation with the Orchestre de l’Agora. A few days later, he was part of the project La Traviata réinventée, with the Espace transition de l’Hôpital Sainte-Justine, in collaboration with the Opéra de Montréal and the Orchestre de l’Agora. Recently, he assisted Yannick Nézet-Séguin in the recording of Sibelius’ third symphony, as part of the recording of his complete symphonies for Deutsche Grammophon.

One of the highlights of Nicolas Ellis’ spring 2021 was undoubtedly when he was awarded the Goyer Mécénat Musica Prize, worth $125,000, which supports a classical musician under the age of 33 who combines artistic excellence and social engagement.