La Pieta

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2016 AT 8:00 PM
Mike Lazaridis Theatre of Ideas - Perimeter Institute

Canada’s premiere piano and string orchestra, Angèle Dubeau & La Pietà is composed of all top-ranking female musicians, amongst the best in the country.

Their individual excellence, precision, and strength, combined with the closeness that they have with each other, grants them an exceptional ensemble sound and contributes to the communicative pleasure that the orchestra imparts.  Perimeter is proud to have this phenomenal ensemble grace its stage.

Programme:

Works by:
Antonio Vivaldi
George Enescu
Philip​ ​Glass
Ludovico Einaudi

(All programme is subject to change.)


Biography:

La Pietà

Angèle Dubeau & La Pietà is a string orchestra with piano, composed of all top-ranking female musicians, amongst the best in the country.

The excellence, precision and strength of each one, as well as the closeness that they have with each other, grant them an exceptional ensemble sound and contribute to the communicative pleasure that the orchestra imparts.

With her associates, Angèle Dubeau has travelled to South America and Asia, as well as several times throughout Canada and the United States. The members of this orchestra, thanks to the reputation they have acquired during their national and international tours, have become true ambassadors, whose success does us honour everywhere.

“5 Stars: …spacious, polished, springy, sensitive to harmonic nuance, simply produced.”BBC Music Magazine, London, UK

“La Pietà is one of the finest string ensembles I have ever heard… Each time one of its players had an important solo, it was gorgeous… Concertmaster Dubeau played with stirring artistry. She is a master of her instrument with glorious tone, easy technical mastery and a fabulous command of harmonics”Peninsula Reviews, San Francisco, US

Angèle Dubeau, O.C., C.Q.
DFA (Doctor of Fine Arts)

One of the most prominent violin virtuosos of her generation, Angèle Dubeau has been leading an exceptional career for almost 40 years in the great concert halls of the world. While her virtuosity and musicality have seduced critics, the public has adopted Dubeau for her uncommon gifts as a communicator and her outstanding ability to connect with. She has garnered many awards over the years, and she is one of the rare classical violinists in the world to have been awarded gold records. Her album sales have surpassed 600,000 albums during her career.

Angèle Dubeau’s musical trajectory remains unequalled. Introduced to the violin at a very young age, she attended Raymond Dessaints’ class at the Montreal Conservatory of Music and at 15, she received a First Prize (Masters in Music). Feeling ready to spread her wings even further, she moved to New York to work with Dorothy DeLay at the prestigious Juilliard School of Music, then, from 1981 to 1984 she studied in Romania with the eminent pedagogue Stefan Gheorgiu. She has won several national and international competitions and has been the guest of international orchestras, performing the great concertos of the violin repertoire. Convinced of the need to introduce classical music to a wider audience, Dubeau has been a pioneer in programming and hosting gala concerts and weekly music television shows such as the famous Radio-Canada show Faites vos gammes. Since 1995, she is the artistic director of the popular Fête de la Musique de Tremblant, a music festival in Mont-Tremblant (Qc) Canada, which attracts over 35,000 music lovers annually.

Transformed by the desire to innovate, Angèle Dubeau founded La Pietà in 1997, an all-female string ensemble featuring some of Canada’s best musicians. What she could not have known at the time was that this experiment, originally conceived for periodic recordings, would gradually become a full-time occupation. From early on, the ensemble gained a solid reputation, playing Canada’s most prestigious venues and on television. “Precise attacks, excellent ensemble playing and energy… One would think oneself magically transported to the blessed era of the Solisti di Zagreb… passion, presence… The musicians’ smiles are contagious” noted Le Devoir. Known for their exceptional virtuosity and impeccable precision, their rich interpretations, and above all the contagious happiness that enlivens their stage presence, Angèle Dubeau & La Pietà have crisscrossed the world for over 15 years. The Los Angeles Times noted that “Dubeau is an exciting, dynamic fiddler… The performances were consistently robust and inquiring, taking nothing for granted… Dubeau’s well-drilled band played with agility, power, a nicely weighted sound and a fierce joy in the doing.” Whether standing alone, in front of an orchestra, or in the intimacy of chamber repertoire with La Pietà, Angèle Dubeau continues to move and astonish us, while wanting only one thing: to start again.

For her talent and her exceptional contribution to the country:
• Member of the Order of Canada – 1996
• Officer of the Order of Canada – 2012
• Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal – 2002
• Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal – 2012
• Knight of the Ordre national du Québec – 2004
• Calixa-Lavallée prize from the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Montréal – 1996
• Honorary doctorate from Montreal Concordia University’s Faculty of Fine Arts – 2015

Angèle Dubeau plays on the “Des Rosiers” Stradivarius violin (1733).