Pentaèdre
A unique musical ensemble in the Canadian landscape, Pentaèdre
explores and presents to the public a diversified and original
chamber music repertoire, developed in the tradition of
music for winds. Under the artistic direction of Louis-Philippe
Marsolais since 2005, the five artists-musicians forming
the quintet are recognized for the talent, technique, precision
and colour they bring to their performances.
Strongly committed to refresh the classical concert concept,
Pentaèdre crosses the borders between artistic disciplines
and reintegrates performing arts into the concert : musicians
become complete artists by performing with dancers, actors,
mimes or singers. Their 3 to 5 concert season may thus include
researches, transcriptions, creations, guest ensembles or
artists (piano, singers, strings), collaborations or exchanges,
works for young audiences as well as staging challenging
interdisciplinary projects.
The past ten years have seen Pentaèdre inviting
renowned guests artists such as tenors Christoph Prégardien
and Rufus Muller, baritones Russell Braun and Phillip Addis,
soprano Karina Gauvin and pianists Naida Cole, David Jalbert
and Iwan Llewelyn-Jones, while pursuing collaborations with
chamber ensembles like Penderecki String Quartet and Arthur-LeBlanc
String Quartet. The ensemble has performed in Eastern Canada
major festivals and toured extensively in Canada, the United
States and Europe.
The most recent CD recorded by Pentaèdre, a chamber
version by Normand Forget of Schubert’s Winterreise,
was awarded the CD of the Year 2008 Opus Prize – Classical,
Romantic, Postromantic, Impressionist Music by the Conseil
québécois de la musique, and got the exceptional
Stern des Monats/Star of the Month from German magazine
Fono Forum. These come on top of excellent reviews of Pentaèdre’s
innovative shows L’amour est un opéra muet
and A Chair in Love, and an Opus Prize for Best Concert
of the Year, Present, Contemporary, Electro-Acoustic Music
in 2002.
Among recent performances are the stage version première
of John Metcalf’s opera A Chair in Love at Cardiff
and Swansea Opera Houses (10 concerts in Wales and Ireland);
two tours of 15 and 26 concerts for the Jeunesses musicales
de Belgique; L’amour est un opéra muet (from
Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte) with the mime company Omnibus;
3 shows for young audiences including the creation of a
musical tale; the première of a chamber version of
Schubert’s Winterreise (by Normand Forget) with famous
tenor Christoph Prégardien. The ensemble has recorded
5 CDs and performed more that 25 premières including
commissions to Quebec composers such as Ana Sokolovic, Denis
Gougeon or Denis Dion. Their season concerts are regularly
broadcast on Radio-Canada and CBC.
