L’Orchestre de l’Agora

Nicolas Ellis conductor

Sarah Dufresne soprano

Nicolas Ellis leads the dynamic Orchestre de l’Agora and soprano Sarah Dufresne in a program of Haydn,
Mozart and Handel.

Tickets required (Free | Suggested Donation $15)

• At the door 1 hour before each concert (40 tickets)
• Online a few days before the concert

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SCHEDULE

Introductory talk animated by Richard Turp 15 minutes before the concert.

PRESENTER

Pre-concert conference: Spinelli

Concert: Spinelli

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BIOGRAPHY

SARAH DUFRESNE

Canadian soprano Sarah Dufresne is now in her second year of the Jette Parker Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House and has recently been named as an Associate Artist of The Mozartists. This season, Sarah made debuts with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Toledo Symphony as well as at both Cadogan and Wigmore halls Named as one of Canada’s Top 30 Classical Musicians Under 30 in 2022, Sarah’s recent performances at the Royal Opera House include Lucia (The Rape of Lucretia), Papagena (Die Zauberflöte), Hirt (Tannhäuser), Barbarina (Le nozze di Figaro), Voce dal Cielo (I and Tusnelda (Arminio). Other recent performances include Carmina Burana with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Rafael Payare, and Nora (Riders to the Sea) with the Montreal Opera. She has also performed with companies and orchestras across Canada, including Orchestre de l’Agora, Ottawa Choral Society and with Orchestre Métropolitain. She has had the great pleasure of working under the batons of Antonio Pappano, Joana Mallwitz, Bertrand de Billy, Maxim Emelyanychev, Nicolas Ellis and Sebastian Weigle, and under the direction of Sir David McVicar, Oliver Mears, and Tim Albery. In 2022 Sarah was awarded the Second Prize (Aria division) at the Concours Musical International de Montréal and was praised for her “tremendous dramatic presence,” and “astonishing clarity and vocal dexterity” (Opera Canada). She returns to l’Opéra de Montréal in the 2024-2025 season to sing the role of Ophélie in Hamlet by Ambroise Thomas.

NICOLAS ELLIS

Nicolas Ellis is Music Director of the Orchestre National de Bretagne, Principal Guest Conductor of Les Violons du Roy and Artistic Director and Conductor of the Orchestre de l’Agora, which he founded in Montreal in 2013. Renowned for his versatility in a vast repertoire, Nicolas has distinguished himself with the Orchestre de l’Agora by devising concerts centred on a dramaturgical approach. In collaboration with the Opéra de Montréal, the Agora has staged a number of opera projects in unusual venues in Montreal, including The Turn of the Screw in an industrial warehouse and L’Enfant et les Sortilèges at Théâtre le Paradoxe, a church converted into a performance space that offers an arts integration programme for young teenagers living on the margins of society. In addition, immersive concerts with lighting design, such as Electra and Iphigénie based on the music of Mozart, Gluck and Haydn with soprano Karina Gauvin, or Bach, le voyage éphémère, created memorable experiences for a wide variety of audiences. Alongside the Orchestre de l’Agora, Nicolas won a JUNO award in the Classical Album of the Year, Large Ensemble category for the album Viola Borealis featuring violist Marina Thibeault. L’Agora also won the Opus Prize for Musical Event of the Year for its Gala de la Terre featuring Mahler’s 3rd Symphony. At the heart of the Agora’s mission, Nicolas has set up musical creation projects with teenagers living with mental health problems, educational music workshops for children and a series of monthly concerts at the Bordeaux Prison in Montreal. Nicolas is one of the most active conductors on the Canadian scene. He has been invited to conduct the Vancouver Symphony, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, I Musici de Montréal, l’Orchestre symphonique de Québec, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. In the 2023-2024 season, he made his American debut with the San Diego Symphony, as well as at the Opéra de Montréal in The Marriage of Figaro and at the Opéra de Québec in Die Fledermaus. Among the musical encounters that have strongly influenced him are his position as Artistic Collaborator of the Orchestre Métropolitain and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, which he held from 2018 to 2023, and his role as assistant conductor to Raphaël Pichon and the Ensemble Pygmalion in opera productions at the Opéra comique, the Festival d’Aix-en- Provence and the Salzburg Festival. Nicolas Ellis is the recipient of the 2017 Fernand Lindsay Career Grant and has also been awarded the Prix Goyer Mécénat Musica 2021.

PROGRAM

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