Quebec horn player Pierre-Antoine Tremblay has been appointed professor of ancient horn at the National Conservatory of Music (CNSM) in Paris. According to research carried out by the establishment, he would be the first Quebecer to be appointed professor at the Paris Conservatory since its creation in 1795.
“I wasn’t even sure I would introduce myself. I said to myself: “It’s so big, all the best horn players are going to be present…” I had a hard time imagining myself winning that competition,” said Pierre-Antoine Tremblay, joined by The duty. It was finally Claude Maury, the former holder of the position, who pushed the Quebec horn player to register: “We have been rubbing shoulders for a few years, because he does a lot of research that interests me. »
Pierre-Antoine Tremblay was one of the five candidates admitted to the final last Friday in Paris. “We had 30 minutes to teach a student of modern horn and two students of early music who are doing a master’s in period instruments. Then there was an interview and, in the evening, a phone call. “It was the director who said to me: ‘Mr. Tremblay, I’m calling to welcome you to the Conservatory.’ »
Recognized specialist
Pierre-Antoine Tremblay is one of those great musical talents from Quebec who are little known to his compatriots, because he has a truly international career in the highest spheres of his discipline, the natural horn. Trained in the modern horn at the Quebec Conservatory of Music and at McGill University in Montreal, he perfected his natural horn at the Amsterdam Conservatory, where he obtained a master’s degree in early music.
He has been principal horn in several renowned period ensembles: Europa Galante (Italy), Anima Eterna (Belgium) and Tafelmusik, here. We see him in some concerts of Arion, just as he is invited by the Orchester baroque de Fribourg, the Collegium Vocale Gent of Philippe Herreweghe and the Concerto Copenhagen. It is he who appears in the CPO recording of Brandenburg concertos of Bach conducted by Lars Ulrik Mortensen, whom we frequently quote in reference.
In 2014, Tremblay founded the Ensemble Dialoghi in Barcelona with the aim of exploring the classical and romantic repertoire on period instruments. Their first CD, devoted to Quintets for winds and piano by Mozart and Beethoven, was published by Harmonia Mundi in 2018. Since 2019, he has been teaching natural horn at McGill University.
New outlets
The particularity of Pierre-Antoine Tremblay’s task will be to teach the ancient horn and not just the natural horn. “This covers the first French valve horns used from the middle of the 19the century up to Ravel, but also German instruments in fa, used for the music of Schumann and Brahms, and early Viennese horns (Bruckner, Mahler). This diversity, this openness, is specific to the Paris Conservatoire. It is also a very good vein, because an interpretative path is developing, like the Siècles, François-Xavier Roth’s orchestra. Pierre-Antoine Tremblay emphasizes this: “France is the country where the most romantic music is made on period instruments”. As a professor at the CNSM, he will prepare future elite musicians for this.
I wasn’t even sure I would introduce myself. I said to myself: “It’s so big, all the best horn players are going to be present…” I had a hard time imagining myself winning that competition.
An institution born of the French Revolution by the merger of the former Royal School of Song and Declamation (opera) and the Municipal School of Music (instrumentalists), the Paris Conservatory, created in 1795, was originally administered by a board of composers Gossec, Méhul and Cherubini. The latter would later become the first emblematic director (1822-1842) of the establishment, which would also include the famous conductor François-Antoine Habeneck, the origin of French orchestral excellence. The natural horn is one of the markers of this eminent musical tradition.
“In France, the French horn took a long time to establish itself,” recalls Pierre-Antoine Tremblay. “The valve horn class was only opened in 1842, when in Germany this instrument was already very much in use. It was even closed in 1864, because the colors of natural horn were finally preferred. The natural horn class therefore remained open until 1902, which is very late. It was then reopened in favor of the baroque revival in 1996 by the legendary Michel Garcin-Marrou, followed by Claude Maury. They have just found a worthy successor.