Francis Choinière, intrepid orchestra builder

Once a month, The Press presents some expected appointments for lovers of classical music.

The name of Francis Choinière has gradually made its way into the cultural news of recent years. Just last Friday, the 25-year-old filled the prestigious Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto with his Classico-Modern Ensemble.

“This year is the first time that we are starting to leave Quebec. It’s something that was very important to us and that we want to continue to develop”, explains the conductor and entrepreneur while a call to travelers resounds in the airport where he awaits his departure for the Queen City. .

This city, where Choinière went last month to assist conductor Jacques Lacombe in the opera Carmen at the Canadian Opera Company, represents for him a first bridgehead to conquer outside Quebec.

The concert offered on November 4 to Torontonians, which featured young violinist Isabella from Éloize Perron in the Four Seasons of Vivaldi and the Four Seasons of Buenos Aires by Piazzolla, is now a well-oiled machine, having been presented four times last year and seven times this year, most of them sold out.

But it takes flair – and guts! – to rent the Maison symphonique, the Roy Thomson Hall or the Grand Théâtre de Québec and present almost unknown musicians there without going bankrupt.

Francis Choinière knows how to surround himself well. Since founding his company GFN Productions, he has worked closely with his brother Nicolas and their friend Gabriel Felcarek (the “N” and “G” of the company name).

With the number of concerts presented by GFN, one would expect a larger team behind the scenes to ensure stewardship, but the three musketeers are alone in the ship. Ah yes, like the trio of Alexandre Dumas, they have their D’Artagnan – or Richelieu? – in Denis Chabot, a veteran in the recruitment of orchestral musicians.

“We can do a lot with a small team, certifies the conductor. It simplifies the choices, there are fewer round table discussions of 20 people to decide what to do. Things are moving fast. The big cultural organizations – I won’t name names – have big administrative teams that cost a lot of money, but don’t manage to do the same, let’s say. »

Towards more advanced works

Things are moving fast for GFN Productions. Founded in 2018, the company first made its bread and butter from film music concerts. “We brought a lot of people to Place des Arts with FILMharmonique, and that’s people who attended our concert afterwards. Holst: The Planetswhich included some film music, but also great symphonic works”, says the musician.

Because the ultimate objective of Francis Choinière and his two acolytes is to bring more people to hear more cutting-edge works by attracting them with programs that marry original themes.

This was the case last spring with the Quebec Concerto by André Mathieu played by the popular pianist Alain Lefèvre, programmed with the fantastic symphony by Berlioz. This will also be the case next May with a concert featuring The sea of Debussy, but also HAS Sea Symphony by Vaughan Williams, a work for choir and orchestra rarely heard here.

Like Yannick Nézet-Séguin, his “number one” model, Francis Choinière cut his teeth as a choirmaster, an activity he is not about to give up, he who founded the Orchester philharmonique & Chœur des music lovers (OPCM) in 2016, two years before GFN Productions.

“The mission of the OPCM is to promote symphonic choral works. The Orchester Métropolitain and the OSM do, but not as often, he explains. I go down the list of requiems: I did Mozart, Fauré, Duruflé and Brahms during the pandemic, and naturally the next thing I wanted to do was the Requiem by Verdi”, which he will conduct at the Maison symphonique on November 13.

The results of his four years at the head of GFN? “Its establishment was an important move that made it possible to create a lot of work on the cultural scene,” rejoices the young chef. The musicians we hire each year are comparable to certain symphony orchestras, not the OSM, but in the regions. We are as busy as them, even more so sometimes. »

Requiem by Verdi, at the Maison symphonique, November 13, at 7:30 p.m.

A star trio at the OSM

The Orchester symphonique de Montréal (OSM) brings together a star trio on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. Violinist Blake Pouliot, cellist Bryan Cheng and pianist Angela Hewitt, all of whom have already won the OSM Competition, will be reunited in the Triple Concerto by Beethoven. French conductor Laurence Equilbey, who will be at the helm, will also direct the Symphony n^oh 1 of her compatriot Louise Farrenc, whom she herself helped to make known on record.

Rachel Barton Pine honors female composers

The American violinist Rachel Barton Pine leaves no one indifferent with her invested playing and her brazen technique. She will be back in Montreal at the invitation of the Ladies’ Morning Musical Club on November 13 in an ideally constituted program that she will play alongside pianist Matthew Hagle. In addition to sonatas by Mozart and Respighi, the musician will feature two works by 19th century composers^e century, Amy Beach and Amanda Meier.

France at a low price at I Musici

No need for a passport to go to France with I Musici, which will take you there for an evening on November 17, at the Pierre-Mercure hall, with the impressive British-Columbian conductor Tania Miller and Quebec harpist Valérie Milot as co-pilots. the harp concerto de Boieldieu will be on the menu with the Sacred and profane dances by Debussy, in addition to a stopover in Estonia with the timeless tabula rasa by Arvo Part.

Rare opportunity to hear Andrei Feher in Montreal

Andrei Feher has become rarer in Quebec since becoming the conductor of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra. All the more reason to come and hear him conduct the Orchester du Conservatoire de musique de Montréal at the Maison symphonique on November 19. Feher and the students of the establishment will offer the famous Symphony n^oh 8, “unfinished” of Schubert, as well as the Violin Concerto by Tchaikovsky and the Cello Concerto No.^oh 2 by Haydn with two soloists from the Conservatoire.

Find the music of Proust

Lovers ofIn Search of Lost Time know how central music is to them. Those who go to the Salle Bourgie on November 20 in the afternoon – two days after the centenary of the master’s death – will obviously not hear the famous Vinteuil Sonata, which only existed in Proust’s head, but works by his favorite contemporary composers, Hahn, Franck, Fauré, Debussy and Ravel, in addition to excerpts from his magnissimum opus read by the actress Ginette Chevalier.