The Bourgie Hall of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts announced early Wednesday afternoon the retirement at the end of 2022 of its general and artistic director Isolde Lagacé. The latter presided over its destinies since its opening in September 2011. A call for applications to fill the position will be launched next week.
“My departure was planned, it has nothing to do with COVID. I wanted to leave at the end of this year and not plan the 2023-2024 season, ”said Isolde Lagacé on Wednesday. Duty.
The General and Artistic Director took up her duties with the Arte Musica Foundation, manager of the hall, in January 2008, and has shaped the musical seasons of Bourgie Hall from its opening in September 2011 until today.
Until her departure in December 2022, Isolde Lagacé will continue to perform her duties as general and artistic director and will complete the programming for the 2022-2023 season, her 12th. We already know that this will include the end of all the Pian Sonataso of Beethoven by Louis Lortie, which has just been postponed for the fourth time!
flair and sensitivity
The news of the departure of Isolde Lagacé had been announced a little earlier in the morning internally by an email from Pierre Bourgie, chairman of the board of directors of the Arte Musica Foundation, whose The duty was able to find out. “I have the deep conviction that the musical project at the Museum would not be what it has become without the admirable work of Isolde who, through her charisma, her great knowledge of the musical milieu and her inspiring leadership, has given Montreal a first-class concert hall that today is the pride of Montrealers and Quebecers […] It is thanks to his flair and his sensitivity that Bourgie Hall has become, over the years, one of the most popular places for music in Quebec”, writes the patron of the place.
For her part, Isolde Lagacé thinks that “it is clear that Bourgie Hall has changed the musical landscape in Montreal and Quebec”. As proof of this, she cites the testimonies of artists telling her: “If the Bourgie hall weren’t there, no one would present that” and evokes the immense project of the complete Cantatas of Bach. Even more, she points out that “half of the programming is local”. “People might think that the local is not good, but for me our local is exceptional. Charles Richard-Hamelin, I hired him twice before he went to Warsaw [remporter le 2e Prix au Concours Chopin 2015]. So our audience heard it twice before the world snapped it up. This is our role and no one else fulfills this role. »
Considering that “all Montreal artists” can feel like they are in residence at Bourgie Hall, Isolde Lagacé notes that economically, the development of the hall “happened for Quebec musicians at the time of the decline of classical music at Radio-Canada . For many, Bourgie Hall has replaced the activity [concerts enregistrés] at Radio Canada.
The current director will participate in the selection of the person who will succeed him. “I wrote the job description since it didn’t exist. If I was at the Orchester symphonique de Montréal and I left after 12 years, maybe that wouldn’t concern me. But here, the case is a little special: I nevertheless founded this project with Pierre Bourgie. Everyone expects me to participate in the process. »
Mrs. Lagacé wishes to see the elected official take office before the summer: “There are a few concerts postponed to 2023 2 24, but I do not want to abuse it and the new director must be given the chance to do the season. For that he cannot return in September. It will be too late. »
For the future, Isolde Lagacé does not think “that we will return as before the pandemic” and believes in the need to “think about post-pandemic dissemination”. But she stresses in the same breath that “music has been presented in theaters for 200 years” and that “what happens on stage, this sharing, is timeless. »