An Invitation to Dance – February 27, 2022

Orchestre Métropolitain presents

An Invitation to Dance

Featuring lively rhythms, Hungarian folk melodies and brilliant orchestration, Kodály’s Dances of Galánta takes the audience on a journey through time to the heart of the rustic, preindustrial village of Galánta.

On the podium, conductor and Artistic Partner to the Orchestre Métropolitain Nicolas Ellis will also be leading Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, the composer’s swan song. At once powerful and ethereal, the piece was written by the Russian composer while he was in exile.

Artists
Nicolas Ellis, conductor

Mr. Ellis appeared as guest conductor with Les Violons du Roy, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Orchestre de chambre I Musici de Montréal, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, the Orchestre Métropolitain, Symphony Nova Scotia, the Orchestre classique de Montréal, the Ottawa Symphony, the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens.  He also regularly collaborates with the Opéra de Montréal’s Atelier lyrique.

Nicolas Ellis has performed with renowned artists including Jean-Guihen Queyras, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Julie Boulianne, Hélène Guilmette, Karina Gauvin, Anthony Roth Constanzo and Charles Richard-Hamelin.

In 2013, he founded the Orchestre de l’Agora, an orchestra now recognized on the Montreal scene for its artistically audacious programs and its social engagement. The ensemble has joined force with Share the Warmth Foundation, Les Porteurs de musique and the Espace Transition of the Hôpital Ste-Justine, to give workshops, music lessons and concerts to children from underprivileged neighbourhoods. Agora also presents concerts in places where people frequently lack access to live classical music, such as psychiatric centres, shelters and elderly homes.

He is the recipient of the 2017 Bourse de carrière Fernand-Lindsay and was named Revelation of the Year 2018-2019 by Radio-Canada. He is also the recipient of the Heinz Unger Award 2015 sponsored by the Ontario Arts Council. More recently, he won the Prix Goyer Mécénat Musica 2021.

André Laplante, piano

Over the last decade, Canadian pianist André Laplante has firmly established himself as one of the great romantic virtuosos. He garnered international attention after winning prizes at the Geneva and Sydney International Piano Competitions, then capturing the silver medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Critics have compared him with Ashkenazy, Horowitz and Rudolph Serkin, placing him in the elite circle of virtuoso pianists who do not hesitate to take risks.

In 2005, Mr. Laplante was honored to be named an Officer of the Order of Canada. In that same year, he was awarded the Prix Opus for Best Performer of the Year.  In 1999, he received two Opus Awards for live performances: “Best Concert in Montréal” and “Best Concert in Québec Province.” Most recently, in 2010, he received another Prix Opus, this time for Best Concert of the Year.

In recent years, Laplante has appeared as orchestral soloist with the Montréal and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, the Minnesota Orchestra conducted by Sir Neville Mariner, on tour in Europe with the Toronto Symphony under Andrew Davis and with the Royal Philharmonic under the baton of the late Sir Yehudi Menuhin during their extensive North American tour.

Program
KODÁLY, Dances of Galánta
LISZT, Piano Concerto No. 1 in E♭ major
RACHMANINOFF, Symphonic Dances

Maison symphonique de Montréal
Sunday, February 27, 2022 at 3:00pm

To purchase your tickets visit: www.orchestremetropolitain.com