Discover the profound beauty and depth of Johann Sebastian Bach’s St John Passion, with Ensemble Caprice and Ensemble ArtChoral under the masterful direction of Matthias Maute.

You will be transported by the emotive storytelling of this Baroque-era masterpiece, and experience the exquisite interplay of voices and instruments, as soloists, chorus, and orchestra unite to evoke the full range of human emotion, from anguish to redemption.

Artists
Ensemble Caprice

Ensemble ArtChoral

Ensemble ArtChoral is a professional choir steeped in the grand tradition of choral music in Quebec for over 40 years, with the mission to present professional choral music in Québec, Canada and internationally.

Ensemble ArtChoral is recipient of the PRIX OPUS Musical Event of the Year 2020. Ensemble ArtChoral has established Maison symphonique as home for its Montreal concert series and is the professional choir in residence 2023-2027 with Festival Classica and le Nouvel Opéra Métropolitain.

Matthias Maute, conductor

Matthias Maute has carved out an impressive international reputation for himself not only as one of the great recorder and baroque flute virtuosos of his generation but also as a composer and conductor. Since winning first prize in the soloist category at the prestigious Bruges Early Music Competition in 1990, he has led a highly successful career as a recorder and baroque flute soloist. He made his debut in New York’s Lincoln Center in 2008 and has twice been the featured soloist for the Boston Early Music Festival. He records and tours extensively. The Washington Post hailed him as one of the greatest recorder players on the North American musical scene. He has been invited to perform as guest soloist or conductor by the world’s most eminent baroque orchestras, including: Seattle Baroque, the Portland Baroque Orchestra, the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra, “Apollo’s Fire” and the Magnificat Baroque Ensemble. In recent years he has also been invited to conduct other renowned orchestras, including I Musici de Montreal and Symphony of Nova Scotia. Matthias Maute is also celebrated for his work as artistic director and conductor of Ensemble Caprice.

Janelle Lucyk, soprano

Janelle Lucyk is a leader among an emerging generation of Canadian artists specializing in old music and historically informed performance, taking ideas from conception to the stage.

Janelle is the artistic director of Ménestrel, her ensemble with Kerry Bursey which produces alternative early music mixing ancient repertoire with oral folk traditons. In Since 2022, Ménestrel has been producing a “Messiah-on-the-go!” congregating twenty emerging performers from across Canada to perform Handel’s masterpiece in historic Nova Scotian venues. Janelle is director of the new series ArtChoral at La Grande Salle du 9e, the recently reopened historic Art Deco venue in Montreal.

With well over a hundred concerts given in 2024, Janelle performed and toured in all of Canada’s thirteen provinces and territories last year, with many additional workshops, masterclasses and outreach events shared. In the summer Ménestrel was in residency in Europe for concerts, recording and outreach.

Philippe Gagné, tenor

Tenor Philippe Gagné is praised for his rich expressivity, refined musical sensitivity, rare vocal agility and the beauty of his timbre. Specializing in the Baroque repertoire, he has performed on many of the world’s great stages and worked with a number of renowned ensembles, including Les Talens Lyriques, Tafelmusik, Les Violons du Roy, Les Voix humaines, Arion Orchestre Baroque, Ensemble Masques , Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Métropolitain, Orchestre symphonique de Québec, Les Délices, Les Boréades, L’Harmonie des saisons, Ensemble Caprice, Le Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, Ex Tempore, La Bande Montréal Baroque, Clavecin en concert, Mannheimer Hofkapelle and Apotheosis Orchestra.  He is recognized as an exceptional interpreter of the French Baroque repertoire, as well as the music of J. S. Bach. His achievements, his constant presence on the Baroque scene and his many past and future engagements testify to his expertise within this community.

Dion Mazerolle, baritone

Acadian baritone Dion Mazerolle has forged a solid reputation in Canada and Europe as an artist of the highest calibre. A former member of the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal, he is acclaimed for his musical finesse and strong stage presence, both in opera and in concert.

Dion triumphed as Alberich in Edmonton Opera’s Das Rheingold and starred as Golaud in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, created by the Barbe & Doucet design team at the Teatri di Piacenza in Italy. In France, Dion debuted as le Roi de Trèfle in Prokofiev’s surreal opera L’Amour des trois oranges with Opera National de Lorraine in Nancy.

Dion’s recent concert engagements include Carmina Burana with Toronto’s Pax Christi Chorale, Haydn’s Creation with Galileo Orchestre and Mozart’s Requiem with Montreal’s Ensemble Caprice. In Montreal, Dion continues his collaboration with Idées Heureuses, as a soloist in Graupner’s Cantatas. Performances this season include Brahms’ Requiem with L’orchestre symphonique de l’Estuaire, Bach’s St. John Passion with Ensemble Caprice, Verdi’s Requiem with Toronto’s Kindred Spirits Orchestra and “A Canadian Valentine” with Confluence Concerts.

Nicholas Burns, countertenor

From Vancouver, countertenor Nicholas Burns has been described as possessing a “thrilling voice” that “caresses the ear with its velvet” and past performances have been described as a “revelation” (Opera Canada, le Devoir, Süddeutsche Zeitung). Recent performances include those with Les Arts Florissant, L’Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Tafelmusik, and the Carmel Bach Festival. At the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme, Nicholas performed Bach cantatas with Philippe Herreweghe. He has also appeared with the American Bach Soloists, BachFest Leipzig, JSB Ensemble Stuttgart, Early Music Vancouver, Arion Baroque Orchestra, The Theatre of Early Music, le Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, L’Harmonie des saisons, and I Musici. In 2023 Nicholas was a winner of  the New York Oratorio Society competition at Carnegie Hall, Les Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques, the Vancouver International Music Competition, and Edmonton Opera’s Rumbold Vocal Prize. On the opera stage, Nicholas has performed in numerous Handel operas including Cesare in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, Bertarido in Rodelinda, Polinesso in Ariodante, and Lichas in Hercules. He also gave the world premiere of the opera L’Orangeraie by French composer Zad Moultaka.

April 4, 2025 at 7:30pm
Maison symphonique

To purchase your tickets, visit: www.placedesarts.com