The Devil’s Labyrinth – November 3, 2023 LiveEvents October 26, 2023 665 Bourgie Hall presents The Devil’s Labyrinth Here continues the collaboration between Kerson Leong, Nicolas Ellis and Les Violons du Roy, with baroque concertos by some of the great Italian composers. This concert giving way to astonishing imagination and dazzling virtuosity has all the ingredients for a stunning array of emotions! Artists Les Violons du Roy Nicolas Ellis, conductor Nicolas Ellis is the Artistic director and conductor of the Orchestre de l’Agora. He was recently named Principal Guest Conductor for Les Violons du Roy and has also served as Artistic Partner to the Orchestre Métropolitain and Yannick Nézet-Séguin from 2018 to 2023. He currently stands out as one of the most active conductors on the Canadian scene, as well as for his artistic and social commitment to the Montreal community. Renowned for his versatility in a vast repertoire, he will be heard in the 2023-2024 season in works ranging from Monteverdi’s L’incoronzione di Poppea to Strauss’s An Alpine Sympohny, as well as Bach cantatas and new music. Mr. Ellis appeared as guest conductor with Les Violons du Roy, the Vancouver Symphony, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Orchestre de chambre I Musici de Montréal, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, Symphony Nova Scotia, the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. Recent engagements have also brought him to conduct at the Graz opera house in Austria and he is also a regular guest conductor at the Orchestre National de Bretagne in France. During the 2023-2024 season, he will make his debuts at the Opéra de Montréal in Le Nozze di Figaro and the Opéra de Québec in J. Strauss’s La Chauve-souris. Kerson Leong, violin Kerson Leong has been described as “not just one of Canada’s greatest violinists but one of the greatest violinists, period” (Toronto Star). Forging a unique path since his First Prize win at the International Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition in 2010, he continues to win over colleagues and audiences alike with “a mixture of spontaneity and mastery, elegance, fantasy, intensity that makes his sound recognizable from the first notes” (Le Monde). Recent season highlights include solo performances with such ensembles as the Royal, Oslo, Brussels, Kansai, and Liège Royal Philharmonic Orchestras, the Seattle, Singapore, Toledo, Montreal, Tucson, Bilkent, Toronto, Vancouver, Stavanger, and Wuppertal Symphony Orchestras, a tour of Sweden with the Camerata Nordica, a recital tour of the Midwestern United States, and recording John Rutter’s Visions with the composer himself and the Aurora Chamber Orchestra, after giving its world premiere in London, UK. As a sought-after soloist, he was hand-picked by Yannick Nézet-Séguin to be his artist-in-residence with the Orchestre Métropolitain during the 18/19 season and has performed in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Wigmore Hall, the Auditorium du Louvre and the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing. As a passionate chamber musician, he has performed at such international festivals and concert series as the Verbier Festival, Rheingau Musik Festival, Gstaad Menuhin Festival, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Flâneries musicales de Reims, and Bergen International Festival among others. Program VIVALDI Violin Concerto in D major, RV 234, “L’inquietudine” CORELLI Concerto Grosso in C minor, Op. 6, No. 3 GEMINIANI Concerto Grosso No. 5 in G minor (after Corelli’s Violin Sonata Op. 5, No. 5) LOCATELLI Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 3, No. 12, “Il Labirinto armónico” TARTINI Violin Sonata in G minor, GT 2.g05, “Devil’s Trill” Friday, November 3, 2023 at 7:30 To purchase your tickets visit: www.mbam.qc.ca/en/bourgie-hall/
