Appointed Artistic Director of Arion Baroque Orchestra in September 2019, Mathieu Lussier has been associated with les Violons du Roy from 2012 to 2018 as Associate Conductor and Conductor in residence. Previous appointments include Artistic Director and Conductor of the Lamèque International Baroque Music Festival, where he served from 2008 to 2014. As a soloist, Mathieu Lussier has energetically and passionately promoted the modern and baroque bassoon as solo instruments for more than two decades throughout North America and Europe. He also devotes considerable time to chamber music as a member of Ensemble Pentaèdre de Montréal. Since the summer of 2014, he is Professor at Université de Montréal where since September 2019 he also serves as Vice-Dean. His numerous solo recordings include over a dozen bassoon concertos (Mozart, Vivaldi, Fasch, Graupner, Telemann, and Corrette), a CD of bassoon sonatas by Boismortier, three CDs of music for solo bassoon by François Devienne, and two CDs of wind music by Gossec and Méhul. Mathieu Lussier is also a respected composer, with a catalogue of over 50 titles heard regularly in the concert halls of North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. In 2018, He composed the score for « La chute de l’empire américain » (The Fall of the American Empire) from Oscar winner Denys Arcand.

SlowPitchSound

Panelist

SlowPitchSound (Cheldon Paterson) is a Toronto-based composer, mentor, and explorer of sound and visuals. He has collaborated with creators from a wide range of disciplines including opera, jazz, classical, electronic music, theatre and dance. His unique style of music production, self proclaimed as “scifi-turntablism”, has graced stages around the world including Canada, Australia, USA, United Kingdom and Sweden. With a passion for depth and detail in his work, Cheldon is heavily inspired by nature, outer space, and dystopian sci-fi. Cheldon’s unique approach to making music includes turntablism, sample manipulation, and field recordings.

“To marry such a range in sounds smoothly is no small feat, but SlowPitchSound’s skill-set incorporate the playfulness of jazz and the world-building of science fiction.” – Exclaim!

Cristina Zacharias

Moderator

Canadian violinist Cristina Zacharias enjoys a vibrant national and international performance career, based in Toronto. A core member of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra since 2004, she has performed across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, and can be heard on over 25 recordings for the ATMA, Analekta, CBC, BIS, Naxos, and Tafelmusik Media labels. Cristina appears annually at the Carmel Bach Festival, where she is the Assistant Principal Second Violin. Equally passionate about baroque, classical, and modern repertoire, Cristina is a frequent collaborator, guest soloist, and director with a diverse group of ensembles, including the Theatre of Early Music, Les Voix Baroques, Brandon Chamber Players, Aradia Ensemble, Group of 27 Chamber Orchestra, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, and I Furiosi. Cristina holds a MMus degree from McGill University.

Photo by Shann Eun